Talk:Pike square
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editI believe that stating that the Pike Square was developed by the Swiss Confederacy would be forgetting a little bit of history. It would be more accurate to call it a adaptation of the Macedonian Phalanx developed by Philip of Macedon. Although the Phalanx is, by definition, a formation that is wider than it is deep (as opposed to a infantry square) it shares the same basic elements. The Pike Square is simply a more mobile and fluid formation, being a square. 12.183.29.2 16:47, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
- Is there any cavalry formation other than hussaria which could frontally charge and destroy pike squares? If not, maybe short link to Hussaria would be justified? Szopen 11:39, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
Size and shape of swiss infantry formations
editMost famous battles, especially the early ones state very large Gewalthaufen, ofen 5-12000 strong. Most Gewalthaufen are built of multiple 'Fähnlein' (banners) of men. The smallest Fähnlein mention i have found was indeed 100, but it had very little evidence to support it, mostly it seems to be 200-1000 men. This mostly denotes the group in which they are recruited and paid, not fielded. The fielded units are absolutely huge.
Morat, Grandson, Nancy, all show very large (8000+) units, in Guinegate the Two pikeblocks even encompass large cavalry formations.
The ten rank square seems very weird to me, is there any source
for that? explicit use of pikemen often talks about thinner ranks (Machiavelli, Charles the Bold, but even the use at Bouvines taalks about three ranks of pike in a cricle encompassing a cavalry unit all the way back in 1215AD)
Swiss Gewalthaufen in Wedges (as opposed to squares) are mentioned in the sources about the main Burgundian wars battles.
many depictions show equal numbers of Halbardiers and pikemen, and often very large formations with many banners display1ed, suggesting again collections of 'Fähnlein' to make a 'Gewalthaufen'
explicit numbers we have from the 1555 'kriegsordnung' where many deployments are d1iscussed in great detail, but many pikeblocks are thousands and encompass various other units in the hollow square. 91.137.22.26 (talk) 15:10, 3 March 2023 (UTC)