Column Pass Through Fire

[The_General]

I also have doubts about this optional rule. It seems that the best way is to play with a separate melee phase but this rule, beside swarms of skirmishers, makes attacking very compicated, especially in situations as described.
Artillery fire was murderous in these times but was also during the American Civil War and there is not such a rule in a fine Civil War Battles series.
There is someting similar for indirect arty fire in PzC series but as far I know it is rarely uesed, at lease in pbem games.
After the recent updates I started to like the Napoleonic series, but the more I play, the more I conclude that it would probably be better to play without this optional rule.