Time Astra

Schematic plan · Thirty Year's War

Battle of Nördlingen (1634)

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A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.
Rolling, Mixed groundHorseHorseCentreHorseHorseLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

Sweden (Sw Army, 25,000 men under Saxe-Weimar & Horn) attacked Spain and Holy Roman Empire (Sp & Imp Army, 35,000 men under Cardinal-Infante and Ferdinand) in Bavaria. The CAA Database of Battles records 7 hours of fighting on a front of 2.8 km, a single envelopment, right flank against prepared defense, and that Spain and Holy Roman Empire held. Losses: Sweden 12,000 (48%), Spain and Holy Roman Empire 2,000 (6%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

Sweden

Saxe-Weimar · Horn

UnitArmMen
Sweden left wingInfantry3,312
Sweden centreInfantry4,416
Sweden right wingInfantry3,312
Sweden reserveInfantry2,760
Sweden cavalry of the leftCavalry5,000
Sweden cavalry of the rightCavalry5,000
Sweden artillery (80 guns)Artillery1,200
Saxe-Weimar & HornCommander—
In this plan25,000

Spain and Holy Roman Empire

Cardinal-Infante and Ferdinand

UnitArmMen
Spain left wingInfantry4,620
Spain centreInfantry6,160
Spain right wingInfantry4,620
Spain reserveInfantry3,850
Spain cavalry of the leftCavalry7,500
Spain cavalry of the rightCavalry7,500
Spain artillery (50 guns)Artillery750
Cardinal-Infante and FerdinandCommander—
In this plan35,000

What the sources report

SwedenSpain
Strength, this plan25,00035,000
Losses, this plan12,0002,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 10, “Nordlingen I”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
7 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
2.8 km (attacker), 5.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Swedenattacker25,00012,00010,00080Single envelopment; Right flank; Repulse; Withdrew with heavy losses
Spain & Holy Roman Empiredefender35,0002,00015,00050Defensive/offensive plan; Pursued; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.