[5] In 1701, King Osei Kofi Tutu I won Asante independence from Denkyira at the Battle of Feyiase and carried out an expansionist policy.

[12] Osei Tutu placed strong emphasis on the military organization of the Akan Union states prior to the war with Denkyira.

[13] Osei Tutu improved the battle strategy of the union army through the introduction of the pincer formation whereby soldiers attacked from the left, right and rear.

In order to draw the enemy's force and compel them to reveal their positions in the jungle foliage, the scouts carried long wooden sticks with hooks on the end which they used to shake trees as if someone were in them.

[24] In a feature seldom seen among African armies, the Asante also deployed units of medical personnel behind the main forces, who were tasked with caring for the wounded and removing the dead.

[26] A small core of professional warriors was supplemented by peasant levies, volunteers and contingents from allied forces or tributary kingdoms.

Grouped together under competent commanders such as Osei Tutu and Opoku Ware, such hosts began to expand the Asante empire in the 18th century on into the 19th, moving from deep inland to the edges of the Atlantic.

[28] The army was also accompanied by carpenters responsible for building shelters, blacksmiths to repair weapons and sutlers to sell food and drink.

These roads allowed for the rapid deployment of the army and they negated the tactics of Asante's opponents who took advantage of the forest in their campaigns against the state.

After the 1701 conquest of Denkyira, Osei Tutu I established trade contacts with European merchants at the coast through which he enabled the supply of firearms.

[31] Majority of the Asante troops were armed with a variety of guns and this includes the standard European trade musket; Long Dane.

[25] Richards argues on Asante's success with long-barrelled muskets which he states to have brought a change in warfare around the hinterland of the Gold Coast in the 1740s.

Most of the gunmen did not use wadding to compact the powder down into the barrels but simply dumped in it while adding a variety of lead slugs, nails, bits of metal or even stones.

Soldiers carried thirty to forty gunpowder charges within reach, which was individually packed in small wooden boxes for quick loading.

[41] Bowdich described the ordinary soldier in the 19th century as; Their caps were of the skin of pangolin and leopard, the tails hanging down behind; their cartouch belts (composed of small gourds which hold the charges, and covered with leopard or pig's skin) were embossed with red shells, and small brass bells thickly hung to them; on their hips and shoulders was a cluster of knives; iron chains and collars dignified the most daring, who were prouder of them than of gold; their muskets had rests affixed of leopard's skin, and the locks a covering of the same; the sides of their faces were curiously painted in long white streaks and their arms also striped, having the appearance of an armour....He also described the appearance of the war captain in 1817 as follows; The dress of the captains was a war cap, with gilded ram horns projecting in front, the sides extended beyond all proportion by immense plumes of eagle feathers, and fastened under the chin with bands of cowries.

Their vest was of red cloth, covered with fetishes and saphies in gold and silver; and embroidered cases of almost every colour, which flapped against their bodies as they moved, intermixed with small brass bells , the horns and tails of animals, shells and knives; long leopard tails hung down their backs, over a small bow covered with fetishes.

They wore loose cotton trousers, with immense boots of dull red leather, coming half way up the thigh, and fastened by small chains to their cartouch or waist belts; these were also ornamented with bells, horse tails, strings of amulets, and innumerable shreds of leather; a small quiver of poisoned arrows hung from their right wrist, and they held a long iron chain between their teeth, with a scrap of Moorish writing affixed to the end of it.

A small spear was in their left hands, covered with red cloth and silk tassels; their black countenances heightened the effect of this attire, and completed a figure scarcely human....Scholar Manu-Osafo argues that the myth over the invulnerability of the batakari to repel bullets was fueled by the poor accuracy of firearms during that period.

In one unusual incident in 1741 however, the armies of Asante and Akyem agreed to schedule a battle while they jointly assigned some 10,000 men to cut down trees to make space for a full scale clash.

[44][45] A British commentary in 1844 stated that Asante tactics involved cutting a number of footpaths in the bush in order to approach and encircle the enemy force.

In 1874 a strong British force under Sir Garnet Wolseley, armed with modern rifles and artillery, invaded the territory of the Asante Empire.

The Asante did not confront the invaders immediately, and made no major effort to interdict their long, vulnerable lines of communication through the jungle terrain.

[50] At the village of Amoaful, the Asante succeeded in luring their opponents forward, but could not make any headway against the modern firepower of the British forces, which laid down a barrage of fire to accompany an advance of infantry in squares.

[51] As one participant noted: Wolesey had anticipated the Asante "horseshoe" formations, and had strengthened the British flanks with the best units and reinforced firepower.

He was able to shift this firepower to threatened sectors to stymie enemy maneuvers, defeating their hammer and anvil elements and forcing his opponents to retreat.

[51] One British combat post-mortem pays tribute to the slain Asante commander for his tactical leadership and use of terrain: In one siege of a British Fort during the Anglo-Ashanti wars, the Asante sniped at the defenders, cut the telegraph wires as a means of curbing communication, blocked food supplies, and attacked relief columns.

While formidable in construction, many of these strongpoints failed because Asante guns, gunpowder and bullets provided little sustained killing power in defense.

[54] Brass barrel blunderbuss were produced in some states in the Gold Coast including the Asante Empire around the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.