"Too far away" is a relative term. Hard to tell exactly but I'm guessing they were 150 to 200 yards away which should be within effective range. What's your guess at the range?doing a video timed for more close in fighting, perhaps a infantry charge with cannister sounding off might be salacious to the viewer. The black hats (iron brigade) firing from the fence, look like their target is too far away. The smoke adds demension to weapons firing, but seeing the results of the firing is hard to determine.
NSD, have you determined ranges at which the various weapons will start firing? It would be nice if we could manually override that "auto-fire" range even at the cost of reduced effectiveness if, for example, we wanted to start blasting away at a line of troops 300 yards away if we saw them emerge from a woodline.
"The smoke adds dimension to weapons firing, but seeing the results of the firing is hard to determine." Exactly! Just as it should be. The smoke should obscure your vision if you're trying to view the enemy from ground level anywhere behind the firing line.