It was a race for control of the crossroads. The Hohenlohe’s korps setup north of the cross roads with his line division covering his flank and his grenadier division laid out along a road at the base of the heights. Hiller placed his hussars on his extreme left to provide a flank guard and deployed Ulm’s infantry division just north of them in a valley between the ridge and the woods south of the crossroads. To bridge the two korps, Hiller moved his avantgarde brigade in to occupy the crossroads.
The game ran approximately 2.5 hours, playing 11 turns, representing just shy of 4 hours of battle time.
The French moved quickly. Vandamme threw his light cavalry at the crossroads and deployed his two small infantry brigades to the south on their right to hold Hiller’s infantry and hussars. Lannes deployed both Demont’s and Morand’s infantry divisions north of the crossroads, opposite Hohenlohe. Saint Sulpice’s cuirassiers moved up beside Vandamme’s light cavalry and took the fight to the enemy.
After nearly an hour long cavalry battle in the center, the Austrian avantgarde was overwhelmed and withdrew. Morand struck the Austrian grenadiers of Hohenlohe’s korps as the cuirassiers plunged in to strike their left flank. The grenadiers held for over and hour but eventually began to give ground. By then Demont’s division was engaged to the north, making little progress but effectively pinning the rest of Hohenlohe’s infantry, providing him no resources to shift to the center. Hiller, who but for his avantgarde had not engaged, began setting the stage for a withdraw.