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Schematic plan · Dutch War

Battle of Seneffe

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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 wingHorseHorseHorseHorseReserve0500 m1 kmN

France (Fr Army, 50,000 men under Conde) attacked Dutch Republic (Du Allied Army, 70,000 men under Orange) in Spanish Netherlands. The CAA Database of Battles records 14 hours of fighting on a front of 1.8 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 10,000 (20%), Dutch Republic 14,000 (20%).

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

Conde

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry8,400
France centreInfantry11,200
France right wingInfantry8,400
France reserveInfantry7,000
France cavalry of the leftCavalry7,500
France cavalry of the rightCavalry7,500
CondeCommander—
In this plan50,000

Dutch Republic

Orange

UnitArmMen
Dutch Republic left wingInfantry13,200
Dutch Republic centreInfantry17,600
Dutch Republic right wingInfantry13,200
Dutch Republic reserveInfantry11,000
Dutch Republic cavalry of the leftCavalry7,500
Dutch Republic cavalry of the rightCavalry7,500
OrangeCommander—
In this plan70,000

What the sources report

FranceDutch Republic
Strength, this plan50,00070,000
Losses, this plan10,00014,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 35, “Senef”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
14 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
1.8 km (attacker), 1.8 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker50,00010,00015,000—Frontal attack; Penetration; Withdrew
Dutch Republicdefender70,00014,00015,000—Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · initiative +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.