You're very wrong unfortunately...
Then I apologize for my confusion, with the multitude of accounts I tend to assume that a similar nick will mean the same player.
(...) and sandbags, wire or tank traps has never posed a problem for me. My opponents rarely have the luxury of building the Maginot/Siegfried line.
I won't make any claims about your experience with wire/tt/bags, but I will claim that a Maginot/Siegfrid line isn't necessary to get some use out of them. 15 seconds worth of laying wire can be enough to prevent an infantry squad from flanking an MG. It's not a guarantee, there are many ways to get rid of wire, but there are also quite a few units who will be stopped by it.
The issue in question here is not the rifle's ability to do so but the axis volks ability to do so.
Well, as long as the current topic of discussion concerns a direct comparison between volks and riflemen, I'd say it's still pertinent. It's something volks can do, and rifles can't. Assuming that it's not a worthless ability, then it becomes a factor to be taken into account while comparing these units. My post is simply an attempt to argue that does have some worth. As an aside, I still think that a direct comparison of riflemen and volksgrenadiers as isolated units is not an adequate basis for determining cost.
Suicide crocs are common and they don't care about living or dying.
That doesn't mean it's not worth it to lay out the defences. If a croc comes crashing through, they won't be useful, but they won't hurt, and the only cost has been some of the time that the volks would just have been sitting around anyway. If the croc gets destroyed and the volks are still there, you can setup new defences, if you so wish. Maybe there will be other ways to use them that are more effective, but you have the option. And if your opponent doesn't opt for a crocrush, then the defences are being useful.
I'm saying that rifles should be more expensive, and volks are cheaper precisely for these reasons you state. Tank traps.
I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by this. Once again, I am not making and have not made any argument about the price of these units, I'm merely arguing that the ability to build wire/bags should be included when considering the price. If the overall conclusion, after taking into account this and every other aspect, is that volks are overpriced, then reduce the price. I have very little experience in setting up axis companies in EiR, so I'm refraining from opining on the actual price level.
Taking a guess, I'm assuming that last part is meant to point out that volks can't build tank traps. That still doesn't prevent them from building sandbags/wire and letting the pios build the tank traps to prevent vehicles from running over them.
TLDR version:
I'm arguing that the ability to build sandbags/wire is a nifty ability that should not be discounted entirely out of hand when setting the price of volks. Nothing more.
Edit:
Wooooow! Lots of pointless writing.
Well, putting ones thoughts down in writing can be a nice way of thinking through them. I'm not assuming my posting will have any impact whatsoever on the pricing of volks or any other unit. And, hey, if someone reads this and is inspired to start using his idle volks to set up some wire/bags, then it's not entirely pointless.
Poll
