Since Hearts of Iron 4 revolves around the Second World War, the most efficient battalion and division players can use to defeat their enemies are Tanks.
From Light Tanks to Super Heavy Tanks, there are many types of armored vehicles that players can design and use in HOI4. And, due to the ability to design them, you can make the most overpowered turtles on wheels the world has ever seen.
Recommended Read: Best Land Doctrine in Hearts of Iron 4
However, a good division template will make the difference between winning and losing a war. Even with the best Tank design out there, they can’t really do anything if you make a full division of them with close to 0 Organization.
In this guide, we will give you a list of some of the best Tank division templates you can use in Hearts of Iron 4 and win WW2 with any country that you want.
Table of Contents
- Best Light Tank Division Templates in HOI4
- Best Medium Tank Division Templates
- Best Heavy Tank Division Templates
Best Light Tank Division Templates in HOI4
There are three main types of Tanks in HOI4: Light, Medium, and Heavy Tanks. Since all of them are important and useful for most players, we will go through some of the best division templates for all these types of Tanks.
Generally, all good Tank divisions should have either 35 or 36 combat width, which are the best numbers for most terrain types. Going over 36 would be a mistake since you would be at a relatively big disadvantage from width penalties.
We also try to keep the Organization somewhere close to 50 since it would make the division incredibly weak otherwise. Many players make the mistake of making Tank divisions with Organization close to 20, which can often result in easy lost battles.
This is why you will see most of these division templates are made of 8 battalions of Infantry, either Leg, Motorized, or Mechanized, depending on the type of tank used in the division.
1939-40 Motorized Light Tank Division
The first Light Tank division you can use at the start of the war is relatively beefy, but good enough to move fast and help you Victory Points while also beating most types of divisions.
Just be advised, this division will be incredible against AI templates and will bring down everything that isn’t made out of pure Armor, but multiplayer Hard Tank divisions might be too strong to get through.
Here is the best Light Tank division template to use at the start of the war:
- 4×2 Light Tank
- 4×2 Motorized Infantry
- 1 Motorized Artillery
- Support: Engineer + Motorized Recon + Anti-Air + Maintenance + Flame Tank
You can also see the template in the image below.
This division will have really high speed combined with great Soft Attack and Defense. With the big chunk of Armor and Hardness, this division will speed through any infantry divisions the AI might throw at you.
The most important parts of the build are the Anti-Air and the Flame Tank.
Light Tank divisions often spread far beyond the normal frontlines, and they get out of the Air Superiority zone. Some Air Attack is needed to survive the onslaught of CAS.
This division without the Flame Tank would also suffer a lot of debuffs in most terrains, so it must be part of the template to make everything work.
1940-42 Mechanized Light Tank Division
This improved version of the previous Light Tank division will mainly just change the Motorized with Mechanized. Once you do this, you will get a huge boost to Piercing, Hard Attack, and Defense.
The division will also become mainly Hard, which means you will be almost impossible to defeat by most basic Infantry divisions.
One thing you can do to improve the template even further would be to change the Motorized Artillery for Light SP Artillery.
SP Artillery is a type of tank you can make by adding an artillery armament to a tank in the designer. This works a lot like Artillery that you can personally edit. This means you can add Engine and Armor upgrades as much as you want while also keeping Reliability high.
With the SP Artillery, your overall stats would improve, and you would be able to edit more details about the division than you would otherwise.
The HP will also increase by a lot, making your Light Tanks into something you could use even in multiplayer.
The only problem is that this division template will cost almost double the production cost, which isn’t really viable for most countries.
You will also lose around 10% of your speed, getting closer to the Max Speed of Medium Tanks, which can be a bit bad if you just want speed with these divisions.
Best Medium Tank Division Templates
Here are some of the best medium tank division templates to consider using.
1939-40 Motorized Medium Tank Division
The first version of the Medium Tank division that you can use in HOI4 is built purely for huge Soft and Hard Attack.
It is an extremely resistant division that can deal a huge amount of damage, is very versatile, and can defeat both Light and Heavy Tanks with enough planning.
Here is the best Medium Tank division template to use at the start of the war:
- 4×2 Medium Tank
- 4×2 Motorized Infantry
- 1 Motorized Artillery
- Support: Engineer + Motorized Recon + Logistics + Maintenance + Flame Tank
This is almost the same build we used for the Light Tank, but we changed the Anti-Air for Logistics since this tank division is more likely to end up in low-supply zones.
With both Soft and Hard Attack stats being relatively high, this division should be able to push through any type of division with enough support.
Generally, as long as you keep the Max Speed of the Medium Tanks in the designer above 8 km/h, Reliability above 80%, and Armor as high as you can, this division should be able to win almost any fight in single-player and even compete against some powerful foes in multiplayer.
1940-42 Mechanized Medium Tank Division
The moment you decide you truly want to invest in your Tank divisions, then the Mechanized Medium Tank divisions are here for you.
With Piercing high enough to break through most things, this division will destroy any type of troops thrown your way.
This build is incredibly powerful for both single-player and multiplayer, allowing you to use it in almost any situation. The only problem is that it’s very expensive and it’s going to drain you of supplies.
- 4 Medium Tank
- 3 Medium Tank
- 4×2 Mechanized Infantry
- 1 SP Artillery, 1 Tank Destroyer
- Support: Engineer + Motorized Recon + Logistics + Maintenance + Flame Tank
We removed one of the Medium Tanks to add a Tank Destroyer since we really want to improve that Piercing stat.
To keep everything the same, you can use a Medium Tank Chassis to make the Tank Destroyer and make its design similar to your normal tanks, prioritizing Hard Attack and Piercing.
We also remove the Motorized Artillery and add an SP Artillery battalion, which you can create in the tank designer by adding artillery on top of a tank.
We do this because we have more control over its stats, the Organization stays the same, and we increase the Hardness of the division.
Otherwise, everything else stays the same. The Mechanized Infantry will give a huge boost to the overall stats of the division, making this one of the most unstoppable divisions in HOI4. Best used for strike force armies.
Best Heavy Tank Division Templates
Looking for powerful heavy tank division templates, these are some of the best in the game.
1939-40 Heavy Tank Division
Unfortunately, Heavy Tank divisions don’t really work that well with Motorized Infantry. Though you can do it, they often lack the results you would want from the division.
At the start of the game, it might even be a good idea to put them together with normal Infantry divisions since the early Heavy Tank is going to be slow anyway, so you can use it to make extremely powerful Infantry divisions.
- 4×2 Heavy Tank
- 4×2 Infantry
- 1 Anti-Tank Artillery
- Support: Engineer + Armored Recon + Logistics + Maintenance + Flame Tank
The main use for this division would be destroying all the tanks that your enemies might use and making sure that nobody gets through it. This is why we are going to use a slow division that will often use the Railway to redeploy.
We are also going to stick an Anti-Tank on the division to make sure we deal the maximum amount of damage to any armor units that dare get close to this beefy division.
For support, we are going to go with the classics that make sure to keep the division in top shape. We finally replaced the Motorized Recon with Armored Recon since we needed as much Armor as we could get.
1940-42 Heavy Tank Division
The ultimate destroyer of units, the Heavy Tank division should have the highest Armor, Piercing, and Hard Attack out of all the divisions in your army.
Combined with a relatively low Max Speed, this turtle should be able to withstand any type of attack from your enemies while pushing them back.
- 4 Heavy Tank
- 3 Heavy Tank
- 4×2 Mechanized Infantry
- 1 SP Artillery, 1 Tank Destroyer
- Support: Engineer + Armored Recon + Logistics + Maintenance + Flame Tank
With this division, you might have some hope of achieving Max Speed higher than 4 km/h, but it all depends on what you want to achieve.
For the SP Artillery and Tank Destroyer, make sure to make Heavy variants that will also keep up the stats for the overall division.
The Mechanized Infantry will also be good to keep the Organization and HP of the unit up, allowing you to do whatever you want around the map without easily losing once you fight another Heavy division.
Generally, this division is the only Heavy Tank division you should use in HOI4, as anything else can lack in many aspects, making the overall power of the troops not as overwhelming as you would wish with this type of equipment.
That’s everything you need to know about the best Tank templates in Hearts of Iron 4!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
