The SS (despite popular believe) wasn't realy an elite unit atleas not most of them waffen-SS was elite later on (but mostly only the tank divisions ) and neither was the NKVD Elite infantry (although i migth be wrong there) they just existed to ''fight the enemy within '' and ''motivate the soldiers '' .
So rather than SS i'd recommend Brandenburger as the german elite ( or if you want to be ahistorical the ''Werwölfe'' wich got axed) and for the soviets the guards rifle divisions

Just custom units to be able to build divisins like the WSS 1-38 divisions, seperate from regular units. Many were highly prioritized or upgrades and equipment, as well as many used to battle uprisings, special tasks etc, but still formidable combat units, I would argue.



How about political units kind of, instead? The SS covered everything from WSS to their own security police and welfare system.

ah well i have nothing against political units (would be pretty great actually to have a NKVD support batallion as soviet russia wich increases ''morale'' ) just wanted to point out that the SS (atleast the Majority of it ) wasn't as elite as people think and if we were going for Elite troops as you suggested I'd rather have divisions that were actually considered ''elite '' such as the Guard rifle regiments or Brandenburgers the Rangers, SAS you name it and not political troops like the SS.

Agreed with Cylo233. Only the Waffen-SS were really 'elite'. They had the most rigorous training regime/boot camp and were the first unit to undergo live fire during training. NKVD was definitely not elite either, but I agree that some unique units for flavour would be a brilliant addition!

Going along with the NKVD as a support battalion, perhaps both the NKVD and the SS could be attached to divisions as a support battalion. Perhaps even being the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany's own unique version/replacement of the Military Police support battalion? As horrifying as their actions were during the war, it would add some unique flavour to the mod... Perhaps as Cylo233 suggested and have it increase 'morale', organisation, act as suppression like current MP units, or some other unique attribute or boost?

If anyone needs some other historical unique units for some of the majors, I would be happy to help using my historian/research skills haha. I already assisted the HoI Improvements Pack mod by providing some historical background information for a unit they just added--camel cavalry (Somaliland Camel Corps for the UK, Méharistes for France and Italy, Tropas Nomadas for Spain).

France seems to always be skipped when it comes to unique units in mods... Just because they fell in 1940 because of their idiotic politicians and because of Gamelin, doesn't mean that their troops ought not to be shown some love. What about the Brigade de Spahis of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia? The tirailleurs sénégalais, tirailleurs marocaines, tirailleurs Malgaches, etc.? The Goumiers or Goum of the Groupement de Tabors Marocains? The Légion étrangère of course... There are so many others, but I'll stop now lol.

My understanding is that most of the famous units along these lines simply had access to better equipment first, which can be done within existing game mechanics (though kinda annoying to implement well). Even higher levels of training pre-deployment can be done a bit, though would love to see a mechanic for creating elite-tier units through training (maybe a 2nd training option that increases division xp beyond current cap but not army xp). Even Rangers and the SAS were not highly trained in this time period compared to our current views on special forces. You could accurately create a Ranger battalion with current game mechanics imo.

^^^This is what I would love to see. I would at least like to see that in addition to designating a unit as 'elite', this designation would also lead to extra training time which would result in the unit being deployed at maybe halfway towards being 'regulars' or even fully trained and deployed as 'regular' or even further.

True historical 'elite units' were eventually given extensive training, which could be reflected through their deployment as aforementioned. The British Commandos that Sir Winston Churchill requested the development of were given, yes, the best equipment, but also received harder and more extensive training.

I dunno if there is a way to reflect it in game, but I also think it might be interesting to perhaps be able to designate certain divisions/units to receive specialised training for different environments or situations--i.e. assault training (for assaulting fortresses or something), desert warfare training, arctic warfare training, jungle warfare training, etc.--which would boost their fighting in these situations/environments but require longer training periods. The desert and jungle equipment from this mod is great, but it would be a nice 'flavour' aspect if we were able to do this as well.