I also found that towns did not initially seem to give HR. But after I took a couple of towns I did receive HR. Still not sure if that is due to a delay, some towns are too small to generate HR alone, or there is a bug.

I agree that civilians running over AI is really frustrating. I now shoot at any vehicle near my AI - and dont care if I kill the driver. On the other hand it is a tactic you can use to kill Germans. If you park while undercover near enemy they will often get run over by civilians!

Okay hr is not something that should be easy to come by early on a single village or even two mean nothing in providind you men. Think of it like this a single village supports you yes they will pay a "war tax" to help the cause but no idiot will fight for you you're too small that's why early hr must come from rescue missions those men have a reason to help you. When the villages and cities get nuemerous the resistance seems stronger more people join each recruitment drive as now there is a fighting chance and at the end as you own half the map you can pool your manpower and make large scale assualts.

Remember you're guarillas/partisans you're not a government you don't have conscription laws you don't have ♥♥♥♥ people join you out of the goodness of their hearts and people don't want to die for nothing.

And about drivers and civies
umm yeah don't garrisons towns and villages not much point as is it's just a big manpower drain and currently statics don't save well so the flak will despawn on restarts of the game so do be careful even when using them as to placing them away from roads as the civie ai on cherno is more aggressive with driving so most if you're garrisons should be on off village assets like outposts factories resources and airports and seaports the reason is that AI commander rarely just attack a single village it's just not beneficial for it and there the civies can't run over your guys. If the civies still find ways to kill your men then go ahead and lower the civilian density in the mission parameters.

I'm raking in 15 HR every ten min. You will get there.

could try to run this mod on the server: https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/177206-vcom-ai-driving-mod/

This thread is a bit old but it's on the front page, so I'll add here for anyone having HR issues. Do everything you can in the beginning to take a radio tower close to you and hold it. The first time or two that you attack you may get a sizeable reaction from the enemy but if you're lucky you won't, and holding that radio tower is going to influence MANY cities nearby, which will then help you roll in sweet sweet HR income.