Infantry formations and tactics:
Charge:
The unit moves forward at a pace of 6" + 1d6".
Steady advance
The first two rows of a formation take turns firing and reloading. The whole formation moves at 5" per round and does not fire every third round (assuming muskets). In other words, they fire, fire, reload, fire, fire, reload etc.
Platoon (peleton) fire
The English commonly fight in 2 lines of 3 rows each. The front row of a line kneels down, the other two rows step up, and then all three rows fire at once. While the first line reloads, the second line moves forward, and fires. Then the second line reloads, the first moves forward etc.
SW assume there are three lines of two rows each. The whole formation is 6" deep and can fire and move at a speed of 2" every round if they're using muskets.
Skillregeln (eher unwichtig)
Skills:
Driving and Piloting are not used in this setting, the former is folded into riding. Boating and investigation will likely be useless as well. Before taking streetwise, swimming, climbing or lock picking players should check with the GM how these could figure into the campaign.
Fighting: To reflect the setting, the fighting skill does not cover all weapons. Characters are assumed to be familiar with those weapons suitable for their social station in life. Specifically: Nobles are familiar with swords, but not with bayonets. Partisans and Commoners are familiar with neither. They can learn to use bayonets with the Trained Infantryman edge. Upstarts who obtained a commission need the Versatile Fighter edge if they want to settle matters of honour with a blade.
Languages (Smarts)
Languages are tracked as free skills depending on the character's Smarts die. A characters knows his native tongue at the level corresponding to his Smarts die. A character with a d6 in Smarts knows a second language at d4. A character with a d8 knows a second language at d6 and a third at d4. Characters who increase their Smarts later also get an additional free skill point to be spent on language skills. Regular skill points may be spent on languages as well.
A d4 means the character speaks the language, a d6 means he can read/write, a d8 is required for dialects, producing effective propaganda, forging documents and passing as a native speaker.
Interrogation (Smarts)
If you just want to get a specific answer from a captive, a good beating and a successful Intimidation roll will serve you well. If you can't touch them or want them to really spill the beans and tell you stuff you didn't ask about, you need Interrogation. It's resisted by a Spirit roll and benefits from previous Tests of Will using intimidation even if that test was made by another character.
Was die zufällige Zuordnung angeht: Meine Optionalregel sieht vor, dass der Spieler mit der höchsten Karte auch passen kann, wenn er nicht will. Wer dann - der Reihe nach - das Kommando annimmt darf gleich noch seinen Sergeant bestimmen, kann sich also so taktisches Know-How holen. Bei Unfähigkeit darf auch gern die sogenannte "Harper'sche Lösung" (fragging) zum Einsatz kommen, dafür laufen die anderen NSCs mit. (Dadurch, dass so zu Anfang wohl niemand Command-Edges hat sollte sich der Verlust in Grenzen halten.) Gleichzeitig bildet der Erwerb der Command edges dann das erworbene Vertrauen der Gruppe ab.
Ich rechne damit, dass so im Regelfall eine akzeptable, wenn auch nicht ideale Lösung zustande kommt. Die Möglichkeit, dass der taktisch weniger versierte sich in Ausnahmefällen in-game über seinen Rang gegen den besseren Taktiker durchsetzt halte ich für reizvoll. Das gehört für mich zum Setting.
Wer's gern insgesamt taktischer mag oder auf diese Reibung keine Lust hat kann die Regel ja problemlos ignorieren.
FWIW, hier der vollständige Text aus dem optionalen Regelteil, ergänzt um die Quinteessenz deiner obigen Hinweise:
Not a proper officer
The point of a battlefield commission is that it thrusts a character in a place beyond their normal station and that it's more or less random. In-game, the point is to get someone in charge whose character is not prebuilt to lead, someone who has to earn the trust and confidence of his men the hard way, because he wasn't born into Nobility. Players who have no interest in that role and that part of the game can pass.
Everybody draws a card from a Poker deck, just like they'd do to determine initiative. If the player with the highest card has a male character who is also a member of His Majesty's Army, that character is the new Ensign. Either now or at the first in-game camp situation the player makes up a story about (a) how he won the support of someone up high in the ranks and (b) how that got him a battlefield commission. The player also immediately picks his Sergeant (NCO) from among the other PCs in His Majesty's service. If the player with the highest card can't or won't put his PC in charge, the player with the next highest card gets to be boss or pass it on to the third etc.
Alternative 1: GM decides and gives it to the player and player character with the most potential. Meek and unassuming PCs (not players, do not pick the group's real life outsider) are first in line as their struggle with the burdens of command will be lots more interesting than those of a tough and gruff hardass. The latter leading the former is an unpleasant mix of force and whining. The former leading the latter may provide a tug-o-war for many sessions. If your group won't find that interesting and might even transfer the conflict to the real life interactions at the table, DO NOT risk this. Make a safe choice the group will be happy with.
Alternative 2: Put it to a vote. Everyone, including the GM, get's one vote, ties are broken by a toin coss.
Anyone dissatisfied with their supperior officer? Suck it up, it ain't a democracy. That said, commanding officers sometimes do have unfortunate accidents, they might even be hit by friendly fire. Not that anyone would encourage such thoughts, at least not unless someone in the group has the Connections edge. Without that, the GM will provide you with an NPC in charge and you might not like that. A character with the Connections edge can trade it in for Command, settling all debts. As circumstances warrant the GM may or may not ask for a Persuasion or Spirit roll before he allows the new PC to take charge.