[HOI4] An In-Depth Guide to Land Combat

In this video I break down land combat in Hearts of Iron 4 into its most basic components to show how it functions. I cover everything that goes into the damage equations so you can see how soldiers actually die. Then, I take these results and extend them out to more practical uses by discussing some rules of thumb for division design and strategic planning.
Correction: /u/TheBlobber has brought it to my attention that my results for reinforcement are off. I erroneously calculated the median when I intended to calculate the mean. The true "average" reinforce rates for the base value, the radios tech, and top-tech signal companies would be 50 hrs, 14.28 hrs, and 4.76 hrs respectively.
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Follow me on Twitter: / remansparadox

[@Groznyj_Tutscha]

Art of War by Sun Tzu unabridged full audio book

[@FriendlyTickleMonster]

Bruh

[@MrTohawk]

When watching this I gained a 100% bonus to hardness.

[@valrossenOliver]

Harness is worthless without real soft-attack. Sure you cannot be penetrated.. but you cannot fight back either.. it's like metapod uses harden... he can still not do damage! ;)

[@polarpoloyt]

Lmao you guys know he means erect right

[@lelgie601]

@@polarpoloyt Yes captain obvious that's the joke

[@jessejamesmoore1443]

When I watched this I *paradropped with losses*

[@valrossenOliver]

@Qing Mapper I don't think you understood me sadly. Not a woosh.

[@liberphilosophus7481]

So, in summary: 1) Never attack with infantry unless you are way more powerful 2) Specialize your army into two groups: mobility(motorized and tanks) and defense (infantry and artillery), because you get logarithmic value from high attack, but at the same time you need defense to defend against high attack. 3) Organize your templates into 10,20, or 40 widths. 4) Use medium tanks because they have more armor than lights.

[@sagnik2693]

Liber Philosophus I never use motorised infantry lol. I just use tanks to defend the lines(works great cuz I play against ai)

[@ingratus8160]

infantry can reinforce the lines fast enough in my opinion, so you don't have to bother with special mobile infantry divisions, but it is still good to have and you can put motorized artillery in the division, which is very powerful early game. additionally you have two types of leaders for your armies, which differ in their leader traits and maximum capacity of divisions in that army, before you get penalties. those two are fieldmarshall, which can have an unlimited amount of divisions in the army and generals, which can have 24 divisions in an army without getting penalties. the special thing about fieldmarshalls is, that they can get the offensive doctrine trait, which reduces the combat width by 10%, which allows you to have 11, 22 and 44 combad width and still be able to utilise the full combat width of the battle. they are basically designed for your frontline armies, since they can lead huge armies and have other traits like the defensive doctrine trait, which improves the entrenchment by 30% futher enhancing the ability to defend your frontlines. the downside is, that they get no boni for terrain. the generals are better for your smaller special purpose armies because they can get leader traits which improve your armor divisions, give terrain boni etc. do keep in mind to keep these divisions at 20 combat width and don't mix different division types in one army, if you're going for special traits like the panzer leader. special infantry divisions like mountaineers apllie to this too and they wouldn't make up for a good general frontline divsion because they require more equipment than the regular one speaking from cost effectiveness.

[@ingratus8160]

also never attack with divisions that are defending, they get a minus 50% combat penalty in both battles, for participating in multiple battles, which you can use to your advantage if you micro your armies, making it viable to attack even with infantry.

[@drakan4769]

+Ingratus keep in mind that the way generals and marshals work will change drastically as of the next patch, while it still seems to be a while away the changes are big enough to be worth looking into

[@ingratus8160]

at least it gives me reason to play the game again

[@RorysonTV]

Finally someone who ACTUALLY knows how these things works, only took me 500 useless videos, 90% of players think breakthrough is what it sounds like, breaking through the enemy lines. lol.

[@norbertzagozdzon1433]

And then I was like "Why my 2000 breakthrough heavy tank isn't able to break enemy line?"

[@Mob135]

@@brianwilson7624 nuggets

[@bokunogentoo4420]

they really should have called Breakthrough something else

[@thekiddler26]

@@brianwilson7624 ur gay

[@sheharyarhusham5908]

I am left amazed and speechless at this surge of videos

[@jahoekstra77]

Is Reman in College/Uni and finished with finals?

[@Jesse_Dawg]

I always look forward to his videos and this has been a good month

[@Aldrahill]

Fantastically in depth Reman. I have almost 500 hours and several YT series on HOI4, yet I still learned a whole bunch about how to optimize my armies. As always thanks for the great video!

[@Aldrahill]

Why what? It's a fun game :) Carriers I will agree are stupidly useless, but the land combat is at least interesting enough to bear some consideration!

[@angrybird7324]

+Aaron Gretsinger not mentioning that if you have up to date carriers in a fleet composed only of fast ships you can chase ennemy fleet and slowly decimate it or even annihilate it while battleships couldnt catch up and would leave ennemy fleet to go repair. That's why i put heavy cruisers with my carriers, that way my carriers can wipe out ennemy capital ships and when screens come into range my heavies just annihilate them. Then because my fleet is fast i can chase the ennemy down and kill a few more ships every engagement ending up in total annihilation and seas become clear of ennemies instead of constantly having smaller fleets hitting my transports or troops all the time being something really annoying.

[@stonedude1234]

I've played 52 hours in this game and only after a second game of America and after researching a whole bunch of land doctrine did I begin to think, "I wonder if I'm doing combat wrong..." I didn't even know the attack screen existed

[@bedgarr7887]

You are nothing to me. I have over 150 hours and only now am I taking the time to properly learn combat.

[@capitalistball2924]

@@bedgarr7887 Why are you trying to act like his superior? People with 1000 hours of hoi4 are marked as beginners by the masters. I have 2400+ hours at this time. Even I am only an amateur. So shut the fuck up you worthless piece of shit.

[@idonthaveaname9902]

Yuxef dude he's Just messing around

[@mirzahamzabaig5667]

@@capitalistball2924 Bruh...did his sarcasm just went over your head at light speed? Read his statement again.

[@Erolsaurus]

@@capitalistball2924 Isn't that exactly what you are doing?

[@pepela8214]

Me: struggles with taking France as Germany Reman: annexes France, Britain and the USA by 1941 Edit: I've discovered 40 width medium tanks.

[@dusanpredic5274]

Monsieur Pepe same lol

[@johnclark1987]

Bean 0506 I cannot take Cuba

[@quinteneleveld5136]

I can't even take Poland, Belgium and The Netherlands as Germany. And whenever i play as another country, Germany rolls through all of them in a month. I really don't know what i do wrong

[@pepela8214]

@@quinteneleveld5136 hey maybe I can help you. I've improved since I made this comment 10 months ago 😄

[@quinteneleveld5136]

@@pepela8214 Would be awesome! Because i really have no clue what the hell i am doing wrong. For example: I edit division so its a has a couple of support companies. Like engineer, recon, logistiscs and expend the amount of infrantrie inside the division. Besides that i tend to add artillery, AT and AA to the far right. And for some reason everytime when i declare war on Poland. They seem to hold me back all the time. Wich imo makes no sense, because i have a maxed out division

[@marcelodcs1]

Maybe the next video could be on how to properly draw the frontlines?

[@galtur5241]

You draw a frontline and then you make an battleplan to gain the bonus, and then you micro everything...

[@galtur5241]

Pohorex you can use them, but thats not opimal. I use them only if i have a realy big advantage and dont want to bother with stuff

[@Cheaprz]

Galtur he was joking

[@Freadauk]

Galthur the AI is insanely east to beat if you micro, I was able to defeat Russia with only 15 divisions beacause of constant micro.

[@rescamesta]

Sundiata Keita the AI is broken and the game is so easy that I have to stop creating divisions in order to make Germany loses the war and keep it historical. It’s simply not the game for WW2 buff, and it is really frustrating.

[@Alex-xx8ij]

19:23 I just witness 1.98M people die

[@Cats777]

In less than a day.

[@vitortomazi6471]

1 division alone killing aprox 180. Amazing haha

[@electrom.1703]

Vitor Tomazi that always happens in my games as France lol. I just build forts and all infantry divisions with upgraded engineers with anti air and bam, I can hold forever

[@simonduval8886]

Oh shit lmao

[@shoshiang7257]

It's 6.51 Million casualties on the ussr while he got 90K Soo amazing

[@joshjosh1780]

I do the same thing against the soviet union, constantly checking the capitulation bar yelling in my head "why the F haven't they surrendered yet!" I'm sure the Germans felt the same way right up until they got spanked just before reaching Moscow, where in HOI4 Moscow is just some red star on the map you roll over with a panzer 2 in 1938...

[@ValentineC137]

or if you really want to be special, you can do it with a great war tank in 1947 because the AI never places troops on thier capital

[@pmmm712011]

Nice to see you branching out to HOI4, which is kicking into gear with waking the tiger, with tons to analyse.

[@chaywen9240]

The game will go into sale and a lot of new player will pick it up during Christmas, when they need a tutorial on how stuff works, they'll watch his already uploaded videos. This guy is next level genius.

[@PuellaMagiHomuraAkemi]

Kicking into gear? ever played any HOI before? HOI 4 is an embarassement if you look for realism or anything complex. You can't use transports on your own to smartly navigate and naval invade, you can't use your own supply system so enjoy it if the AI forces supplies through convoys in an area where you'll never have naval superiority so the AI is only wasting your stuff while over land your infrastructure is maxed out..10/10 The list could go on endlessly like the useless nukes or rockets...

[@chaywen9240]

Puella Magi Homura Akemi Yes.......because it's a game. If I wanted a realistic experience of overthrowing the US government with Communism and invade Europe I would try, but I can't do that, and even if I could I wouldn't, that's why I play HOI. People who play HOI don't want realism, that's why they play the game. If you want realism that's ok, your cup of tea, but there's no need to come here and attack the community because your own personal tastes don't line up with the game. Try HOI3 or get some mods I guess?

[@dichebach]

They did a good job modeling theater-scale strategic WWII combat. Shocking how much better this combat model is than what I'm familiar with in EU and Vicky games. Will definitely have to watch this a couple times to digest the incredible amount of detail, but clarified in general how they are handling all these stats very well. My guesses were somewhat off so I'm very glad to have caught your video! Great job!

[@Bedna101]

I do like people who knows how to present their work. It´s grate when you introduce the whole content at the beginning of the video. I don´t know how much time did it take to dig up all the info and i´m honestly astonished just by thinking about all the work you´ve had to do in order to make this video. Thank you and keep up a good work. All your videos are 100% worth the time you spend working on them and the time your audience spend watching them.

[@andrasfogarasi5014]

So a 400 soft attack division defending against a 10 breakthrough division makes 400 dicerolls to determine misses and 33 to determine damage. No wonder my Soviet meatgrinders put so much load on my CPU if the RNG is called 42000 times each in-game hour.

[@andrasfogarasi5014]

But seriously, what the fuck, Paradox?

[@dingus9155]

no, it means paradox never optimizes any of their games.

[@Sonicbananadriver]

Clausewitz engine also can't do any hyperthreading, all that load is being put on one core!

[@sharktits2043]

Immensely under-subscribed channel, I don't get HoI4 at all, but these recent videos might make me give it a second shot once the economy aspect of the game is explained as well as the combat. Keep it up Reman, great work as always.

[@Metrack2]

We need more awesome people like you in gaming Reman, period.

[@MuhammadAli-ih8be]

Amazing work Reman, probably the only channel for who I come running at the mere inkling of a notification. I presume Air Battles and Superiority is your next quarry. Good luck and keep it up :)

[@ChromeDrakeGaming]

This is a fantastic video. I've been looking for someone to explain the maths behind the combat system and now I feel like I stand a chance of digging in and truly appreciating this game. Thanks ever so much for your hard work.

[@etienne3971]

Warning: When more than one division participates from one side, they can combine their attack value to overcome the defense of the opposition. For example, two divisions with 100 attacks each pull their attacks versus single division with 150 defenses. In this situation 150 attacks will be considered "blocked" and have a 0.1 chance of hitting, while 50 attacks will be "unblocked" and have 0.4 chance of hitting.

[@agaapitodisousa6014]

this is what i was looking for, I was in doubt about how various divisions fight, the video is very good but it say anything about it. Because I was thinking that is way better to have 1 big division than 2 smaller, but now i understand that is the same.

[@agaapitodisousa6014]

okey, this guy is great kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqfdmYSbfcZqpNU&ab_channel=Reman%27sParadox

[@gregoryk.173]

And what if there are two divisions defending? Do they get their defense stacked?

[@GrantSweatshirt]

@@gregoryk.173 yes

[@gregoryk.173]

@@GrantSweatshirt thanks

[@DionysiusvonAug]

By far the best and most instructive guide I found on KZbin! More of it please.

[@OliverCovfefe]

Reman if you get 50k subs will you read the Art of War by Sun Tzu?

[@franzfakka1417]

Sun Tzu says: Just git gud at dicerolling kid

[@AStrangeTree]

This was incredibly useful for someone like me who just picked up HOI4 and was head-scratching over every value in the game trying to figure out what they all mean or how they should be used.

[@a.soraparu773]

This video was a huge help. The micro intimidated me, but with each game im getting better, and its drawing me in more and more.

[@MrAlanis59]

It's incredible how you transition from eu4 to hoi4 with still in depth content! Congrat and thanks for your work!

[@Poopdahoop]

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels on KZbin. :D Thanks Reman!

[@tihy9s168]

Thank you. I’ve been struggling so much with combat in this game it’s unreal.

[@Skow8333]

Thank you for this vid Reman. I was searching for some division templates to help me stop getting all my manpower killed and found your vid. I was looking for a fish so I could survive another day and instead you taught me all the basics of fishing in an understandable way.

[@DarkArtistKaiser]

I've been playing this game for a long time, but only really had a rudimentary understanding of how combat works. I had tried looking around fora while for a good video or something that explains it, and finally I have it. Thank you very much.

[@tihy9s168]

Thank you. I’ve been struggling so hard with this game it is unreal.

[@HalbyStarcraft]

One important point, is that because of how each point of soft attack beyond the enemies defense you have counts 4x, it's always better to have a single 40 width unit than four 10 width units. and not just a little bit better.

[@budek_me]

Great tip!

[@CountCristo]

Almost always - you need to be able to fill your front after all

[@fehervari98]

let's compromise on a width of 20, right?

[@alluvium1465]

You are right for the most part, until your dumb ass general rolls the tactical withdraw tactic, your combat width shrinks from 80 to 60, and you only have a single division that can fight that battle for 24 hours.

[@SekretZdzicha]

20 is a sweet spot, although the bigger the division, the bigger the impact of -10% of division width general perk. For 20 its only 2 for 40 its 4.

[@yaronhabot9237]

Thank you Reman, for a very informative video. I am a beginner to hoi4. I played, poorly, from 1936 till 1949 to get the high level perspective. Now I'm ready for the next level of details and this video delivers exactly what I need. It has the right amount of complexity and details to get that level.

[@Zakerius]

Great video, learned a lot. Would be interested to see a slow paced run through of how you play your early game, I find it a great way to pick up tips. Thanks for the content!

[@mrmystery9096]

Very helpful. I didn't know about 90% of this stuff and you explained it very well. New sub here!

[@czechmatoupeky1185]

Best tutorial on hoi4 i have ever seen. Keep up the goodwork

[@Cain1717]

Really good video, its nice to see you branching out into HOI4 mechanics Reman. With the new big DLC/update coming out after Christmas, I can't wait to see how gameplay will be affected.

[@omegaRST]

Seeing you take out 188 divisions with a single one at 19:27 was both mindblowing and really drove the point home, know the game = win the game

[@realhawaii5o]

*Fighting a land war in Asia*

[@ValentineC137]

*o'no*

[@korovka]

best guide I've seen so far on combat

[@ryanthrash7783]

New HOI player here. Awesome video, very helpful. You clearly put in much time and effort. Thanks!

[@pavelbohumirrobertludolf2793]

Wow I am aproching 700hrs and I didn't even know what organization did I only knew that it is important. Thank you very much!

[@beaub152]

Dude this was fantastic, wonderful job and all the hoi4 players out there thank you

[@WilliamLawrence7]

Great video, expert breakdown, subscribed!

[@ZoggyWoggyII]

Wow this is incredible. Freaking great work here man.

[@ZoggyWoggyII]

4 years later and now I actually understand more what he is talking about lol

[@eltiket]

More than five years and this is still the best hoi4 combat video. Same with the trade videos for eu4.

[@MihaiViteazul100]

Does this mean I won't suck anymore and can finally do my Luxembourg world conquest?

[@themasoning164]

Daniel yes yes you can

[@ares106]

Just the amount of modding that went into making this video! Impressive.

[@shrap8]

I finally understand breakthrough!

[@thechallenger5326]

You gave more information of combat then tutorial in the game Love from Serbia.

[@yuven437]

Will you be making an updated version with No step back? This is a video i go back to very often to refresh my knowledge. it is simply the best vid about hoi4 combat mechanics out there

[@maxthekinglord2280]

3:40 in and you already helped me out bro goodnight 💤

[@Hamun002]

This has been incredibly useful for my designs on retaking the Mandate of Heaven, thank you!

[@DanielMcCall3]

The info was great and useful. The sped up, unrelated battles in the background were distracting.

[@jarlaxul599]

You sir are my hero. I have been playing this game for a year and was becoming very frustrated with the game. Every Friday friends and I play and we have one friend that always beats us. I believe you have helped level the playing field and for that I thank you.

[@contrivedresident5917]

Listening to Reman work wonders of Paradox games' quirks and core mechanics is one of the most satisfying things in the world, assuredly.

[@Crimethoughtfull]

Just bought this game 2 days ago, having watched enough YT vids (reviews, LPs) to convince me that it is a lot of fun. But...how to war? I was skeptical of this vid as it will cover none of the new patches/changes...but these concepts are timeless. Very helpful! : - )

[@nazzu1264]

I am fascinated of all that is included on battles. Until now, i used just to try having number superiority, or better equipment to potentially win. That did worked, but I felt like something was done wrong. I love the way you explain things, and in general, I got it all memorized for future games. But still, sometimes battles can be weird, I already had problems with enemy troops that were completely unbeatable, even being encircled and attacked by 10 or more division from every possible side. But, I guess no game can be perfect ! Anyways, thank you very much for this tutorial, it really helps to understand mechanics and ways to perfect strategies, or division templates, etc...

[@minnihd6470]

Him: casually makes a world conquest in the background Me: struggles with the Netherlands and Luxembourg

[@SimonHuenecke]

I really enjoy your hoi4 „Guides“. Can you do an airforce Guide too?

[@RedStaryPuu]

you are doing gods work sir, keep it up.

[@Stoannn]

This was really useful, thanks!

[@ComradeDukakis]

After watching this I realized I have been doing everything wrongly, thanks for giving me a tutorial I didn't know I needed.

[@alexanders8341]

Amazing as the guides for eu4! Thanks!

[@skykid]

I'mma start calling you Paradox Jesus

[@callumwarwar]

Very good video. Keep it up!

[@ValosarX]

I watched this video and thought "I get it now!" Then I got my ass handed to be in a pretty basket by Mexico. Maybe I don't get it after all. Time to watch this again??

[@hideharuhaduken3831]

Reman you're the best I'm a little late but without you we would all be lost!!!

[@bobazerty2]

Very good work.

[@strafniki1080]

One of the best videos

[@LoveiZsJ]

Awesome video! Thank you!

[@sijaurais9538]

Your a great teacher, thx for the help!

[@durotanhorde]

Great guide .

[@iwillfindanamesoon3672]

The way you explained the way defense can be wasted while attack can’t was so cool

[@shenbiibiraumpaul310]

That was so helpful thank you so much

[@abm1350]

Hey, Reman. I really like your content, and actually had no idea how combat was calculated before this video! I would, however, really love to have some 'nation overviews' - like your videos on EU4 (perhaps these could focus more on general strategy than specific national modifiers and flavour, due to the overall lack of these in HOI4) as well as a guide on peace conferences - whats' a good idea, and what's overwise.

[@corradocurti]

best BEST BEST video Hoi4 EVER! congrats

[@corradocurti]

@Reman's Paradox at minute 4:00 so the higher the breaktrough, the higher the attacker suffers? make any sense..

[@solocanaanite4655]

I didn’t realize how in-depth this video was gonna be uwu

[@DJMavis]

as a massive noob, this was so helpful. Paradox tutorials are a little lacking!

[@bldbar118]

best guide out there

[@anteplibela]

"Soviet Zookeepers"

[@bobby8012]

I don't get it

[@ComradeHellas]

they are probably making fun of the encirclement, I don't think they intended to be racist tho

[@Eastcyning]

@Maciej Krauts still lost to them, which begs the question as to what a German is

[@radioactiverat8751]

This is very insightful. I just started as germany and have been playing with large amounts of 20 width infantry divisions. With Motorized and Tanks being used rarely and after watching this not the way they should. I don't exactly get the difference between motorized/Mechanized infantry and plain infantry (Yes I understand that having a division of vehicles vs not is just better) and Infantry divisions. This all comes across as "Infantry divisions are ok, but if you know how the stats work you can destroy any foe with motorized/mech and tanks and never needing plain infantry. I personally stick to using the base templates, only adding a little to them to make them full 20 width divisions (I heard somewhere that 20 was a good place to be if you aren't going to use 40, which sounded excessive and difficult to supply just because it's twice the size). That is for both motorized and non div templates. Tanks I don't really know what to do when it comes to width since it is hard to supply them early on. Since I use the base templates for the game, my light tanks use the trucks I would use for motorized so that is slowed down quite a bit as well. My infantry division's did well in a historical play-through, smashing through the lines of Poland and marching into Warsaw while my tanks were bogged down in the south of poland near slovakia. I understand the point of keeping tanks out of the mountains so I'm sure that wasn't the issue. How exactly do I build tank and motorize/Mech templates effectively and would that make basic infantry divisions useless once you can support a total motorized army? Or is the differences between all these types more complex?

[@KosturKos]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

[@Ghost690Skeleton]

Man, i learned more with this video of hoi4 than in my 500 hours experience

[@bobbyjoe1111]

Great video

[@samkaso]

If you could please tackle fleets in Stellaris one day I would be very appreciative. So many guides I see don’t seem like they are based on anything besides subjective experience. Really love your methodology. After your navy composition video I have been able to just stomp other nations but was getting my land units pushed back.

[@cafeacupiper]

Great guide ty

[@TheGlenofKrokot]

I think next should be "An in-depth guide to special forces" or "division composition"

[@EasyTiger700]

very helpful . many thanks

[@Fuzti13]

Very good Video

[@Determinor]

Epic army naming at 19:05

[@angry_strawberry2733]

woa, thats amaizing. will you be doing a guide on division design too?

[@xModerax]

Amazing video! I just have one more question: Does hard attack count towards attack when you attack infantry? Lets say you got 30 soft and 30 hard and the infantry is 0 hard. Do they just take 30 from soft or the combined 60 because both kinds can easily damage them. My assumption is that only the first scenario is the case to represent expensive armorbreaking ammo and to not overpower tank destroyers.

[@LEFT4BASS]

Thanks for making this. HOI4 seems like a great game, but it can be extremely overwhelming to newcomers like myself.

[@Stouzough]

Thanks. Brilliant. Please publish an update as small fine tuning has been introduced, especially with breakthrough.

[@chabbab6698]

What

[@pygmalioninvenus6057]

This video couldn't have been more perfect for what you were hoping to accomplish; a concise yet detailed explanation of the combat mechanics of the game. Thank you so much.

[@sharkbait9321]

Awesome video! Please please do a Lets Play at some point!

[@CMDR-Cody]

This was great!

[@novesspl5061]

Now it all makes sense. Thanks

[@AdmiralPrice]

Just experientially this is exactly the conclusion I came to in my Poland playthrough at launch. Using high break through high soft attack armor divisions to create small pockets at the front line that re then held by motorized while the tanks close the pocket. Took the soviets from 300 to 150 divisions in about a year. 6 mil kills to 300 k losses

[@pgauthi67]

Thanks, this is by far the best explanation of this complex combat system. So if I understand, a division attacking into an existing combat from the rear (another province) will always get added to reserve since it joined late? Even if there's available combat width? If so, this seems unrealistic, as it precludes the classic attack in the rear while the front is engaged, which obviously should be and historically has been very effective. IE hammer and anvil.

[@gabrielegenota1480]

pgauthi67 I think it's more like... They're preparing for an attack after a long march.