Ogniem i Mieczem - By Fire and Sword

Hello everybody,

I'm an infantry guy. That's the principal reason I chosed Swedish as my first army. That was before I learned how difficult to play they are. Anywhere, I still keep faith in having a clash of pikes in BFaS. Especialy now with task force rules. That's why I started thinking in a way to make musketeers and pikemen less vulnerable to devastating flank attacks.
In XVII century, infantry regiments facing cavalry charges formed in squares (in English civil war, they were also called rings). Very similarly to Napoleonic infantry, the regiment became a big square with pikes in every side (with the buts of the pike sunk into the floor), and a line of musketeers kneeled infront of them, under the pikes, providing some firepower.
Englishmen used that tactic in the Boyne and Spaniards in Rocroi. I don't know if there is any precedent in the Deluge era.

To use that rule you need a pikemen company with enough units to make a square and with a defense order. Also a commander needs to spend an order. Forming in a square could be a reaction to a cavalry charge, but in that case cavalry must be in the first movement of the charge. In that case cavalry could stop themselves by spending an order and a morale test.

This is only the beginning of a serie of post about the subject. My ideas are still very raw and I'm not a rules expert.