---
product_id: 5795244
title: "Pike and Shot Tactics 1590–1660 (Elite, 179)"
brand: "keith roberts"
price: "€ 47.63"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.sk/products/5795244-pike-and-shot-tactics-1590-1660-elite-179
store_origin: SK
region: Slovakia
---

# Pike and Shot Tactics 1590–1660 (Elite, 179)

**Brand:** keith roberts
**Price:** € 47.63
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Pike and Shot Tactics 1590–1660 (Elite, 179) by keith roberts
- **How much does it cost?** € 47.63 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sk](https://www.desertcart.sk/products/5795244-pike-and-shot-tactics-1590-1660-elite-179)

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## Description

Pike and Shot Tactics 1590–1660 (Elite, 179)

## Images

![Pike and Shot Tactics 1590–1660 (Elite, 179) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/WEBP_402378-T2/images/I/51Kbj1BBN1L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    What goes around, comes around
  

*by W***E on Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2010*

Sometimes in history it is not the general progress being made that is the most striking, but the re-discovery of things old and the impression that they can have on modern thinking. With the "Pike and Shot Tactics" you see how the classical education of some of the military thinkers of the time wandered back to ancient times, and how tactical adaptions of the Romans and to an extent the Greeks were rebuilt using the advanced weaponry of the period. The Dutch, the Swedes and the Spaniards all took lessons from one of the most successful armies of antiquity and produced successful systems of their own with various additions to adapt them to the times in which they were used. I, needless to say, enjoyed the book because of its general information, but also for its insight into the base tactics which took the great captains of this period to glory. It will be interesting to see what is next in the Elite series. This one is worth having.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Great Visual aide to understand tactics and organization for this period.
  

*by D***G on Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2019*

I really enjoyed this book. It really helped me to understand the tactics and just the basic flow of battles of this era. I’ve quite a few histories of warfare in this era such as Delbruk’s “The Dawn of Modern Warfare”, and this book is a great visual companion piece.

### ⭐⭐ 







  
  
    It could have been so much better....
  

*by W***R on Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2011*

The concept for this book was great, and the raw material was also excellent.  The diagrams, primary sources, and pictures were all excellent.And that is where it stops being a good book.Here are my critiques, all of which are equally important, so they are not in any order of priority:1) The material was not organized.  If you want to know how Gustavus Adolphus conducted military tactics, you would have to read about 10 different spots in the book.  Why?  Because the author would use a term of art in one spot, but no explanation for what it meant.  In another spot, you'd see him quote directly from a primary source, but give no interpretation of half the words that all have unique meanings.  In another spot, when reading about the Spanish Tercios, you would find 3 definitions explained for words that were used in primary sources earlier in the book involving the Swedish King, Adolphus.  Then, in a fourth spot, you would find a marching order, reproduced, for Gustavus, but you would have no explanation whatsover as to the nomenclature or notations.  Then, in a fifth spot, when reading about the English Civil War (nothing to do with Gustavus) you would find explanations for SOME of the nomeclanture.  In other words -- not easy to read.2) As mentioned above, some of the diagrams had some explanations.  But most had none.  There is a diagram of a field artillery piece, with some narrative on the surrounding pages about the general importance of field artillery and how one general used it once to assist the pike.  But in the diagram itself, there are the letters A-M, corresponding to each different piece of the field artillery and some barrels next to it.  But NO EXPLANATION OF WHAT A, B, C, etc actually are. None.  I read the whole book at least 4 times already.  And nowhere does it ever tell you what the "a" part or "b" part or "C" part is.  Just a reproduction from another source.  Same with most diagrams.  VERY POOR EDITING.  Its a nice illustration, but it has ZERO value to you unless you can find the original source in another book that actually TELLS YOU what those letters mean.  Otherwise, you don't know what each part of the artillery is.3) The book must repeat itself several times.  They will tell you how innovative Maurice of Orange was in his modernization of the Dutch military, how he used it to great effect against the Spanish in the 80-Years War, and how he was just so awesome and amazing.  But they don't actually tell you SPECIFIC TACTICS he used, EXCEPT if you read the QUOTES from the primary sources.  And they are written in very old English, or sometimes just in Dutch, and you are left to figure out for yourself what it really meant.  The easiest primary sources to read (and this is not saying much) were the ones written by English General Monck.  His diary snippets were at least somewhat understandable and had a context to them that made them make sense.  The rest were just sort of thrown in there as if to brag "hey, we found primary sources! SEE!!!"  Hey- I can use Google SEarch and read those copyright-expired sources myself too!  But the point of buying and Osprey guide book is to have some GUIDANCE in interpreting those arcane texts.4) As a corollary point, most of the information you want as to ACTUAL pike and shot tactics you will simply have to read the primary sources to find.  And those can be legion.  If you want any sense of evolution of tactics, effectiveness, etc, you won't get much here.Now, why am I giving it 2 stars instead of 1?  Because it is a decent INTRODUCTORY book for people who have NO CLUE about nothing.  But honestly, you could probably get just as much information from Wikipedia.  For free.  The only value to this book is that it puts a lot of terminology into one place, and has some nifty pictures.5) One more thing - a lot of the diagrams are nice, but they are so small-scaled that you can't read the fine print in them.  So, you have lots of marching orders and battle deployments in the diagrams, but you can't read the notations in the ones that do have them.  Maybe 10% of the diagrams were actually useful on the face of it, and another 10% were useful once you read the whole book a few times and got the hang of the terminology.  You do actually learn how to read the notations, but only if you know where to find it in the narrative.  And then, you take notes, and use your notes to go back over the diagrams you didn't understand the first time.VERY POOR EDITING BY OSPREY!!!!!  And honestly, since all the primary narrative was basically copy/pasted from 16th, 17th and 18th century texts, with a few bits of "he was amazing" thrown in to link the copy/pasted primary sources, I am not sure what Osprey's job here was.  The "illustrator" didn't illustrate a damn thing.  He just copy/pasted primary source diagrams or pictures (all with copyright expired content), and the narrative or text was also copy/pasted from copyright-expired primary sources.  So, all Osprey had to do was EDIT and INTERPRET and PRESENT in an ORGANIZED and CLEAR way.I would recommend using Wikipedia and start with the words "pike and shot" and then look up "muskets" and "Gustavus Adolphus" and "Maurice of ORange" and I think you will probably use the in-line links and citations and find a lot more, and better, information.  Why?Wikipedia has STANDARDS and it deletes stuff that is poorly worded.  Or others come along and fix it.  Osprey has no standards.  I will never buy another Osprey book again.  They wrote some other crap too about the English Civil War, and they are not even worth the "illustrations."  Why?  YOU CAN GET ALL OF IT ON YOUR OWN FOR FREE ELSEWHERE.  They offer no original content.  They are merely aggregators of copyright-expired content and pictures and text and then find ingenious ways to make it hard to understand, splicing it up in disorganized ways, and then slap a price-tag on it.Not worth buying.

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*Product available on Desertcart Slovakia*
*Store origin: SK*
*Last updated: 2026-03-21*