Prussians Vs Russians (Post #1)

I didn't get too much painting done during April, but the 1700s campaign I'm running to playtest my campaign rules threw up a couple of battles pitting my (7-Years War) Prussians against my (Napoleonic Wars) Russians. This wasn't an historical matchup, but given the Prussian army at the start of the Napoleonic Wars wasn't much different to that of 50 years earlier - it was the defeat at Jena that woke the Prussians up - this was a "could have happened."

Originally I expected this to only be one battle, but it split itself into two, and both armies are gearing up for "Round 3" as I write.

The Russians were a little quicker off the mark and began to arrive on the field first. The Prussian commander took a more cautious approach though, and rather than commit his full army from the outset, sent ahead a small advance guard, comprising one of his infantry regiments and some (hussars) light cavalry to test the water. This advance guard performed extremely well; although both battalion guns of the infantry were destroyed, they took out one of the two guns the Russians themselves had, and after a downhill charge and a short melee, they scattered tree times their own number of Russian hussars, killing the Russian colonel and effectively taking most of the Russian light cavalry division out of play.

As the day wore on, the numerical superiority of the Russians began to tell, and it looked as though the Prussian advance guard would be surrounded and overwhelmed. Just in time the main Prussian army arrived on the scene, and was able to secure a route of escape for their colleagues. Seeing the Russians pretty securely lodged in a strong position, the Prussian general decided to content himself with having done some serious damage to the Russians, and withdrew from the field under the cover of nightfall.

Pictured above are:

1: The Prussian advance guard as seen from Russian lines

2: The grenadier battalion of one of the Russian infantry regiments marching forward into battle

3: The small group of Cossacks that were helping the Russians - they got themselves wiped out trying to scatter the Prussian infantry.

4: The hussar melee with the Prussians in black on the right of the picture and the Russians in the red jackets.