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Schematic plan · Thirty Year's War

Battle of Wimpfen

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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 wingReserveReserveHorseHorseHorseHorseGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

Holy Roman Empire and Spain (Holy League & Sp Army, 20,000 men under Tilly & Cordova) attacked Protestant Union (Prot Union Army, 20,000 men under Baden-Durlach) in Palatinate. The CAA Database of Battles records 11.5 hours of fighting on a front of 3.7 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that Holy Roman Empire and Spain won. Losses: Holy Roman Empire and Spain 5,000 (25%), Protestant Union 5,800 (29%).

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

Holy Roman Empire and Spain

Tilly · Cordova

UnitArmMen
Holy Roman Empire left wingInfantry3,811
Holy Roman Empire centreInfantry5,082
Holy Roman Empire right wingInfantry3,811
Holy Roman Empire reserveInfantry3,176
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the leftCavalry2,000
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the rightCavalry2,000
Holy Roman Empire artillery (8 guns)Artillery120
Tilly & CordovaCommander—
In this plan20,000

Protestant Union

Baden-Durlach

UnitArmMen
Protestant Union left wingInfantry3,696
Protestant Union centreInfantry4,928
Protestant Union right wingInfantry3,696
Protestant Union reserveInfantry3,080
Protestant Union cavalry of the leftCavalry2,000
Protestant Union cavalry of the rightCavalry2,000
Protestant Union artillery (40 guns)Artillery600
Baden-DurlachCommander—
In this plan20,000

What the sources report

Holy Roman EmpireProtestant Union
Strength, this plan20,00020,000
Losses, this plan5,0005,800

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 3, “Wimpfen”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
11.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
3.7 km (attacker), 2.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Holy Roman Empire & Spainattacker20,0005,0004,0008Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Protestant Uniondefender20,0005,8004,00040Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +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.