League Of Augsburg - Fighting Talk

The main difficulty with pike rot is when combattants tried to use pikes using the one handed combat methods scottish regiments used. (There is a scene in braveheart documenting this type of stance) Because of the strength of the grip required the pike became brittle in the centre and often split.
This is where the traditional half pike or spawntoon came from as use by many sergeants.

I don't usually associate Braveheart and "documented" as being used in the same sentence

Adrian,
Finding myself with far too much spare time on my hands last weekend I decided to put some serious thought into your question and came up with the following :
1. 15th/16th Century Landsknecht formations contained a Rottmeister.
2. Could not think of any other valid reason for it's demise over a fairly short time frame in the 17th Century. (must have been an epidemic outbreak)
3. The disapearence of the musket rest over the same period ( cross investation ? )
4. Nobody in their right minds would have come up with the concept of the plug bayonet unless after repeatedly shortening your pike to cut out the rot all you where left with was the head plus a few inches of the wooden shaft.

Taken collectively I think the above points answer your question and I now feel justified in downgrading Peters Parliamentarian Pike before our next game.

I may now post this on TMP, I'm pretty sure someone on there will agree !

Absolutely STUNNING deductions General Schnapps

I am surprised there is not an Osprey title on the subject. I know somebody who could knock that out for you......

I think you have answered all our questions Kev but I would still like to read the findings from Professor Redwood.
Cheers
Dave

Assuming this subject is not a "wah" - I noted when researching the Williamite War in Ireland that the Jacobites, when arming their infantry units, found that many of the pikes brought out of storage were unusable as the pike shafts were rotten. They had probably been in storage since the Restoration and could have suffered from dry/- rot, woodworm or the dreaded death watch beetle (not to be confused with the BLack Watch Beetle - a vehicle favoured by some members of a certain Scottish regiment serving in BAOR from the 50s to the 70s [this was added just in case this is a "wah"])

Regards

Forlorn Hope wrote:Assuming this subject is not a "wah"

What's a Wah?

obriendavid wrote: What's a Wah?

It's 50% of a sound system used by Jimi Hendrix

Ray.

Hijacking Jim!

Mr Forlorn hope. I note you are from Northumberland. A wah there will be the same as here in south west Scotland. Four wags and a roof make a hoose!

He could be thinking that this is a discussion on 40k Orks, they seem to have Wah's there as well.
Cheers
Dave

Gentlemen

A "wah" is a wind-up in army parlance (as regular viewers of the ARRSE website will attest). They are designed to catch the unwary into lengthy and ill-advised dissertations into everything and anything which may have no basis in reality (usually involving the hiring of the "outrage bus").

As many readers will know the extracting of the urine is a national past-time, brought to an art form by members and ex-members of Her Majesty's finest. You may, therefore, appreciate my wariness in becoming involved in something so esoteric as "pike rot".

In your own time, carry on.....

Regards

Not another arrser, by God! Next it will be erudite discussions of the various uniforms of Baron Castleshort (Wee Jim to his very few friends)

This long dormant thread is getting a nod only because their is a direct reference to it on the cover of the forthcoming DONNYBROOK rules.

I think it is a safe distance in the past now and can be revealed as the product of a drunken bar discussion between Adrian, Toggy and myself....such children!

Anyway, if you acquire a copy of the rules you will not need to look too far to find Clarence gratefully accepted my suggestion for a nod to pike-rot and pikus-mitus the insect responsible for it