Late/Early Tercios, kiels, and swedish brigades

[danno81]

This may be obvious and I just missed it, but it is causing me a bit of confusion. Some lists list these formations in their army lists, so are they the only units that may be in these formations? And, if so, must they use these formations or can they be deployed in a generic pike and shot formation as well?

Cheers,
Dan

[kevinj]

As far as Early and Late Tercios and Swedish Brigades are concerned, the only BGs allowed to use these formations are those indicated as doing so in the lists. You will see that the allowed BG sizes pretty much force you into it anyway.

Keils are slightly different as they tend not to be specified in the lists, but are available to any BG with a suitable number of Pike (and maybe Heavy Weapon and Swordsman) bases. The latest version of the errata (1.08) further clarifies that the formation is mandatory for any BG capable of forming it and not prevented either by a restriction in the list (e.g. the Mapuche in CoG) or by being a Tercio.