Tercio formations are ranks of pikemen forming an impenetrable wall of sharp steel points, supported by swordsmen to the front and handgunners and crossbowmen to the sides.
The Estalians are known to make use of the tercio formation, such as in the War of Beasts against the city-state of Vedenza.[1a]
At least one Tilean mercenary company from Tobaro named Pirazzo's Lost Legion is known to use this formation in battle.[2a]
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In the real world, the tercio was a military unit of the Spanish Empire that dominated European battlefields for more than a century in the sixteenth and early seveteenth centuries, using a combined arms mix of pikemen, swordsmen and crossbowmen/arquebusiers. They marked the return of infantry to the forefront of European warfare during the early modern period and were mostly composed of professional soldiers rather than levies or mercenaries. The tercio was the defining unit of the so-called "pike and shot" era of European warfare.