Russian Jägers are a type of light infantry in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
These light infantry are armed with rifles. As skirmishers, they harass the enemy through accurate sniping.
Hard-working and hard-drinking, these hard men are hardened to every conceivable hardship; they are tough, and loyal soldiers to their superior officers. The jägers remain in the Russian army until the day they die, almost as military serfs; most of them were serfs anyway. They have a lifetime of experience of living off the land, and a fearsome reputation for being rather barbaric. Despite this, they are not well suited to the discipline of close combat, and are much more use when peppering an enemy with musket balls.
Strangely, the Tsar’s troops were assigned regiments depending on their physical size. The tallest always became grenadiers, and the smallest were destined for the jäger battalions. But physique is no guarantee of soldierly qualities and in 1811 Field Marshal Barclay de Tolly changed the system so that personal merit and worth determined a man’s assignment. Even more strangely, this practice of “sizing” soldiers went on in the Russian Soviet army as well, but for the practical reason that tall or bulky men simply would not fit into tanks: the design philosophy of Russian tanks was to make them as low as possible, hence the lack of space inside.
General Information[]
Russian Jägers are the standard Russian light infantry. In many ways, they are the worst light infantry in the game: their accuracy and reloading are by far the worst among their peers. While they have the excellent charge bonus characteristic of almost all Russian units, the rest of their melee stats are only somewhat above average for light infantry, and they still fare very poorly in a melee after the initial charge. However, outside of the 17th Jäger Regiment, they are the only light infantry available to Russia and so are the only option for fulfilling this niche on the battlefield. Russia also does not have any skirmishers, making Russian Jägers the longest-ranged Russian infantry.
Like all light infantry, they hold the advantage over their line infantry counterparts by being able to have all ranks fire at once, allowing them to better concentrate firepower. Their extra range also gives them an advantage, but their poorer melee stats and inability to form squares makes them vulnerable to melee attacks, particularly from cavalry.
Like all Russian units, Russian Jägers are immune to the effects of cold attrition and cold fatigue, giving them an advantage on snowing battlefields.
Historical info[]
The in-game description is not fully correct.
From 1793, the term of service in Russian army was 25 years (before that it was for life).[1] Serfs who were conscripted to the army stopped being serfs and became free men after their term of service ended.[2]