HOI4 Template

What does this imply for template design? Your defensive templates can be pure infantry with engineers to give them better entrenchment.
 20 width infantry with engineer supports are the standard, 40 width is better if you can equip them (because you want more defense than enemy soft attack so you don't take 4x damage).
 Pure infantry can be used on offense but losses will be very high; just use them to hold the line. Add support AA if the enemy has an advantage in planes.

Offensive templates want to stack lots of soft attack because you want soft attack to exceed enemy defense. These will have lots of support companies to buff them.
 A good template 40 width is 14 infantry, 4 line artillery with support artillery, engineers, recon, signal, and logistics.
 They have enough soft attack to break 20 width infantry and enough org to fight a long battle. They will push the enemy back slowly, at the speed of infantry walking.

Tanks are used to open holes in the enemy lines because of their high armor, soft attack, and breakthough values. They have less organization so the battles need to be quicker and more decisive.
 They should fight against division that cannot pierce their armor to get the damage bonus and damage received reduction.
 Light and medium tanks move faster than infantry so they can encircle enemy units, cutting off their supply. They are very expensive to produce compared to infantry and artillery.
 15 tanks 5 motorized or 12 tanks, 5 motorized, 2 motorized artillery/SPGs are generally considered the best 40w tank divisions. Add support engineers, recon, signal, logistics, and maintenance to either type.

Combat width is divided into segments of 20 in HOI4, try to keep all units at 10, 20, or 40 width so you don't take penalties for exceeding combat width.
 Completely filling your combat width gives you the opportunity to bring the most force to bear on enemy divisions in a given province.

This guide doesn't go into more nuanced things you can produce such as rocket artillery, self propelled guns/AA, or tank destroyers. All have their niche.
 Generally, 20 width infantry with engineers for defense, 40 width 14-4s with R.E.A.L.S. for supports on offense. Tanks if you're a country with lots of industry and boni for researching them (Russia/Germany).



INFANTRY TEMPLATES

(20 width)

    Basic Main Combat Infantry:

    10xINF [+ ENG/ART/AT/AA] Use AA only if you don't have industry for doing fighters, but very good as meat shields vs. Germany.
	Support AA is also a good one as a small nation, cause it can pierce early (light) tanks, can also help shot down enemy planes, and is much cheaper as it only needs steel where as anti tank needs steel and tungsten.

(40 width)

    XXL Main Combat Infantry Division: (40 width)

    14xINF + 4xART [+ ENG/REC/ART/AT/AA/HOS/LOG]

    13xINF + 4xART+1xHT [+ ENG/REC/ART/AT/AA/HOS/LOG]

    Mixed heavy tanks will give each division 40+ armor with heavy tank 2s and you'll consume way less fuel.
	You have the piercing to match any enemy tank divisions and you get the +50% damage, -50% damage taken from any enemy without proper piercing.
	Even when they are pierced, they're 95% soft so the hard attack from enemy tanks is ineffective.

    No-air Russia

    v1: 13xINF + 3xART+4xAA+1xAT [+ ENG/REC/ART/AT/AA/HOS/LOG]
	If you still aren't piercing the German tanks, don't forget the infantry hard attack +25% piercing +100% techs or remove another artillery and add 3 more AT battalions.

    v2: 12xNF +4ART +4AA with support AA instead of LOG allows you to completely ignore enemy fighters and shoot down lots of CAS

Specialized divisions

    Anti-Tank Division:

    8xINF + 4xAT [+ AT/ENG] Great balance between SA, HA and cost. Keep them in reserve and use them in large stacks to halt enemy armored spearheads.

    13xINF + 4xART+2xAT

    Anti-Air Division:

    8xINF + 4xAA [+ AA/ENG] Low ORG, but high AA. Keep them as a reserve in the rear and strat redeploy them into important battles where the enemy airforce is harassing you.
	Useless on the attack but in sectors that are routinely attacked by the enemy, it helps to reinforce and kills enemy CAS in droves; this cannot be understated.
	These divisions will kill literally hundreds of CAS aircraft over the course of a few weeks. So long as the enemy is attacking, they're losing planes.

    Marines

    13xMar + 4ART+1HT [+ ENG/REC/ART/AT/AA/HOS/LOG] I prefer heavy tanks for my marines over amphibious. If you get heavy tank armour it compensates for lower terrain ability.
	Then once they land heavy tanks are more versatile then amphibious.

    Militia

    1/5xCav - 3xCav[+MP] later. Partisan suppression unit which doesn't need to be fully trained. Use them to garrison your conquered territory that still generates resistance.
	Garrison tool makes them extremely easy to use, but make sure to split those forces into smaller occupation zones to prevent redeployments from half a world away.

    Garrison units

    4 or 5 or 6xINF +/- 2xAA [+ENG + ART +/- AA/MP/AT] - a defensive unit designed for island garrison duty where enemy air power is more threatening than tanks.
	Don't have to be limited to 20 width, since they are meant to fight alone. Stick some more infantry and artillery in them and an engineer support and you have a cheap, powerful unit.
	Unlike the police units you want them to be fully trained. MP adds to their defence and SA but lowers ORG.
	Support AT ensures you can pierce enemy amphib tanks but is useless in SP because AI is shit most of the times.
	Depends on your available manpower, your industrial capacity, what are you trying to defend and who are you fighting against.

    Island hoping on empty islands - 2W INF

    Paratroopers - 5xPAR [+ ENG/REC/ART/AA/MP]. With Superior Firepower (integrated support) and Ground Support, they will wreck everything. MP adds to their SA, speed and defence but lowers ORG.

TANK TEMPLATES - preffered doctrine: Superior Firepower -INTEGRATED AIRLAND

    (20w Light Tanks) Armored Spearhead - EARLY GAME: useful for places like Africa, southeast Asia, Australia, maybe if you're invading the US, also they're only good against little to no opposition

    5xARM + 2xMOT + 2xSP-ART [+ENG/REC/SIG/MAIN/ART-LOG] - /u/Vindicator

    Spam Division TM

    6xARM + 4xMOT [+ENG/REC/SIG/MAIN/ART-LOG]

40W Heavy/ Medium/ Modern tank templates [ART->LOG] unless you REALLY REALLY need Logistic and you are not USA who has fucktons of OIL.

    Integrated - Airland doctrine

    15xARM + 5xMOT [+ENG/REC/SIG/MAIN/ART-LOG]

    13xARM + 5xMOT + 4x SPAA [+ENG/REC/SIG/MAIN/ART-LOG] - No air Russia v1

    12xARM + 5xMOT + 2xSp-Art [+ENG/REC/SIG/MAIN/ART-LOG]

    12xARM + 6XMOT + 2xSPAA + 1xTD [+ENG/REC/SIG/MAIN/ART-LOG] - No air Russia v2

    40W Blitzkireg - [modern blitzkireg] German Division

    15xARM + 5xMOT [+ENG/REC/SIG/MAIN/LOG]

    14xARM + 4xMOT + 4xSPAA [+ENG/REC/SIG/MAIN/LOG]

Motorized Division:

    5-10xMOT [+REC/ENG/+(ART) later] to exploit break through/get overruns

    7xMOT + 2xMoto-Art / LSPArt [+ENG/REC/ART/SIG/+(AA/MAIN/LOG)] Motorised Artillery is good in early game vs Lsp Art, but has no hardness in mid-late game.

CAVALRY Division

    10xCAV [+ENG/+REC/+ART/+AA]

Landstealer Brigade

    1xMOT / LT [+REC], whichever is faster. Ideally use a light tank with max upgrades to the engines.
	Follow your tank divisions with a couple of these, and shove them through a hole in the enemy line and have them just keep running.
	Steal VPs and airfields and generally tie up enemy divisions trying to chase you down as you claim land.
	1 battalion only because they will eventually get caught and killed, more than likely. Add in recon for more speed if you can spare the manpower.

Amphib. Tank Division: - trash - no hardness - better stick to classic tanks

    8xAmpARM + 2xAMP Mech. Same role as the tank divisions, but smaller due to being special forces.
	Support with mech marines (or mech infantry if unavailable) to secure the line. 7/3 also works if you're short on amphib tanks.

Mech. Marines:

    9x AMP Mech + 1x AmpARM. Support for your amphib tank divisions, same as mech supports tank divisions.

    Armor should have it's own army with a General with the armor trait. You don't want full 24 armor division at the start since,
	tactically, it's better to have something like 2x12 division panzer divisions penetrating a front and meeting up to encircle troops.
	You also want motorized divisions in there to hold your breakthrough corridor, overrun fleeing enemies and occupy provinces before the enemy can defend them.
	I try to make 1:1 panzer and motorized just for balance.

    OR

    Use these in small armies of 4+4 divisions. These armies should operate in pairs to make encirclements. Don't leave them in AI hands, command them yourself.
	Break through vulnerable points in the enemy line and have each pair of armies link up on the other side behind the front line, your AI controlled infantry will follow behind.

    You want SA > enemy DEF, BREAK> enemy SA. Tanks in concentration work better then spread out. Less so for lights due to lower stats and for more mobility.
	Hardness, armor, and attack all work better when stacked. Nothing really can challenge them effectivly. Human players can better respond to light tanks preventing rapid breakthroughs.
	SA in excess of def will do 4x the damage of SA is "blocked" by def.
	Breakthrough is offensive damage mitigation and has the same math as defense, defender's soft attack in excess of attacker's breakthrough does 4x damage.

    Armor is also a factor. If a unit has more armor than an enemy has piercing, it does 50% more damage and receives 50% less damage.
	Generally, more tanks and heavier tanks in a template increase armor.

    Having somewhat lower levels of org in a breakthrough division don't matter all that much, the focus of the division is to, as its name implies, break through enemy lines.
	You don't defeat the enemy by having more organization than them, you defeat the enemy by forcing them to retreat. Having around 400 breakthrough stat is more or less completely inconsequential.
	As a tank division, and more so a breakthrough division, you should be fighting infantry. Infantry have notoriously low concentrations of attacks, even with a 14/4 infantry template.
	Once you filter that through the 60 or 70% hardness of the division, you'll be absorbing every enemy attack, even if they stack you.
	Having something like a thousand breakthrough is just silly, it's way more than you'll ever need.