Slitherine

Im sure the army is pants, but too much black adder makes me want to try Elizabethan English

which raises some questions for me

a late tercio, with 6 pike, 3 bow and 3 arquebus

1 - can the bow and arquebus be in mixed ranks (eg a file of arq, bw, bw) - i cant find anything to stop that
2- if so can rear bow fire over front arquebus - i see no reason to prevent that in the rules
2 - the bow get to be protected acording to the definition in the glossary, but they are not shot, so do not seem to gain any benefit. is this correct?

Hi
1 and 2 : this is not possible a priori, see the third point page 99 of trade and treachery.
3 : yes, its correct, just shot are protected(p25 for the shot and p173 for protection) of the rules.
Denis

1 and 2: I think you are referring to the restrictions on mixed battlegroups in that list, rather than the (non) restrictions on tercios from 1584 (bullet points 4 and 5 on the same page)

3: the definition of protection refers to 'any medium foot with shooting capability' which i think includes bow. Shot though does not include bow. For the moment I am assuming the bow provide protection to the Pike, and while protected themselves, gain no benefit from it.

I think you're right on 1 & 2

The bow will count as protected MF in the open so mounted won't get that +1 against them in impact, but, obviously, they aren't protected shot so they don't get that +1 against mounted and all weapons that are negated by protected shot count against the bow.

Excellent, thats how we flew it (in my first game of FoG R since Beta testing)

Seven 12 base Tercios are quite tough, but sadly seemed to lack enough oomph to really kill stuff

though I shall continue to work on a list

Thanks at all for this explication.
Denis