Time Astra

Schematic plan · King William's War

Battle of Marsaglia

All battlesThe event in the chronicleWikipedia
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 wingReserveLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseHorseHorseReserveGunsGuns01 km2 kmN

France (Fr Army, 40,000 men under Catinat) attacked Savoy (Allied Army, 36,000 men under Duke of Savoy) in Piedmont. The CAA Database of Battles records 4.5 hours of fighting on a front of 5 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, left flank against hasty defense, and that France won. Losses: France 3,000 (8%), Savoy 11,000 (31%).

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

Catinat

UnitArmMen
France left wingInfantry7,092
France centreInfantry9,456
France right wingInfantry7,092
France reserveInfantry5,910
France cavalry of the leftCavalry5,000
France cavalry of the rightCavalry5,000
France artillery (30 guns)Artillery450
CatinatCommander—
In this plan40,000

Savoy

Duke of Savoy

UnitArmMen
Savoy left wingInfantry5,888
Savoy centreInfantry7,851
Savoy right wingInfantry5,888
Savoy reserveInfantry4,907
Savoy cavalry of the leftCavalry5,500
Savoy cavalry of the rightCavalry5,500
Savoy artillery (31 guns)Artillery465
Duke of SavoyCommander—
In this plan35,999

What the sources report

FranceSavoy
Strength, this plan40,00036,000
Losses, this plan3,00011,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 47, “Marsaglia”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
4.5 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Franceattacker40,0003,00010,00030Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Left flank; Breakthrough; Pursued
Savoydefender36,00011,00011,00031Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

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.