Quote Originally Posted by Watchman
Really mobile field artillery was really more of a 1600s thing really.
I just said mobile batteries, I did not mean Gustavan-style brigade-level artillery.

The Italian Wars, which took place from the late 15th to the mid 16th centuries (that is to say the 1490s and 1550s), are cited by many period commentators as being a critical point in the development of siege operation techniques; it was said that sieges that previously took weeks to resolve could now be won in a matter of days by the French with their lighter multiple gun batteries.

Personally, when I was wresting Sicily from assorted rebel scum and their Peltastai piles with the Carthaginians I went and hired a few merc Peltast units for the sole purpose of acting as a javelin-absorbing skirmish screen ahead of my less easily replaced troops. And of course do the usual Peltast skirmish-and-flank thing the rest of the time. Worked pretty well, especially once I could put a line of archers behind the Peltasts...
I did this too, although I mostly used the mercenary peltastai as javelin-fodder to catch the enemy troops so my slower infantry could catch them and cut them to bits.