Hearts of Iron 4 Guide: How to Effectively Draw Fronts and Offensive Lines

In Hearts of Iron 4 drawing fronts and offensive lines can be an art. Let's learn how to build effective battle plans.
If you like this guide please like and share. It really helps the channel a lot. Also if you would like to see more videos like this, be sure to subscribe!
== Tips and Corrections ==
- Division width is not dependent on the arrangement of battalions within a division. Only on the number, and type of battalion. Its 3 for art, 1 for AA & AT, and 2 for everything else.
- Press tab to switch which offensive line a new attack starts from. Also you can change the start and end point of the arrow by press alt and left click on the arrow and drag.
- "Tab" changes the source of the attack line.
If you want to see more Hearts of Iron 4, check out the playlist: • Hearts of Iron 4 - Ger...
If you like Hearts of Iron 4, you can purchase it on steam here: store.steampowered.com/app/394...
== Connect with me ==
Twitter: / nethervvoid
Facebook: / nethervvoid
Twitch.tv livestream: / dungeongurunet
Hearts of Iron 4 is a new grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive for PC.

[@Qwuiet]

when your game is more difficult than your job

[@SuspiciousFace]

play your game at work and then you can complain with the rest of your coworkers about how difficult your job is

[@rampage3390]

@@SuspiciousFace you must be fun at parties

[@hdhg4ever]

Useful tips: when drawing an offensive line you can use the TAB key to change where you want it to originate from. So if it starts from the wrong front just keep pressing TAB until you get the right one.

[@PanzerFaustFurious]

thanks

[@crusaderk183]

3 years after the fact, you pretty much told me exactly what I was trying to find on the internet! Thank you so fricking much, i've always struggled a little with this problem and most often just ended up doing it manually xD

[@deeteacher7791]

Thanks man. God bless you

[@gazza3623]

Thank you

[@Sombreterre]

I rarely comment on KZbin but thank you so much. I can’t thank you enough

[@redoxam]

i find it easier just to command all of my units manually, all 673 of them

[@eugenlovin6788]

Jonny Williams lol great

[@alem9477]

ahh... stalins children

[@poryg5350]

Unfortunately me too - the AI has some stupid tendency of reshuffling the entire frontline after taking few provinces.

[@MrHL5]

me too

[@3choBlast3r]

Playing this game takes as much effort as writing a damn thesis lol .. I have read and watched so much shit and I'm still learning wtf

[@miguelp_25]

3choBlast3r Stop watching tutorials, you have seen enought. Start playing, at my first game i learnt how to control land units and land production, and at my second i learnt air/naval units and production. Its the best way. :)

[@johnlopez5777]

Egan Leong yeah me 2

[@deeteacher7791]

Haha. true. I am a student and i am thinking. Why don't i have an assignment or dissertation about this game? haha

[@stephencarroll9935]

@@miguelp_25 your gifted ive played about 10 games still no clue about navy

[@miguelp_25]

@@stephencarroll9935 navy has gotten significally more complex since my post 3 years ago (which is good). Right now I don't much about it, and I've played more than 10 games just building "better ships". So, average person haha.

[@enlightenedterrestrial]

Hey!!! That other "pointless piece of land" is my homeland! xD

[@sgrabner11]

ᚲᚨᚢᛚᛞᚱᛟᚾ ᛃᛟᛏᛁ feels bad man

[@eugenlovin6788]

ᚲᚨᚢᛚᛞᚱᛟᚾ ᛃᛟᛏᛁ lol,i feel sorry for you xD

[@NaNa-bt1wd]

ᚲᚨᚢᛚᛞᚱᛟᚾ ᛃᛟᛏᛁ America owns you

[@olddirtycracker]

You pass butter.

[@luhed]

Na Na... America basically owns the West in general.

[@RobertNugent]

Who do you think you are? Telling Rommel how to invade Belgium. J/K. Nice tutorial.

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

lol Yeah me and Rommel are old pals. =D

[@The_Irate_Penguin]

@@NethervvoidBuilds You referred to him once as Patton. Is dissing Erwin really a good plan? :-D

[@user-vo8zx1db6m]

200 hours and I'm still a beginner

[@Raven.flight]

400 hours and I'm JUST starting to get it - JUST

[@robbyy4116]

lol im 12 hours in and can move my armies

[@gavinlomalie0507]

707 hours. Still don't really know what I'm doing lmao

[@korni934]

300hours still losing against poland as germany

[@rulorulito]

711 hours and still can't defeat ussr

[@BOBO-xe6rl]

Dude with those frontlines u saved my life really thank you , i knew there has to be something like that like making frontline only where i need it

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

You're welcome! Game becomes so much fun once you understand these mechanics.

[@joegarrison5911]

It was so nice when I finally was able to walk through poland, france and Belgium as Germany for the first time. I had previously playthroughs where It would take months to beat Poland then I would get stonewalled in Belgium by the allies then eventually lose entirely. But FINALLY I figured it out and took France with ease. So satisfying

[@chase36chase]

thank you very much. i saw like 6 hours of tutorials and this one tought me the most

[@bigburd875]

I suffer from the "HA! [insert balkin nation] HAS THE BEST ARMY IN THE WORLD! I AM UNDEFEATABLE!" syndrome

[@yusufbiricik3131]

A mathmatic expert is born!!

[@dungeonmaster4108]

Just recently bought the game. Your vid helped me understand a lot. It's 100x's better than the other guys vid on the same subject. I'm starting to understand it a lot more. Thank U very much.

[@UnclDeD]

Jesus, man, regular provinces also add victory points, not only big cities. You'd know that after you take all cities from USSR and still not have needed amount of victory points.

[@hagalathekido]

each state has one vicrort point

[@crowleon6174]

Each province is a single point and every city gives a certain amount as specified in the tool-tip from every playthrough I've done so far. However, I taking a capital or two is the quickest way to capitulate them (maybe even needed to do so as I have not tested that part but I doubt it as I've capitulated Poland and many minors without taking a single city).

[@DaWolf805]

Every province is worth a single point and then the victory points shown on the tooltip are multiplied by 10. If you don't multiply the victory points on the tooltip by 10, then you actually should consider each province to be worth 0.1 victory points. This gets even more complicated when you consider that the actual victory point values are dynamic and not known. So they are a minimum of 0.1, but could actually be all the way up to either 0.5 or 1.0 (depending on rounding) before they start displaying in the tooltip. Basically, there is a lot of 'fuzz' that makes pinpoint planning of offensives impossible (probably deliberately so). The key points from this video still apply - focus on cities, and do a rudimentary calculation of victory points to see what areas are most important. Just be prepared to have to push maybe a bit farther than your napkin math says you should.

[@crowleon6174]

Adam perhaps you should listen to what others have said. I have played hundreds of playthroughs (mostly minors and can't wait for the new DLC and changes) and can confirm that for the vast majority each provinces is worth a single VP. However, I have not thoroughly tested a no cities only empty provinces challenge to confirm that taking cities is required. That being said I personally have had a few nations not capitulate until their capital was taken while all other provinces where taken (minors) but that could be do to unity not just my personal theory on needing to take a capital. hoi4.paradoxwikis.com/Province That's the HOI4 wiki and even it says the same thing. Yes the information may be only up to date to version 1.3 but I can assure you as someone that is playing it right now that the information is indeed still correct. I don't know where you seem to get the notion that it's "proven to not be the case" as most will confirm it is and I have yet to see anyone say it's not (we are talking about provinces being worth a victory point not total capitulation as I personally believe you need to take the capital. However, as I have stated previously I have yet to test enough to verify it.). Play some more and check each time you take a province and you will be able to confirm it as well. Hope the information helps. :p

[@DaWolf805]

I can confirm when taking Taiwan in Millenium Dawn, no matter which side of the island I invaded first, the capital or the small city on the other side, I had to push my forces a ways down the island before they capitulated. If just the two cities had mattered, taking Taipei would have won the fight, they had low enough national unity for that - but it didn't, I had to take a bit over half the island (not including the other city) before they capitulated. When invading from the other side, though, the capital was worth enough I had to take the whole island that way. In short: Each province is clearly worth some small amount that isn't shown on the tooltip, but which is substantially less than one full victory point.

[@raymondlongabaugh4700]

Easily the best and easiest to understand guide I have watched on how to make good battle plans and how to use the planning UI, thanks.

[@fishbeinben]

Most helpful video on this specific aspect of the game that I've seen so far, thanks a lot!

[@timzales5344]

Thanks for the great guide. Just started HOI4 and this helped a lot!

[@jonoblack72]

You my friend are the best i have ever come across on explaining things. Super job well done

[@stevewilliams183]

awesome guide. i have played for years without much success and this was an eye opener, and very simply explained.

[@steelpanther88]

I didnt know about the tab button at all! Thx for the tip about drawing those "rolling offensives"

[@hanzberger7093]

Just started playing this game and watched a few other videos. Yours is the best so far~! Your also funny without trying to be, an added bonus. And I learned a few things which is awesome. Thanks

[@ramiel7666]

Thank you! Now I can finally play this game!

[@gimlino1]

you can actually select a front line for the attack lines with the second button on the right. just clicking on the attack arrow and moving it around, very usefull :)

[@3flyingaces]

Holy crap man I was able to completely capitulate Italy as Germany with the Allie’s because of your front movement I got all of it thanks a million times

[@martingracchus1687]

This is the video I've been looking for

[@infusedj9498]

holy crap, i was so suprised to hear your voice again!!! I watched your minecraft videos (dungecraft season 3 is where i left), and i'm so happy to see you're back in the saddle!

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Yep about to start DungeCraft season 6 actually!

[@testedpoorly5427]

Great guide man, thanks. I actually learned to freaking assign my planes once I choose their mission from this thing. That wasn't taught in your video, but while watching it found out I hadn't been doing it. Enjoyed the video, thanks.

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

YW! Glad it helped! =)

[@prototype434]

This was extremely helpful. Thank you.

[@johnnyboy95101]

I literally expected this to be a meme and ended up actually watching. 10/10

[@oneandonlyminecrafte]

good tips but what I find the most useful is creating an army of only light tanks. put your best general to it. then attack on province or two. you must have had every unit manually assigned to one province each to keep them from cutting you off, once that's done you assign them so you eventually cut a whole chunk of them off. now you have created a pocket and the more tanks, the bigger the pocket. I have tested this myself many times and you can really completely encircle a lot of troops really easily. I wouldn't recommend heavy tanks, too pricy and too slow. hope it helps and hope you try it out, you will not be disappointed!

[@EmilNick109]

you are an artist dude

[@chrisvanegmond3157]

Funny how some 7 years ago I followed your channel for World of Tanks, lost interest in the game so stopped following the channel, now looking for HOI4 content and here you are again.. cool :D

[@panzerkampfwagenviiimaus9798]

Thanks, really helpful. Just started playing a few weeks ago

[@Sunscreen1973]

Really nice guide, lots of info well explained. Helpful comment about Tab as well in the comments section. Just made my game experience a lot better- thanks.

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Yw! Glad we could help! =)

[@teriyaki3740]

it helps a lot, thanks for existing.

[@TheAdmiralAnnie]

Literally just beat Germany because of this video. Bless your heart.

[@Trestano]

wow Thx man, gr8t guide!

[@RandomForcedHandle]

nice vid mate, i did learned something new. I ususaly go like "fight all the way to back of their country". But for you, when you click army, in upper tab part, where you give orders, (front line, offencive line etc) there is "edit" line button. Hover over it and it will give you nice explanation on how to edit those lines and change atack direction etc, so you dont have to delete lines anymore.

[@mrniko4178]

loved the video, thx!! really helped

[@stephenkorz8563]

That was really good information, I just got the game and I will share it. Do you have any video about tips for resource and troop management When it comes to deploying and stuff?

[@samamani5423]

thnx bro . helped me a lot

[@TheParodyProject21]

thanks man this really helps me since I'm new

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

YW! =)

[@NOMAD10671]

I'm way late.......but, you are the man for this video...Thanks a bunch! (Liked & Subscribed)

[@chrw93]

Learned a lot thank you, liked and subscribed. One question though, do you have a video on fall back or spear head and what they do ?

[@timanaku3435]

So helpful, thank you so much!!!

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Yw. Glad it helped. =)

[@o_oshadowo_o3933]

thank you man for everything

[@MordachaiWolf]

Thanks! That was very useful! :D

[@DeviousXP]

Helpful vid, my question is tho, in the invading Poland example, you split your army up over 3 small fronts to attack key areas, im a noob, so im wondering, why would you not have 3 different armies with all 22 divisions operating on those 3 small fronts you made instead of splitting 1 army into 3 fronts? wouldnt using 3 whole armies provide overwhelming power?

[@Milan74]

Good tips, thanks for sharing.

[@hunnyfox225]

i always lost at attackign this really helped ty !

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Glad it helped! =)

[@ZZZ-hs2ts]

Serkan Kerimov yeah same i couldnt beat poland as germany !!!!1!1! Its so difficult even on civilian difficulty

[@soap6448]

Is there anyway you could do a video over navy and air force video. Also thanks for the video it really helped out!

[@SixthPath6]

Great video ! Pretty exhaustive.

[@nethervvoid]

Thanks!

[@dichebach]

"Width" is the sum of the widths of each battalion. They vary between 1 and 3. Most inf, cav, and armor are 2. Some support elements (AA and AT I believe) are 1. Arty are 3.

[@GalloRojos]

Great tutorial for me. Thx a lot

[@rogueraven1333]

Do a video where you explain how naval battles work and how to use the Navy to support the land units (naval bombardments, naval air support, assigning planes to carriers etc) also could you further explain regular air support I couldn't even take Poland as Germany in recruit difficulty lol ( I know I'm terrible but the games tutorial didn't teach me jack)

[@BeforeTheNoose]

Good video i learnt a lot. I was wondering (and this is probably a really dumb question because i'm a right noob at this game), i'm doing the tutorial and drew the offensive line where is says to it creates just the one long arrow. I've started and the divisions to the west are doing ok and the ones to the east have pushed one province in. The one in the middle however is not doing well. Is there a way, after i've started this plan to just tell the one in the east, who are now behind the ethiopian forces who my middle division is struggling with, to not continue to the offensive line i drew at the start but instead to now attack the former from the rear? If that make sense. Thanks

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Well you can either redraw your plan, which I only do if I am kinda losing because then you have to stop fighting while they build up plan bonus, or just manually tell the other units to attack the enemy from behind. I think what you're talking about is you've got the enemy surrounded, and now just need to mop up?

[@muontilikneihsiel3861]

Superb short tutorials

[@Danspy501st]

I might be late to this, and the game highly had updated from the version shown in this video. But: Cant I also use the victory points to my advantage as a defence? I mean find out what victory points I need to defend before the country I play as will fall. E.g. if I playing as Poland, then I can find out what victory points I need to forcus my defence on, so I can stand my ground longer, to maybe help comes or to the AI/player killing their troops off. Also, isnt there a good way to draw defensive lines? Im rather like to thinking about defence before offence

[@flightswepro]

if you dont want to cut the armys off with the arow, press tab befor you let off the right mous when edeting an offesiv line

[@MuddahFukkah]

Maaaaan, great thanks for this video!!!! Bought HOI4 just a couple of days ago and I am confused as hell...

[@tom.walder]

Would you mind making a video showing how the battle plan for Poland ended up? It's nice seeing well drawn battle plans, but I'd like to see how they turn out. But otherwise, extremely helpful video. Didn't know you could draw battle plans like that. I imagine this video would calm a lot of people who dislike the battle plan system down. I think Paradox just needs to keep tweaking it until it's a robust system that people can make it do a variety of things they want. Wald

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Hmm I probably have a save right before I executed that attack.

[@stanlee4085]

Really good video

[@256beans]

Very helpful. Thanks!

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Glad it helped!

[@SamWtnify]

Very helpful walk through! My suggestion would be to talk a little slower and show your movements a little slower. Things like showing what buttons you are pushing at the bottom would be helpful. Thanks.

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Glad it helped! And thanks!

[@ComradeKemal]

I was New in Hoi4 and i was wondering why i lose the War everytime. But thank god you did this video! Thanks i kbow much mor then before

[@AAFilmworks]

Quick question. Shouldn't you have the gaps in your line filled with troops? Or does it not matter cause Poland would be defending?

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

It doesn't matter, because you mainly only care about grabbing the victory points and forcing capitulation. The only thing you have to be careful of is if the enemy tries to get around you and cut off your supply. On longer campaigns like Russia you do have to basically have a long line and just push, because that war lasts a pretty long time.

[@someguy-cv9jd]

2020 but still helpful af

[@dukejason]

Thank you pal.

[@iKyleTz]

Hi, whenever I use the strategy shown in the video of splitting the frontline, the enemy just pushes through the gaps in the frontline and encircles me. Is there any way to avoid this ?

[@KanetheSpaceWolf]

iKyleTz Hey, So this is an old video, the AI has been improved and will now take advantage of any gaps you have, its best to completely cover a front line or else the AI will exploit it

[@iKyleTz]

@@KanetheSpaceWolf thanks for the reply man, I eventually just figured out how to attack via trial on error ^^

[@KanetheSpaceWolf]

Same, I always look for these videos but they are usually outdated or just flat out wrong so I go "Fuck it, ill try it myself and bash my head against the wall till I win"

[@Gamingbroofbrogaming]

Hey,When i draw the offensive lines (With divisions selected and with genrals) those units do not do that order,Help. Edit:Is it that i drew my plans after i declared war?

[@PoliticsGaming]

NOTE: To find how many places you need to take, look at the total amount of cities they have and add it up to their unity. If Czechoslovakia has 4, you need to take 3 to overcome their unity.

[@zavienyoung7117]

thank you :P

[@TM_priv]

Not bad dude! But occupying territory also makes them capitulate faster. Keep up the good work :)

[@HDQuote]

why is "Erika" playing in the background? (In the beginning) And man, that was awesome. Thank you so much. Just got a new subscriber

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Thanks. =)

[@ty4750]

Erika is playing in the background because he has a German music mod, you can hear other German marches throughout the video, in between standard game music.

[@ColdWhim]

dude, i am pretty sure that this is panzerlied

[@markod1719]

You are one Bruno of Pisen, you are indeed.

[@michaelsullivan7544]

One thing I noticed you were having issues on your manual commands they were rerouting because you were removing them from their Frontline position, if you set the tactic to fully aggressive your initial frontline will not reshuffle and will continue to push forward even if it's not in their best interest of survival. You can support with tanks or even heavier infantry. I usually don't mind abroad front line I let them all dig in high organization around 20 width. Not too expensive soft attack and everything is great but it really wears you out I usually just let them dig in and move forward and manually control the blitzers from behind you can use your tactics as well too automate some of them and keep your favorite division for yourself. I love to play as Italy but I had one game where you can slavia and Russia were united and they used Yugoslavia to push North into the heart of Germany I was playing pretty passive but at this point I realized I needed to do something I blitzed across the Yugoslavia captured territories cut the throat of the dragon and we encircled several hundred divisions that encirclement had so many Russians in it stacks of hundreds that one little maneuver brought both of them to their knees Germany pulled back I finished off Yugoslavia and got the hell off radar. I usually like to play more diplomac but when Germany just throws the game I got to do something I don't want to be the only fascist power left by myself lol

[@michaelsullivan7544]

Also a great video I didn't know that they would immediately use a secondary plan of attack after finishing the first so I usually did what you recommend and not to and just drew one to the end and tried to micro as I went but now seeing that I can kind of selectively stack orders for one general honestly I can knock out a lot of the micro before the war pretty cool thank you thank you

[@alexandru-adrianpetrovschi9635]

Hey buddy, a tip that will improve your quality of life, when you create a new line, before releasing the mouse button, tap [TAB] button a couple of times

[@Icarus61992]

You can change the origin of the offensive plan with TAB while drawing it..

[@marcoslyra1178]

Subbed at 2:30. Now let me finish the damm thing. I need to learn this. :)

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Welcome to the channel! =)

[@Falkriim]

Thanks

[@nickhen4196]

You can press tab to toggle through which front should take the arrow

[@Drak976]

Thanks mate. I think my mouse is broken the right click drag doesn't work very well.

[@Hermien66]

Ben Sokolow same here mate

[@ryanbearden9709]

Even if u played the earlier HOI games you basically start out as a newb with this game. So much stuff Ive had watch you tube vids on how to properly do naval battles. How to the battle planner.

[@zeus5198]

I have a problem that the orange line at most of my units is not full (under that green) what do I do?

[@seanburke997]

They are under manned/equipped. Like if you assigned tanks to the unit, but you don't have enough tanks in inventory to give them to the unit.

[@nickhen4196]

If you focus your armies at targeted areas for capitulation wouldn’t the enemy break through from the other side with none of your soldiers there?

[@gino456123789]

Now I can take France with limited losses lol this game is like learning math

[@MarceloRodrigues-tx6nm]

Thank u

[@polognesepasta6121]

23:51 how to make so many offensive lines???

[@dhruvashah2066]

i think victory points can also be gained by winning battles or wiping out divisions. I played as russia and declared war on mongolia, after taking all their cities, they didnt capitulate so i decided to wipe out their army, they then capitulated

[@Ionathus_Rex]

how you have thick offensive lines?

[@atahantaspnar3955]

Dude thank you for that, it helped me a lot. And also speaking without swearing is an achievement these days :D good job xD

[@_Michal_Michal_]

I want to attack but it says world tension has to be at 40% how do i resolve this?

[@patrick8650]

become fascist

[@theswitzer-songshow769]

One can learn a lot from playing this game. But one should learn how to calculate 3.7x3 in one's head as well.:)

[@jatreyLondon]

A good navy guild would be nice too

[@RocketHarry865]

I have a very big problem whenever I try draw front lines If I have at least twice the amount of divisions than there is provinces of the frontline being drawn they have a very annoying tendency to form clumps creating weakpoints in the frontline. Other than spliting up the army divison and creating a second front line nothing I have tried stopped this clumping up behaviour from happing. I think Paradox should rework their frontline editing. I would love the ability to when you assign a division to a frontline you would also be able to chose which provice you want them to form the frontline

[@jsaurman]

Well, they are trying to cluster around the more important areas, towns, airfields, etc. Which makes sense, if you think about it. If you have 6 divisions on the left and six divisions on the right, and someone hits that gap in between, your troops should both attack from both sides, crushing him. If he somehow breaks through, you just seal the gap and he starves to death from no supply. So it's not a big deal to not have someone in every single province. If you see two provinces together with no one in them, then your front is over extended and you need to shrink it down.

[@wargamereric9929]

Cheers for this. Wish I saw it before my war with China began... :'(

[@primeflux1]

You can press tab to switch which offensive line a new attack starts from. Also you can change the start and end point of the arrow by press alt and left click on the arrow and drag.

[@NethervvoidBuilds]

Oh that's awesome thanks! Huge tip!

[@challenge-1msubscribersfor688]

U really need an Military experience to understand war at this deep level 😅 I love TotalWar game... just simulate the attack 😁

[@borisb1831]

"This dudes land..." Hitler's bunker 1936

[@user-vo8zx1db6m]

I wouldn't have used those Ostpreussen soldiers, who needed more troops than that, to support in taking Danzig, I would've gotten them to swing around the back of Warzaw and take it there. It would've also encircled most of the enemy