Hearts of Iron IV – General Guide to Land Doctrines

Land Doctrines play an important role in warfare, often directing our playstyle and shaping the form of our army. But also there’s always some kind of questions and confusion towards “What’s the best land doctrine?” or “What should I use for this situation?” In this guide I’ll show detailed information about Land Doctrines, their effects and bonuses.

Land Doctrines Guide

Please note: all credit goes to BotBlu!

The Big 4: All Land Doctrines

Hearts of Iron IV gives the player a choice between 4 different Land Doctrines, each one of them with distinctive army approaches, making them effective on certain army builds and playstyles:

  • – Mobile Warfare – Superior Firepower – Grand Battleplan – Mass Assault –

Also, every single one of them have its own internal paths, remarked as Left (L) and Right (R) from now on.

To make a detailed understanding of doctrines, we’ll be analyzing this topic as the following:

  • Army Bonuses Table. Detailed table of overall army bonuses with all tech tree completed.
  • Division Bonuses Table. Detailed table of specific battalion bonuses with all tech tree completed.
  • Differences in “L” and “R” Paths.
  • Conclusion and Tips.

Mobile Warfare Doctrine – Speed is Key

Mobile Warfare concentrates almost entirely in a highly motorised/armored army, using the speed and blindage of these divisions as a spear to break through the enemy lines.

Army Bonuses Table 

Division Bonuses Table

Differences in “L” and “R” Paths 

1st Decision; Mobile Infantry(L) or Blitzkrieg(R)?

  • Mobile Infantry offers bonuses to motorised and mechanised infantry.
  • Blitzkrieg makes tanks more powerful in combat and breakthrough.

2nd Decision; Desperate Defence(L) or Modern Blitzkrieg(R)?

  • Desperate Defense gives more manpower and garrison damage.
  • Modern Blitzkrieg is a continuation of the blitzkrieg route, giving large bonus to tanks and mobile infantry.

All possible paths:

  1. L&L Doctrine: Focused on motorised/mechanised army and extra manpower reserve.
  2. L&R Doctrine: Mix between motorised/mechanised and tanks sections. Strong if your focus still are motorised/mechanised.
  3. R&L Doctrine: Tanks are strengthened along with an extra manpower.
  4. R&R Doctrine: Extremely tanks focused. Insane tank breakthrough and motorised/mechanised organization buffs.

Conclusion & Tips 

  • This is the ultimate doctrine for a mobile army.
  • Flexible usage of planning gain speed bonus and organization in all divisions.
  • Due to the best usage of heavy equipment in the form of tanks, support companies and others, this doctrine should be build with an important industry backing up the army production.

Superior Firepower Doctrine – Crush Everything

Superior Firepower uses greatest amount of attack and support bonuses, dealing great damage against most divisions.

Army Bonuses Table

Division Bonuses Table

Differences in “L” and “R” Paths 

1st Decision; Dispersed Support(L) or Integrated Support(R)?

  • Dispersed Support gives soft attack bonuses and recovery rate to line artillery.
  • Integrated Support are indispensable if using lots of support companies. This gives more organization and soft attack on support companies.

2nd Decision; Airland Battle(L) or Shock & Awe(R)?

  • Airland Battle is in itself a mix of things, going through attack bonus for the army and tanks, to air superiority.
  • Shock & Awe, even more soft and hard attack for artillery and leg/mobile infantry.

All possible paths:

  1. L&L Doctrine: Strange combo of line artillery bonuses with some tank performance and air superiority at the end. This combination is rarely used due to lack of overall organization and operative cohesion compared to other paths. Not recommended.
  2. L&R Doctrine: Direct battalion approach. Infantry, mechanised and motorised divisions with line artillery are greatly consolidated arround soft and hard attack bonuses. Not recommended unless you rely heavily on line artillery.
  3. R&L Doctrine: Support companies performance and tanks damage are directed to make a formidable tank section or AT based on pure attack bonus.
  4. R&R Doctrine: Army is build over organization. Infantry, artillery, motorised and mechanised recieve great all arround bonuses alongside support companies. Tanks are a supportive but standing section. Most recommended of all paths.

Conclusion & Tips 

  • This doctrine surpass any other in soft and hard attack. Pretty good in defensive and offensive.
  • Integrated Support(R) will always be a better choice reasoning for better organization.
  • Mostly infantry and artillery based. Can get tanks bonus from “L” side ending. Can get motorised/mechanised bonus from “R” side ending.
  • Best doctrine for AT guns and AT tanks.
  • Needs some industry to get divisions supplied on variety of support equipments.

Grand Battleplan Doctrine – Strategic Oportunities

Grand Battleplan is based around a defensive stance using infantry and a safer offensive style with plannings use.

Army Bonuses Table 

Division Bonuses Table 

Differences in “L” and “R” Paths 

Decision; Assault (L) or Infantry Infiltration (R)?

  • Assault gives max planning bonus and breakthrough. Small bonus to mobile infantry organization and tank performance.
  • Infiltration flexibilize infantry, land night attack penalty reduction and less supply consumption. Perfect for missions in hard terrain.

Conclusion & Tips 

  • Doctrine with best defense in the game. Using entrenchment and organization as his main form of consolidation.
  • Huge max planning bonuses.
  • Primarily usage of infantry divisions.
  • Good doctrine for low industrialised nations.
  • Lacks any type of good armor bonuses.

Mass Assault Doctrine – A Weapon for Every Person

Mass Assault is made for a large army mobilization, manpower becomes a weapon.

Army Bonuses Table 

Division Bonuses Table 

Differences in “L” and “R” Paths 

Decision; Deep Battle (L) or Mass Mobilisation (R)?

  • Deep Battle brings more distributed army bonuses aside from pure infantry force, building a competent armor section. More offensive minded. Takes the fight in large fonts.
  • Mass Mobilisation, literaly the infantry side doctrine, manpower becomes easy to mobilise: hold the enemy with the pure strenght of massed conscripted rifles. Huge bonus to resistanse and guerrilla tactics, making it even harder for invasors to gain territory. Defensive minded.

Conclusion & Tips

  • Very flexible doctrine. Can go either very defensive or offensive style warfare.
  • Large reinfoce bonus. This means more divisions can reinforce into battles faster than any other doctrine, keeping up longer battles.
  • Good for nations without a strong industry and great reserves of manpower.
Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 15057 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.

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