HOI4 Best Defensive Infantry Templates (2026)

Quick answer

Build the 30-width baseline: 15 infantry battalions, no line artillery, 4 support companies. That is the one to build first, and every other template on this page is this one with a single thing changed.

The six variations below cover specific situations — 38 width where you know the attack is coming, dedicated AA against total air superiority, a logistics company for the Soviet Union and Africa. Build this one, then keep a copy of each variant in the designer and swap by front.

This page is about defensive infantry only — the cheap 30-width brick and the six variations of it; for division widths across every other role, tank divisions and the throwaway templates, see HOI4 division templates after the Thunder at Our Gates rework.

🎯 The core idea

The best defensive division in HOI4 is also the cheapest one. Players over-engineer their infantry — more artillery, more support companies, more of everything — and the result drains industry, wrecks organisation and gets the division killed faster than a plainer one would have died.

Organisation is the only thing stopping a unit from shattering and running. Line artillery drags it into the mud. So a defensive division should be a brick: never lethal, just unbreakable, holding a tile while your tanks do the actual winning. The moment you stop trying to make infantry lethal, it becomes immortal.

Do this first

1. Land between 30 and 38 combat width. Anything that will see standard combat needs at least 30. Thirty is the baseline specifically because it lets you fit the maximum number of regimental support companies; 38 is the upper wall. Inside that band the exact number barely matters.
2. Take the line artillery out. This is the whole argument. Adding artillery to a defensive line makes it worse at its one job — organisation collapses, HP drops, the division takes far more casualties and retreats sooner.
3. Accept low soft attack. These divisions are not meant to push. Low soft attack makes people nervous; that nervousness is what makes them build worse divisions. Your industry and your attention go to early tank divisions instead.

The six templates

All six are the same idea with one thing changed. Build the first, then keep a copy of each variant in the designer and swap by front.

• free costs nothing extra
• cheap minor industry cost
• setup needs tech or a specific situation
• skip singleplayer only

1. The 30-width baseline freePure infantry at exactly 30 width, no line artillery, with the regimental support slots filled. Everything else on this list is this template plus one change. Maximum organisation means the division holds long enough for neighbouring units to cycle back into the battle on their own — which is what "zero micro" actually means: you never have to pause and pull tired divisions out. 1:35
2. The 38-width wall cheapThe baseline with more infantry battalions packed in, up to 38 width. Costs more manpower; returns staggering organisation and HP. The AI can smash its head against this for months. Use it where you know the attack is coming. 2:45
3. The anti-CAS wall — 55 air attack setupFollowing a recent change to how CAS damage is calculated, you need roughly 55 air attack to cap the damage reduction. Support AA alone cannot get there — it is a decent shield, not the cap. This variant converts some regimental slots into dedicated AA batteries to reach 55. Deploy it when the AI has complete air superiority and you just need to stop being bombed. 4:21
4. The defensive space marine skipThe baseline plus one cheap, heavily armoured tank battalion or SPAA — armour-heavy enough that it cannot be pierced. The AI is predictable and rarely builds enough piercing to answer it. Result: 50% less damage from all attacks, organisation drops half as fast, equipment losses slashed. Banned in most multiplayer lobbies, which the author concedes is fair — "the AI doesn't complain on Discord". 5:08
5. The logistics brick cheapThe baseline plus a logistics company. Zero micro means you will eventually park troops in a red supply zone without noticing, and the AI bombs your infrastructure while you are looking elsewhere. Logistics stops attrition bleeding the division dry before the enemy even attacks. For the Soviet Union and Africa. 5:58
6. The desperate-supply variant setupThe logistics brick with support anti-air removed entirely to make room for helicopter transports or supply brigades. You are trading away your air defence purely to keep the men fed. Only when you are truly desperate to stay entrenched in a terrible supply zone. 7:03

What each template actually contains

Read straight off the designer at the second each one appears. Production cost is the game's own estimate range, so treat it as relative rather than absolute.

0:34 — the opening example at 20 width. Too narrow for standard combat, which is the point being made.

1:49 — the baseline. Fifteen infantry, four support companies, 263.4 soft attack against 753.8 defence, 17,300 manpower.

2:54 — the 38-width wall. Four more battalions than the baseline for roughly 15% more cost.

3:30 — the anti-CAS build. The stat to watch is Anti-Aircraft on the right; the video never says how many batteries reach 55 air attack.

5:06 — the space marine. Three medium tank battalions inside an infantry template push armour to 13.4%, and the cost to nearly double the baseline.

6:18 — the logistics variant, with a fifth support company added.

The numbers

The video never gives the AA battery count that reaches 55 air attack — it says working it out "takes a ridiculous amount of testing" and moves on. That is the one number you will have to find in the designer yourself.

What the video does not quantify

Worth being straight about, because it is the weak point of the argument: the industrial saving is asserted, never measured. There are no factory counts, no equipment costs, no IC figures anywhere. "Cheapest you can build" and "staggering org and HP" are claims, not numbers, and the 50% / half-as-fast space marine figures come with no test behind them.

The scope is also narrower than the title suggests. Every part of this depends on the AI being predictable — low piercing, predictable designs, willingness to grind itself down on a fort. None of it is claimed to work against humans, and the space marine is explicitly banned in multiplayer.

From the comments

The comment section on this one is unusually argumentative, and the disagreements are worth more than the agreement.

Where to go next

These templates are the denominator; how combat modifiers stack is the numerator, and reading both together explains why an identical template holds one front and folds on another. For campaigns that field them, see the Germany focus order and the Soviet order sheet.

Sources

• "6 Division Templates That Hold The Line Forever - With Zero Micro" — MrThunder, YouTube, 30 July 2026 (8:28).
• The compositions come from the screen, not the narration. Battalion counts and support companies are never spoken aloud; the designer is opened six times and the numbers above are read off those frames (0:34, 1:49, 2:54, 3:30, 5:06, 6:18). A seventh opening around 6:58 is partly covered by a tooltip and is not reproduced here.
• Narration is transcribed from auto-generated captions, so some terms may be slightly mangled — "regimental support companies" in particular is the author's phrasing and may not match your client's wording exactly.
• The "from the comments" box collects points raised by viewers MrTomowolf, RamdomDude4587, antoinepetit3952, mortalcoil8585, SirAroace, frosty8724 and volcanic_sloth that are not in the video itself.

Where to go next

These templates assume you already know which tank is going into the armor battalions. The HOI4 Tank Designer Guide has the module-by-module numbers straight out of the 1.19.2.0 game files, including which chassis is worth its production cost and why heavy tanks usually are not. For how the percentage bonuses here interact once they are all on one division, see HOI4 Modifier Stacking and the Red Bubble.

Tied to a specific post-May-2026 patch: the CAS damage calculation is described as recently changed, and helicopter transports as a supply option are DLC and patch dependent. Verify the 55 air attack threshold against your own designer before building around it.