What are optimal Divison Templates?

[afb]

Well, you would never get heavy anti air for the soft attack. Even art1 blows it out of the water:

1 batallion of Artillery 1 (+first improvement, you can get just as fast):

cost: 126
SA: +32.4

1 batallion of Heavy Anti Air :

Cost: 200 (+58%)
SA : +6.7 (-79%)

I could see against CAS, but I've noticed in early SP battles the air game is insignificant.
I never considered the hardness factor. It's interesting. But early SP game, the AI is pretty absent with hard units too..

I've made 40W Marine Divisions that most basic infantry couldn't pierce by using just one HSPAA battalion. It was as Japan so I probably used some XP to increase armor a bit, but I can't remember. SPArt delivers more punch, but it's also more expensive.

 

[Kaosium]

Well, you would never get heavy anti air for the soft attack. Even art1 blows it out of the water:

1 batallion of Artillery 1 (+first improvement, you can get just as fast):

cost: 126
SA: +32.4

1 batallion of Heavy Anti Air :

Cost: 200 (+58%)
SA : +6.7 (-79%)

I could see against CAS, but I've noticed in early SP battles the air game is insignificant.
I never considered the hardness factor. It's interesting. But early SP game, the AI is pretty absent with hard units too..

Unless they changed something and I didn't notice in my limited battle play with the new release, their hard attack and piercing is pretty much non-existent in the early game too, thus that hardness and armor does matter. Later on their infantry will be loaded up with AT guns and some will be able to pierce heavy tanks, but in the early game I've added old LT-1s and Great War tanks to INF and a significant number of their units are unable to pierce, especially in Spain and China.

AFB initially suggested it as cheap armor and I was merely pointing out some of these units are a lot less expensive than their production cost would suggest due to the numbers needed to fill a battalion being very low. The true cost would be research cost of the HT, but if you're going through that line anyway sometimes you can use a variant to keep your research slots lined up to take ~30 days off the next land doctrine tech and get some cheap armor for your INF.

Forgot to add: having armor is probably the very best way to get elite units in Spain and China. There is nothing more optimal than coming home with Death-Head Vets....

 

[seattle]

For the first 1100 hours of HoI4 I completely discarded the idea of adding light tanks to infantry divs because of my "speed bottleneck" dogma.

I was stupid and that for a very long time, as it turned out.
My new favourite infantry template (width 40) for Germany:
line:
- 13 infantry
- 2 light tanks
- 3 arty
- 1 AT
support: engineer, recon, hospital, logistics, signal

The reason for 2 light tanks is simple:
1. they don't cost precious tungsten (medium) or chromium (heavy)
2. they multiply the vital "breakthrough" stat of an infantry division, so that the infantry can punch holes into well-entrenched enemy lines.

Changed my HoI4 life forever!

 

[a_sophist]

For the first 1100 hours of HoI4 I completely discarded the idea of adding light tanks to infantry divs because of my "speed bottleneck" dogma.

I was stupid and that for a very long time, as it turned out.
My new favourite infantry template (width 40) for Germany:
line:
- 13 infantry
- 2 light tanks
- 3 arty
- 1 AT
support: engineer, recon, hospital, logistics, signal

The reason for 2 light tanks is simple:
1. they don't cost precious tungsten (medium) or chromium (heavy)
2. they multiply the vital "breakthrough" stat of an infantry division, so that the infantry can punch holes into well-entrenched enemy lines.

Changed my HoI4 life forever!

I've never cared to attack with infantry as Germany, except to close pockets, so I usually just do 10inf with support. Care to explain why you would mix tanks in so infantry becomes viable rather than make a few more dedicated 40 width armor?

 

[ithillid]

Well, you would never get heavy anti air for the soft attack. Even art1 blows it out of the water:

For their width is the important part. Art 1 is good, but it is also width three versus width one for SPAA, no matter the variant.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

So is 26 width a good middle unit until you get 40s?

 

[dave1233]

So is 26 width a good middle unit until you get 40s?

You always want widths of either 10 20 or 40 in general, I can't really see any reason to go for 26 width rather than 20

 

[kgmi]

Signal Company is vital for 20&40 width Divisons, to get a higher chance of reserve battalions joining the fight and , correct?
Is it worth it to put Rocket and Artillery Support together into 1 divison template?
What Divisons benefit the most from Recon?

 

[Stolen Rutters]

You always want widths of either 10 20 or 40 in general, I can't really see any reason to go for 26 width rather than 20

Three units per 80 width attack...

So not enough army xp means stick to 20 until you get enough xp. Got it.

 

[dave1233]

Three units per 80 width attack...

the problem is the combat isnt always multiples of 80 width. It's 80+40 per each additional direction (excluding combat tactics) so 120 is a common combat width and 26 width divisions don't work well there.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Thanks.

 

[Kaosium]

I've never cared to attack with infantry as Germany, except to close pockets, so I usually just do 10inf with support. Care to explain why you would mix tanks in so infantry becomes viable rather than make a few more dedicated 40 width armor?

There is some terrain where INF with LT support is significantly more economical than using a 40 width armor division. Now that your ability to have mass mountaineers is inhibited, some INF with old LTs might be a better option. You don't even notice the terrain effects loss, but you do notice the breakthrough difference. The worst part about it is what it does to training times and/or the experience levels of troops they're added to, but compared to watching the stockpiles of your precious medium and heavy tanks dwindle alarmingly it's endurable.

 

[seattle]

I've never cared to attack with infantry as Germany, except to close pockets, so I usually just do 10inf with support. Care to explain why you would mix tanks in so infantry becomes viable rather than make a few more dedicated 40 width armor?

1. you get a 100 efficiency production line of LT at game start, making LT production dirt cheap.
2. Don't recall the exact numbers, but I believe that 2 LT in a 40 width inf div will increase the divs breakthrough about 3-4 times. Without LT it will be very low, like 50.
3. Why waste precious tank divs for breakthrough? Plus, having the bulk of your army excell at breaking through enemy lines is a huge bonus for Germany in particular.