Time Astra

Schematic plan · War of the Second Coalition

Battle of Novi (1799)

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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 groundCentreCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorseHorseHorse02.5 km5 kmN

Russia (Allied Army, 50,000 men under Suvarov) attacked France (Fr Army of Italy, 35,000 men under Joubert & Moreau) in North Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 14 hours of fighting on a front of 13 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Russia won. Losses: Russia 9,000 (18%), France 11,000 (31%).

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

Russia

Suvarov

UnitArmMen
Russia left wingInfantry9,840
Russia centreInfantry13,120
Russia right wingInfantry9,840
Russia reserveInfantry8,200
Russia cavalry of the leftCavalry4,500
Russia cavalry of the rightCavalry4,500
SuvarovCommander—
In this plan50,000

France

Joubert · Moreau

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry7,920
France centreInfantry10,560
France right wingInfantry7,920
France reserveInfantry6,600
France cavalry of the leftCavalry1,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry1,000
Joubert & MoreauCommander—
In this plan35,000

What the sources report

RussiaFrance
Strength, this plan50,00035,000
Losses, this plan9,00011,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 112, “Novi”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
14 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
13 km (attacker), 11.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Russiaattacker50,0009,0009,000—Frontal attack; Breakthrough
Francedefender35,00011,0002,000—Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

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

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.