Hindu Musketeers (ETW Unit)
These musketeers are a useful addition to any force, even if they lack the fire discipline of regular soldiers.
Overview
For all its smoke and noise, handling the smoothbore, muzzle-loading musket can be taught to all but the most stupid of men. Once the basic skills of loading have been mastered, it is simply a matter of pointing the loud end at the enemy and pulling the trigger. It is in God’s hands as to what happens next!
Even the most inexperienced or cack-handed of peasants can be useful with a musket in his hands. The noise of a volley is often enough to frighten, and any casualties in the enemy ranks are a bonus.
Historically, such units of irregular musket men would arrive at a battlefield with all kinds of weapons, from ancient matchlocks handed down from father to son, to modern government-issue weapons looted from the enemy dead. This lack of standardisation did not matter much, as it was the ability to fire at all that made the unit a useful force.