Hi Bill,
another interesting question. I seem to remember when we started playing these rules(or their predecessor) that there was a +1 fire bonus given to British/Dutch infantry in line. Now I'm as patriotic as the next bloke but I have always been kind of anti the `British are better' approach in my wargaming. The platoon firing concepts which many writers make much of were originally I think a Dutch innovation. The Dutch themselves formed the overwhelming majority of Grand Alliance Armies. Their infantry were reckoned to be about as good as you can get.
The French, god bless 'em had been kicking - around Europe for a couple of decades and so I reckon were no slouches either. The 'British' usually formed no more than 25% of field armies and were generally infantry heavy and cavalry light.
A long winded way of saying I am not particularly in favour of fire advantages for one side or another. If individual players feel strongly about it then a +1(optional) agreed as a house amendment would work. I think the battle winning factors are more around generalship and army cohesion in the larger field affairs. This could be created on the table by downgrading many more battalions to `RAW' status and restricting the Generalship abilities of the commanders which in turn restricts movement(this has been the single biggest influencing factor in ALL of our larger scale wargames).
As an aside, I was half expecting someone to complain about my suggestion of downgrading the British Footguards to Elite status whilst comparing them to the Gard te voet or Gardes Francaises.
I think there is very strong argumentation for treating line battalions such as : 1st Foot or the Scots-Anglo Dutch Brigade as higher in morale status and ability than Guards units. These line battalions were hired guns, fighting frequently in continental battles and officered by experienced men with many years combat experience. Many household units had faced no one more dangerous than armed peasant mobs in the west country before going to Flanders. I cannot say for certain but I would guess you may learn a little more about behaviour under fire from facing three battalions of Regiment Picardie than 500 angry weavers from Dorset!!!
But then again Dorset was the Wild West in 1685!
Cheers
Barry