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Schematic plan · English Civil War

Second Battle of Newbury

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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 groundHorseHorseCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserveHorseHorseCharles I0500 m1 kmN

Parliamentarian (Eng Parl Army, 22,000 men under Manchester) attacked Royalist (Eng Roy Army, 10,000 men under Charles I) in England. The CAA Database of Battles records 4 hours of fighting on a front of 2.8 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that Royalist held. Losses: Parliamentarian 500 (2%), Royalist 500 (5%).

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

Parliamentarian

Manchester

UnitArmMen
Parliamentarian left wingInfantry3,000
Parliamentarian centreInfantry4,000
Parliamentarian right wingInfantry3,000
Parliamentarian reserveInfantry2,500
Parliamentarian cavalry of the leftCavalry4,750
Parliamentarian cavalry of the rightCavalry4,750
ManchesterCommander—
In this plan22,000

Royalist

Charles I

UnitArmMen
Royalist left wingInfantry1,920
Royalist centreInfantry2,560
Royalist right wingInfantry1,920
Royalist reserveInfantry1,600
Royalist cavalry of the leftCavalry1,000
Royalist cavalry of the rightCavalry1,000
Charles ICommander—
In this plan10,000

What the sources report

ParliamentarianRoyalist
Strength, this plan22,00010,000
Losses, this plan500500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 24, “Newbury Ii”, 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 defender
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
2.8 km (attacker), 2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Parliamentarianattacker22,0005009,500—Frontal attack; Penetration; Repulse
Royalistdefender10,0005002,000—Defensive plan; 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.