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You mustn't let the push of pike come to its conclusion; not when the casualties it shall bring will be barely higher than that of the enemy. Your arquebusiers, free of the threat of Cavalry or enemy flanks, are able to easily march to the sides of the enemy and unleash upon them a barrage of short ranged volleys. Their bullets tear into the flanks of the enemy; many are thrown back already dead, others wounded, and your pikes waste no time in making use of this support to jab and prod at their enemy, finishing off any man injured or distracted by this maneuver.
But though hundreds have surely perished by these volleys , the enemy still yet remains in formation, refraining from descending into an panicked mob running for their lives as many armies do in such situations. They hold still in an impressive feat of discipline and moral; your hostile counterpart must have drilled them very well so. You wonder if your foe, by this point of the battle, remains yet alive; you had not seen any sign of a retinue like your. Had he been embedded within a formation? Does he remain yet on the field? These questions remain often unanswered amidst the chaos of battle, receiving their conclusion only when the fight has settled and prisoners are taken.
Nevertheless; the foe still holds, even if the gesture will not save them...
Your situation further north is much better. Your hussars, seeing the retreating gunners, waste no time running them down, sabers flashing at their backs as they try fruitlessly to reach the safety of the pikes. If they had retreated earlier, they might have had a chance; now, their formation is picked off with ease by the men in horseback. For all the power of the arquebus, all the advances made in firearms technology during this war, their wielder remains their greatest weakness, and for so long as they do so, cavalry, and the pikes needed to counter them, shall remain a mainstay of the battlefield.
