What are the differences between the multiple types of infantry?

Solution 1:

I found this in the official manual on the official forums:

Line Infantry

Line infantry was the most common Infantry type in the Napolenic wars. Line infantry are usally equipped with a bayoneted musket and sometimes with a small sword referred to as a “butter knife” or “sabre briquet”. Line infantry have medium shooting and melee skills and are a good all rounder troop type.

Light Infantry

Light infantry are light and fast moving units that possess good shooting skills. Light Infantry is equipped with an unbayoneted musket and a small sword for melee combat. Due to their good speed and accuracy; they are especially useful for flanking enemy lines and supporting fire. However, light infantry is at a disadvantage in melee and should thus avoid getting to close to enemy lines.

Riflemen and Jaegers

Riflemen are light and fast moving units with good shooting skills. Riflemen are equipped with a highly accurate but slow to reload rifle and a small sword for melee combat.
Due to their high shooting and running skills, riflemen are especially useful for sniping enemy officers. However, Riflemen are at a strong disadvantage in melee combat and should avoid getting close to enemy lines.

Solution 2:

• Line Infantry (LI) has bayonets to fight in melee which is normally a one-hit kill, and has descent skills with firearms. In normal gameplay most of the time you are going to use your bayonet, so you need very high melee skills: blocking, footwork, animation timing etc. Most of the servers allow unlimited amount of LI and limit amount of other units, so that's why you need to play LI.

• Foot Guard is pretty much the same as Line Infantry, but they have way better skills with a bayonet (swing faster) and are a bit better at shooting (accuracy is just a bit higher). Sadly, in Commander Battle you get 10% less units than if you have chose Lines, and believe me, 10% less muskets is a lot. You will normally lose a ranged engagement, and will suffer very heavy losses from an unwise melee attack, if not wiped by a good counter (even by weak troops). They are best used to protect artillery or in melee charges. Most servers limit the amount of them, melee servers disallow them totally.

• Riflemen/Jaegers have a rifle instead of a musket, which means no bayonet, and hence being pretty much helpless in melee. As a human player, never use sword bayonets, they are even weaker than a weapon's butt (deal less damage, their damage is also easier to soak by armour). However, rifles are more accurate and riflemen have more points in Firearms, so you may outrange your enemy. Rifles also take more time to reload, so if you engage your enemy at close distance, you better loot an infantry musket and effectively become Light Infantry (read below). Anyway, this type of unit should be used as ranged support, and be ready to quickly retreat to cover/friendly units, as pretty much any melee engagement is death to them. In Commander Battle your numbers are limited just as numbers of Foot Guard, but most servers ban non-skirmish units to spread their lines, which means that it is harder to overthrow you in ranged combat by anything (but also makes you even more vulnerable to melee, especially to cavalry charges).

• Light infantry is effectively Riflemen armed with Infantry Muskets. It means that you are not as helpless in melee, and if you are skilled enough, you may win melee fights. It is important that you also get full squads (same numbers as Line Infantry). In competitive events my clan and me happened to wipe out whole cavalry regiments -- because a bayonet is always longer than a cavalry sabre. Also, as you have plenty of points in Firearms, you reload the muskets very quickly and shoot more accurately, winning almost every ranged engagement if playing wisely (as soon as you get the first shot).

• Ship crew and Partizani are pretty much useless, as they get random sets of weapons, and most of them are weak. All the troops in NW, even though most of them seem to be unarmoured, have some descent armour ratings on their clothes, which makes bayonets way stronger than anything and weak-damaging weapons way more useless than you could expect, and those units don't have bayonets. At all. Neither do thay have anything to show in range combat. Some of their melee weapons are very powerful in the right hands: namely the Hunting Spear that can block just as a bayonet, but is longer and may be used to overthrow even experienced players who rely too much on footwork and judging distance (but you will frequently have to land two strikes when one would be enough with a bayonet), and the Pike, which can't block, but is very, very long, allowing you to hit some people that can't even believe they can be hit in melee (if you use the overhead stab). But even they are kinda unreliable, and can't compete with versatility of Infantry Muskets.

• Russian Line Militia may have an advantage of their melee weapon, which is a viable choice, and may one-shot-one-kill if you know how to time your attacks and/or hit the head. But they are useless in Commander Battle, because bots don't know how to time their attacks (and hence get almost no advantage from their weapons), and only half the squad has ranged weapons.

I think, I should also speak about special units, as they are pretty much the same for every type of infantry.

• As an officer, discard your pistol for any other ranged weapon you may find: it is the only ranged weapon in NW that doesn't kill with one successful hit in torso (even at point blank range) and needs a headshot, but it also has very low accuracy. Only use it for fun. Also take an Infantry Musket from ground if you see one, it is also more effective than a one-handed sword unless you face noobs that can't block side attacks. A sword is always slower than a musket due to animations, and is shorter, but NW noobs are just not ready to block anything besides two stab anymations.

• As a musician, you have a sword, sometimes it's a good one. Again, it is pretty much slow, but some players just forget that you have it and hope for an easy frag. Don't let them get it, either retreat or sell your life for a fair price! :)

• As dismounted cavalry that may be counted as infantry, if you are a hussar or heavy cavalry, try to overspam your opponent: he is most likely not ready for blocking side attacks if he plays too much of NW. And if your are a lancer, take an Infantry Musket and rock. Sadly, your footwork is very limited due to low Athletics skill (determines your speed). As a dragoon, play as normal light infantry, but use your sabre if engaged in melee. Aim for the head, it will be a one-hit kill.

• As a Sapper, which is not actually supposed to fight, don't use your Sword Bayonet, use a Sapper Axe. You may block with it, you may attack from sides, and it can one-hit enemies. It is slower than a musket, though. If you see an Infantry Musket -- take one. Your Sword Bayonet, though, you may discard right at the beginning. As any class.

• If playing artillery, don't lose your Spyglass! Drop it on the ground when reloading or engaging in melee, than grab it when aiming/watching your shot traveling/seeking for a target. Feel free to exchange your sword for an Infantry Musket. Don't take cartridges to save a slot, just have a loaded musket with you in case of being engaged in melee.

I hope that I didn't forget any "infantry".

I think, I will also add some info on cavalry.

• Light Cavalry (Hussars) is the fastest and the most maneuvarable. They only have a sabre, but it is more than enough to rock. Never stand still, always run and zig-zag, so it will be very hard to aim you. It's not real life, horses don't get tired. While they have their momentum, a squad of skilled Light Cavalry is a threat to everything. But one paragraph is not enough to actually teach you to win as cavalry in a game about cavalry, so I will just redirect you to some guides here.
• Armoured Heavy Cavalry (Cuirassiers) is slower, but those guys are... armoured! This advantage is not important at all when a hussar strikes you at full speed (possibly your full speed), or when you are hit by a bayonet, but it really helps against "pokes" -- very weak strikes that have a chance to be fully soaked by your armour. In normall game speed is everything so those guys are kinda far from top, but in Commander Battle the bots are often too stupid to hit the target with a sword, so a lot of damage is caused by horse bumps, and bots are always too stupid to gain momentum, so you have to lead them. It makes Heavy Cavalry an overpowered unit in Commander Battle. Keep in mind, again, that your armour doesn't make you bulletproof or immune to one-hit kills from bayonets.
• Unarmoured Heavy Cavalry gets a bit more HP, but no armour. It usually means a straight downgrade, but not a huge downgrade, heavy cav is still heavy cav.
• Lancers are light cav with lances. Lances are longer than everything except Partizani pikes, but can't block. If you are charged by a lancer and he makes a couched lance strike, dodge. If he attacks normally, block. Lancers are generally treated as overpowered and disallowed during events. Bots are stupid and can't really get their advantage from the lance, so manual control is very important.
• Dragoons are able to shoot and reload on horseback. Keep in mind that they cannot reload while moving, and their accuracy while running is very low, as is the effectiveness of their fire unless you only allow them to fire at specific moments. Your general strategy is to wait for the enemy to unload muskets from afar, then quickly (until the enemy reloads) come closer, unload your cavalry muskets, charge and retreat. In normal game you would unlikely use them: light cav allows to show your skill better, heavy cav is better for noobs like me who are bad at maneuvers.

Ah, did I not tell you to retreat ones your troops lose momentum? I think, I will just teach you the basic cavalry tactic in Commander Battle.

Press F1-F2 to tell your soldiers to follow you. Zig-zag, when you see a moment to attack, just charge yourself. Calculate how many seconds does it take on this server for your troops to start reacting to your command, and right when you have that amount of seconds before engagement, plus maybe around 0.3-0.5 seconds, press F1-F3 to order your troops to attack. Then QUICKLY move to the side where you expect your troops to meet after the charge, zig-zag there and press F1-F2 again to make them follow you, and do it before the enemy line recovers from your charge. If you do it the right way, you will barely notice your losses.

The best targets are firing at will and spread units, especially those who have no bayonet (riflemen) or are weak with one (artillery).

That's probably all for today.