The End of Medieval Battles

The history of warfare is full of adaptation, innovation and evolution to find new a more effective ways to kill your opponent. And sometimes, such innovations can lead to rather bizarre units, like the dual riders of early horsemen by Assyria as mentioned in the previous post, or the Korean Hwacha which fired rocket-propelled spears. While most of the time these strange experiments tend to create sub-part or situational products, from time to time a true breakthrough was created. One of such examples was the method of warfare that dictate much of Renaissance Europe, Pike-and-Shot with the most famous being the Spanish Tercio.  

With the closing days of the medieval age and the coming up of the Renaissance, European warfare had developed a solid meta on the battlefield, taking on another strategy. This took the form of elite pikemen, generally of Swiss origin, mixed with heavy knights within the most popular being the French Gendarme... no not these guys. Indeed heavy cavalry, despite taking a hit in the Hundred Years' War where English longbowmen turned them into porcupines on more than one occasion, remained a devastating unit when used right. Alongside them, professional pikemen proved to be the only infantry unit capable of keeping up since they could actually take a head-on charge from heavy knights and not rout. As such, when deployed together these two units proved a force to be reckoned with, something the Spanish would learn the hard way during the first Italian war. The Spanish general and future El Gran Capitán Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar noticed the issue at hand after getting creamed at a couple of engagements like Seminara allowing the French to take the upper hand. Eager to get some payback, as well as to help his nation get the upper hand on the battlefield recognizing the failings of the classic ways. As such, he went on to create a whole new way of fighting which at first was aimed to counter French tactics but ended up trumping anything for the next two centuries. Thus, the Spanish Tercio was born, being a mix of tightly packed pikemen supported by ranged infantry for cover. Gonzalo was probably inspired by the British experience in the Hundred Years' War, as he too would put great emphasis in range warfare as the best way to kill someone. However instead on relying on archers which failed in the long run against France, and crossbows weren’t well suited for field battles, he instead turned to the newly developed harquebuses to support his melee infantry. 

This shift in strategy would quickly prove itself in the following battle of Cerignola, where the Spanish inflicted a crushing defeat to the French. This is often seen as the beginning of the gunpowder age, as well as the death of chivalry as knights would prove less and less useful in the face of Pike-and-Shot. Gonzalo would further refine his new formation, mixing pikemen, swordmen and gunners to form an unshakable moving bastion on the field. The principle was that the melee units would form a square while the gunners would stand around them in four groups. When the battle began, the gunners would fire volleys at the enemy while they approached before retreating inside the square formation once close-quarter combat was about to begin. This allowed each unit, more specifically the pikemen and gunners as the swordmen would not stick around, to cover each other's weaknesses. Pike formations were devastating against cavalry but suffered against more mobile infantries and ranged units, as Greece learned the hard way when Rome invaded. Meanwhile arquebusiers could deal devastating damages to any kind of infantries, but their slow rate of fire made them defenseless against cavalries in open fields. But in a Tercio, the gunners could force infantries to fight on the terms of the pikemen while the latter protected the former from mounted units. Of course, discipline and good teamwork was vital for the Tercio to work, as both range and melee units needed to fight as one in order to unleash their full potential. 

Another major advantage of the Tercio over medieval style strategies was moral management. You see in the past, singular formations tend to break easily if one section of it failed as panic spread throughout the men easily. It generally meant that a single breakthrough was enough to win the engagement, not only to cause a rout but also to outmaneuver your opponent. Tercios solved this problem by breaking down a force into smaller which mirrored the Roman’s maniple system. This breakdown in army formation allowed not only better stability of the front line, as a single routing tercio caused less panic among the rest of the force, but also allowed to easily deploy a new and fresh one to plug any gaps. This new flexibility on the battlefield required more professionalism in the officer corps, as a solid chain of command became vital for the Tercio to work at full capacity.  

Pike-and-Shot would become the main form of warfare in Europe, as by the 16th century even France would abandon its traditional cavalry and adopt the Spanish way of fighting. However, the impact of the Tercio went beyond just ending cavalry but dramatically altered the face of warfare. You see the increasingly deadly nature of rifles, as they moved from the big and clunky harquebuses the sleeker and more accurate muskets and the increasing number of which they were field made not just melee combat but open field battle a costly endeavor for both sides. The Tercio would still remain a prime tactic for most of the 16th century, despite many hiccups on the way. However, by the 17th century it would completely die out as dedicated pikemen became obsolete with the implementation of bayonets.