Alternatively Armed Armies

[kalos72]

So I was discussing this my group last night and we came up with a neat idea...

In my campaign, the group has alot of "poorly trained" civilians at its disposal. They were thinking of using some of them as fodder but didnt want to waste arms/ammo on them.

In your canons, do you see the rise of groups armed with swords and crossbows or what not, to counter the general lack of spare parts and ammo for the more modern weapons?

We were thinking lines of crossbow wielding civilians with a front line of shields man using those Police Ballistic shields...