ORIGINAL: Joel Billings
13) New Rule – Hiwis (Hilfswilliger - "auxiliary volunteers") – Rules have been added to account for the soldiers and civilians that served as support personnel for German units during WWII (known as Hiwis).
a) Hiwis are generated from captured men. 8% of captured manpower will go into a Hiwi pool. Also, captured manpower centers also produce 10 men for each captured point (theater production limits and damage apply).
b) Hiwis can be added to German unit’s Support and Labor Squads starting from 1942.
c) Hiwis can't be added to High Command HQs.
d) Hiwis can't be more than 70% of current labor ground element TOE, 30% of current support element TOE, or 10% of current support element TOE of an SS Elite unit TOE.
e) If the parent element is targeted and is destroyed there is a maximum 60% chance that a Hiwis squad will be destroyed instead (the less percentage of the element made up with Hiwis, the smaller the chance that a Hiwi squad will be destroyed).
f) Hiwis elements provide the same amount of support and engineer values as a normal support squad.
g) If using an old save, when first loaded the game will generate some amount of Hiwis based on existing captured men and manpower centers.
h) Interface changes - The number of Hiwis in a unit is show on the unit’s detailed information display. The number of Hiwi elements is shown in parenthesis next to the ground element type. So the entry Support (Hiwi 2) indicates that 2 of the support squads in the unit are Hiwi squads). The production screen has an entry for Hiwis, showing how many men are in the Hiwi pool.
I really like the proposed HIWI rules, as Hiwis were an important addition to the German Army. It also confers some benefit to the Wehrmacth from the population of Russia.
I am curious as to how this will shake-out in game terms. I am not 100% familiar with all the ins and outs of the replacement system.
When replacements for Labor/Support are needed, will HIWIS be drawn first? If all your units are at 100% for support and labor squad needs, will it draw HIWIS, and put Germans back in the pool?
Wehrmacht Infantry will go through a process of converting Support Squads to Rifle Squads. How will HIWIS impact this? (I'm pretty sure they won't convert to Rifle units, but I wonder if you are at the 30% cap already, if they will prevent German Squads from converting, because if they do, it will push HIWIS over the Cap)
Is it pretty much a given that HIWIS will get used, or will they end up accumulating in the pool?
If they get 100% used, and the net effect it to put Germans on the line on a 1 for 1 basis, then it's basically like extending Wehrmacht Manpower production. Which is a good thing, but just making sure that's what is happening.
Also, as Germans I never paid attention to the amount of Captured Manpower Centers. What is a reasonable range in 1942 for the Germans to have in Russia?
Occupied Soviet Manpower degrades over time; the Manpower will disappear slowly. Will this still happen? (I think it should, just checking)
