Thanks very much, @elessar2590 – I’ve actually thought about shotguns in this game.  They aren’t included in the original game, really.  The USMC units for our 1918 Edition have the same 4-5-4 values as the US Army (had the same equipment or even poorer equipment, M1903 Springfields and M1915 Chauchats – they even had to steal their first BARs from the US Army 36th Infantry later in the war … ) but … we’re giving the USMC squads an automatic -1 bonus to their close assault rolls to include things like enhanced CQB aggression and ferocity (swing those entrenchment tools, they call them “lobotomizers” for a reason)!

Maybe the same thing could apply here as a scenario special rule.  One man in each squad carriers a Winchester “trench gun,” so the 4-5-4 remains the same (only on man doesn’t have a big enough effect to change the ratings of an 8-10 man squad) but then gets that -1 difficulty applied to their close assaults (nothing like a sawed-off, pump-action shotgun to clean out trench)!

To take a more systematic approach, we could actually change the values of “shotgun equipped squads” (maybe two or even three men are carrying trench guns instead of M1903s) – this might change the values to 5-4-4 (greater firepower, slightly shorter average range).  But then leave the close assault value alone (that “5” attack value shows the enhanced close assault attack).

For the moment I would prefer the first solution, only because it means I don’t have to print, mount, and cut more counters! 😀