"Mid-16th Swiss Troop ratios" Topic

I've been eying The Assault Group's Royal Swiss, and I wonder; what was the ratio of pike to shot for such units by the mid 16th century? I know that earlier in the century a ratio of 1 arquebusier for every ten men was considered normal for Swiss mercenaries, but was that the case by the mid century? You see a general rise in the number of arquebuisers by this point in a lot of armies, but I would think the Swiss would be pretty conservative.

In the French Wars of Religion it was not unusual to still see a very high ratio of pike to shot for Swiss troops.

10% increased a bit to 20% by later part of 16th Century

Key though – they were used more as skirmishers than part of a more integrated unit

@DisasterWargamer

Dang, that's pretty low! I'm not surprised though; the Swiss were pretty conservative, from what I can tell. Do you know of a good source for them, for the 1530s onward?

George Gushs articles give an outline for them in general – link

One Million Mercernaries: Swiss Soldiers in the Armies of the World

Other articles tracing the shift to pike, then to shot and the various changes that happened

The Swiss as I understand it used pike on offence more than as defense – crossbows, shot etc were more skirmishers. While they had some artillery and cavalry – the pike block was the center piece – and for that time it was highly effective.

When the Swiss there pull out of a lot of support of foreign wars mid century. It was after that where many of the tactical innovations with Pike and Shot occurred –

George Gush references what I saw a number of places – that Swiss Mercenary unit did adapt to the armies they served with "In French service, regimental organization later developed, and by 1600 the Swiss units were often or 12 companies, each of 200 pikes, 30 muskets, and 30 arquebusses."

The Swiss were not cheap. They were hired to provide those firm blocks of pike. Arquebusiers could be obtained from other sources, so why hire any more Swiss shot than was necessary.