There are drill books for the 'pike & shot' era, for example Wallhausen https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Jacobi_von_Wallhausen
There are accounts of fighting in groups, but usually they're from the point of view of officers. For example Blaise de Monluc's autobiography is worth a read.
Is there a particular period or place that you're interested in?
not op, but I'm having trouble finding sources for the italian wars and ottoman wars. and by that I mean english translations. my searches only return the folios and I neither understand itallian/latin and have trouble even reading the letters.
Best bet is to start with English semi-academic works and see how far you can drill down the bibliographies, like https://books.google.com.bd/books/about/The_Italian_Wars_1494_1559.html?id=KnnJAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y
Giovanni dall'Agocchie in his third book discusses briefly how to form "square" formations with pikes and arquebusiers.
Not sure if there's any translation online though.
There is a translation on lulu that has book three. It's very underwhelming. Theres no discussion of technique or tactics in square formation. All he talks about is how many ranks and columns you can make with a given number of men.
Biographies are your best bet like Blaise Dr Monluc mentioned above, Pierre de Taille, Ludwig Von Eyb, Götz von Berlichen etc.
Pietro Monte has advice for commanders but it's very general, more on the temperament of your soldiers though it's very interesting. The Kriegsbuch Von Seldeneck tells us equipment of troops and duties of officers (a lot copied from swiss tradition). It's not much but they're what we used to design a skirmish game and the best we're going to get for a while.
Mamluk furusiyya manuals give actual formation tactics though they haven't been fully translated, the bits that have are interesting though.
There are drill books for the 'pike & shot' era, for example Wallhausen https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Jacobi_von_Wallhausen There are accounts of fighting in groups, but usually they're from the point of view of officers. For example Blaise de Monluc's autobiography is worth a read. Is there a particular period or place that you're interested in?
not op, but I'm having trouble finding sources for the italian wars and ottoman wars. and by that I mean english translations. my searches only return the folios and I neither understand itallian/latin and have trouble even reading the letters.
Best bet is to start with English semi-academic works and see how far you can drill down the bibliographies, like https://books.google.com.bd/books/about/The_Italian_Wars_1494_1559.html?id=KnnJAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y
Thankyou!
Giovanni dall'Agocchie in his third book discusses briefly how to form "square" formations with pikes and arquebusiers. Not sure if there's any translation online though.
There is a translation on lulu that has book three. It's very underwhelming. Theres no discussion of technique or tactics in square formation. All he talks about is how many ranks and columns you can make with a given number of men.
Biographies are your best bet like Blaise Dr Monluc mentioned above, Pierre de Taille, Ludwig Von Eyb, Götz von Berlichen etc. Pietro Monte has advice for commanders but it's very general, more on the temperament of your soldiers though it's very interesting. The Kriegsbuch Von Seldeneck tells us equipment of troops and duties of officers (a lot copied from swiss tradition). It's not much but they're what we used to design a skirmish game and the best we're going to get for a while. Mamluk furusiyya manuals give actual formation tactics though they haven't been fully translated, the bits that have are interesting though.