Time Astra

Schematic plan · War of the Second Coalition

Battle of Marengo

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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 wingLeft wingRight wingReserveReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

Austria (Aus Army, 31,000 men under Melas) attacked France (Fr Army of the Reserve, 29,000 men under Bonaparte) in North Italy. The CAA Database of Battles records 11 hours of fighting on a front of 4 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that France held. Losses: Austria 11,000 (35%), France 7,000 (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

Melas

UnitArmMen
Austria left wingInfantry5,256
Austria centreInfantry7,008
Austria right wingInfantry5,256
Austria reserveInfantry4,380
Austria cavalry of the leftCavalry3,800
Austria cavalry of the rightCavalry3,800
Austria artillery (100 guns)Artillery1,500
MelasCommander—
In this plan31,000

France

Bonaparte

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry5,176
France centreInfantry6,901
France right wingInfantry5,176
France reserveInfantry4,313
France cavalry of the leftCavalry3,500
France cavalry of the rightCavalry3,500
France artillery (29 guns)Artillery435
BonaparteCommander—
In this plan29,001

What the sources report

AustriaFrance
Strength, this plan31,00029,000
Losses, this plan11,0007,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 115, “Marengo”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
11 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
4 km (attacker), 6.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Austriaattacker31,00011,0007,600100Frontal attack; Withdrew with heavy losses
Francedefender29,0007,0007,00029Defensive/offensive plan; Breakthrough; Pursued

Attacker’s advantages intelligence +1 · surprise +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.