Schematic plan · War of the First Coalition

Battle of Rivoli

14 January 1797
North Italy
Victory for France

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

Austria (Aus Army, 28,000 men under Alvintzi) attacked France (Fr Army of Italy, 20,500 men under Bonaparte) in North Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 6 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that France held. Losses: Austria 14,000 (50%), France 5,000 (24%).

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

Austria

Alvintzi

Unit	Arm	Men
Austria left wing	Infantry	6,594
Austria centre	Infantry	8,792
Austria right wing	Infantry	6,594
Austria reserve	Infantry	5,495
Austria artillery (35 guns)	Artillery	525
Alvintzi	Commander	—
In this plan		28,000

France

Bonaparte

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	4,848
France centre	Infantry	6,464
France right wing	Infantry	4,848
France reserve	Infantry	4,040
France artillery (20 guns)	Artillery	300
Bonaparte	Commander	—
In this plan		20,500

What the sources report

	Austria	France
Strength, this plan	28,000	20,500
Losses, this plan	14,000	5,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 107, “Rivoli”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 24 hours
Winner: the defender
Terrain: Rugged, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Temperate, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width: 6 km (attacker), 8 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Austriaattacker	28,000	14,000	—	35	Frontal attack; Withdrew
Francedefender	20,500	5,000	—	20	Defensive/offensive plan; Pursued

Attacker’s advantages none recorded

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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 107 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Rivoli · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.