Firearms

[Animalpower]

I have a question about the Early Modern warfare when firearms were used much more, but still there were pikemen, axemen, cuirassiers, hussars, swashbucklers, halberdiers... How did they fight against musketeers, arquebusiers, dragoons, carabiniers... They had the armour, but firearms can pierce through armour. I think that example a unit of swashbucklers attacks arquebusiers, while running, many of swashbucklers would die. It is hard to realise how Polish hussars could beat shooters, cause their armour is not the best in the world (though they were the last to abandon armour), still Polish hussar's armour can be pierced by firearms. I think it would take a lot of bravery for Polish hussars to charge on shooters.

Why did melee soldiers exist in that time, when firearms can pierce through armour. Here is a example, in the Last Samurai movie, mounted samurais attack the Americans, while charging they lost a lot of samurai and not much samurais survived. I think the samurais wanted to keep the tradition to be warriors, I think also that the warriors of Europe also wanted to keep tradition. Even later armour was worn, Cuirassiers worn it in 18th century, nobles and monarchs wore plate armour in the 18th century.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Define early modern. If you mean fire and sword era, unlike the second example you mentioned, they didn't have gattling guns, which made a big impact, like repeating firearms.

In musket era, even though they pierced armor, they were slow to reload and if you missed a shot (which was normal due to low accuracy), you didn't get a second chance. And of course few bullets of those volleys actually hit the target, so if the chargers weren't heavily outnumbered they could easily reach them. And I don't think it pierced the armor at greater distances.

 

[Animalpower]

I think 1500-1700. After 1700 there were almost no melee soldiers in European armies.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Well horsemen were mostly melee, because is hard to fire from horse. And with invention of bayonet there was no need for pikemen anymore and infantry could defend from cavalry.

 

[Deolrin]

Also consider that firearms could be more expensive to craft than simple iron swords or armor, not to mention requiring ammunition. But yeah, I guess it's mostly about the low reliability of firearms in that era(hard to actually hit anything, etc).

 

[azlier]

There was plenty of melee. After you fired your shots and maybe killed a couple guys, you murdered the rest with a good old fashioned bayonet charge.

Cannons were what killed the most, though.

 

[Ender]

well here are two reasons
1 muskets could not stop a cavalry charge at all, you try hitting a horse with a single shot from a smooth bore gun(you aren't going to) and even if you hit it, you probably wouldn't kill it, and once the cavalry got in close and broke through to the middle of their ranks, their muskets they would kill more of each other then enemy. bayonets weren't as effective as pole-arms as a weapon, pole arms could stop the cavalry before they got close.

2 most armor made during the late High era/early renaissance could stop a musket balls at relativity close range, note this is for muskets made during that period and doesn't apply.

 

[LordDz]

Voilá!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_and_shot

Cavalry counters muskets.
Pikes counter cavalry.
Swordsmen counter pikes.
Artillery slowly kills everything.

 

[Animalpower]

After 1650, the westerners mainly adopted the flintlock, the flintlock is the most advanced shooting type. So the flintlocks could hit a full plated soldier at long range even without accuracy. I wonder how did Polish hussars fought at battle of Vienna (1683) and they won. I think firearms determined the battle after 1650, the Polish hussars maybe were a lot brave or had luck. Also bayonet was developed, it just added some spear to the gun.

 

[Deolrin]

The Polish hussars probably had horses. And the dudes with the rifles had to reload their rifles. So, they shoot once, reload, and die before they could shoot twice because horses are fast.

EDIT: I just realized you're Animalpower. My god, didn't you get banned months ago? ಠ_ಠ

 

[darkdeathknight]

Hey, I'm not trying to be a faggot or something but you should check out taleworlds forums and nationstates forums, has a lot of historical fanatics.
Also for ref pics, you could look at the mount and blade mods in modding sites.

 

[EloTheMan]

One note: Cannons and other firearms did not work very well (or not at all) in rainy conditions so the use of bayonets and sabers could be found in most armies for a very long time.