| “ | "The very picture of a modern soldier... the very image of a people's fury released on an old and corrupt world." - Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe's Escape |
” |
In game[]
Vital stats[]
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Basic-level gunpowder infantryman, used by most factions. Upgrade of Fusiliers and Skirmishers.
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| Prereq: | Build time | HP | LOS | Attack | Attack speed | Movement speed | ||
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11.2s (168t) |
200 | 12 | 28 | 2.1s (32t) |
26 | ||
| Cost | Created from | Armour | Weapon range | Specialty | ||||
| Base | Ramp | Pop | ||||||
 : 70; : 60
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: 2;: 1
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1 | 
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3 | 0–12 |
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Overall strategy[]
In comparison to Skirmishers and Fusiliers, Rifle Infantry are a different breed of unit. Tougher and faster than usual, they are also armed with all-powerful breech loading rifles whiich use a different ordnance system compared to the muskets of old, granting greater accuracy, attack and rate of fire, making for a highly dangerous unit capable of taking out cavalry and defeating other infantry forces with ease. This new unit is so radically powerful, that it, like the Carabineer and other rifle-armed units, is highly lethal when used against pre-Industrial units, be they Pike Levies, or even units like the Napoleonic Vielle-Garde.
In which case, the only way to counter them effectively is to use artillery to outrange them. A war against Rifle Infantry involves the creation of defensive earthworks followed by fortified Rifled Gun positions to block off any attempt by the enemy to cross into your territory, although, if you are playing a faction like India or China which may not get advanced units, you can still kill these units in droves with weapons such as Volley Guns or even good old-fashioned Mortars.
See also[]
- Rifle Horse
Unit summary[]
- Rifle Pekhonitsy - Is trained more quickly and has no ramp, but lacks accuracy and has lower armour.
Notes[]
Riflemen have distinctive appearances, depending on which faction trains them. Design notes:
History[]
It was first discovered in Europe during the Early Modern Era that internally grooved or rifled barrels could provide better accurracy to shot being fired out of them. Although this principle was known to most civilisations, rifled barrels weren't very practical for one reason: the propellant of the day, gunpowder or black powder, did not always burn away, meaning that rifles were hard to clean. To make matters worse, black powder itself was corrosive, so rifled barrels were more of an exception than the rule.
Rifles were indeed accurate but were very slow to reload since the use of black powder necessitated cleaning after each shot, so as a result, rifled guns were mostly highly experimental weapons which were seldom used on the field. Only when nitroglycerine and smokeless powders, along with expanding-base bullets were introduced in the 1850s did firearms with rifled barrels began to be adopted on a widespread basis.