He then participated in the War of the Grand Alliance against France under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine and in the successful siege of Mainz in 1689.
In 1695–96 he was in the service of the Saxon elector Frederick August I (Augustus II the Strong, King of Poland) as the commander of the imperial troops in Royal Hungary in the continuous war with the Ottoman Turks.
With his Saxon troops he participated on behalf of Augustus II the Strong in the Great Northern War defending Livonia in the Courland campaign, and in February – November 1700 the Siege of Riga.
In July 1700 he won a battle in Jungfernhof (Jumpravmuiža, Jumprava) near Riga against the young Swedish general Otto Vellingk.
On 9 July 1701 Steinau lost at the Crossing of the Daugava against King Charles XII of Sweden.