Pikemen (ETW Unit)

Pikemen

Unit Description

Pikemen carry long spears of a type that would have been familiar to the soliders of Alexander the Great.

Despite the fact the firepower is the key to battle, "trailing a pike" into battle is more gentlemanly than carrying a gun. Pikemen are shock troops relyin on mass and impact in melee. Pikes are not without their uses: a solid wall of spear points is a formidible barrier to any cavalry attack. Pikemen still march into to battle because not every European nation can afford (or find)enough guns for everyone. Sending men into battle with an obsolescent weapon is better than sending them forward with nothing at all.

By 1700, most European generals realised that pikes and pikemen where hopelessly outdated and outclassed on a modern battlefield. Pikemen had been a vital part of all infantry formations, protecting musketeers from cavalry and being the "shock" element in melee combat. There was a fatal problem for pikemen: a musket could kill at a distance, and once a decent bayonet was developed,pikes really did lose their point!

Although a brilliant general in every (other?) respect, Maurico de Saxo, the great Marshal General of France, remained an advocate of the pike even in the 1740s. By then, it was obvious that pikes were useless against massed musket-armed infantry.

Tactics

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