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Templates guides for Hearts of Iron IV

Guides covering Hearts of Iron IV templates: division designs, tank, plane and ship variants from the designers, and when each one is worth building.

14 guides

Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 Air Meta Guide 2026

Build efficient fighters, CAS, naval bombers, and carrier-based naval bombers with the current small-airframe priorities. This is for players who want to win air wars with fewer losses and less strain on rubber and aluminium.

11 min read 88Updated 11 days ago
Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 Infantry Templates 2026

This guide covers how to build offensive and defensive infantry templates in Hearts of Iron IV, including doctrine choices, support companies, and when infantry is worth using at all. It is aimed at players who want practical division setups that perform in multiplayer and single-player alike.

10 min read 287Updated 1 month ago
Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 Tank Designs and Templates 2026

This plan covers tank technology priorities, practical tank variants, and the division templates they fit into. It is for players who want a clear path from research and design choices to usable armored divisions.

16 min read 167Updated 1 month ago
Hearts of Iron IVBeginnerTemplates

HOI4 Doctrines Guide 2026

This guide helps players choose doctrine paths in Hearts of Iron IV by role, with separate recommendations for grand, infantry, artillery/support, armor, and operations doctrines. It is aimed at players who want a fast tiered overview of which doctrine fits tanks, infantry, defense, or niche builds.

10 min read 228Updated 1 month ago
Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 Meta Division Templates and Tank Designs

The division templates that competitive Hearts of Iron IV play settles on under the regimental support system, with exact battalion counts, regimental and support company slots for line-holder infantry, infantry bricks, shield infantry, marines, SPGs and heavy tank destroyers. It also covers the tank module layouts those divisions rely on, for players who can already open the division designer and want the compositions rather than an explanation of it.

18 min read 229Updated 1 month ago
Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 Navy Meta: What to Build After the Naval Changes

The naval rework changed which fleets win and how naval dominance is earned, and the short answer is that cheap hulls in large numbers beat a small quality fleet. This covers the ship types worth producing, the destroyer-to-cruiser ratio that tested best, what submarines can still do, and why naval invasions of the UK are now far harder for minor nations.

25 min read 126Updated 1 month ago
Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 Special Forces Doctrines: Every Branch Ranked

The Thunder At Our Gates patch replaced the special forces doctrine system with one grand doctrine choice and a pair of sub-doctrines for each special forces type, and the branches are nowhere near equal. This guide ranks every option, gives the numbers behind each pick, and sets out the path to take for a standard special forces army.

17 min read 31Updated 1 month ago
Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 HQ Support Companies: The Best Army HQ Setup

Army headquarters give a general's whole army a set of commander bonuses, and only four support slots decide which ones. This guide ranks every HQ support company, names the three that belong in almost every HQ, and shows the proximity setting that keeps a general from being captured.

21 min read 135Updated 1 month ago
Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 Regimental Support Companies, HQs and Special Forces Doctrine

A new update puts a regimental support company slot into division templates, adds deployable army headquarters with their own support staff, and collapses the special forces doctrine branches into single paths. Covers which support company to slot for each air situation, how to build and position an HQ, and which doctrines and XP upgrades are worth taking, for players who already design their own divisions.

13 min read 98Updated 1 month ago
Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 Division Templates After the Thunder Rework

Concrete division templates and tank designs for the reworked division designer: how wide to build, which support companies to fit and in what order, and what to put in a tank, a garrison and an army HQ. Written for players who already know the division designer and want current numbers rather than an explanation of the interface.

19 min read 167Updated 1 month ago
Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 Tank Designer Guide: Modules, Costs and Best Designs

Every chassis and module stat pulled straight from the 1.19.2.0 game files, not adjectives: exact armor, attack, reliability and IC numbers for an infantry-support tank, a main medium, a heavy, a tank destroyer and a cheap light tank, each backed by a screenshot from a real Tank Designer session and checked against three creators who don't fully agree.

35 min read 132Updated 2 months ago
Hearts of Iron IVIntermediateTemplates

HOI4 Navy Guide 2026: Fleet Composition and Ship Design

One destroyer template currently wins naval combat on its own. Here is that template, plus the systems underneath it — screening ratios, missions, doctrines, MIOs — so you can build the next meta template yourself when this one gets patched.

35 min read 737Updated 2 months ago
Hearts of Iron IVBeginnerTemplates

HOI4 Best Defensive Infantry Templates (2026)

The best defensive division is also the cheapest. Line artillery drags organisation into the mud, and a weaker-looking pure infantry brick holds a tile far longer than a lethal one — six variants built off that idea, from a 30-width baseline to a supply-starved emergency build.

13 min read 460Updated 2 months ago
Hearts of Iron IVBeginnerTemplates

HOI4 Modifiers Explained: Stacking and the Red Bubble

HOI4 multiplies combat modifiers instead of adding them, so eight ordinary bonuses compound into +848%. The same two divisions go from 1,064 soft attack to over 9,000 without changing a single battalion — here is every source, in the order to fix them.

20 min read 61Updated 2 months ago