Well I guess my advice would be... don't do it that way? Unless that's the sort of game you want to play?
In any encounter I try to determine the actual motives of my NPCs, and give them a break point based on their training and situation. If that motive isn't directly related to the PCs, then the break point is much lower... even a gang of marauders isn't suicidally bloodthirsty and if they're just out looking for fresh water they probably don't have much stomach for a shootout.
I also absolutely never give my players perfect information. Maybe I don't give them enough information -- but I base this on their skills, experience, and spotting roles, as well as the conditions. At night? Usually nothing more than "you see some silhouettes approaching," and if they get closer or have light or during the day more details like "they seem military" up to "you can tell they have AKs." Only under good conditions or good rolls do they get "it's a Soviet soldier with an AK-74 and..." and the level of detail depends on experience. So we had a recent game where one character needed to explain to another the magic of thermal imaging technology and how they really didn't want to fuck around with it.
There was a very memorable session where this group decided to lay an ambush for a gang of marauders. It seemed like a solid plan, except that I rolled on an oracle "Hey, is this gang of marauders the first group that's going to come down this road tonight? Oh, they aren't... hmm." Soon enough a dozen or so silhouettes appear, getting closer. Nobody in the group even asked what they look like, and they opened fire as soon as they have a straight shot... on a group of refugees with barely even civilian weapons. Most of them were shredded in a grenade blast. It was an ugly scene and caused one of the PCs some lasting trauma -- as well as made them a new nemesis or two, out of the ones who escaped. Good times.
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