I suspect much of our difference in opinion has to do with an extreme difference in play style. You seem to prefer letting the AI handle as much as possible, while I find the AI to be extremely poor whether it be the stock game or the KS mod. I always end up taking command of nearly everything on the battlefield down to at least the brigade level because the AI cannot be trusted to ever do anything even remotely logical to me. In my experience well placed and TC'd stock skirmishers are far more effective than KS skirmishers and it is they and not the KS skirmishers who are harder to hit and take less casualties. Im not disagreeing with your ideas behind the design, only that in my experience it doesn't play out like that. KS skirmishers trying to screen the advance of their brigade more often than not get mangled by close order infantry lines. You're saying its exactly the opposite but that hasn't been my experience. They do somewhat better when I take charge of them but that really doesn't prove anything to me because everything in the game does better when I take charge of it.The KS canister ranges are historical. We wouldn't create a mod that has false values in it. Canister from the bigger guns such as 8pdrs, 9pdrs, 12pdrs and the Russian licorne gun-howitzers could and would reach out to 450-500 yards. Bear in mind however that at these ranges the canister is not very effective, just as the games musket fire at 150 yards is not very effective. Fire canister at half its maximum range and you will see true devastation. Do not confuse extreme ranges with effective ranges. The ranges of 200-300 yards mentioned are the really effective ranges and this is how the KS Mod plays.
Be aware also that the stock game has infantry muskets effective out to 150 yards which is too far. Musket fire was generally opened at around 100 yards with any effect at all and it was often at half that when it became devastating. SoW stock games can degenerate into long range infantry firing duels (as Gettysburg tactics did) but this is incorrect for Napoleonic warfare where a short closer range firefight followed by one side withdrawing was more common. With infantry muskets capable of 150 yards, giving your artillery a canister range of only 200 or 250 yards takes away much of artillery's short range advantage and makes it too weak vs infantry. Another reason we elected to go with longer ranges.
Artillery in the stock game is almost ineffective and it is far too easy to get a battalion to close frontally against a gun battery.
In defence of our skirmish formations I will say it is the stock skirmish formations which are useless. They are as vulnerable to musket fire as close order troops (KS skirmishers are far harder to hit and take fewer casualties) and the stock skirmishers will behave exactly as you describe if you let the AI control them - running around, getting exhausted and always moving away from approaching enemies. Their small size and dispersed nature means they can rarely put out any effective fire at all. In addition the stock game allows you to detach very large numbers of troops from all battalions, even from some units that historically had no skirmish-trained men at all. This is not an ideal solution.
However if you TC (take command) of the KS skirmishers they become truly potent. If you fight an 1806 battle you will understand one facet of how significantly more effective French tactics were vs the Prussians in their use of skirmishers - the close order Prussian infantry has no effective answer to the French open order troops. Playing with the KS Mod in periods of the wars other than 1815 can help you understand how the opponents of the French gradually changed their organisations and tactics to counter the French system.
I'd like to explain the logic of our skirmisher formations. The reason we placed a single battalion-sized unit (sometimes two; by the way, French brigades always have two skirmish-capable units) in each brigade is because we consider SoW to be a game designed to pitch corps against corps or division against division. If you were perhaps playing in a game that emphasized brigade vs brigade level combat then having skirmisher elements detachable from each battalion may be a better representation of Napoleonic tactics but since the games' primary focus is at a higher command level the multitude of small and somewhat uncontrollable skirmish units was viewed as incorrect. It sets the detail of decision making the player is faced with at the incorrect level. A game experience can degenerate into a click-fest; something we all detested. It is a similar reason why we made individual cannons not controllable in a battery - the battery is the primary and significant command level when you play at division and corps level. Thus we eliminated a tactical representation of troops irrelevant to that command level. Now the brigade is given what we designate a "skirmish capability". This can be significant if French or, say, a British light infantry brigade, or an Austrian jager brigade. Or it can be entirely insignificant or completely absent if the troops in the brigade historically had a weak skirmish ability - such as a brigade of Hanoverian militia or Russian musketeers. The stock game cannot do this. The skirmish unit attached to the brigade represents the converged flank companies of that brigade and is sized in proportion to the total brigade strength. The brigade commander is them assumed to operate all his skirmish companies in the one significant area of his brigade frontage where they are most needed. This allows the AI brigade to function in a reasonable and effective manner in terms of skirmishing - something the stock game cannot do.
The AI is just clueless in my opinion. Ive seen it march a battalion up to get slaughtered while the rest of the brigade stands there and does nothing, sometimes even about facing and facing its back to the enemy. It routinely marches artillery around limbering and unlimbering at random while never firing a shot and seemingly moving around with no other purpose but to exhaust the gunners. Brigades wander off from their divisions and do their own thing. Cavalry move forward, not charge, stand there and get mauled and then run away, shot to pieces. Yes Ive seen the AI do some incredible stuff. Il trust the AI to move a division or corps along a road, or deploy in a neat line, but il handle the fighting. That may not be historical, but it gives me a much better chance of winning, which after all is the goal of playing any game, to win.
EDIT: Just to clarify, im not hating on the KS mod. In many ways it is superior to the stock game. While we may disagree on the power level of canister, its medium and long range fire blows away the stock artillery. Its toolbar is a lot less intrusive and has some features that neither the stock or grog toolbars have. I love hearing la victoire est a nous when I go into an attack formation. KS Cavalry is leaps and bounds better than the stock game etc etc. Theres a lot I like about the KS mod, theres just some things I like better about the stock game. Which version I use largely depends on what type of scenario Im playing. Il use whichever version I feel better enables me to win.
