Schematic plan · Austro-Turkish War

Battle of Zenta

11 September 1697
Hungary
Victory for Holy Roman Empire

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.

Holy Roman Empire (Aus Army, 50,000 men under Eugene) attacked Ottoman Empire (Turk Army, 100,000 men under Mustafa II) in Hungary. The CAA Database of Battles records 4.5 hours of fighting on a front of 4.2 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Holy Roman Empire won. Losses: Holy Roman Empire 500 (1%), Ottoman Empire 30,000 (30%).

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

Holy Roman Empire

Eugene

Unit	Arm	Men
Holy Roman Empire left wing	Infantry	7,944
Holy Roman Empire centre	Infantry	10,592
Holy Roman Empire right wing	Infantry	7,944
Holy Roman Empire reserve	Infantry	6,620
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the left	Cavalry	8,000
Holy Roman Empire cavalry of the right	Cavalry	8,000
Holy Roman Empire artillery (60 guns)	Artillery	900
Eugene	Commander	—
In this plan		50,000

Ottoman Empire

Mustafa II

Unit	Arm	Men
Ottoman Empire left wing	Infantry	13,680
Ottoman Empire centre	Infantry	18,240
Ottoman Empire right wing	Infantry	13,680
Ottoman Empire reserve	Infantry	11,400
Ottoman Empire cavalry of the left	Cavalry	20,000
Ottoman Empire cavalry of the right	Cavalry	20,000
Ottoman Empire artillery (200 guns)	Artillery	3,000
Mustafa II	Commander	—
In this plan		100,000

What the sources report

	Holy Roman Empire	Ottoman Empire
Strength, this plan	50,000	100,000
Losses, this plan	500	30,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 48, “Zenta”, 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: Flat, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 4.2 km (attacker), 2.7 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Holy Roman Empireattacker	50,000	500	16,000	60	Frontal attack; Breakthrough; Pursued
Ottoman Empiredefender	100,000	30,000	40,000	200	Defensive plan; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · training +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +1 · 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

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 48 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Zenta · 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.