Time Astra

Schematic plan · War of the First Coalition

Battle of the Pyramids

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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.
Flat, Desert groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

France (Fr Army, 25,000 men under Bonaparte) attacked Ottoman Empire (Mameluke Army, 21,000 men under Murad Bey) in Egypt. The CAA Database of Battles records 1 hours of fighting on a front of 5 km, a defensive/offensive plan against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that France won. Losses: France 300 (1%), Ottoman Empire 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

France

Bonaparte

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry5,892
France centreInfantry7,856
France right wingInfantry5,892
France reserveInfantry4,910
France artillery (30 guns)Artillery450
BonaparteCommander—
In this plan25,000

Ottoman Empire

Murad Bey

UnitArmMen
Ottoman Empire left wingInfantry4,896
Ottoman Empire centreInfantry6,528
Ottoman Empire right wingInfantry4,896
Ottoman Empire reserveInfantry4,080
Ottoman Empire artillery (40 guns)Artillery600
Murad BeyCommander—
In this plan21,000

What the sources report

FranceOttoman Empire
Strength, this plan25,00021,000
Losses, this plan3005,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 108, “Pyramids”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
1 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Flat, Desert
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
5 km (attacker), 6.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker25,000300—30Defensive/offensive plan; Breakthrough; Pursued
Ottoman Empiredefender21,0005,000—40Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · technology +1 · initiative +1 · 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.