Following the abortive attack at Swampy Hollow the Prussian and Brunswick force reorganised themselves and attempted to strike into Franco Spanish Alliance territory via the crossing at Bad Platz.
Again with main commanders active elswhere it was the juniors staff officers who came to the fore. The Franco Spanish had a fine pair of junior officers who had Stonewall and Enfant Perdu as their skills, good for rallying and counterattacking. The Prussian was a skilled musketry commander good for ensuring consistency in shooting. Then there was the Brunswicker, he was a cad who had some tactical insight, however since the confederation were already the attacker that wasn't much help. There's something about the Brunswick command.
The confederation force comprised aggressive skirmishers and good shooting line with a large shock inf unit and some artillery. They'd also recruited some barbary skirmishers from ther dubious ally Sheik Yahbooty. Calously they put these in the most advanced positions to soak up the hits. A fact not unnoticed by Yahbooty.
For their part the alliance had large green line units (Austrian deserters and press ganged Spanish peasents apparently) along with some skirmish units and a gun. The confederation had a 2:1 advantage but the alliance had the benefit of all the hard cover in the village.
The attack started by the confederation units forming close order and skirmishers moving forward as the artillery roared. In reality not much happened but the activity did look purposeful.
Then the alliance replied. The gunners lined up on a Prussian unit only to see the gun fire prematurely into their ally skirmishers. Panic ensued and the skirmishers fell back in disorder.
They recoverd next turn and moved back into the defences only to be shot at by the confederation and fall back again.
The alliance skirmishers all took hits but hung in there and fired back showing good morale. Up against this with Alliance line supporting the confederation were in for a hard time- or perhaps not as we shall see.
The French gun did manage to counter battery and destroy one of the Prussian guns however so things were looking up.
The confederation were showing superior tactics by refusing a flank though this may have been due to the force on its right refusing to advance for several turns. They were though just in range of the Alliance forward line holed up in buildings at the edge of the village and they and other line joined their guns and skirmishers in musketeering the Alliance forward line.
This was when a major flaw in Alliance plans became apparent. The 'hard cover' promised by the buildings of Bad Platz were not actually that hard. In fact it looked there'd been a lot of jerry building in the village. As a consequence the Confederation musketry easily pierced the flimsy structures causing casualties. Being green the line units reacted badly and fell back. Their officers rallied them back to their positions but the Hokey Cokey reactions were allowing the Confederation to advance up to the village.
The Spanish skirmishers had in contrast been stalwarts all fighting to the last man but as the last man died the wobbly green troops fell back yet again.
At this point it is worth giving a mention to Schnitzel- Grubel the Brunswick capatin. He of the Cad character. It turned out he was rather a dashing cad as he automatically ralled units, double timed advances, and sprung an infiltration sniper unit in the town who took down the Spanish commander and his unit. Oh and did I mention he summoned up unplanned cavalry reserves? Definately the commander of the game, perhaps his cad status or Brunswick nationallity was deep cover for something else.
By the time the close order Prussian shock had stormed into the village killing the last of the heroic skirmishers and overrunning the gun the fight was over. The jittery French and Spanish line fled leaving the Confederation in command of Bad Platz.
As any of the ladies will tell you.