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Schematic plan · King William's War

Battle of Landen

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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 groundCentreHorseHorseLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

France (Fr Army, 80,000 men under Luxembourg) attacked England (Allied Army, 50,000 men under William III) in Spanish Netherlands. The CAA Database of Battles records 11 hours of fighting on a front of 5.7 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that France won. Losses: France 9,000 (11%), England 14,000 (28%).

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

Luxembourg

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry11,984
France centreInfantry15,979
France right wingInfantry11,984
France reserveInfantry9,987
France cavalry of the leftCavalry14,500
France cavalry of the rightCavalry14,500
France artillery (71 guns)Artillery1,065
LuxembourgCommander—
In this plan79,999

England

William III

UnitArmMen
England left wingInfantry6,898
England centreInfantry9,197
England right wingInfantry6,898
England reserveInfantry5,748
England cavalry of the leftCavalry10,000
England cavalry of the rightCavalry10,000
England artillery (84 guns)Artillery1,260
William IIICommander—
In this plan50,001

What the sources report

FranceEngland
Strength, this plan80,00050,000
Losses, this plan9,00014,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 46, “Neerwinden (Landen)”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
11 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
5.7 km (attacker), 8.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker80,0009,00029,00071Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Englanddefender50,00014,00020,00084Defensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · 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.