This section covers basic combat mechanics.

Shooting
One of the major differences between the base game and Napoleonic Wars is addition of firearms to the game. There are around a half dozen types of firearms, but the two you will see the most are the musket and the rifle.
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Firearms have one shot between each reload, and each reload takes around twelve seconds. You must be standing still to reload and moving while reloading will cancel the reload. The reloading animation is a muliple step process and a canceled reload can be resumed from the first incomplete step. In other words, if you move after you have finished pouring the powder down the barrel you will resume the reload by using the ramrod. This reduces the reload time of the second attempt.

The firearms are inaccurate but they can usually kill in one shot. I recommend hitting 'R' to switch to first person mode for using firearms. To fire with optimal accuracy hold left click until the reticle stops moving. Releasing the left mouse button will fire your weapon. Remember that most servers have friendly fire on, so be careful not to shoot your allies.

Musket - This weapon has a bayonet. This is the weapon you should be using
Rifle - This weapon is more accurate than a musket but it lacks a bayonet. You should not use this.

You can get a basic introduction to shooting by playing the tutorial in Napoleonic Wars

Slashing
Melee is the superior form of combat for the siege. I highly recommend opening the base game, Mount and Blade: Warband, and playing the tutorial there. The mechanics of melee based combat do not change in Napoleonic Wars. Melee combat is easier in third person mode as it gives you a better view of the area and lets you see if someone is sneaking up behind you (hit 'R' to change mode).

To attack with a sword or axe, hold left click and drag your mouse a short distance up, down, left, or right. Release the left mouse button to do the attack. The direction you choose determines the type of attack you do. If you are using a bayonet (the pointy bit at the end of a musket) hit 'X' to switch to melee mode and use the same technique as the sword or axe. However, bayonets only have up and down attacks, left and right will do nothing. The up attack is an overhead stab while the down attack is a waist height stab.

You can block attacks by holding the right mouse button instead and moving your mouse in the same direction as your opponant's attack (e.g. hold right click and drag up to block the overhead stab). While a bayonet can only attack up and down, it can block in any of the four directions. The right mouse button can also be used to cancel an attack (melee or shooting). You can use this to bait an opponant by faking an overhead stab, canceling when he blocks, and then doing a waist stab.

Your bayonet can, but does not always, kill in one stab. The swords some classes come with are usually much weaker and often referred to as butter knives. The exception is the cavalry sword which will be hard to find on the battlefield. I recommend you use the bayonet for melee fights.

During a siege the defending team spawns inside a heavily fortified castle or fort while the attacking team spawns in a camp or field some distance away. As an attacker, your goal is to get to the large flag pole in the center of the defender's fort and hold the area long enough to lower their flag. The flag lowers automatically when you or your allies are near it while no enemies are close. A round lasts twenty minutes or until the flag is lowered. If the twenty minutes are up and you or an ally is still near the flag, the round will not end until all attackers near the flag are killed or the flag is lowered.

While the defenders have a great environmental advantage they have a limit of typically five or six lives while the attackers have infinite lives. The number of lives is set by the server owner. Accordingly the number of deaths you have as an attacker do not matter, only the number of kills you get or the amount of assistance you provided to your team determines your value during the siege.

At the round start there may be ladders on the ground near the castle that can provide entrence or the initial castle may be completely impenetrable without a breach. If there are ladders they can be raised by standing near them and holding the 'F' key until the bar fills and the ladder stands itself up. If someone is standing on the ladder it cannot be lifted. Once a ladder is lifted, enemies or misbehaving allies can drop the ladder again if no one is standing on it. The ladder is a dangerous choke point for attackers and shooting from or retreating back down a ladder does more harm than good during a fight. You should always be moving up the ladder and you should get off and away from the ladder as soon as you can. In addition, be ready for melee combat as soon as you get off the ladder if the region has not been cleared of defenders.

The other way into a fort is to make a breach in the wall. A breach can be made by either artillery fire or a sapper. Artillery should use the round shot ammunition for creating a breach and only certain sections of the walls can be broken. The invincible regions of a fort typically include the corners, the gate, and the small room often found above the gate. A breach will require several hits on the same section of wall. Accordingly, breaches can be made faster when cannons work together. The first goal of a siege is to get the first breach so attackers can get inside. Additional breaches can divide the defenders' resources and create shorter paths to the flag. Infantry must constantly push through an open breach so enemy sappers cannot refortify the hole.

The sapper is an infantry unit that can build fortifcations. This can be exploited to build ramps over enemy walls or explosive crates can be used to breach certain weaker walls. Building fortifications and explosive crates requires build points which are limited per round and can only be gained by destroying fortifications. Build points cannot be recovered when an explosive crate is used. Infantry should defend sappers from enemy attack and cover them on the long run to the enemy walls.

Once inside the exterior wall, the next step is to secure control of the area. You can provide the most help to your team by killing enemy cannon operators, sappers, and mortormen. Enemy infantry shooting from the walls make easy kills at this stage as they are often unaware of people sneaking up from behind. Clearing out these wall guards and artillery operators will make the run to the castle breach much safer for you and your allies. You should also try to open up the gate to further divide the defenders. To do this, find the gate controls and hold 'F' until the bar fills and the gate opens. Guard this region from enemies to keep the gate open. Once a foothold in the fort is firmly secured there may be additional interior walls to breach in order to access the flag.

During all stages of the siege, infantry should be constantly moving toward the flag. Pausing to reload is the cardinal sin in a siege. Each life you start with one ready bullet, that is the only bullet that should be fired. All other combat should be melee. Furthermore, do not fire your bullet while you are at a choke point. It is better to not spend your bullet than to block your allies. You will likely see large groups of allies hiding, peaking, shooting, and reloading without ever charging. These allies are worse than useless. They do not contribute to pushing back the defenders and actively block charging allies. They will not get the five or six kills per round needed to have a neutral impact on the battle and they fill player slots that could be used by actively charging comrades. Do not be one of these useless players.
Never Reload

As a foot soldier, your job is to actively push into the enemy fort. Your primary objective is to get to the enemy flag pole. You will die a lot. Accordingly, you will spend most of the match running to the enemy fort. You run fastest with your bayonet equipped in shooting mode. Some forts will have water moats or rivers on the path to the fort. If you submerge yourself deep enough in water, your cartridges will get wet and you will have no back up ammunition. This should not matter because you should not be reloading. Your loaded cartridge will remain usable. Some players block up while crossing a river to keep their gun from being submerged. Know that this does not affect anything and only serves to slow you down.

Melee combat should be aggresive rather than defensive. When you are surrounded by enemies you have the advantage of not worrying about friendly fire. Use this to your advantage and constantly move while attacking. You can easily get multiple kills by getting as deep into enemy postions as posible. When you are surrounded you have the advantage.

A quick review of what you should be doing as infantry at each stage of the siege.

1 - no breach and no ladders : At this stage you are free to hide, shoot, and reload. If you see a sapper running towards the wall try to provide him cover.

2 - a breach has been made or there are ladder based entrences : Run to the breach or ladder and immediately switch to melee when you cross the threshold. Try to open gates or kill artillerymen, sappers, and any other enemy infantry. You may not have a chance to fire your bullet before you are killed. This is OK. Do not weaken your team by blocking the ladder to fire. Do Not Reload

3 - the foothold in the fort is clear of enemies : Push towards the flag. Charge through enemy fire. If you are not fighting at a bottleneck, feel free to fire your bullet. Do Not Reload

4 - enemies are pushed back all the way to the flag : Push to the flag. If the time is up and you are in overtime because an ally is near the flag. Get to the flag as fast as you can and try to kill defenders without leaving the flag pole area. Do Not Reload

General Notes
* Your bayonet is your best melee weapon. Hit 'X' to change between firing and melee mode.
* You should be using the musket. The rifle is a weak melee weapon and is only good for hiding and shooting.
* Do not hide and shoot. You should be charging and using melee.
* You need five kills per round to have a neutral impact. Your death count does not matter.
* Do Not Reload

As a sapper your goal is to get infantry into the fort. You are not a combat unit. Do not engage in combat as a sapper. It costs build points to build fortifications. These are shared across the entire team so do not be greedy.

To build a fortication right click with the hammer equiped and select a fortification from the build menu. It will spawn disassembled. Disassembled fortifications can be used to build a shallow ramp up a wall. To assemble the fortifcations instead, hit them with the hammer until the bar fills.

Dirt mounds can be built to get infantry over shorter walls. Click with the shovel equipped to build dirt mounds.

Many maps and servers disable the use of explosive crates. These can be used to create a breach in weaker walls. Do not waste crates and build points if you are not certain the wall can be destroyed by crates.

Sappers can also help speed up the run from the spawn to the fort. This can be done by building fortifications across gaps in bridges made by enemy artillery. Additionally, bridges fortifications and mounds can be used to make makeshift bridges accross water. This will save infantry time as walking through water is slow and drains health when you are fully submerged.

As artillery your job depends on the weapon you are using.

Cannon

The long barreled cannon is the primary breach making weapon and is found on almost every map. Cannons often start in spawn and must be moved to position by an artillery train. If you plan to play artillery you may want to spawn as artillery train at round start. Bring the empty cart attached to your horse to the back of the cannon and hold 'F' to limber(attach) the cannon to your horse. Placing your cannon requires finding a balance of being close enough to be accurate without making it easy for enemies to kill you. It is best to find some sort of cover to block enemy fire when placing a cannon. Hold 'F' while looking at the attachment point to unlimber the cannon. Since artillery train does not spawn with a ramrod you will want to switch to the ranker class, pick up a musket from the ground, and run at the enemy fort to kill or be killed.

Now that you have respawned as a ranker you can fully operate the cannon. Get to your cannon. For each action you will need to hold 'F' until the bar fills to do the action. First, pick up a single shot from the ammunition box. The canister shot is useless to you. Using artillery is easiest in first person mode ('R' to toggle first person mode). Look towards the front of the barrel to insert the shot. Then in the same spot you will need to load the shot. It will automatically switch to the ramrod when you begin holding the 'F' key for this step. You do not need to be directly infront of the cannon. As long as the option is visible you can load the cannon. The clipping may be severe. If the cannon has been used before, you will need to push it forward now. After that get behind the cannon hit 'F' to enter fire mode and click to fire. The cannon ball does not drop much and you should use the top line on the reticle to aim. After each shot, take note of where the shot hit and make necessary adjustments.

It will take multiple hits in the same section of wall to bring it down. Coordinate with other cannons to make faster breaches. Some walls will have the top break first, it will take additional shots to bring down the lower portion and let infantry into the fort. Keep firing until you see infantry getting through the breach. Then you can switch to a new section. Sometimes a wall will look destroyed from a distance when it is still blocking infantry. Ask in team chat if it is breached or find an officer's spyglass to zoom in on the wall and see for yourself. Know that gates, corners, and seemingly random sections of wall are unbreakable. Do not worry about hitting allies with the cannon. It is more important to make the breach. Remember your goal is to make holes not get kills. If you want to fight switch to infantry or mortor.

Howitzer
The howitzer is a short barreled and much rarer form of artillery. This cannon is also used for breaking walls, but the cannon ball drop is much stronger on this. Otherwise the same guidelines as the cannon apply here.

Mortar

Unlike the other two artillery pieces. The mortar is used for killing rather than making breaches. It has a very high arcing trajectory and will easily pass over enemy walls. An experienced mortarman should be the top killer on the attacking team with more than 15 kills per round. I have seen as high as 30 kills per round. The general use is similar to the cannon. Notably, the mortar cannot be moved and only uses exploding ammunition. Many maps do not have mortars and some only have mortars for the defending team. On some maps, the defending team's mortars can be turned against them once the mortar area has been conquered. If you are not getting kills as a mortar, give it to someone else.