Hi!
I wanted to open a discussion upon references and ideas on the usage of the regiment of arquebusiers in battle. I'm going to start explaining what we got so far about tactics with in the regiment and I would like to hear your opinions about how can it be better used in conjunction with the maneuvers of the landsknecht formation.
Some notes upon what we learned about those weapons from previous experience. When shooting them all together into a formation they have a range of 10 to 15 meters or so, though the accuracy it's poor, the number of targets balances the chances. For one single shoot to be effective against a single enemy needs to be done 5 meters or less from the target, meaning that we need to expose ourselves quite a lot and that usually we have no more than one shoot against a charging enemy. Also once we get into close combat we are basically doomed because of the length and the weight of the arquebus, we can not defend ourselves while holding it. For all this usually we keep ourselves in movement quite a lot during the battle, approaching an enemy shooting them and withdrawing to more secure positions.
So, we are specting to be 12, which makes quite a good number for a formation with an arrangement of 3x4. This gives us the chance of doing some basic actions
- Caracola or shoot by ranks 
The most historical one :). This would be what we have in mind as our basic shoot procedure since we don't need to change the configuration of the formation at all. It will allow us to have a continuous cadence while soothing of 3 rounds each 7 seconds or so and it can be done advancing, withdrawing or steady.
- Double the lines
For when we want to give it everything to the enemy. First line will kneel down or the second line will shoot over the first line shoulders, we will see what works better. looking forward to use this one ^^.
- Large front
Will use it when we want to cover a large area, for instance standing in front of the Landsknecht's main formation if we want to chip a enemy steady block before engaging.
In regard to our position towards the main regiment I figured that the historical formation might have been as such for a reason ;D.
We see ourselves fighting attached to the sides of the main formation specially in the corners so we can protect the flanks keeping the enemy cautious of coming to close and withdraw when needed.
Also we tried last year with out much success the passing through the ranks of the main formation. I think it was an excellent idea that got us completely unprepared XD, If we thing it through a bit I'm sure we can make it work for next year.
And that's all, send me your thoughts guys and please if you have any ideas or historical references or such let me know :D!
Cheers!
