Gifts and toys for men from 3 to 103 years old!

1:72 Austrian musketeers and pikemen 16-17th c. - 45 figures

Since the middle of the XV century, the Austrian family of Habsburgs had been chosen invariably for the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. In connection with the Turkish invasion of Central Europe importance of the House greatly increased. Since the XVI till the XVIII century in the opinion of contemporaries they were like a shield protected Western Europe from the incursion of Moslems. In the first half of the XVII century, the Austrian infantry had been organized in accordance with directions given by Morris von Nassau, who was the founder of the Netherlands army which was the most progressive during that time. The infantry battalion had been included, 550 persons. 250 pikemen were in the center of the formation, 240 musketries were in positions at flanks and 60 were in the line of skirmishers. Skirmishers were to fire during countermarch, and that required the highest skill and coherence of actions of soldiery, but at the same time, it was a way to keep the strength of continuous fire. In case of threat from cavalry, musketry was to shelter behind ranks of pikemen without breaking of formation. On a battlefield, battalions had been arranged in three echelons similar to the battle formation of the Roman legions. Such arrangement had been given no obstructions during maneuvering of separate detachments and had been allowed to give support to each other in necessity.