kevinj wrote: There's also one other area that's occurred to me, which is Bows. Is 4MU for effective range unbalancing? We've regularly seen bow based armies outshoot Pike and Shot, often benefiting from the twin bonus of not losing shooting frontage due to pikes in the line and being able to move to effective range whilst the opposing muskets are at long range.
I cannot recall the reason Bows have a longer short range than fire-arms; it may well be that it is just what FoG:AM had so it was left as that. FWIW I cannot recall any evidence that bows had a greater effective range (which is what short range may be considered as ) than fire-arms - bows are at their most effective when flat shooting which, I think, is in the order of 80-100m which is more or less the same as effective ranges stated for fire-arms IIRC (not pistols, obviously).
In addition to the point Kevin makes above I'd add that the difference can lead to some annoying fiddly measuring in games when trying to gain an advantage from this difference and getting rid of that may be no bad thing.
It would be a bit of a simplification. Thoughts?