Best Division Templates for Hearts of Iron IV

With limitless possibilities to designing your divisions in Hearts of Iron IV, it is easy to be overwhelmed when you open the division designer. Luckily, I’m here to walk you through the most optimal division templates in the game, discussing their purpose and when to use them.

Due to the Barbarossa update and the No Steps Back DLC, designing the “perfect” division in Hearts of Iron IV is nearly impossible. Below you will find some strong generalized templates, but the absolute best division depends heavily on your circumstances in game. Some factors you will have to take into account if you modify these divisions are your industrial capacity, location, who you are fighting, and your fuel.

That said, these templates will serve you well as either a starting point to create your own, or as an easy way to have a strong military without worrying about min-maxing in the division designer.

If you aren’t familiar with the division designer, be sure to check out our guide on it to acclimate yourself with the interface.

Combat Width

There is no single best combat width now, instead there are several effective combat widths to choose from. The best widths are usually considered to be 10, 15, 18, 27, 35, and 42. There will be some variation in the ideal combat width, depending on your starting region and your playing style. For instance, smaller templates will be more effective in areas with limited supply or tough terrain, such as Brazil or the Congo.

Pros of smaller templates are that they have very high organization for their combat width. Organization is vital in combat, so this is a significant benefit. However, they are expensive for support companies, require more generals, and will need more micro-play.

Larger templates on the other hand, require fewer generals, support companies are cheaper, and they take fewer losses in combat. You’ll also have fewer divisions and therefore armies to manage, reducing the amount of micromanagement required to be successful.

Infantry Templates

Infantry templates will be the largest part of most armies and are great to use if you have limited industrial capacity. While they have limited offensive capabilities compared to some other types of divisions, they are excellent for plugging in gaps and holding lines.

Infantry and Artillery

Pairing infantry and artillery has been a classic combination since the creation of cannons. Adding artillery to infantry divisions is great because it gives the high HP infantry a strong soft attack boost. With our infantry, we want to emphasize HP, Armor, and Soft Attack. While the combat width of your infantry divisions will vary, the basic principle will stay the same.

The width of your division will be up to preference, but it is best to stick close to widths of 18, 27, and somewhere in the range of 40-45 for larger divisions. The closer you are to those widths, the better, but it can sometimes be better to squeeze in an extra battalion instead of worrying about the optimal width.

For the flamethrower tank support company, you want to use the cheapest tank design possible. For the medium tanks, you will want to use a design that is set to Anti-Air and emphasizes armor. The reason for setting it to anti-air is to limit production costs, since there are fewer tanks in anti-air battalions. Feel free to substitute the medium chassis for a heavy chassis if you have the industrial capacity, but it isn’t really necessary. Some example designs for these use-cases can be found under the Tank Templates section. By adding just one tank battalion to the division, you’ll prevent other infantry from being able to pierce your divisions. This won’t be as effective in multiplayer, since other players can add anti-tank to counter the armor.

Note – all stats in the images may not match your game perfectly due to differences in technologies, doctrines, game version, etc.

Pure Infantry

Pure infantry can be useful because it is cheap to produce and uses minimal fuel. Using only infantry allows you to stay at 10 combat width, which offers the best organization for the combat width. Adding support artillery and an engineer to your support companies make this division very effective at holding ground. Deploy these anywhere you’ll want to constantly protect, such as ports, or use them for cheap offensives if you have limited industrial capacity.

Tank Templates

One of the most powerful forces on the battlefield in Hearts of Iron IV are the tanks. They can completely change a frontline with devastating offensive power, but are expensive.

Tank Designs

In order for the divisions below to work, you will need to design some cheap, niche tanks. These are a flamethrower tank, a tank destroyer, and a cheap high-armor tank. The designs for those are simple, but important for the divisions to work. The best medium tank designs to use in the divisions below can be found with other combat-focused designs in our Tank Designs guide.

Flamethrower Tank

This flamethrower design is exclusively for support companies, so the individual design has minimal effect on combat. For those reasons we go for the cheapest medium design possible, only attaching a flamethrower weapon to a basic chassis.

Tank Destroyer

The sole purpose of this tank is to provide a huge piercing bonus to divisions. Similar to the flamethrower design, we go for the cheapest way to create a tank destroyer. Set the turret to a fixed superstructure and change the main weapon to a heavy cannon.

Medium Tank for Infantry Divisions

The goal for this tank is to increase the armor rating of your infantry divisions. Equip it with an anti-air gun and switch the tank type to Anti Air. AA battalions have less tanks in them, reducing your overall production costs. We also upgrade the armor type to welded and add sloped armor as a special module. Choose the cheapest option for everything else, and we have a budget-friendly armored vehicle. There’s no real reason to make this into a heavy tank on single player, since other infantry will not be able to pierce your infantry divisions anyway.

Tank Division Designs

Armored divisions are indispensable when it comes to breaking through front lines. Armored divisions have excellent attack values and are usually more mobile. Medium tanks will be used because of how good they are all-around, but players can swap them out for light or heavy tanks depending on personal preference.

The templates below will be 30 and 42 width, since you usually want armored divisions to be larger. Still, feel free to adjust the combat width based on starting circumstances and industrial capacity.

By using these templates you will be dominate on the battlefield in Hearts of Iron IV. While there are other divisions some other uses, like naval invasions, these will be the basis of your army throughout your campaigns.