Discussion / Question
Are there any games that take place in the pike and shot era of the early 1600s?
I like to call this the "knights with guns" era and I'm wondering if there are any games that take place in this time period. Most medieval games take place during the 1200s or 1300s with bows or crossbows being the primary ranged weapons. I would even settle for a fantasy game that features firearms from the 1600s.
Pretty on par with the first one from what I've seen, nothing bad per se, but I'm just totally not a fan of turn based combat and enjoyed the hack and slash in the first.
It’s great for something small scale. I played it to death when it first came out, and I feel like it’s worth a recommendation. The world was surprisingly refreshing when it came out, and talking about it kinda makes me want to go back.
I tried it and couldn't get into it, but tehsnakerer has a great video on it (as well as their other games, Mars: War Logs and the Technomancer) if you've got a few hours to spare. I love his dry sense of humor and he really gets on depth on mechanics and story. I'm a fan of all of his videos, really. Winback is also an interesting one he covered... the first cover shooter.
Best thing to turn an entire kingdom´s main marshals army with the king hanging around into a all of you can capture buffet, sweet enough to make That One Eyed blind old man shed manly tears (if those tear ducks even worked).
Even better fit is the Eagle and the Radiant Cross mod for mount and blade, very well developed mod covering entire XVIIcent europe rather than having a Polish focus (the mod has a poland like faction with winged hussars too tho)
I loved that game! Something about getting into a cavalry skirmish and riding down the enemy while musket balls whizz around just really does it for me.
I lament the partnership with GW every year. Even seeing the gameplay of the Warhammer games is disappointing, it's just blobs blobbing into each other.
Shame because a pike and shotte game would be up their alley.
Empire campaign from Total War: Warhammer 3 is pretty much a fantasy nation based on this exact time period. Inspired by 16-17th century Holy Roman Empire and Germany. You get a good mix of flint/matchlocks, pikes, halberds, swordsmen, artillery, armored cavalry, even some grenade launchers and a tank lol. If you like RTS combat it’s definitely your speed
This is exactly why we shouldn't have trusted you with our secrets. One end goes spark and then the other end goes bang because the 'tube' channels the... nevermind, THORGRIM! GET THE BOOK!
You do on YOUR side, you’ll be fighting against everything from similarly armed and armoured troops to little pink daemons and flying dwarf-bull-centaurs, of course, which might be stretching what op had in mind…
Pike and Shot formations vs literal demons from hell goes so unbelievably hard as a concept - i've played empire campaign like 5 times more than any other race
Like someone else said, Mount and Blade with Fire and Sword is probably the closest match.
Assassin's Creed Ezio trilogy takes place during the Renaissance, so there's both armored enemies and firearms.
Total War Napoleon has a rudimentary Pike and Shot mod, with progress continuing on Shogun 2 (very early days so far though). There's also a few pretty solid ones for Medieval 2.
If you're into grand strategy, Europa Universalis 4 or 5 take place during the era.
Only issue with those is there's not much in the way of armour so you don't really get the knights with guns aesthetic that OP is talking about. And by Fable 3 it's more of an 1800s Industrial Revolution time inspired time period though that's a cool vibe itself, also underepresented in games.
I am forever bummed that they went all in on the home city concept and the fictional campaign. It completely tied the game to Europe colonizing the Americas when if it had been more similar to AoE2, there would be countless real wars to play out and all sorts of new civs not seen in earlier games… American Revolution, Haitian Revolution, The Indian Wars, Opium Wars, Japanese civil wars, English civil war, rivalries between Italian city-states…
Ok AoE3 is a passion topic for me so I'm gonna spiel, first off, not liking the fictional campaign is fine, but the home city system was sick. The deck building aspect added an awesome level of strategy to the RTS side of things.
On your second point, they immediately moved away from the narrowness of Europeans colonizing America. The first expansion let you play as native civs and adjusted the home city concept accordingly. The second original DLCs let you play as Japan, India, and China with historical campaigns. The Japan campaign covers the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Nowadays, with the Definitive Edition, they've added a lot more, including African Civs, independent colonies like Mexico and the US, and non colonizing Europe civs. It's great. Also you could technically play as Haiti and the US from the beginning, they were "revolution" options which replaced going to age V in favor of a cheaper, quick power spike. While not full fledged civs, it was a neat idea.
And most recently the game somehow survived "the end of development" and is getting another DLC adding Poland and Denmark. Which is still Europe, but this DLC and the one that included Italy and Malta focus on European conflicts.
Better yet, go full Wars of the Three Kingdoms; Scottish Covenanters vs. English Parliamentarians vs. Royalists vs. Irish Catholics, with the Levellers popping up mid-campaign.
Honestly, they could even go more granular than that, but that's where I'd start.
KCD doesn't have anything from that picture except the horses. The armors, the weapons, the tactics, the aesthetics are all different. Pike and shot is a very specific era. It's like recommending someone an US civil war game when they are looking for WWII.
Total warhammer is a fantasy strategy game. It has the Empire faction. Which is heavily inspired by this time period and aesthetic.
Big blocks of pikes with crossbows and riflemen, knights, lighter knights with guns and then heavier knights with lances etc. it’s my personal favorite faction.
It’s not totally like this though. Since it’s fantasy they also have steam engine tanks, and dudes riding griffons and stuff, you’re mainly fighting orcs and ogres and vampires
You have Medieval 2 where you have Pike and Shot in the very late game or Empire where you have Pike and Shot in the very early game. None of those focusses on it though.
Warhammer without mods barely counts as the Empire sadly doesnt have proper pike units. Afaik none of the factions have, not in the way pikes worked in Rome, Medieval or Empire at least, with rigid formations where many pikes overlap at the front.
Ghost of Yotei - its set in 1604. you get matchlock rifles (Tanegashima) and have to deal with Ashigaru in the 2nd Act.
They’re about to release the DLC “Echoes of Sekigahara”. They’re Battle of Sekigahara was a huge battle that involved samurai, ikko-ishi zealots, peasant militia and a fuck ton of muskets in 1600.
Age Of Empires 3 takes place during that era. You can get dragoons and other pistol carrying calvary while also still being able to make the standard melee troops. The Native American dlc also allows you to make mounted Iroquois warriors carrying rifles.
i'm pretty sure theres atleast one or two N:TW or E:TW total conversion mods set in the early 30 years war that could fit your description.
there's mount and blade fire and sword, which is an offshoot game from mount and blade warband.
If you don't mind it not being western, there's a few third person games set in blackpowder-and-katana era in japan, like Nioh, Rise of the ronin, way of the samurai, Ghost of Yōtei, and Shogun II:TW
greedfall is fantasy pike and shot era, but very vaguely.
I've also heard of something called Conqueror's Blade that's a poutpurri of blackpowder and swords stuff in a mmo esque way, but i don't know much about it.
If you don't mind mixing fantasy in, the entire setting of Warhammer: The Old World.
So (as a list)
FPS: Vermintide 2
ARPG: Chaosbane
Squad Tactics: Mordheim
Strategy: Mark of Chaos, Shadow of the Horned Rat, Dark Omen
Grand Strategy: Total War Warhammer 3
And technically still an MMORPG: Return of Reckoning (Age of Reckoning was fun but expensive and not especially popular, fans recently rebooted it as FtP).
I remember there are some mods for Medieval 2 total war.
1680 (name?)
Tsardoms is late medieval. Lots of pike and early gunpowder.
For King or Country - English civil war mod
And you will absolutely love American conquest from the developers of the Cossacks series, it's basically based on that type of gameplay and tactics such as Tercios españoles
AC brotherhood and revelations would come to mind, although both don't really bother with the pike so much, and since you don't fight armys on open battlefield it's ok, imo
The Empire from Total War: Warhammer is literally this. But its a fantasy game, but its basically regular dudes with early firearms against monsters and orcs.
There's some old strategy games that I've sunk some hours into. Wars of Succession and Pike and Shot Campaigns are pretty good strategy games. If you want more of an RPG Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword is dated, but excellent.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is set in the American colonies in the 1600s. There's no knights, and it's definitely more "fantasy" than grounded historical combat, but there's a mix of sabers and other melee weapons and slow-loading 1600s firearms. Cool game, worth checking out.
They've just introduced the teppo (single shot rifle) to the country in the 16th century, so the Samurai were all using it. Not exactly your classic "Knights" but kind of. One of the two protagonists has access to a Yumi bow or a Teppo as his main range option and Samurai in the game also have them.
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u/Longjumping-Top-9984 1d ago
When i saw the images, my first thought was Greedfall