Unfortunately, since Germany is the main antagonist of Hearts of Iron 4, it will have to face all the great powers of the world at once and try to actually win somehow.
Most players think that strategies are enough to win everything. However, if you have only bad divisions, it’s impossible to beat any country’s army.
Recommended Read: How to Use Army Experience Cheat in Hearts of Iron 4
Since there are players that have managed to fail their push into France or Poland as Germany, it is clear that a little bit of help would go a long way.
So, in this guide, we will show you the best division templates you can use for Germany in Hearts of Iron 4 for all possible occasions.
Table of Contents
- Best Garrison Template for Germany in HOI4
- Best Coastline Garrisons/VP Defenders Template for Germany
- Best German Infantry Templates
- Best German Tank Divisions
Best Garrison Template for Germany in HOI4
Though there are many debates about the best Garrison template in HOI4, the clear winner is a one battalion Cavalry division.
No Support, no extra Cavalry. To be clear, by Garrison, we refer to the template you use to control Resistance and Compliance, not actual divisions that you use to defend territories!
With one battalion of Cavalry, players will get the second-best Suppression/Manpower ratio that they can get.
The best one would be a full 50 width Cavalry division with Military Police support company, but that costs quite a bit of Army Experience at the start of the game, so keep it in mind for the late game.
Best Coastline Garrisons/VP Defenders Template for Germany
One of the most common problems Germany has in a HOI4 game is D-Day. When the Allies decide to attack its coastline, the war usually ends if the troops there aren’t decent enough.
However, Germany can’t invest too much on that part of the country considering the war with the USSR.
So, we have to come up with a decent compromise:
- x3 Infantry
- Support: Anti-Air, Engineer
The whole point of this template is to protect lands from debuffed naval invasions or out-of-supply attackers while not losing a lot of equipment and Manpower in their making.
Considering you aren’t planning on stacking these divisions on top of each other, they will do great in individually protecting their respective territory from attackers.
The Engineers will also be vital since they will give the division the necessary Entrenchment bonus to survive incoming attacks.
The Anti-Air will also be extremely useful, considering most players will want their CAS and Fighters on the front with the Soviets, leaving the whole of France and Germany without any protection from the Allies’ air wings.
Best German Infantry Templates
The Infantry template for Germany should evolve as the game goes on, as they will be important throughout the whole playthrough.
Even though the final goal would be getting a full army of Motorized/Mechanized Infantry, we will have to make due with what we got:
1939 Division
- x4 Infantry
- x3 Infantry
- Support: Anti-Air, Engineer, Artillery, Cavalry Recon
At the start of the game, the best combat width for smaller divisions would be either 14 or 15. For a pure Infantry division, that would mean 7 battalions stacked with good support companies.
Anti-Air and Engineers are a must for their amazing defensive capabilities. The Artillery and the Recon will be important if you want the divisions to actually push through anything.
Still, it depends on what front you are using the divisions. If they push the Soviet border, the Air won’t be as much of a problem, since Germany has to defeat their Air wings every time.
So, if they’re Anti-Soviet Infantry, you can remove the Anti-Air and change it to Anti-Tank.
On the Western front, Anti-Air will be very important, as they will have a never ending supply of new Air wings in the UK to bomb your territories.
1939 Mot Division
- 2×3 Motorized Infantry
- x1 Motorized Artillery
- Support: Engineer, Artillery, Motorized Recon, Maintenance
Since the main idea behind the way Germany fights is speed, normal Infantry won’t really cut it in France or Poland. For the Soviet front, players can use Leg Infantry, since there won’t be a lot of fast advancing of the line.
However, we need something more than Tanks to defeat the Allies. With very high Max Speed, this template will allow German players to cruise through broken frontlines.
With a relatively high stat in both Soft Attack and Defense, this division is ready to both hold lines and push them.
To make sure the Soft Attack is as high as possible, we stick a line Artillery and a support one as well. There’s no need for Anti-Air or Anti-Tank at this point, especially for what we need them to do.
Maintenance will be very important since the Reliability of this division will be poor.
One thing players might do to make this division extremely good for multiplayer and better, in general, is to remove one Motorized Infantry and add a Medium Tank to the mix, a tank with a design that keeps the 12 km/h Max Speed while also adding much needed Armor to the division.
This way, this template can face any type of Infantry division and more likely than not win, and also withstand the powerful attack of Tank divisions.
1940 Division
- 2×3 Infantry
- x2 Artillery
- Support: Anti-Air, Engineer, Artillery, Cavalry Recon
Against the AI in HOI4, the most important stat of all is Soft Attack. This is the stat that will decide your power against all of their divisions, as they rarely use Tanks the right way.
In a multiplayer game, we would recommend changing the support Artillery with Anti-Tank to get some Hard Attack as well on the division.
Otherwise, we keep the template the same, just doubling the Soft Attack by removing one Infantry and adding two Line Artillery battalions.
Also, change the Anti-Air for Anti-Tank if they will be spending most of their time on the Soviet front.
1942 Division
- 3×3 Infantry
- x2 Artillery + x1 Anti-Air
- Support: Anti-Tank, Engineer, Artillery, Cavalry Recon, Logistics
With an extra 3 Infantry battalions and the full Anti-Tank and Anti-Air battalions, this division template is ready to face most types of enemies on the battlefield.
One of the worst things about it is the relatively big Manpower and Supply usage.
The Supply can be fixed with a Logistics company, but the Manpower is, unfortunately, something that we have to accept for the big combat stats.
Still, these divisions will only exist to increase the overall division count of the country, with the main focus on powerful Tank divisions.
There will likely be tanks on both fronts now, so the Anti-Tank support will be a must. The Anti-Air can be changed for either an extra Artillery or Anti-Tank for the Soviet front, as long as you properly control the air there.
1942 Mot Division
- 3×3 Motorized Infantry
- x2 Motorized Artillery + x1 Motorized Anti-Air
- Support: Anti-Tank, Engineer, Artillery, Motorized Recon, Maintenance
This division is the same as the normal Infantry one but with Motorized battalions. It will move much faster, but it will require a lot more equipment.
We exchanged the Logistics support company for Maintenance, since it will be vital for keeping all the equipment from disappearing due to attrition. However, this division will use more supplies than the normal Infantry division, so make sure to keep them for special operations.
This isn’t something that you should use for your whole army since it wouldn’t be viable on fronts like the eastern one. They could be good for going forth between fronts when the Allies do their inevitable 7th D-Day.
If you are playing multiplayer, make sure to make them all Mechanized instead of Motorized to increase the Hardness of the division.
It might be a good idea to also change the Mot Artillery and Mot Anti-Air for SP Artillery and Sp Anti-Air to make the division completely Soft Attack-proof.
Best German Tank Divisions
Tank divisions are the most important part of the German army. Though there is no way to make a full army of just Tank divisions, Germany is the only country in HOI4 that can try.
The point of Tank divisions will be pushing through the frontline and advancing behind enemy lines, allowing the Infantry to push the whole line alongside them.
This is why the most important stats for Tank divisions will be a combination of Soft Attack with high Armor, Hardness, and Max Speed.
Generally, Tank divisions find their best footing at 35 Combat Width, so try to maintain that for all of them. In the worst case, you can also use 36 if you want some room for improvisation.
1939 Division
- 2×4 Medium Tank
- 2×4 Motorized Infantry
- x1 Motorized Artillery
- Support: Engineer, Motorized Recon, Logistics, Maintenance, Flame Tank
Medium Tanks are the best choice for both single-player and multiplayer HOI4 games since they have the best balance between power and speed with the right design, allowing you to use tanks the way it was intended.
We should also try to keep Organization close to 50 since this will make the division more powerful than most of the ones the AI will throw at you.
If you want to buff the template and make it more powerful, but less resistant, you can go for 3×4 Medium Tanks and 1×4 Motorized Infantry.
Though Organization will be closer to 30, all the other stats would have majorly increased.
The Motorized Artillery is a must for this template, as it gives that boost to Soft Attack that the division needs against all the normal AI divisions.
The Flame Tank is also mandatory, as it combats many of the debuffs the normal Tanks get, making them better on most terrain types when attacking.
Logistics and Maintenance are required to keep the upkeep costs of these divisions, since they are big, use a lot of equipment, and we’d rather not lose everything to attrition.
Also, if you wanted to do Light or Heavy variants of this template, the other parts work well either way. So, you’d just have to change the Medium Tanks for whatever Tanks you want, and the result would be the same overall.
1942 Division
- x4 Medium Tank
- x3 Medium Tank
- 2×4 Mechanized Infantry
- x1 SP Artillery, x1 Tank Destroyer
- Support: Engineer, Motorized Recon, Logistics, Maintenance, Flame Tank
For this upgrade, we change all the Motorized for Mechanized, making the division 100 times more resistant to any kind of attack, as it is now almost 100% Hardness.
Soft Attack won’t do anything to these divisions, and only Tank Destroyers will have a chance.
We also removed the Motorized Artillery to add Tank Artillery. The SP Artillery is a special tank you can design in the tank designer to create a Tank Artillery battalion.
It will have the same stats of a normal Artillery battalion, but players can edit all the stats that they care about, such as Armor, Max Speed, and many others.
Since there are also Tanks appearing on the enemy side around this time, players will need a Tank Destroyer in the division to increase the Hard Attack of the template. We’ll remove a Medium Tank to also keep the combat width at 35.
Otherwise, the division is almost the same as the previous one.
Again, same as last time, if you want to decrease the Organization and Defense stats for extra Soft Attack, Hard Attack, and Breakthrough, remove one line of Mechanized Infantry and replace it with Medium Tanks.
That’s everything you need to know about the best German templates in Hearts of Iron 4!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
