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Is 5e's Success Actually Bad for Other Games?
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<blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 8303905" data-attributes="member: 87792"><p>Two very different formations, both called squares, but used for very different purposes. The (Swiss-derived) "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_square" target="_blank">Pike Square</a>" was a square block of troops generally ten people wide and ten deep, and that's about as tactically flexible as you can make such a large and unwieldy weapon as a pike because it rotates easily rather than wheeling, and could if absolutely necessary point pikes in all directions.</p><p></p><p>The later musket-using "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infantry_square" target="_blank">infantry square</a>" on the other hand was hollow, about three ranks deep, and as immobile as any formation there has ever been in warfare that didn't involve literal digging tools (although not totally immobile). Its job was to balance the maximum surface area allowing people able to shoot with a dense enough thicket of bayonets that the horses weren't stupid enough to run onto them and instead normally rode round - where you could shoot them. You didn't want to leave the safety of your hedge of bayonets when there were enemy cavalry and you had consu!</p><p></p><p>You may be confused with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Column_(formation)" target="_blank">(Napoleonic) Column</a> which is in some ways an intermediate formation and used extensively by Napoleon. It was indeed easy to teach - but it wasn't for trying to fend off cavalry. Instead it moved fast and it was large enough to be terrifying, punching through the lines of poorly trained troops - and getting shot to pieces by disciplined lines.</p><p></p><p>Oh, Napoleon definitely did a lot with conscription and a lot of French leaders died in the revolution. But pikes had fallen out of use about a century before Napoleon and a pike square is very different from an infantry square.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Neonchameleon, post: 8303905, member: 87792"] Two very different formations, both called squares, but used for very different purposes. The (Swiss-derived) "[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_square']Pike Square[/URL]" was a square block of troops generally ten people wide and ten deep, and that's about as tactically flexible as you can make such a large and unwieldy weapon as a pike because it rotates easily rather than wheeling, and could if absolutely necessary point pikes in all directions. The later musket-using "[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infantry_square']infantry square[/URL]" on the other hand was hollow, about three ranks deep, and as immobile as any formation there has ever been in warfare that didn't involve literal digging tools (although not totally immobile). Its job was to balance the maximum surface area allowing people able to shoot with a dense enough thicket of bayonets that the horses weren't stupid enough to run onto them and instead normally rode round - where you could shoot them. You didn't want to leave the safety of your hedge of bayonets when there were enemy cavalry and you had consu! You may be confused with the [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Column_(formation)'](Napoleonic) Column[/URL] which is in some ways an intermediate formation and used extensively by Napoleon. It was indeed easy to teach - but it wasn't for trying to fend off cavalry. Instead it moved fast and it was large enough to be terrifying, punching through the lines of poorly trained troops - and getting shot to pieces by disciplined lines. Oh, Napoleon definitely did a lot with conscription and a lot of French leaders died in the revolution. But pikes had fallen out of use about a century before Napoleon and a pike square is very different from an infantry square. [/QUOTE]
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