This period was perhaps the greatest for sheer experimentation and variety in all areas of warfare. Some examples of naval development are the sail-and-oar galleys becoming the larger galleases with mounted artillery, the cogs of the previous era becoming the first super-warships, like the Mary Rose, the Hellburner fire ships that the Dutch deployed against the Spanish, the literal floating fortresses of the Chinese, the superheavy cannon platforms the Koreans developed in response to the Wako pirates, the swivel-gun fetish (in some of the less developed areas a king might be known by the number of pieces he owned) the East Indies had and incorporated onto their catamarans, to the ocean-going exploits required of the New World treasure fleets and pirates.
>>16164815
The Caracole was a tactic of the early period, possibly arising out of the obsolescence of the lance, at least when applied to infantry (lance-armed cavalry continued to exist all over Europe, from the light cavalry; hobilars and border cavalry of Britain, Celadas, Broken Lances, to the superheavy merchant knights of Italy and the winged hussars etcetera. It wasn't in use very long due to the inefficiency and high cost associated with it, as follows;
A pike square locks down, it can't move but it can fend off cavalry and it can shoot.
The cavalry trots up and past the formation as slowly and as close as they dare, discharging their pistols before reforming out of the square's range to reload.
While out of range of the pikes, the arquebuses within the square usually did more damage to the cavalry than they did to the foot soldiers.
Dragoons grew out of the development of the cranequin crossbow and horse bow, small crossbows that could be used on horseback by the use of a winding mechanism. Usually armed with a shorter version of whatever firearm was in use at the time; mounted calivermen, harquebusiers (different to
an arquebus), wheel locks etc.
Even in the early period most later techniques were already experimented with, although not mass produced; breech-loading, dog and flint locks alongside the matchlock, wheel locks, hand cannons with fuses etc.
Battle waggons are a huge topic for this period and can be found in Eastern Europe, during the 30 years war, but especially on the east and northern borders of China, where entire armies were build around the idea of movable fortifications and artillery to counter the horse tribes.
Rocketry in Europe comes along a little outside of the time period, but had been in mass use in the East for a very long time.
>>16164827
Within any given pike and shot unit there might be as little as 500 men, or in extreme cases as many as 20,000, fielding a mix of pikes (which can vary in length depending on the intended use for the unit), halberds, sword and buckler, two-handed swords, various spears and shields etcetera, as well as administrative and support personnel like quartermasters, doctors etcetera.