Thanks for the input. Good point about textures, and I am already familiar with the site 3d.sk, known about them for about 3 years now.

Normal Mapping - I'm hoping I can get good results in A6.

I think you MAY be misunderstanding my question. When I said the numbers 7500-10,000 polys, I was refering to just the level, not counting the characters.

So, the scene at 10,000 polys, plus 4 characters at 7500 polys each, that equals:
10000 + 7500 + 7500 + 7500 + 7500 = 40,000 polys total visible