Ah sorry I must have glanced over the bit about not making it in to contact.
When you make your charge move you move in to close combat, and units in close combat may not shoot. The only exception is units that where charged that may pick closing fire as a charge response.
No they can’t.
For reference there is a special rule for Swedish infantry that specifically allows them to shoot when charging.
We do separate units but basically always position them in such a way that they look combined, we I even have them on one big movement tray.
In Helion’s book on the Spanish army during TYW the concentration of of muskets (usually depicted positioned on each of the four corners), are described as being able to manoeuvre on their own and having a bit of freedom. As opposed to the one to three ranks of muskets sleeves directly with the pike block.
The Swedish brigade is also often described as being able to present more pikes or more muskets depending on situation, which indicate that the components where not fixed in position.
So I actually like P&S approach to let players have that tactical involvement in the game.
Agree with you fully Invisible Officer, thanks for you additon. When I write “proper tercio” above I’m referencing the practice of forming pike with as many ranks as files etc. I understand the the term was continued to be used almost synonyms to ‘regiment’?
Yes, the first picture illustrates my attempt to show a “Swedish brigade” ~1630-1632. I could perhaps add one or two rota of musketeers in the center.
When it comes to playing Pike & Shotte, I’m fine with deploying a pike center with sleeves of musketeers, roughly 1:2 ratio 🙂
Thank you Charge the Guns and Invisible Officer!
With our figure to man ratio a proper tercio would be 100-150 miniatures 😀
The imperialist/catholic league where fighting in dutch style quite early, some even say the giant 25+ rank spanish tercio was nerver seen during the TYW.
Thank you Rough Rider and Corso!
Corso, I have the equivalent of nine regiment boxes so I don’t have a huge need for more atm 😉 But I was thinking about getting one of the 12 pack metal pikemen and one set of 8 metal musketeers to “beef up” my units and add variety.
I’m keeping it fairly generic, these minis will have to represent most participants in the TYW, barring the stand with flag.
Thanks guys, nice to have that confirmed.