Tactics in the English Civil War?

[CBR]

If by pushing you mean men would get involved in vicious fighting like this:

Some re-enactors raise their pikes and goes in to push and shove the other unit but doesnt have much to do with what little info we have of the ECW and pike fighting in general.

My guess is that the picture shows the most extreme example of combat and other times it would be more at a distance with pike fencing. Depends on morale and other random happenings.

Musketeers would be fighting out on the flanks and leave the pikemen to face the enemy pikemen.

There are AFAIK several examples of pikeunits that disengaged only to go at it again after a short reforming of the ranks. Most likely men would simply back away as they got tired or demoralised and as the enemy unit were in a similar situation the two units would seperate.


CBR

[Watchman]

Plain musketeers caught by virtually anything else - pikemen or any cavalry - in the open were pretty much as good as dead. Which is why they always operated in tandem with pikemen and/or cavalry squadrons in line duty. A lousy sword the musketeer barely knows how to use and a clumsy clubbed musket aren't exactly something you go up against an advancing pike-hedge or charging cavalry squadron with.

Mind you, I understand the musketeers would pretty often end up brawling against their opposite numbers while the pike- or horsemen were busy with their colleagues on the other side - being able to roll up the flanks of the enemy unit would of course be quite useful if you could rout the enemy shooters.

Anyway, by what I've read of it pike-and-shot era field battles were usually rather drawn-out affairs where opposing units would clash repeatedly, fight for a while, disengage, reform and do it all over again until someone's resolve snapped. Due to the relatively smaller units and general fluidity cavalry-cavalry fights tended to be resolved relatively quickly (usually - there were instances in the TYW where the squadrons spent the whole day hammering at each other with little to show for it except mounting casualties), but infantry formations of any quality seem to generally have been able to withstand downright extreme attrition without breaking if only engaged at the front.

Apparently something commanders really hated in general was the occasionally occurring scenario where the infantry lines just faced each other at something like twenty meters away (when neither had the resolve to engage with cold arms) and just blasted away with their muskets and artillery - that tended to incur obscene casualties even if your side was ultimately victorious, which was hardly quaranteed in any case. Breaking this sort of bloody deadlock usually required the cavalry to sweep a flank and start rolling up the enemy line, although that might not quite work like planned if the enemy could deploy reserve units to for a stopgap line to secure the flank.