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Schematic plan · War of the First Coalition

Battle of Lodi

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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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns0500 m1 kmN

France (French Army of Italy, 17,000 men under Bonaparte) attacked Austria (Austrian Army, 10,000 men under Beaulieu) in North Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 1.5 hours of fighting on a front of 1.6 km, a frontal attack, penetration, river crossing against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 900 (5%), Austria 1,850 (19%).

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

France

Bonaparte

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry3,994
France centreInfantry5,325
France right wingInfantry3,994
France reserveInfantry3,328
France artillery (24 guns)Artillery360
BonaparteCommander—
In this plan17,001

Austria

Beaulieu

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry2,335
Austria centreInfantry3,114
Austria right wingInfantry2,335
Austria reserveInfantry1,946
Austria artillery (18 guns)Artillery270
BeaulieuCommander—
In this plan10,000

What the sources report

FranceAustria
Strength, this plan17,00010,000
Losses, this plan9001,850

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 102, “Lodi”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
1.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
1.6 km (attacker), 2.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker17,000900—24Frontal attack; Penetration; River crossing; Penetration
Austriadefender10,0001,850—18Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · morale +1 · momentum +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · combat effectiveness +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.