Time Astra

Schematic plan · Zulu War

Battle of Isandlwana

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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, Bare groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorseGunsMavumengwana01 km2 kmN

Zulu (Zulu Army, 20,000 men under Mavumengwana & Tshingwayo) attacked Great Britain (Br 24th Regt. (+), 1,800 men under Pulleine) in Zululand. The CAA Database of Battles records 4 hours of fighting on a front of 4 km, a double envelopment against hasty defense, and that Zulu won. Losses: Zulu 3,000 (15%), Great Britain 1,445 (80%).

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

Zulu

Mavumengwana · Tshingwayo

UnitArmMen
Zulu left wingInfantry4,800
Zulu centreInfantry6,400
Zulu right wingInfantry4,800
Zulu reserveInfantry4,000
Mavumengwana & TshingwayoCommander—
In this plan20,000

Great Britain

Pulleine

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry317
Great Britain centreInfantry422
Great Britain right wingInfantry317
Great Britain reserveInfantry264
Great Britain cavalry of the leftCavalry225
Great Britain cavalry of the rightCavalry225
Great Britain artillery (2 guns)Artillery30
PulleineCommander—
In this plan1,800

What the sources report

ZuluGreat Britain
Strength, this plan20,0001,800
Losses, this plan3,0001,445

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 230, “Isandhlwana”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
4 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
4 km (attacker), 1.5 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Zuluattacker20,0003,00000Double envelopment; Breakthrough; Pursued
Great Britaindefender1,8001,4454502Defensive plan; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages intelligence +1 · surprise +2

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.