Let me guess, you "need more?"
YOUCHUBE
>shoots at your immobile infantry square with field artilleryWhat now?
>>18002435you were saying?
>>18002435Well yeah. Almost everyone from the macedonian phalanx to the german Landsknechte and the spanish Tercios supported the pikemen with various melee and missile troops. In the ancient times peltasts (my beloved), archers and slingers were the name of the game - as well as various cavalry formations; the famous Companion Cavalry of Alexander the Great comes to mind.And in the early modern period arquebusiers, musketeers and various light and heavy cavalry fulfills this role.The only noticeable exception being the swiss, who generally had weaker missle and cavalry support - which was ideally covered by their allies.They compensated for that with being very well drilled and thus able to maneuver very quickly; often surprising their foes.>>18002663The swiss at the Battle of Grandson (1476) or the Battle of Nancy (1477) advanced so quickly that the burgundian artillery had little effect. Of course, in the late 15th century field artillery wasn't as potent as in the later centuries. And the following wars it became ever clearer that the massive swiss formations, for all their speed and maneuverability, became ever more vuleranble to ranged attacks by cannons or gunfire. Especially during the later Italian Wars the swiss primacy was toppled by the modern german and spanish pike & shot formations. Noticeable are the Battle of Cerignola (1503) and the Battle of Pavia (1525). Still the swiss maintained their reputation as fierce and reliable pikemen will into the early 18th century.
>walk in middle of square>put down pike because your arms are tired>none of the other soldiers can do anything without disrupting the formationProblem?
>>18003415>How brave of you to volunteer for the Forlorn Hope! >Here, take the blood banner and charge forth!
Uh, yeah
>>18002435What if we give all of the pikemen muskets and stick long blades on the ends of them so they can fulfill both roles?
>>18002663Strap a bundle of fabric or whatever to the tip of a very long pike and stuff the barrel of the cannon with it. Easy.
>>18002663field artillery barely existed until the latter 1700s manand you had to constantly watch for cavalry coming to dick down your artillery crewsthe actual death blow to pike and shot squares was the development of line infantry that could put out a near continuous stream of fire. the lines simply shot more rounds so they killed the square faster than the square could kill them, and the volleys posed just enough threat to cavalry that they didn't need half their men carrying useless pikes
>>18004303wasn't possible until the development of the socket bayonet around 1700. prior to that, you had to pound the back of the bayonet into the muzzle of your gun and it was too difficult to remove the bayonet in battle so once you fixed bayonets your infantry were just pikemen until they could get back to camp
>>18002435>Let me guess, you "need more?"Yes!!!
>>18004491What? Even in the 30 years war regimental level light artillery existed, that's ignoring heavier but still very mobile artillery which the French loved. The main issue with artillery was cost and tactical mobility, not much else, if cavalry were running down your cannons you were fucked anyway. Hell Muslims even mounted cannons onto the backs of camels.
>>18004303Muskets with bayonets are just bad spears and even worse pikes. Cavalry charges in the 18th century and later were deterred by dense formations and competently coordinated fire. The bayonet helped in melee of course but it wasn't as good as a dedicated melee weapon. The rise of the bayonet coincided with the numerical rise of the musketeer. Nobody wanted to be a pikemen (during the 30 Years War many pikemen "converted" themselves into musketeers) because shooting at somebody is far easier to do. And offending at distance is tactically better than offending up close, so the number of shot was steadily increased.>>18004515>you had to pound the back of the bayonet into the muzzle of your gunI've come across this claim by some british youtuber. He claimed that the sergeants would go around with a mallet and tap the plug bayonet into the barrel of his musketeers. Somebody asked him for a source for this statement and he failed to deliver. So I'm very sceptical about this part.
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