Osterreiche Infanterie

A Habsburg infantry regiment fighting at the Seven Years War (1756 - 1763)

The Habsburgs were a house of nobles who ruled Austria and Spain for several centuries. Their standard "line infantry" during the seven years war was practically the same as the ones from all other countries involved in the conflict. The soldiers were organized into battle lines, holding a tight formation to maintain cohesion and defend themselves against cavalry and other melee threats. Then, standing front to front with the enemy line and separated by only a few dozen of paces from their opponents, they opened fire. Muskets were terribly imprecise and took a long time to reload, and the soldiers were trained to fire in volleys against the enemy direction (not much aim needed), reload as fast as possible, and fire again once the other rows had fired. This kind of battle was confusing, the shouting commands from the officers quickly dispersed with the noise of gunfire and shouting from the wounded, and the well organised firefight would probably turn into a fire-at-will skirmish after some time