[RERomine]

Well, there is merit in what you said Charles. I'm not a big fan of having trucks to begin with. Too easy to kill.

Since the question involves ammo trucks, it's different. If you are using only your core and no support points, the quick answer is you have them in your core so you can have them at all. If, on the other hand, you are using support points, there are advantages to having an experience ammo truck verses something running the national average.

The ammo truck has to be in good order to resupply. If it's running away, it does no good and a more experienced ammo truck will hang longer.

Another one is simply to make sure you always have ammo resupply. There are battles where you just don't get many support points to use. Spending 10% of your support points on ammo trucks, when you would rather spend them on something specifically useful for that battle makes the choice somewhat difficult. You've got a Defend battle and 500 support points, what do you do? Spend 50 on ammo trucks? Buy 25 obstacle points? Get a couple of additional AAA units? By ammo trucks being in your core, it removes them from this equation. Overall, it still boils down to preference.

As far as just trucks, there are different reasons, some less tangible than others. I've had forces start with trucks in my core because I needed transport and couldn't afford tracks out of the gate. As soon as practical, I upgrade to tracks. Until I get to that point, I prefer to have the trucks integrated with the unit in question. It makes overall organization easier knowing squads B0, B1, B2 and B3 go with trucks (and eventually tracks) B4, B5, B6 and B7.

The example about 88s is very case specific since they (the 88s) draw a lot of fire and need moved frequently. In those cases, it helps to keep the transports in good order, but when used as infantry transports, once they have dropped them off they just have to scoot for cover. If they happen to get suppressed while loaded, rallying the truck rallies the carried unit. Once they are empty, I don't worry that much about rallying them except to try to keep the alive.

Overall, I don't like to use trucks, core or not. Sometimes, they are just a necessary evil.