Time Astra

Schematic plan · Thirty Year's War

Battle of Nördlingen (1645)

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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 wingReserveLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseHorseHorseReserveGuns01 km2 kmN

France (Fr Army, 18,000 men under Conde) attacked Holy Roman Empire (Imp Army, 16,000 men under Mercy and Werth) in Bavaria. The CAA Database of Battles records 3 hours of fighting on a front of 3.2 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that France won. Losses: France 7,500 (42%), Holy Roman Empire 6,000 (38%).

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

Conde

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry3,120
France centreInfantry4,160
France right wingInfantry3,120
France reserveInfantry2,600
France cavalry of the leftCavalry2,500
France cavalry of the rightCavalry2,500
CondeCommander—
In this plan18,000

Holy Roman Empire

Mercy and Werth

UnitArmMen
Holy Roman Empire left wingInfantry2,539
Holy Roman Empire centreInfantry3,386
Holy Roman Empire right wingInfantry2,539
Holy Roman Empire reserveInfantry2,116
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the leftCavalry2,500
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the rightCavalry2,500
Holy Roman Empire artillery (28 guns)Artillery420
Mercy and WerthCommander—
In this plan16,000

What the sources report

FranceHoly Roman Empire
Strength, this plan18,00016,000
Losses, this plan7,5006,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 18, “Allerheim (Nordlingen Ii)”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
3 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
3.2 km (attacker), 3.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker18,0007,5005,000—Frontal attack; Stalemate
Holy Roman Empiredefender16,0006,0005,00028Defensive/offensive plan; Single envelopment; Right flank; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages 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.