Time Astra

Schematic plan · Thirty Year's War

Battle of Rocroi

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseReserveGunsGuns0500 m1 kmN

France (Fr Army, 23,000 men under Enghien) attacked Spain (Sp Netherlands Army, 26,000 men under Mello) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 6.5 hours of fighting on a front of 2.4 km, a single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 4,000 (17%), Spain 14,000 (54%).

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

Enghien

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry3,797
France centreInfantry5,062
France right wingInfantry3,797
France reserveInfantry3,164
France cavalry of the leftCavalry3,500
France cavalry of the rightCavalry3,500
France artillery (12 guns)Artillery180
EnghienCommander—
In this plan23,000

Spain

Mello

UnitArmMen
Spain left wingInfantry4,495
Spain centreInfantry5,994
Spain right wingInfantry4,495
Spain reserveInfantry3,746
Spain cavalry of the leftCavalry3,500
Spain cavalry of the rightCavalry3,500
Spain artillery (18 guns)Artillery270
MelloCommander—
In this plan26,000

What the sources report

FranceSpain
Strength, this plan23,00026,000
Losses, this plan4,00014,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 13, “Rocroi”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
6.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
2.4 km (attacker), 1.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker23,0004,0007,00012Single envelopment; Left flank; Breakthrough; Pursued
Spaindefender26,00014,0007,00018Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · momentum +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +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.