Schematic plan · Dutch War

Battle of Sinsheim

16 June 1674
Germany
Victory for France

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

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.

France (Fr Army, 9,500 men under Turenne) attacked Holy Roman Empire (Imp Allied Army, 7,500 men under Capara) in Germany. The CAA Database of Battles records 3 hours of fighting on a front of 5 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 1,500 (16%), Holy Roman Empire 2,500 (33%).

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

Turenne

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	1,118
France centre	Infantry	1,491
France right wing	Infantry	1,118
France reserve	Infantry	932
France cavalry of the left	Cavalry	2,375
France cavalry of the right	Cavalry	2,375
France artillery (6 guns)	Artillery	90
Turenne	Commander	—
In this plan		9,499

Holy Roman Empire

Capara

Unit	Arm	Men
Holy Roman Empire left wing	Infantry	900
Holy Roman Empire centre	Infantry	1,200
Holy Roman Empire right wing	Infantry	900
Holy Roman Empire reserve	Infantry	750
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the left	Cavalry	1,875
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the right	Cavalry	1,875
Capara	Commander	—
In this plan		7,500

What the sources report

	France	Holy Roman Empire
Strength, this plan	9,500	7,500
Losses, this plan	1,500	2,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 34, “Sinsheim”, 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: Hasty defense
Front width: 5 km (attacker), 5 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Franceattacker	9,500	1,500	6,000	6	Frontal attack; Penetration
Holy Roman Empiredefender	7,500	2,500	6,000	0	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · 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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 34 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Sinsheim · CC-BY-SA-4.0

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.