Theoretical Tactical and Strategic applications of the Muskete on the Modern Battlefield
By: General Christina Vormelker
Disclaimer:
This document is based on the theoretical realm of use cases of the musket, many of these strategies and tactics are untested (as the weapon is not widespread enough to be properly tested in modern warfare), and are only meant to be the base/inspiration for the future, and more tested uses of the Muskete. -DO NOT use these tactics until further tested, and stick with the current military handbook, not these theoretical tactics.-
(This document is only available to high ranking members of the military and to any noble wishing to read)
(This does not mean a dirty crime boi can't get their hands on it with a little NPC thievery)
(Or even a commoner just finding this on the street, dropped by a noble)
Also don't mind spelling mistakes
Basics on the Muskete
The current and most popular versions of the muskete is flintlock based, muzzle loading, system.
Fire Rate:
The muskete has a trained fire rate of 4 rounds per minute, (3 times less than that of a bow, at a average fire rate of 10-12 arrows per minute), although the muskete's fire rate can be maintained for much longer, as it requires significantly less energy to load and fire a muskete, then a bow.
Stopping Power:
The muskete's piercing/ stopping power, far exceeds that of a bow and arrow, the muskete can easily pierce through the armors of most knights, unlike the bow who's arrows just bounce right off. On Top of such a muskete shot, although less can fire, it is nearly 300% more lethal than an arrow. This makes up for their slow fire rate, as each well placed shot is more likely to kill whoever it is aiming at. The largest reason for this lethality is the extreme difficulty to remove the bullet, and the sheer force of the shot, on top of such, the bullet has the potential to break apart within the body of the victim, launching shrapnel all over their internal organs. Despite this, the current versions of the muskete have difficulty piercing armored opponents.
Accuracy:
The accuracy of the smooth bore muskete far exceeds that of the bow and arrow, able to fire down range accurately at 100m, unlike the bow and arrows 40-60 m on a semi-skilled shooter (Long bow men who are exceptionally trained over the course of many years can reach up to 200m, out ranging the musket, although these men are extremely expensive to produce, and will still be unable to hit less expensive longneck snipers who have a 300m range.) The extremely expensive and fragile version of the muskete, the longneck muskete, can fire accurately at 300m nearly (Due to a spinning bullet).
Training Concerns:
Compared to many other weapons, the muskete is extremely easy to learn how to use effectively. 5 weeks of Muskete training, can create a shooter of the same accuracy of 3 years of longbow training.
Safety Concerns:
For an untrained shooter this weapon is extremely unsafe, but after short training the weapon slowly becomes more and more safe for the user. The main fears when it comes to safety is the weapons' chance to blow up in the user's face, or for them to accidentally explode their source of ammo. Although, if the right amount of gunpowder is placed in the barral, this chance decreases to negligible levels.
Supply/Price Concerns
The muskete does come at a high price tag per unit, although, when you take in account the cost to train an archer, and move large amounts of arrows to the battlefield, a soldier with a muskete turns out to be much cheaper then one with a bow and arrow. Each arrow weighs much more than a small muskete ball and some gunpowder and arrows are more costly, therefore to produce and move 100 arrows will have the same price as moving 800 muskete balls. The ammo capacity of one musketeer is also nearly 8x higher than that of an archer, allowing them to fire more shots in a long drawn out battle (Ontop of which they use less ammo, as their fire rate is smaller).
Strategic applications
Morale Crusher:
In a long campaign the muskete, I believe, will have an advantage not only in its stopping power, but in its ability to crush the enemy's morale. Loud bangs, and watching their fellow soldiers randomly die around them will bring panic into a formation, ontop if the fire is organized into one volly, the sudden crackle of 100 guns, will surely bring great fright into any approaching foe.
Command Assasination:
The pure smoothbore muskete, is not comparable to a long range assasnation weapon, although, a longneck rifle with a scope can easily take out enemy officers from great range, destroying their chain of command. Although, doing this is in no means honorable, and I personally do not recommend using the longneck in such ways. This is more something to worry our enemy of doing against our honorable Regalian officers. (Using captured weapons), a possible counter to this, would be dressing our officers in regular rank and file uniform, preventing longneck snipers from distinguishing them. This could have the disadvantage of also preventing our own troops from distinguishing officers, although they would certainly know the face of their own command officer.
Casualties
As said above, to get shot by a muskete is more lethal than that of a bow and arrow, therefore over time, large formations of musketeers will be able to inflict large casualties on an enemy army, causing them to increasingly depend on conscripts and reserves. The worst part of this effect is that a muskete does not discriminate based on the training of a soldier, therefore a large formation of knights (trained over the course of years) can be easily shot from a range by a formation of musketes, although, knights still have the advantage at close range, therefore if they get the drop on the musketeers they can easily wipe them out.
Both a ranged and melee unit:
Possibly the most effective use for the muskete, is the ability to have both a ranged and melee unit in one, (With the use of bayonets.) A formation of musketeers can serve as a long range archer unit, and a pike unit in one. As the muskete with a bayonet attached is comparable to a speer. This can be extremely effective against a non-muskete unit, as the musketeers can charge to close range, fire their entire payload on the unit (Breaking their morale, and causing severe caustalies) before engaging into melee combat with bayonets.
Supply/Training Ease
As mentioned before, it is easier to maintain a unit of musketeers than a unit of arches, therefore, an army can survive on smaller supply lines. Ontop of that, to train a soldier with a muskete is easier then a archer, allowing more musketeers to be placed on the battlefield then archers.
Tactical Applications
Anti-Vampiric/Anti-Hoard formations
Although the weapon can be useful against a horde of vampires, I do believe the archer still has the advantage against a lightly armored hoard, with a higher fire rate, they will simply be able to kill more vampires than a muskete formation. This lies in the advantage of traditional warfare with knights and archers, as they will still be extremely effective against large numbers of lighter units. (Including other muskete formations). Although, despite this I will still show an anti-vampiric formation using muskete's and pureteks.
In this formation the swordsmen are positioned at the front to protect the units behind them, these swordsmen are to be armored, with either light armor, or heavy armor. They should have pads around their neck to protect against vampiric bites, and to prevent their own men from turning. The Musketeers will serve as the caustality bearer, they are to preferably be positioned in an elevated position behind the swordsman, to release volley after volley into the vampiric hoard. Finally the pureteks behind them are to be at the highest position, they will hopefully be equipped with naval scopes in order to pick off particularly high magic vampiric forces in the hoard. This formation is at the most effective at higher ground, and will be weaker at even ground, although can still be effective at lower ground, as the musketeers can shoot over their swords man formations and hit the hoard coming from above. This formation is a theoretical one, as Pureteks are not easily obtainable at current time. A substie would be to replace the puretek units with longnecks, to pick off particularly high magic vampiric forces.
High Volly Formation
This formation would be a long line of 3 rows, purely of musketeers (preferable with bayonets). The first line would fire, kneel down and reload, the second line would then stand and fire a round, before kneeling down to reload, and then the third line would fire a volley, before continuing to stand and reload. After this process is done the first row would be loaded and fire another kneeling shot. This formation will be able to maximize the amount of ammo firing down range. Although, due to the complexity of the movement, it is recommended only to use this when the unit is relatively safe (By battlefield standards.) A particular weakness to this unit would be knight charges/ cavalry charges. Due to the nature of the unit, only 1 in 3 muskets are loaded at any time, therefore they will be unable to counter a sudden knight/cavalry charge, a charge would break the cycle, and therefore cause chaos in the unit. It is possible to assist the unit by placing anti cavalry pikemen at its ends, although, I do not believe this is fully effective. This formation can be useful on high ground, when one wants to pin down and disorient a unit below, and in a cavalry lacking battle, where the musketeers can safely fire down rounds at archer or melee based units from a range.
Anti Light-Cavalry formation
While a formation of musketeers can be weak to calvary, with the use of the bayonet (or when assisted by pikes) it can form a anti cavalry formation, which I shall call from here on out, the Square Formation.
With bayonets, or pikes, facing in any direction in a large square cavalry will be unable to find a weak point, and therefore be a death sentence to charge. If they charge directly at it, they will be pierced by rows of bayonets, or pikes. This formation will minimize the fire power of a formation, leaving them vulnerable to simple melee charges, archers, and even other musketeer formations. On Top of such, maintaining a complex formation will be quite difficult, and it may be easier to break the unit's morale and organization. This leaves a trade off when using the formation, you become practically invulnerable to cavalry, but you then become more vulnerable to infantry formations. Also, mage formations using explosive magic will be able to wreak chaos on these tightly packed units.
Weakness of the Musketeer
Many military members believe that the muskete will replace the knight and the archer, although I do not fully subscribe to this theory. The knight and the archer will simply have to be used in new and unique roles, but not be fully replaced. The fire rate of the archer is unmatched, and the close range punch of the knight has no equal, plus their expensive armor can stop all, but pointblank muskete rounds. At a range of 40m the archer will be able to be more effective than the slow firing muskete, and the knight if allowed to close the distance, will easily be able to wipe out formations of Musketeers, ontop of such, a extremely well trained (over the course of years), yet expensive, battalion of longbows can also hit musketeers at a longer range, of 200m. Hence, I do not believe they are on the way out on the battlefield. They simply will be used in new ways. A pond further the muskete also is unable to properly pierce knightly armor, and therefore would be useless against a properly calvary charge, their capabilities as ranged weapons can not be denied, but it is best to not use these in a massive scale till properly tested. For the time being, follow this warning.
-DO NOT use these tactics until further tested, and stick with the current military handbook, not these theoretical tactics.-
Diplomatic uses of the Muskete
Due to the sheer deadliness of the weapon, I do believe peace will be considered over war more often. The power of such little training is unmatched by any weapon of the past. It takes years to train a mage, archer, it takes just a week to learn how to fire a muskete, which can easily kill all 2 of the units before. They will not replace the more specialized units, but they will definitely pose a threat to them. With the cheapness to produce and maintain a muskete unit, armies will grow, and wars will grow more deadly. I believe that this will lead to less war, as it will become more costly to fight a war, then to find a diplomatic solution. Hence, I believe these weapons will serve more as a deterrent against war. Leading to less war, and hopefully a more peaceful world. May the everwatch pray, these new weapons are not misused, and the tactics and strategies I listed above are not used with malice. I do believe that this weapon will lead to a more peaceful world, where war is not the first option to settle disputes, and lets pray that I am right. Although, there is a chance, the weapon is not as deadly as it may seem at first. That could also be a positive case.
Feel free to send feedback on the tactics or strategies, and other tactical/strategic uses of the muskete. This way I can learn more possible ways to use the weapons and adjust what I wrote above.
Document Date
5/14/310 AU
Last edited:
