The Odenaus' Pinkie extension is fun. He also included unit types like longbow armed dragoons and detached shot that I suggested should form part of the army list. I accept Richard's point that the Elizabethan army wasn't very good. It wasn't a feudal army and it had not yet become any kind of stand...

Maybe in some ways similar to the problems they faced in China from 1937 to 1945. Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea was the first Japanese invasion of another country. His forces were used to civil war within Japan, but I don't think they really had any idea of the complications involved in holding down...

Regarding bows vs. firearms Anyway, I can chip in with an Asian example. The Koreans were actually given the opportunity to procure firearms before the Japanese invasion of Korea. But during a test, they concluded that the arquebus took a long time to load and not accurate with all the smoke that t...

Stick medium infantry in the woods. They will be only slightly disordered. A kiel will get severely disordered attacking into woods. As has been pointed out they lose pretty much of all of their advantages if severely disordered. Chances are they will get their asses kicked by much cheaper troops. I...

Here is more from the battle of Grandson: "The Burgundian knights soon surrounded the Swiss vanguard, but then Charles made a serious mistake. After brief skirmishing, Charles ordered his cavalry to pull back so the artillery could reduce the Swiss forces before the attacks were renewed. At thi...

And yet the Swiss were known to have emerged from woods on a number of occasions. See accounts of the battle of Morat. "The Confederate Vanguard of some 6,000 skirmishers and all the 1,200 cavalry present erupted out of Birchenwald Woods to the west of Murten, exactly where Charles had predicte...

I think the way pike kiel's face off against cavalry is fine. There is a quite good balance. There is no doubt that the better pike armed troops could take the offensive against cavalry, normally by an ordered advance and stopping to meet the charge. In the unlikely event that the cavalry just stood...

The veteran Jannaissaries are outstanding troops. They shoot at 83 and there is not much in the game that can match their firepower. They can hold their own in melee too, just don't ask them to fight cavalry or pikes in the open. Stick a line of them on rough ground on a hill and they will more than...

I found the later Turks one of the easier armies to play. It took me much longer to get used to pike block and gendarme armies. Use the terrain to fight with your infantry. Position your Jannaissaries and Azaps in woods or on tough ground, behind fortifications, or in buildings. Confront pike kiels ...

Great stuff this! Just what I wanted. Playing now. Awesome!!!

And yet the English army in the Pinkie campaign thirty years before had included several hundred mercenary German arquebusiers, as well as Italian and Spanish mounted arquebusiers, who would have been far more expensive to maintain. I think the argument for the slowness to adopt firearms is overstat...

Of course what I would really appreciate is an extension that includes army lists for battles in the British Isles from the time of the Italian wars.

I understand that. However, its difficult to believe that the Scottish pikes had become that more effective in the course of 15 years. Come to think of it is, difficult to think of a united Scottish army including Catholic highlanders and protestant lowland Scottish pike after 1560. Scotland effecti...

They are truly appalling keils. I've played about six or seven games against the Scots and they get clobbered every time. It takes them an eternity even to beat the highlanders in open ground. I haven't once succeeded in even disordering an unarmoured Scottish pike keil. Confronted by the Elizabetha...

I found this article quite convincing. The truth is probably somewhere in-between. http://warbowwales.com/#/decline-of-archery/4560037042 The Longbow was never a "super weapon" capable of winning battles on its own, but was a very effective part of the English military system. By Elizabeth...

The biggest problem that I have with the iPad version is accidentally limbering or unlimbering my artillery when I tap to select it. I haven't seen anybody else mention this so maybe it is some habit peculiar to me. It drives me mad though.

To be honest I found this relatively easy. I won first time on middle difficulty. (sergeant major general) Maybe I was just lucky. I put regiments with pikes on the first hill. I planned to fall back shooting but it didn’t work. The Tercio came on much quicker than I expected I took casualties and w...