Hello,
thanks for your answer.
First: Is the taking of techs (as described in the story of the Black Widow) kidnapping or capturing enemy personal?
If kidnapping then the law applies.
If capturing then the rules of warfare apply and while they were never laid out our Real Life rules (Geneva cONVENTION) make clear, that while you must work for the enemy (if not officer) but not in combat-related affairs (as far as I remember my own army lecture - that`s about 30 years ago.).
And POWs are exchanged, happened even at the beginning of WWII.
So, you may say, that the Houses don`t care and if I remember The Second Succession War book (sidebar pages 42+43) you are right. Certain soldiers have it easy while the ones who make trouble are sent to the 31st equivalent of Colditz.
So, yes, House Davion may force the techs of House Liao to repair Davion equipment, BUT
Those people want to return home. Because they are loyal to Liao or have families etc.
So they can stop working to be sent home.
Yes, you can force them at gunpoint to work, but they will resist by using sabotage and you have to supervise them. And this makes House Davion weaker.
Why?
Lets assume you have 10 Davion and 2 captured Liao techs. So you have 12 techs. But if those Liao techs decide to strike and you force them or they work and/or you suspect they are not honest, you have to put a tech of the same level or better to supervise them. So instead of 10+2 techs you have 10-2 because you have to put 2 of your own techs into a supervising role and they cannot repair your equipment.
And last but not least. We are talking about Liao. And Liao and Kurita are given to extreme reactions. Remember Kentares, Helm or Ilsa Liao who executed Davion officers? And Ilsa was sane compared to old Max or Romano.
And House Davion surrendered to Ilsa Liao when she executed Davion officers. So if old Max would go bonkers I suspect the same would happen.
And let`s not forget Big Mac. In the ALPHA STRIKE Mercenaries with the Warhammer mech it is said that Bic Mac unleashed their flamethrower equipped Warhammers and their flamers ran red-hot-implying they committed warcrimes.
We all know that in the First Succession War the various Houses went for the killing strike and the resulting nuclear, biological and chemical repercussions forced the rulers to adopt a restricted form of war (nearly like the Clans without the bidding). So I would expect that the rulers would look at those happenings and adopt a certain set of unwritten rules to make sure that a return to Total War does not happen, especially with "nice" people like Minoru Kurita, Ilsa Liao etc in the past. And yes, Houses Marik, Steiner and Davion have their fair share of atrocities too.