The claim that infantry did not form square before the Napoleonic Wars is completely untrue. Certainly it was nothing like as “routine” as was later to be
the case, mainly because the professional infantry of earlier times were expected to be able to face down enemy cavalry in line (at a time when cavalry did not often charge at much more than a trot and when with the rare exceptions of the Anglo-Dutch and Swedes most still relied to some extent on mounted firepower before contemplating an actual charge). However it was an accepted element of the military lexicon, and was most used when infantry found themselves hopelessly outflanked by cavalry. Two famous examples come immediately to mind – the French at Blenheim, and the British at Almanza (both War of the Spanish Succession). No set of wargame rules which fails to incldue provision for squares (these usually being formed from several battalions) can hope to do even marginal justice to Marlburian warfare.
