Tingk-Kro: Picks and Pikes

Composition

Equipment

The Tingk-kro is equipped with a metal hat and gambeson. All utility on an individual basis comes from the belt, wrapped and tied around the waist. The belt has loops for holding stick-like things, and hooks for holding everything else. Occasionally the pick itself contains small notches for other purposes, such as bottle-opening. Usually, though, these notches are fashioned by the soldiers themselves, not from the picks' manufacture.

Weaponry

As its translation suggests, the Tingk-kro carries one pike, roughly five meters (16.4 ft) long, and one pick, roughly one meter (3.28 ft) long. The pick can be held by one hand but is generally held by two. The pike rests on one hand but otherwise must be held by two. At ease, the pike rests on the shoulder, and the pick hangs on a loop of fabric around the belt. Many soldiers equip themselves with a rations knife for particular situations, but that is not considered part of the standard armaments. At ease, the knife is tucked inside the belt. Certain martial artists within the formation choose to wield an axe in the dominant hand and a knife in the other, but there are sparingly few examples of this in the history of Pick-and-Pike combat.

Tactics

The pike is the primary weapon of the formation, and the front row of the Tingk-kro uses an exclusive line of pikes. However, enemies are apt to use axes to chop the pikes down, or to move them aside to get to the more vulnerable men who hold them. Because of this, the second line consists of men with picks, who strike down on the errant invaders and try to clean up the breaches in their formation. The third line consists of men with pikes to aid the men with picks, and the rows alternate, with less uniform cohesion towards the back.
Because of the combined arms nature of the formation, Tingk-kro formations have to be significantly thicker than their historical pike-exclusive counterparts. However, because the picks can support the sides of their formations better than pike-exclusive counterparts, they are much more flexible and can better afford to be flanked.

Training

The professional formation training of the pikes and the sloppy individualist training of the picks clashed soundly, and officers in charge of the new formations had to rebuild their procedures from scratch. Initial attempts paired one pick wielder with one pike wielder. This pair would spar with others of its kind using blunt weapons. The conditions for winning were originally to knock both players over. However, once the pike was knocked down or knocked out, the range of the pike and the brutality of the pick were more than enough to pacify the pick wielder. Thus, the spar was won when the enemy pike wielder was either knocked down or successfully disarmed.
While the pairs honed their craft on a personal basis, they still needed to learn to work as a team. Formation movement was rigorously incorporated into the doctrine. Excursions to the mountainous Keyrit provided for especially tense formation movement, as the team had to work its way through jagged passes in close proximity to each other. Formations that held in Keyrit, though, were ready for movement in any other biome, and the trip to Keyrit was considered the conclusion of training before deployment.

History

Before Development: Oil and Water

The Picks and Pikes used to be two separate units, and used to go by other names. Historians argue whether the pike phalanx was a Wlitowan or a Tuhran invention. However, at the subject's birth, the Tuhran military had fazed out of pikes in favor of something more maneuverable and flexible. For centuries, the Wlitowans and Tuhrans had been at odds as to who could make a longer spear for their formations, under the assumption that the army with it could hit the enemy without it without any chance of reciprocation. Once the Tuhran Army realized that a longer spear was no longer practical, they developed axe weaponry to hack at the sarissas and subvert the pike phalanx. Wlitowa backed off with the length of its spears, returning to a normal size.
The "Picks" side was a native unit of Keyrit irregulars. The Keyrit Empire needed recruits with metal weapons and the knowledge to use them, so mining was a natural choice. At that point the Empire had so much iron and nickel ore that further mining would have been redundant for the continuation of the war. Hence, the miners were sent to the front lines. They were especially effective at shredding through opponents with armor, a skill that the Keyrit Army lacked at the time, and the generals granted those who were willing a more permanent place among Keyrityi ranks.

Development: Birth of Combined Arms Formations

The Picks were not particularly effective against the Pikes and vice versa whenever they came into a skirmish on the battlefield. However, they had an opportunity to use their strengths against the Tuhrans at the Battle After Marriage. During the infantry battle, the Wlitowans locked the Tuhran infantry in place. During an organizational blunder, the captain of the Picks charged his soldiers forward to deal with the Tuhrans- through Wlitowan lines. This was strongly against Wlitowan military doctrine, as the pike formation was supposed to be air tight and never watered down. However, when Tuhran axes cut through Wlitowan pikes, Keyrit forces shattered the well-armored foes. Historians argue whether the Wlitowans would have been defeated without the use of Picks, but the battle quickly shifted in the alliance's favor once they got involved.
This turning point in the battle shook up martial theory, and the generals of all three sides were impressed by the combined arms display. Keyrit, Wlitowa, and Tuhra all had support units mingled into phalanx battalions by the end of the war, with nearly identical compositions and tactics. Picks were a commonplace tool, and pikes were a cheaper weapon than swords. As a result, these formations became very popular among incursions, such as the Eastern Uprising. Because Keyrit's northern neighbors didn't generally use tight formations in their military doctrine, the mass scaling of Pick-and-Pike groups overthrew the military parity that both sides had built up. Parity would only be restored after decades of battles and experimentation.

Type

Infantry

Founding

1530

Dissolution

1800

Overall training Level

Trained

Assumed Veterancy

Trained

Used by

• Keyrit, Iathoya Takalarkyi: Daskalarch Order of Keyrit
• Wlitowa, Agroia'aruyo: Imperial Authority of Wlitowa