Are bayonet techs critical in early game?

[Slaists]

If youre one of the factions that starts out in the americas it's essential to get at least the first level of bayonet ASAP, otherwise you're going to get slaughtered by the native melee troops you meet early on.

Not really, the British (for example) line infantry's melee stats are superior to any native melee stats post 1.02 even without bayonets. Native Americans have good attack but lack any defense post 1.02...

I use early infantry as musketmen -at least untill I get ring bayonettes. I find it more effective to use Pike units for defensive melee (or agressive positioning to provoke an enemy charge) with wings of musket infantry (line or militia) to flank fire in support of the pikemen.

If you double rank your muskets at 2 rank depth (one unit in front of the other), you can manually advance/retreat the units to ensure more continuous and concetrated fire for greater effect.

Tried to explain it here.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=116913

I've noticed that too: double/single ranked line men (and even militia) are deadly in the early game against the AI; so deadly that I even feel it's an exploit since the AI never uses such thin formation. Think of it this way: 120 men 3 rows deep would fire 40 bullets in a salvo; the same 120 men stretched out to the maximum (the game would not allow 120 men in single file so there is about 1/3 unit 'second line' leftover if a unit is stretched out to the max) fire 80 or so bullets in a salvo. 80 bullets hitting a 120 men AI unit cause almost an instantaneous rout. If not on that salvo, then on the next...