Since there's own thread for this mod I might as well drop few cents.
Running your men all around the map is stupid and not possible physically (irl) A charge wont actually route a unit, if you disable fire at will and fire a volley just before they engage, you will find that 9/10 the morale of the attackers decreases quite a lot, It does take patience to play but imo its better than vanilla NTW, and i haven't played darthmod but i bet it's better than that too.
The "Fire volley before they charge" somehow sums up everything I ended up disliking about NTW3 ever since V1, as the mod suddenly had sudden change from primarily gunnery engagements (which has been the norm already by late 17th\early 18th century, like it or not) to melee-crazy fest where you have to micromanage volleys like every battle was fought like some formulaic contest where people inched close and fired close range volleys to win the day instantly, or if not watch the bayonet charge just crumble the line, because shooting at range is pointless.
Why that's such a bad thing? Well, one could go as far as say musket accuracy is what it is, but ignoring units in open formation, you are
not aiming at an individual, but mass that's moving closer or staying still. It's a side of a barn vs side of a barn scenario where in realistic context in good weather you have easily several thousand balls shot per minute per each regiment. Poor visibility after the first volleys is one thing, but it works both ways, and it's not hard to take a guess what was the general direction you were aiming at. You don't have see the white of the enemy's eyes to notice if there's say all companies of the regiment mostly in a line at 200 to 250 yards away and take your shot, because they won't be in your face anytime soon and the balls are still more than capable to actually wound, let alone possibly kill someone. Hitting a side of barn even with a matchlock at 200 yards is nowhere near impossible, and I can attest that from experience. Sure you might want to wait until the enemy is close enough to guarantee better kills, but what are the odds they would would
not fire back at any point, because given the earlier point of maximising firepower it's guaranteed to take casualties even at distance where you have no chance of hitting individual soldier by regular musket - as after all, you are still not trying to play Sniper General of the Guard?
No, this does not mean I am claiming melee or close range volleys never happened, but compared to plain good old shooting they often had bit more unusual or specific circumstances involved than just "let's creep at the flank or walk close enough without firing any shots back at all." However I still say ever since NTW3 V2 and the shift, despite all the well done research for authenticity and all the necessary scaling done, it somehow managed to take a very weird turn from moderately realistic to something that actively discourages shooting. It's like having WW2 game where the primary combat focus is in melee, and while it definitely happened it was extraordinarily rare for the most part.
