Division designer - Hearts of Iron 4 Wiki (2024)

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The division designer is a utility located in the menu of the user interface. It allows players to create organizational templates for divisions — units that can be assigned to command groups and engage in land warfare — which are then able to be trained, equipped, and deployed. Templates can be modified, and such modifications apply automatically to all divisions using that template. To transition divisions to a new template on an individual or rolling basis rather than all at once, the template change can be made in a duplicate template and divisions reassigned to the modified template when desired.

Players need to be mindful of opportunities to improve their forces by adding better templates as they gain army experience, since the starting forces of most countries do not represent ideal formations. The starting units tend to be smaller or pure infantry, and will benefit later from adding other troops types.

Creating a template[edit | edit source]

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General options[edit | edit source]

Selecting Template[edit | edit source]

As every nation starts with some form of basic template, it is often advisable to edit this as technology, army experience, manpower and equipment become available. It is also possible to design a template from the ground up using the create new option in the template selection menu.

Selecting Name List[edit | edit source]

With the 1.5 patch, templates can now have a name-list too, with historical unit names selected. This function (indicated by the "dog-tag" to its left) renames all templates of this type according to the list selected. The names appear in white type in contrast to green division names that are a custom function (despite some units with templates with historical names pre-selected starting the game with green type custom names). The name list itself is not editable except through mods.

Division Equipment[edit | edit source]

To the right of the parachute icon is the Division Equipment button. Selecting this button will bring up a new menu showing all of the equipment stockpiled that the template can use. This allows the player to control what specific weapon types the units with this template may use, so it is valuable if the player is seeking to have certain units use older equipment and stockpile a reserve of new equipment for other units or other purposes such as lend-lease shipments. Equipment already in the field won't be returned unless it is replaced by an upgrade or the template changes so that type is no longer used.

Equipment priorities[edit | edit source]

Below is the division equipment button and to the right of the template name are the division priority options. Divisions with higher priorities will receive equipment and reinforcements before divisions with lower priorities. A template can have one of three priority options:

• Reserves: Units with this template will receive equipment last and at the lowest priority once deployed. Perfect for units set to guard bases or control resistance.
• Default: Units with this template get average priority for equipment and reinforcement once deployed. Recommended for the player's standard divisions.
• Elite: Units with this template will receive equipment before anyone else once deployed and at the highest priority. Use it for the army's best men and where they can do the most good.

Battalions and companies[edit | edit source]

Battalions[edit | edit source]

Battalions (sometimes called "combat battalions" or "line troops") are the frontline troops of a division. They are organized into regiments (represented as vertical columns) which can have up to five battalions each, totaling up to a maximum capacity of 25 battalions per division. Battalions fall into three broad categories: infantry, mobile and armor; and each regiment may only have battalions from the same category. The infantry type includes infantry, special forces and horse-drawn artillery (AA, anti-tank, artillery, rocket artillery). Mobile type is cavalry, motorized/mechanized infantry and artillery. Armor includes all tanks and variants.

It costs 5 to add, remove, or replace a battalion. The first regiment is free, but each regiment of a different category costs 20 - thus it is important to know which category of battalions you will have the most of and make sure your first battalion is of that category.

Support companies[edit | edit source]

Support companies are auxiliary forces that stay behind the front line, providing general all-round bonuses to the divisions they're assigned to. There are a total of 11 possible support companies that can be unlocked through the Support Companies and Artillery research trees. Up to five can be assigned to a division, but no more than one of each type. They do not affect a division's combat width or max speed other than the specific terrain movement bonuses that Engineer and Recon Companies provide. Support companies of Paratrooper divisions paradrop with their division. Each support company costs 10 Army Experience to add, replace or remove from a template.

Stats[edit | edit source]

The right side of the division designer show the stats of the currently selected template. These stats will change as battalions and companies are added or removed from the division.

Hardness[edit | edit source]

Below the main stats window is a hardness indicator, shown as a bar with a tank icon to the left and an infantry helmet icon to the right. Some equipment, motorized and tanks in particular, have a hardness stat represented by a percentage. This stat contributes to the overall hardness of the division they are in. Divisions with high hardness take less damage from soft attacks, but receive more damage from hard attacks. To increase a template's hardness, add more units with higher hardness stats, or remove them to increase softness.

Adjusters[edit | edit source]

The net adjuster for a division is the average of its combat battalions, plus the sum of the adjusters of its support battalions for the division as a whole. Every adjuster has three small icons that indicate the respective adjusters in the fields of mobility, attack and defense, red being a disadvantage and green being a bonus.

Cost[edit | edit source]

The lower-right corner of the window, below the adjusters, shows what resources and the minimum and maximum production cost needed to produce the equipment to supply the division.

Subject forces[edit | edit source]

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With the Together for Victory expansion, countries that have subjects are able to recruit divisions using their subjects' templates. Subject forces draw equipment from their overlord and manpower from both their home country and their overlord. How much manpower comes from each depends on the subject's autonomy level. Colonies must provide for 70% of a division's manpower, puppets must provide 90%, and integrated puppets must provide 100%. Countries cannot recruit from a dominion, although they may still request the dominion to provide forces. Although subject forces are under complete control of their overlord, they can only be deployed in their home country, from which they may travel elsewhere. One cost of deploying them is that increases the subject's autonomy.

In order to recruit subject forces, select the colonial templates button in the upper-right corner of the templates panel. This will bring up a list of available subjects where troops can be raised, as well as show their autonomy level. Select a subject to see a list of their division templates. From here the templates can be viewed or copied. Selecting the copy button will place a copy of that template into the home country's template list, where they can be edited using the overlord's Army Experience. Colonial templates will show the flag of their home country to the bottom-left of their icon.

Early Template Divisions[edit | edit source]

Each country has starting division templates, some of which will be already in use by existing divisions. Many of these templates include only one type of battalion and have few or no support companies. Even if they do not appear combat-worthy, they may be useful as occupation or garrison troops. Mobile units are able to outpace infantry, are a valuable asset for an army, and divisions including cavalry (which is basically mounted infantry) may be valuable in this role for some time.

It is often handy and saves experience points (XP) to keep a copy of the original form of a template that is being modified so it can be used as a base for later designs. They are easily duplicated and saved under a different name in the division designer.

References[edit | edit source]