Time Astra

Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Borodino

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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 wingReserveReserveHorseHorseGunsHorseHorseGuns02 km4 kmN

France (Fr Army, 120,000 men under Napoleon I) attacked Russia (Russ Army, 120,000 men under Kutusov) in Russia. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 6 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that France won. Losses: France 28,000 (23%), Russia 40,000 (33%).

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

Napoleon I

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry19,967
France centreInfantry26,622
France right wingInfantry19,967
France reserveInfantry16,639
France cavalry of the leftCavalry14,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry14,000
France artillery (587 guns)Artillery8,805
Napoleon ICommander—
In this plan120,000

Russia

Kutusov

UnitArmMen
Russia left wingInfantry22,176
Russia centreInfantry29,568
Russia right wingInfantry22,176
Russia reserveInfantry18,480
Russia cavalry of the leftCavalry9,000
Russia cavalry of the rightCavalry9,000
Russia artillery (640 guns)Artillery9,600
KutusovCommander—
In this plan120,000

What the sources report

FranceRussia
Strength, this plan120,000120,000
Losses, this plan28,00040,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 134, “Borodino”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
12 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
6 km (attacker), 7.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker120,00028,00028,000587Frontal attack; Penetration
Russiadefender120,00040,00018,000640Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +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.