Slitherine

In our last game we played in the peninsula which is new for us since I've just recently gotten my brits up to army strength. Finally got to play with a steep hill and I am left wondering a few things.
Shooting only affects troops actually on the hill. I shoot worse with no cover bonus for being up there. I'd also like to know why close range shooting is worse than medium range for infantry. That's something can't figure out.
Just a few thoughts on why difficult is treated this way would be appreciated thanks.

I posted this on the after action subject, but to copy here:

The justification for this would be:

Medium range infantry shooting (by line or light units) represents skirmish companies out in front of the unit footprint. The skirmishing chaps are not overly effected by the difficult terrain, so 1 level of drop only. Skirmish (ie medium range) fire is unaffected by rough terrain.

Close range fire (again by line or light units) represents infantry volleys, which need to be controlled and steady to be effective, so are more seriously effected by nasty terrain. Drop 1 level for rough, 2 levels for difficult.
There was also the common problem of firing too high when exchanging volleys on a slope.

The rules have 2 grades of bad terrain, and v1 applied more penalties (to movement, shooting, combat) the worse the terrain was.
To a large extent we have kept this step drop in v2 - the penalties increasing as you go from good to rough to difficult.

What this means tactically is you should defend hills more than 2MU from the bottom - to force your opponent to enter the difficult terrain to get within close range (if he comes in he will also then be in charge range and downhill ).
At medium range, it's a little more tricky. If you keep over 6MU from the edge of the hill, your opponent will need to enter the terrain and will shoot at a level lower at medium range - same as you.
Sometimes this is not practical and you need to form up within 6mu of the bottom of the hill. So be it, you will drop a dice and your opponent will not. If you are searching for a historical justification for this then I would look at the problems often faced when firing downhill. Assume your upslope skirmishers are aiming too high.

Thank you for the reply