Any Cossack players?

[FierceKitty]

If there are any Cossack fans here, do you regard Zaporozhian foot as disciplined types, or as wild impetuous fanatics? And what do you base your opinions on?

[WFGamers]

In the 17th and early 18th century I would say they were neither. Their preferred tactic was to occupy some fortified position - a village or a mobile position, etc - and use it as a fire base. They were irregular skirmishers.

[jaytee]

Damn I thought you were another cossack!

[Thaddeu]

My Early Modern Eastern Europe wargaming mostly follows the game By Fire And Sword, since I figure they have access to non-English-language sources. At risk of oversimplifying, they divide the Zaporozhian infantry roughly as follows:
Registered Cossacks - elite irregular musketeers
Moloitsy - standard irregular musketeers, with option to mix in a proportion of spearmen
Plastuny - ranged skirmishers with rifled firearms, representing scouts and pickets
Swashbucklers - melee skirmishers, representing specialists in Black Sea piracy and river raiding

And as WFGamers says, they relied heavily on cover (terrain features, settlements, wagons, or field fortifications if time allowed), or mobility via boats.