The engineer company increases the amount a division can entrench itself, meaning that given enough time, a single division with an engineering team can become a major problem for an attacking force.

On the subject of support companies, two that are almost necessary to include are the engineer company and the recon company. These ‘support’ companies don’t bring as much firepower as their larger counterparts, but they add nothing to the total combat width of a division. If you’re approaching your comfortable limit, consider adding a support artillery company rather than an artillery battalion. Artillery is the other main outlier, costing a heavy 3 width. These both cost 1 width as they’re not considered ‘frontline’ fighters. Generally, frontline battalions will have a width of 2, the most common exceptions being dedicated anti-air and anti-tank battalions. Most battlefields will have “combat width” of 80, meaning that optimal division sizes should be either 20 or 40, if you’re looking to min-max as much as possible ( Note: if a province is attacked from multiple directions simultaneously, each new province will add 40 to the total allowed combat width, which means more units will be able to fight at once).

One of the most important considerations to take into account when designing a division is combat width.Įach division will take up an amount of space on the battlefield, and having more divisions on a side in a fight will lead to reduced effectiveness, or will block reinforcements from joining the fight altogether. Optimal division size is 20 or 40 combat width The level of control you have over the makeup of individual divisions and ships can be daunting, but as long as you follow the rules laid out to you, you will be conquering away in no time. Make sure you're up to speed with all the latest changes as of the most recent patch.īefore going about weaving the grand strategies that will fuel your world-dominating/liberating campaign, it’s essential to master the cogs in your war-machine. Luckily for you, that's where we come in! Now you have a handy guide to aid you in navigating the choppy organisational waters of the (second) war to end all wars. Hearts of Iron 4 can be unapologetically brutal to new wargamers, due to the sheer number of systems involved – especially with numerous DLC and patches adding extra complexity to the already-sophisticated systems in the base game. And – as any hardened Hearts of Iron veteran will tell you – one of the most fundamental, crucial challenges to get your head around is optimising HoI4 division templates.

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