Pike & Shotte Dragoons

[Henpecked]

New to this set of rules but I am starting a couple of armies for the Nine Years war in 10mm and am having problems understanding the basing for dragoons. The mounted dragoons are fairly self explanatory but what about when the are dismounted? Are they based as skirmish order infantry, as in earlier periods, or are they now starting to act more as normally formed infantry? Would be grateful for any help on this.

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Henpecked,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Pike and Shotte 🙂 !

You raise an interesting question as to when dismounted dragoons started to fight formed up. This era of the 17th century is a bit outside my area of knowledge. I expect they were still being used primarily for roles outside of large battles, and when in a a large battle being used to influence from terrain, or provide fire support to the cavalry.

From a game pov I wouldn’t have any issue with playing the dismounted dragoons as formed if you think they should be.

[invisible officer]

In fact the early dragoons formed much closer than the later, until ca. 1618 some units even had mounted pikemen. To fight cavalry dismounted. Their role changed fast from a fast traveling standard infantry to light infantry.

On campaign controling large areas and plundering. In battle taking villages or covered positions (like at Naseby), rarely fighting in the line.

No wonder that Louis XIV used them for his Dragonades to force the Protestants in France to convert. The dragoons proved being able to fight in the Chevenne mountains.

So on foot I would base them in skirmish order.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by invisible officer.

[Henpecked]

Gentlemen thank you both for your input. Still trying to sort this one out but at the moment I am thinking that a tight skirmish order may be the way to go. This would allow them to operate as full skirmishers when required but also to show a loose battle line if needed.

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