Concerning muskets in STW I found them extremely useful when used correctly. Although their accuracy was not great, and rate of fire not that good either, they did slaughter at point blank and scare the enemy. So, at the crest of a hill end of a bridge bieng "greeted" by three units of muskets would inflict massive casualties on any unit type. And since there's so much ammo they'd go on firing again and again, whereas bows quickly ran out.

I thought that Panther tanks had a tendancy to catch on fire - especially in the early models.