Hearts of Iron IV – Division Templates (Singleplayer)

A small guide on singleplayer infantry divisions.

Guide to Division Templates

Basic Universal Templates

20 width Infantry Division

If you are not new, or you watch any HOI youtubers you will hear this a lot, the 20 width infantry division is a great defensive and offensive division which can hold lines while a stronger divisions breakthrough – a cost effective division for minors and majors all to use.

You can use 10 infantry battalions (picture above) or 7 infantry battalions and 2 artillery, known as a 7’2. The 7’2 has more soft attack (because of the artillery) but the 10 infantry battalions have more defence, making the 10 infantry battalions good for defence of lines and the 7’2 good for offensives, these are cost effective divisions that are good for minors and majors.

You can also add multiple support companies, the first of which is recommended being the engineer division, then recon artillery signal companies etc.

40 width Infantry Division

The 40 width division, is strong and relatively expensive and more accessible if you are a major.

This division is known as the 14’4 because of the 14 infantry and 4 artillery battalions.

This division is good for both defence and offensives and can be changed to have more artillery or infantry battalions depending on the players needs. Adding several support companies can be good as well, for example if you’re looking to combat tanks use Anti-Tank or if you want to re-enforce manpower and equipment quicker you can use support companies increasing initiative.

I recommend this division for countries like the USA, USSR and Germany due to its cost – although quite heavy and impractical in mountains and hills this division will serve well late game with its Anti-Tank capabilities and huge amount of firepower. This division is also boosted a considerable amount by the superior firepower doctrine.

Marine Divisions

Depending on your plans marines can be very useful, and getting a good template for them is necessary to make a beach head. This is especially useful if you’re playing as the UK/USA and need to land a D-Day, which although being easier in singleplayer if you leave it too long you may need better divisions.

The standard 14’4 just made up of marines rather than standard infantry with engineer company can be very effective. Or if you do not have the resources then you can use a 20 width:

If you feel like doing something different and have DLC you could use amphibious tanks, like this:

20 width division using marines and amphibious tanks.

40 width division using marines and ampbibious tanks.

The amphibious tanks are more useful for countries with more industry but can be achieved by smaller nations.

You can also use an exploit to get more special forces. Create loads of 2 width divisions and then convert them to unequipped 50 widths. This will increase the special force cap and then you can convert some of the divisions to the marines and get a lot more of the marines.

Other Useful Information

Several countries start with a division template that can be edited to form an average 20 width division:

Changed to this:

For example Germany and the UK, this can not only make slowly progressing to larger and better divisions easier but give you more time to do so and keep a small step ahead of the AI for a few in-game months.

Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 8048 Articles
I love games and I live games. Video games are my passion, my hobby and my job. My experience with games started back in 1994 with the Metal Mutant game on ZX Spectrum computer. And since then, I’ve been playing on anything from consoles, to mobile devices. My first official job in the game industry started back in 2005, and I'm still doing what I love to do.

9 Comments

  1. I already know all of this, but when I started a few month ago I wish I had a guide like this one, most of the others are either not up to date or countradict each other

  2. Hey, just noticed a small, very unimportant mistake. In Universal Infantry Templates under 40 Width Templates you present a template that you call a “11/16.” I believe you meant “11/6” as that’s what the screenshot presents. Apart from that, great guide!

  3. just an fyi ur garrison should be a full 50 width this gives max supr. meaning you will use far less guns and manpower to occupy states than with 20 width divs and they will take less losses do to the higher supr. effect

  4. Great Guide! Most of these templates are useful in practice (I didn’t try the rest).
    However, the developers are going to change the combat width in new DLC.

  5. In their dev diary, it states that changes in combat width and supply system will be made accompany with Barbarossa (not No Step Back). So i think it will be a major rework other than a dlc feature.

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