...And if it did... is that really a good solution, to have PFs be NA for the remainder of the game? At the end of the game, when things are probably pretty tense, and the whole of the game prior has had PFs inevitably play a role in things? It seems... really wrong, is what it seems. I mean, sure, as the German gets down toward the end, they're gonna start husbanding their shots, but still, c'mon, that hard limit is pretty wrong.....
I've never run out but then PFs (and ATMM) are grossly over represented in ASL. This is likely due to perception they were used effectively by Volksturm boys and old men in the slaughter vast swathes of Red Army tanks. This simply isn't supported by the facts. A 1944 OoB of 10 squads with 15 PFs is probably over representation.
The Germans fired huge numbers of PFs for every kill obtained. What is not shown in ASL is that a PF required a good deal of special training to use safely and effectively (as well as to survive). As the number of properly trained German troops declined the rate of wastage (misses) shot through the roof.
For example, German records for Jan to Apr 1944 on the eastern front showed a total of 520 tanks killed by PF, PSK, ATMM, and other handheld hollow charge weapons or AT mines. Of these 264 were killed by the PF (50.8%)
Approx another 256 were killed by:
Panzerschreks - 86 (16.7%)
ATMM - 65 (12.8%)
Grenade (bundles) - 21 (4.0%)
Anti-tank Mines - 73 (15.%)
Sturmpistole - 10 (0.2%)
While specific details are lacking, in the four month period the PF killed about 3.2% of the total tank kills claimed (8148 w/ known cause) on the entire front (counting guns 75mm and larger) for the expenditure of a whopping ~
684,500 PFs fired*.
This raw data would suggest that it took roughly 2593 PFs fired per kill (German records are not perfect but...). Note that hits that were not "flush" on the armour tended to results in duds or imperfectly shaped detonations and failed penetrations. Even if one discounts defective rounds, or those used against bunkers, building etc., the kills per shot ratio is terrible (even if the numbers are off by 50%, they are still awful). It should also be noted that hits beyond 40-50 meters were extremely rare.
With nearly 8.3 million produced (~425,000 rejected due to production flaws), their use in ASL would have them kill the entire Allied and Russian tank fleets many time over with the current availability, usage and TH table rules (especially beyond 50 meters). These were weapons of desperation but in the game we tend to stalk tanks like rabbits (especially in 1945 when they are available on base dr 1-4).
Here are a few sources:
Hahn, Fritz: Waffen und Geheimwaffen des deutschen Heeres 1933-1945
Fleischer, Wolfgang: Panzerfaust and other German Infantry Anti-Tank Weapons
Germany and the Second World War. Volume vol 2.
Das Deutsche Reich & der Zweite Weltkrieg. Band 5 / 2.
*Note that total German expenditure of PFs in on the eastern front in 1944 exceeded 2 million.