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Schematic plan · The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of La Rothière

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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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

Prussia (Allied Army of Silesia, 110,000 men under Bluecher) attacked France (Fr Army, 40,000 men under Napoleon I) in France. The CAA Database of Battles records 7 hours of fighting on a front of 4.8 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Prussia won. Losses: Prussia 6,000 (5%), France 6,000 (15%).

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

Prussia

Bluecher

UnitArmMen
Prussia left wingInfantry26,040
Prussia centreInfantry34,720
Prussia right wingInfantry26,040
Prussia reserveInfantry21,700
Prussia artillery (100 guns)Artillery1,500
BluecherCommander—
In this plan110,000

France

Napoleon I

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry9,348
France centreInfantry12,464
France right wingInfantry9,348
France reserveInfantry7,790
France artillery (70 guns)Artillery1,050
Napoleon ICommander—
In this plan40,000

What the sources report

PrussiaFrance
Strength, this plan110,00040,000
Losses, this plan6,0006,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 140, “La Rothiere”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
7 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Heavy precipitation, Temperate, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
4.8 km (attacker), 9.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Prussiaattacker110,0006,000—100Frontal attack; Penetration
Francedefender40,0006,000—70Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Repulse; Withdrew

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