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To: FreedomPoster

The Siege of Vienna was not before firearms. Matchlock guns and cannon had been in use for over two centuries, and the flintlock had been invented about sixty years earlier. And the Turks went in for firearms in a big way.

However, I don’t think the Turks had ever taken up the pike-and-musket square which most European powers in that era had used to nullify the advantage of cavalry (hedgehog of pikes pointing outward with musketeers firing outward from between the pikemen), and Sobieski had the advantage of attacking an army engaged in a siege, rather than drawn up for battle.


12 posted on 09/12/2013 7:13:05 AM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know...)
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To: The_Reader_David; KC_Lion

Yes, I’m still waking up. I should have said before modern firearms.

Lancers were still very effective against unformed infantry through the Napoleonic period. It took rifled weapons and the Minié ball to give infantry firearms the range to really make themselves almost impossible for cavalry to deal with. And then the lever-action repeater really was the death knell for cavalry in other than a dragoon (mounted infantry) and scouting role.


13 posted on 09/12/2013 7:20:25 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: The_Reader_David
Sobieski also had a LOT of experience fighting the Turks as did his troops. He did not charge blindly.
25 posted on 09/12/2013 2:23:39 PM PDT by Little Bill (A)
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