Time Astra

Schematic plan · Latin American Wars of Independence

Battle of Boyacá

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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 wingReserveReserveHorseHorseGuns0500 m1 kmN

Independentalists (Patriot Army, 3,000 men under Bolivar) attacked Spain (Sp Army, 3,000 men under Barreiro) in Columbia. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 1.5 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Independentalists won. Losses: Independentalists 66 (2%), Spain 1,800 (60%).

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

Independentalists

Bolivar

UnitArmMen
Independentalists left wingInfantry720
Independentalists centreInfantry960
Independentalists right wingInfantry720
Independentalists reserveInfantry600
BolivarCommander—
In this plan3,000

Spain

Barreiro

UnitArmMen
Spain left wingInfantry613
Spain centreInfantry818
Spain right wingInfantry613
Spain reserveInfantry511
Spain cavalry of the leftCavalry200
Spain cavalry of the rightCavalry200
Spain artillery (3 guns)Artillery45
BarreiroCommander—
In this plan3,000

What the sources report

IndependentalistsSpain
Strength, this plan3,0003,000
Losses, this plan661,800

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 150, “Boyaca”, 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, Winter, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
1.5 km (attacker), 1.5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Independentalistsattacker3,00066—0Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Spaindefender3,0001,8004003Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · 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.