Time Astra

Schematic plan · Polish-Turkish War

Battle of Khotyn (1673)

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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 groundCentreLeft wingRight wingCentreReserveLeft wingRight wingReserve02 km4 kmN

Poland (Pol Army, 50,000 men under Sobieski) attacked Ottoman Empire (Turk Army, 80,000 men under Hussein Pasha) in Poland. The CAA Database of Battles records 12 hours of fighting on a front of 6.3 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Poland won. Losses: Poland 1,000 (2%), Ottoman Empire 30,000 (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

Poland

Sobieski

UnitArmMen
Poland left wingInfantry12,000
Poland centreInfantry16,000
Poland right wingInfantry12,000
Poland reserveInfantry10,000
SobieskiCommander—
In this plan50,000

Ottoman Empire

Hussein Pasha

UnitArmMen
Ottoman Empire left wingInfantry19,200
Ottoman Empire centreInfantry25,600
Ottoman Empire right wingInfantry19,200
Ottoman Empire reserveInfantry16,000
Hussein PashaCommander—
In this plan80,000

What the sources report

PolandOttoman Empire
Strength, this plan50,00080,000
Losses, this plan1,00030,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 33, “Chocim Ii”, 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
Wet, Light precipitation, Cold, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Polandattacker50,0001,000——Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Ottoman Empiredefender80,00030,000——Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +3 · 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.