[swordtart]

OK, I'll bite.

I'll put up an equivalent cost of peds armed with SMGs. At $370 fully loaded they are dirt cheap, we will also invest in flash eliminators and extended magazines so we have a full 20 rounds per gun. I will also give everyone a couple of smoke grenades to cover the extraction in the event of an emergency. I might upgrade to ARs once I get back home and can look up the stats.

True, metal armour will blunt the attack, but even SMG's strip metal with a rolled 6. WGs are rarely metal. You still suffer HS loss even if the damage doesn't penetrate metal.

As you say there is no point in having BA as any hit from a vehicular weapon is usually going to go through. I am not wasting even $250 on something that only has a 50% chance of keeping me alive vs a single d6 weapon and almost no chance against something meatier. I will rely on the infinite DPs of the trench instead.

We will dig foxholes with short (1") shallow communication trenches to the 5' wide x 5' deep drainage ditch that is running alongside the length of field by the road anyway (and thence away to the dispersal point). On the firing step they are head and shoulders so -5. If they duck down they are completely covered and immune to direct fire and BE that does not land directly in the 5' x 5' foxhole or communication trench (which means no direct fire BE can hit them either). If they crawl along the extraction trench they are similarly invulnerable. After about 1 turn of crawling they will roll into the drainage ditch and can crouch run to safety remaining invulnerable.

We will use some camo nets and existing brush to cover the foxholes and extraction trench so that they cannot be seen. On the map I will not be placing any counters until you reveal them (by passing within 1/2" of a firing soldier). Once revealed all of your units can target (we'll assume they are netted in to each other). Of course having fired the ped could move into the communication trench and you wouldn't know. We will need a referee who will know where they are (by grid reference). We will also secretly roll the dice to hit so that you cannot identify the range I am firing at. You are of course free to target likely sites that might conceal troops (think the monty-python camouflage lesson).

I think on that level of equipment (and using the usual everyone gets the same money) I could set up over a dozen troops and still come in under the cost of just your point man.

I'll invest all my skill points in Hand Gunner.

I'll give you fair warning and post a sign "Toll Road - Safe passage for $50 per vehicle. Convoys not paying the full toll will be subject to fire without further warning." There is also an honesty box (clearly you must be under observation from concealment at this point). The sign is 1/2 - 5 miles from where I am setting up. There are no branches in the road after the sign, but there is nothing to stop you turning round right there (it will just cost you an extra 40 miles to go another route).

If you pay and move on, once you are out of sight a boy will emerge from cover and check the payment. If it is good they will signal another boy who has remained in cover who will radio ahead with a code word to let the convoy pass. If the boy signals that the money is not good (or you sneakily manage to kill him) a different code word will be sent and the convoy will be ambushed. If the convoy arrives and no radio message has been received a check will be made and if there is no response the assumption will be that you killed both of the boys. The ambush will take place, but the surrender conditions will be more onerous.

Let me know exactly how much your convoy is worth and I'll work out how many peds are appropriate (and what the support equipment, pickups, shovels, oil etc. should cost).