Manpower?

[Diplomaticus]

Guys,

I find that I don't fully understand the impact of low manpower. You go 'yellow' below 75%, 'orange' below 50%, and 'red' below 25%. At each level you lose some factors for all newly built units and too, I think, any existing units that are repaired using the lower-quality manpower.

Q. What are the exact negatives for each level? (I know at 'yellow' you just lose 1 point of Quality, which is pretty minor.) I assume the losses are cumulative.

Q. If you repair even one step does it contaminate the whole unit? In other words, is there no difference at all between a unit that has 9 steps of top-quality manpower + 1 step of orange level repair vs. a new unit with 10 steps of orange?

Q. Once a unit has been contaminated with bad manpower, is it permanent? Can you ever get it back to best-quality again? (e.g. what if you repair a step when your MP is at 74%, but then you do repairs again later when MP is above 75%?)

Q. Is there any way to tell what the manpower quality of an enemy unit is?

TYIA

[gsmart04]

I have the same 4 questions.

Also, I'm a little confused on whether or not you can run out of manpower. I read somewhere you can't (the quality just keeps going down) but I'm getting awfully low with Germans and Italians in 1944 in the game I'm currently playing. So can manpower go down to 0?

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Guys,

I find that I don't fully understand the impact of low manpower. You go 'yellow' below 75%, 'orange' below 50%, and 'red' below 25%. At each level you lose some factors for all newly built units and too, I think, any existing units that are repaired using the lower-quality manpower.

Q. What are the exact negatives for each level? (I know at 'yellow' you just lose 1 point of Quality, which is pretty minor.) I assume the losses are cumulative.

Q. If you repair even one step does it contaminate the whole unit? In other words, is there no difference at all between a unit that has 9 steps of top-quality manpower + 1 step of orange level repair vs. a new unit with 10 steps of orange?

Q. Once a unit has been contaminated with bad manpower, is it permanent? Can you ever get it back to best-quality again? (e.g. what if you repair a step when your MP is at 74%, but then you do repairs again later when MP is above 75%?)

Q. Is there any way to tell what the manpower quality of an enemy unit is?
TYIA

Manpower >= 75% = no penalty
50% <= manpower < 75% = -1 quality
25% <= manpower < 50% = -1 quality and -1 survivability
0% <= manpower < 25% = -2 quality and -1 survivability
Manpower < 0% = -2 quality and -2 survivability

The real quality and survivability is the average of the old values and new values. The internal values are double and not integer. So you could e. g. have 3.9 quality if you repaired 1 step of a unit with quality 4 and manpower is between 50 and 75. So the repair drops the quality by 0.1 and not a full 1. When the value is between 3.5 and 4.4 it will show as 4. When it drops to 3 it means it can be between 2.5 and 3.4.

When you repair a unit when manpower is back up above 75 then you increase the value again if already dropped.

You can see that the enemy has a manpower drop in quality and survivability when you hover over a unit. E. g. if you see that the enemy mech unit has tech 2 in fixed defenses it should have quality 6. If it only shows quality 5 then you understand it has dropped 1. If the survivability is lower than expected you know the manpower has dropped further. This is a bit complicated, though, because XP level will increase the quality and survivability. You can also have units built when the manpower was higher and haven't been repaired after the manpower dropped. Those will show full quality and survivability. So with some hovering you could discover a drop, but you might have to search awhile.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I have the same 4 questions.

Also, I'm a little confused on whether or not you can run out of manpower. I read somewhere you can't (the quality just keeps going down) but I'm getting awfully low with Germans and Italians in 1944 in the game I'm currently playing. So can manpower go down to 0?

Yes, it can drop below 0 too. It just means it becomes harder to get back above 0 so you don't get -2 quality and -2 survivability.

[gsmart04]

Wow. Its pretty complicated for a dummy like me. Is there a display of current manpower percentage anywhere in the game?

BTW, thanks for answering!

[Diplomaticus]

Borger,

Thanks very much for your reply. Are those values cumulative? That is, if my unit is built while in 'orange' MP (i.e. btw. 25% and 50% MP reserves) is it a total penalty of -1 quality and -1 survivability, or is it -1 quality for being below 75% plus another -1 for a total of -2 quality at that level?

Thanks!

[Peter Stauffenberg]

No they are not cumulative. Manpower level is shown in the tooltip of the manpower. The current manpower penalty is also shown in the tooltip.

[gsmart04]

No they are not cumulative. Manpower level is shown in the tooltip of the manpower. The current manpower penalty is also shown in the tooltip.

Great. Been playing since November and didn't know that.

[amcdonel]

Adding to the GS 2.1 manual...

[metolius]

I was playing the Napoleonic Wars edition (same game engine) and my manpower got down to negative 200 or so. The Russians were just vaporizing my units –– the double survivability penalty really hurts.