HPS ACW system

[Havoc]

I have HPS Gettysburg and am having a rough time with my games. It seems to me that the system operates in an ahistorical fashion. I have had opponents conduct frontal assaults on my guns that were supported by infantry with minimal damage to his troops as all the guns do not fire in their own defense. WWII tactics of blitzing your opponent seem to be more effective.

I've noticed that the advantage in fire is to the attacker as they can mass fire from more than one regiment while the defenders fire piecemeal and at 50% strength. This seems contrary to actual historical fighting where a strong defensive position supported by artillery was difficult to overcome. I know I can use manual defensive fire, but I don't want to slow down the game and lose the ability to change from column to line after begining movement.

What am I doing wrong here?

Also, where can I find descriptions of the optional rules? I scanned the MS Word user's guide and can't find them.

Havoc