If faced with an inept Napoleon, take advantage of the situation. Shaping Your Play Shaping is a technique in which you use things such as tempo, psychological advantage, tactics, technique and analysis to put the enemy in a position you want him in. This is a legitimate technique whether you are on the offense or the defense. What it comes down to is everything you do in the game is done with a specific objective in mind. You don't advance in a certain direction, you don't retreat in a certain direction unless this fits in with the plan you have devised.
Many people are afraid of planning.
They simply react, and this gives the other player an enormous advantage. Unless the other player is also reacting, which then produces a muddled and confused game quite similar to many historical battles fought with similar reactive attitudes by the original commanders. To react without planning is to let the other player shape your game. When you get two players who are reacting it becomes a very interesting and unpredictable game, and many people prefer to play it this way. There is nothing wrong with that.