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SITREP. Ronson (M249 machinegunner from Player's Manual) and Taylor (rolled up using Lifepath, M4A1 carbine) walk into a Russian ambush (1 x RPK-74 LMG, 2x AK-74 assault rifles). Taylor has highest RECON base dice but fails to spot the Russians, who open up at 6-7 hex range.
OUTCOME: In the opening hail of bullets the RPK-74 failed to hit or suppress Ronson but Taylor took a round to his body armour from each AK-74 soldier, becoming suppressed with 2 damage. One of the AK-74 guys suffered a stoppage. Ronson responded by dropping prone on the trail and putting a 4 round burst into the head of the RPK-74 soldier, killing him. This should probably suppressed both AK-74 guys but I decided it only affected the one without the stoppage, so this guy managed to clear it before the Americans' next turn. Taylor had lower initiative than Ronson and sprayed his M4A1 at the Russian who'd just cleared his misfeed but only suppressed him after pushing his roll, suffering a jammed M4A1 in the process. Ronson got up and moved off the trail into some trees. Next round, the unsuppressed AK-47 guy fired at Ronson, failing to hit or suppress him. Taylor then got up and moved into the trees at the side of the trail so he could take cover next turn and clear his jam. Ronson then dropped prone in the trees beside the trail and went cyclic, rolling 6 ammo dice for an attack on the Russian that just fired at him. He got two successes and incapacitates the Russian with an arm critical after expending 19 rounds. Next round, the remaining Russian decided to run for it, moving 3 hexes to the rear after passing a Mobility test. Taylor acted next, taking full cover behind a tree and trying to clear his misfeed, unsuccessfully. Ronson came up next and with the remaining Russian disappearing into the woods, I declared the firefight over.

Overall it was a fun exercise at using the combat rules. There was a lot of dice rolling though, for only 5 combatants. I also didn't like some of the suggestions for the NPCs, like all running out of ammunition on a roll of a 1 etc. One had a 45 round mag so it didn't make sense to declare him out of ammo almost immediately. The Russian that got a jam rolled two 1s, so think I did that right but not sure. I was quite surprised at the low hit rate, but probably in a good way. It doesn't take much of a cumulative negative modify to reduce hit chance to negligible. Taylor was pretty much rolling 2d6 base dice the whole time.

My experience has been that all the special NPC resolution rules are just there when you need them. Running a big combat? Break those out so it speeds up and you don't need to track all the ammo/suppression. For a smaller one, or one where you want the NPCs to feel more threatening, use all the way up to the full rules for PCs basically. Just be mindful of what you're doing - even just switching NPCs to use "normal" suppression rules can make them a decent bit more dangerous.

Most of the time, I just do phased combats anyway -- there are some enemies up close with good line of sight, we've got to deal with those right now. Then there's another squad approaching from way across/off the map. They might take some shots now and then, but mostly they'll be out of sight or moving up, and there's little need to track whatever they're up to.

I also prefer tracking NPC ammo more often than not, if it's no burden to do so. Makes it easier at the end of the fight when the PCs want to scavenge up their stuff.