Germany division design

[Jays298]

I play vanilla, Germany 1936, current patch

I saw the guide post about division design from 2016.

Is 7 inf + 2 art with various support companies still good for basic infantry divisions?

I made a bunch of 7 + 2 divisions with recon support and they use a little fuel... So I'm concerned that that may have been a mistake considering the supply constraint issues in the east, Even with logistic support.

What about spearhead divisions ? Currently using some combination of medium armor, motorized art, motorized inf, and various support including logistics. I used the 20 width version from the old 2016 guide.

Thanks.

 

[davor999]

You should be fine. Fuel and supply are different things, pretty much unrelated. you’ll want to read the wiki to understand those better.
7/2 infantry Is still very good and won’t use enough fuel to be of any concern. You’ll want to build a few synthetic factories anyway before the war starts. Even if you don’t need the fuel, you’ll want the rubber for fighter planes.

Medium armor + Mot + motorized art still works very well.

 

[wanoO]

I play vanilla, Germany 1936, current patch

I saw the guide post about division design from 2016.

Is 7 inf + 2 art with various support companies still good for basic infantry divisions?

I made a bunch of 7 + 2 divisions with recon support and they use a little fuel... So I'm concerned that that may have been a mistake considering the supply constraint issues in the east, Even with logistic support.

What about spearhead divisions ? Currently using some combination of medium armor, motorized art, motorized inf, and various support including logistics. I used the 20 width version from the old 2016 guide.

Thanks.

Field artillery has been nerfed since those days, so 7/2 isn't the absolute go to it used to be but it's still viable. Pure infantry is far more efficient for defending but bad on the attack when unsupported. Infantry's offensive capabilities, even 7/2, are fairly weak compared to armor so it is better to attack mainly with tank divisions (depending on terrain) with an enphasis on soft attack (I personnaly use 4 tanks/2 SP artillery/3 motorised + ENG/ART/SIG/REC/ROCKET ART when researched), light tanks are fine until 1940 so I use them in the early war and repurpose them as scouts (tank recon) later when fully switching to mediums. Going back to infantry, a way I like to improve 7/2 divisions is with tank recon for the added breakthrough and armor bonus in the early game; makes them quite formidable against Poland and France but you'll need La Resistance for that otherwise stick a tank battalion in your infantry to give it a nice boost, same end result. As for fuel, don't worry you can import loads from Iraq, Iran and Romania; fuel is a non issue until well into the soviet campaign so make sure to stockpile for that if you're worried. Hope this is helpful.

 

[Jays298]

Field artillery has been nerfed since those days, so 7/2 isn't the absolute go to it used to be but it's still viable. Pure infantry is far more efficient for defending but bad on the attack when unsupported. Infantry's offensive capabilities, even 7/2, are fairly weak compared to armor so it is better to attack mainly with tank divisions (depending on terrain) with an enphasis on soft attack (I personnaly use 4 tanks/2 SP artillery/3 motorised + ENG/ART/SIG/REC/ROCKET ART when researched), light tanks are fine until 1940 so I use them in the early war and repurpose them as scouts (tank recon) later when fully switching to mediums. Going back to infantry, a way I like to improve 7/2 divisions is with tank recon for the added breakthrough and armor bonus in the early game; makes them quite formidable against Poland and France but you'll need La Resistance for that otherwise stick a tank battalion in your infantry to give it a nice boost, same end result. As for fuel, don't worry you can import loads from Iraq, Iran and Romania; fuel is a non issue until well into the soviet campaign so make sure to stockpile for that if you're worried. Hope this is helpful.

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking...pure infantry for Garrison's and 7+2 with recon. Seems to work well.

And you're right about fuel... I guess I did have fuel and supply confused.

Adding a light tank to infantry isn't bad? I usually end up with a surplus of them when I switch to medium tanks.

 

[Kazakk]

If you want to maximize your gameplay, you should focus on specialized divisions. As Germany, I go for 40w pure infantry with engineering, recon, logistics, field hospital and support artillery. These are my line divisions, they are there to hold the line while my attack divisions are trying to accomplish encirclements. Then there are the 20w motorized divisons to fill the gaps as my tanks are pushing.
My attack divisions are 40w tanks. I have 6 40w light SP tanks for the invasion of Poland and France, and then 6 more heavy tank divisions for invading the USSR (I skip mediums altogether). With planning bonus and attacking on plains and air superiority, they have 3k soft attack. They deal so much damage that the enemy can't even reinforce the battle, even if they have 8+ divisions on the tile. And it's extremely hard to pierce through heavy tank divisions. With good strategic planning, I can end the war in 1941 on expert AI with the AI fully buffed.

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking...pure infantry for Garrison's and 7+2 with recon. Seems to work well.

And you're right about fuel... I guess I did have fuel and supply confused.

Adding a light tank to infantry isn't bad? I usually end up with a surplus of them when I switch to medium tanks.

You can convert all your light tanks into light tank SP. You can keep 1 factory at all times producing light SP, so that you can mantain 2-3 light SP divisions even while invading the USSR.

 

[Simon_9732495]

10/0 Infantry for defense/filling frontlines/walking into empty tiles:

You can add ENG support and ART support if you have enough support equipment / Artillery (but it's not priority, you will not lose if you dont have it)
4 or 5 Armys of these are enough (96-120 Divisions)

15/5 Medium Tanks for offense:

LOG support for the war against the Soviet Union
Dont build Medium1 Tanks (1939 tech). Go immediately for Medium2s and then Medium3s.
You will have 2 of these division against POL and FRA if you are good. But more against the Soviets where it counts.

So for the time you dont have enough Tanks (Spanish civil war, Poland, partially France) you need an alternative for offense. Use these also for attacks onto Islands (Yugo or Greece) and naval invasions.
Use these division also if you fight in Africa.
14/4 Infantry:

This is one way to do it, there are many others (like described in the postings before). Have fun!

 

[wanoO]

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking...pure infantry for Garrison's and 7+2 with recon. Seems to work well.

And you're right about fuel... I guess I did have fuel and supply confused.

Adding a light tank to infantry isn't bad? I usually end up with a surplus of them when I switch to medium tanks.

It can give you the armor bonus (quite powerful as it provides extra attack rolls) in the early game but that will quickly dissapear as AI build AT; to preserve it best to use Heavy's if you got'em. I only add tanks to infantry through the armored recon company, otherwise it's ahistorical and overpowered (using meds or heavys) against the vanilla hoi4 AI. Converting them to SP Artillery as suggested by @Kazakk is the best way to make use of that stockpile in the long run, great source of soft attack. If you're playing vanilla, I would recommend you avoid 40 width templates as suggested by others at least for tanks for gameplay sake. At higher difficulties (expert AI for instance) it may be necessary but otherwise you're just hurting your game by having few expensive and overpowered divisions. But if you want the ultimate infantry template either go with 14/4 as above or throw in a heavy tank battalion and you got what we call space marines.
As for supply, main issues are the later stages of barbarossa and overloading zones seperated by sea (norway, uk, africa...). For the former adding the logistics company helps a lot, but no need to use it on smaller templates ofc. You will need to buildup infrastructure as you go and do so in preparation as well to lessen supply issues. For the latter, but also works for russia, avoid overcrowding the battlefield and request AI forces to tell them to, politely piss off, as they have the frustrating tendency to supply choke you.

 

[Flipity]

I like to improve 7/2 divisions is with tank recon for the added breakthrough and armor bonus in the early game; makes them quite formidable against Poland and France but you'll need La Resistance for that

Just a quick correction...you can add a armored recon support company without having La Resistance, you just use light tanks instead of armored cars.