Soldier
Prerequisites
Requires:
- Automatic Rifles
Summary
- Modern age defensive infantry unit
Gameplay
The Modern Infantryman is an excellent all-around land unit. It is well suited to both assault teams and Fortified city defense.
Historical
The machine gun developed gradually through the 19th century. Early work focused on multi-barrel guns, such as the Gatling gun invented by Richard Gatling in 1862. However, these guns remained prone to jams due to their reliance on black powder and a gravity-based system of feeding loose bullets into the chamber. The first true machine guns employed smokeless powder and metallic cartridges to load bullets into the firing chamber more efficiently. In the 1880s, Hiram Maxim built a single barrel gun that repeated fire by using the force of a single shot to discharge the bullet, reload another cartridge and fire again. By feeding it with a fabric belt of bullets, soldiers could fire the Maxim for indefinite periods, never needing to stop and reload. This development dramatically increased the effectiveness and purpose of infantry.