At the heart of the contest, was a small village (center picture), near a river (to its left) crossable only by a single bridge. The village sat upon a "T" intersection, with the roads meeting at this point providing entrance and exit points onto the battlefield. Some low hills and a small wood made up the remainder of the terrain, but played no significant part in the battle. The French won the right to select which side they defended, and chose to enter the battlefield from the west (the river side), with a secondary column coming on from the north later in the battle. The Brunswickers approached from the east.
The French started faster, and quickly moved their Guard Chasseur cavalry across the bridge and into the village, with infantry following and taking advantage of the open ground to the south of the village to deploy. In both places, the French found themselves confronted by Brunswick jager (elite riflemen - in gray in the above pics) and began taking early casualties. As more French troops made it across the bridge however, the French were able to begin pushing forward.
The jager were gradually forced back, pitting the French against the Brunswicker lieb infantry (in black).
Despite being heavily outnumbered, the two lieb battalions held on grimly, repulsing one assault before finally being overrun.
As with the Belgio-Dutch last week, the Brunswickers put up a real gritty fight, and should prove to be a very useful ally when they merge with other nations as part of a larger army. They just don't have the numbers to be able to handle anything more than a very small scale action on their own.
A decisive victory for the French, who will meet the Russians in the semi-final round of the tournament. Next week, my (Napoleonic Wars) Bavarians will see if they can win one for the minor nations when they come up against my Seven Years' War Prussians.
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