Light Infantry

 All the information below is taken from Chainmail, except where noted:

LIGHT INFANTRY

Type: Normal Person (Human)

Size: Medium

Morale: 4 (and check for instability due to excess casualties at only 1/4 losses)

Move 9” (Charge 12")

Individual Combat: 

- melees according to the weapon used on the individual Melee table.

- defends according to the armor worn (usual armor category is from 1 to 3) on the individual Melee table and the individual Missile Fire table.

Large-Scale Combat: 

- melees as Light Foot on the large-scale Melee table;

- defends from melee attacks as Light Foot on the large-scale Melee table (but see the trait Pole Arm Defense below) and from ranged attacks on the large-scale Missile Fire table (usually as "unarmored" or as "half-armor or shield").

Traits:

Pole Arm Defense: Infantry troops formed in a close-order formation with pole arms can only suffer frontal melee casualties from troops armed with weapons that have an equal or greater range. Example: a mounted knight armed with a lance could attack a Halberd formation, but he could not attack a formation of Pikes, which are longer than lances.

Point Cost (army creation): 1 (with pike, 2)

Light Infantry variants:

Skirmishers: Lightly armed and mobile infantry used for scouting, harassment, and missile combat rather than direct engagement in heavy melee.

Peasants: Behave as Peasants. Poorly equipped rural laborers pressed into temporary military service, typically lacking training, discipline, and the status of professional soldiers.

Catapult Crews: Specialized artillery teams trained to construct, maintain, and operate siege engines, requiring coordination and practical engineering knowledge rather than noble status.

Cannon Crews: Early gunpowder specialists responsible for handling and firing artillery pieces, a dangerous and increasingly valued role as firearms began to transform medieval warfare.

NOTE: Examples of Light infantry. Chainmail lists the following troops as examples of Light Infantry: "Missile troops, Swiss/Landsknechte*, Peasants, Crews". I intentionally left out ranged infantry and professional pikemen intend to give them their own entries. Here, I divided Crews into the two subtypes present in the game and added another category, Skirmisher, meant to represent a generic Light Footman that is not a Peasant, nor part of a Crew.