First things first, this guide is going to make you do more clicks (so to say) and in multiplayer games, you have to raise your APM to still have what It takes. I am not talking about micromanaging your land troops. You going to deal with factories, planes, equipment and checking on others to see what they up to. Generally, you are going to do more stuff.

My writing base is going to be Germany and most of the examples, ideas and screenshots will be from there but any of these can be used for any other country.

Also, when you are reading these strategies to become more efficient, I want you to think and figure out your own "out of box" strategies too and I hope these will kickstart your own ideas as well. That is the reason behind this guide. Enjoy!

Some may expect to start from factories & production when starting a new game but It's actually better idea to plan your conquering strategy. Check the resources on where to annex or defend. Examine the terrain, for both attacking and defending. After created an initial plan in your head, you can now determine what kind of,

• divisions ( marines, anti-air, etc...)
  
• support company ( recon, etc...)
  
• and your desired combat width (18, 20, 40, etc...)

you need.

Now, your research, construction, production, and law -in short- your every choice will be clearer. Remember we don't like the vague plans! The diplomacy may change in years to come but It's always to have a good nation plan.

Example:

It's good to have some marine divisions to conquer Holland and Poland. Since AI or in multiplayer games you don't see that much of special units, their bonuses is going to be quite useful to you.
Marines supported with Engineer company is very deadly on rivers (more deadly then armored units in some cases) so Its always to have some marines in your arsenal. Examine these situations. Always attack from unexpected side, where the opponent thinks "you won't cross this river" you are going to cross that river.


So since we establish we are going to need some Marines with Support Equipment Engineer Company. Now we can plan our research and production lines but It's not just only The Marines we are going to produce. We are gonna need Offensive divisions, Line holding defensive divisions, Garrison divisions, Military Police and all other Special forces divisions.

If your strategy with German Reich is to "peacefully" expand by National Focuses you need to train armies very fast. So what you can hire "train division time -10" military advisor guy and train very cheap units on full training capacity. One thing you going to be aware of you must put your training units to high priority to prevent equipment going in other places. Another way to have more units, Is to deploy your units while they are still green. 20% training time is enough to deploy units and open place for new one.

After prepared our Offensive Divisions, Defensive Divisions or our needs for current strategy. We can now continue to research but before do that I must give some Ideas for division designs and talk about combat width.

About Combat Width:

You must foresee your specific division needs and prepare your research, production and in the end training but before all that I must say a thing or two about combat width. It's not that complicated thing really. In every battle, there is a combat width, and It determines how many divisions each side can enter battle. You can increase the maximum combat width by attacking more fronts.

So In a sense, It's considered optimal for 20 combat width 4 division 20*4=80 which is the maximum for one front assault. That doesn't mean you have to make all your divisions 20 combat width! You may choose a big combat width (40 maybe even 80!?) divisions to hold the line. I usually use these big width divisions for holding front line and use my flexible, offense divisions with smaller combat width.

The terrain also affects the combat width so sometimes It's good idea, to have even smaller divisions, like 8 or 16 but with more quantity is required for them to infiltrate and surround the enemy. Its best use for paratroopers to have smaller combat width. You can hurt the supply behind enemy lines or threaten the Victory Points and force enemy out from their static positions.

Some of Division Types:

Main Offensive Assault Divisions
It has to be your the most quality divisions. You try to make It mobile as possible. Support with tanks and mobile assault guns but never give them anti-tank, artillery unless Its support company to prevent them being slow. Remember these divisions has to be under one commander and this commander has to break through weak points of enemy defenses and flank the lines or making the enemy fall back by threatening possible surround.

Main Front Line Divisions
These divisions could be slow and big but you need them to be. Because you don't want to drag the wars by pushing all the lines. You don't need to risk your men or equipment. These divisions can have all support they need. You can create artillery & anti-tank brigades into them. These are semi-defensive divisions must be designed to hold lines as much as they can. Remember you don't need to capture all the territories, just the VP's and capturing a VP is job for offensive or special divisions.

North attack has some marines to break lines until panzers can safely pass the river. The southern side doesn't have much going on but some mountaineer divisions have objectives, only to capture enemy airports and capture some few high-value VP targets. That big wide offensive order is just to get planning bonus really. True Blitzkrieg VP rush no need high casualties.

Garrison Units and Millitary Police
These units are the backbone of your inner security and must be trained and prepared for upcoming wars. Usually, Its good idea to start with 5 or 6 cavalry brigades for MP and as the level of the MP company rises you can disband some of them to regain more recruitable population. You don't need to give them anything other than MP company and crappy equipment. This topic will have more importance in the upcoming production section.

For Garrison Units, It's up to your production strength and your needs but again they are going to be mediocre comparing to your main divisions; you need to protect all big cities, airports, important points, cost line and the border of your nation. So you gonna have to cover a very large area and It doesn't have to win wars for you just to defend until you prepare your defenses and counter attack. Its best to have 3-4 infantry brigades and maybe with AT support but engineer company is necessary.

Special Units
These divisions are like your second offensive assault teams. Marines, Paratroopers or heavy armor assault. The choice is yours, but you always consider widening the enemy fronts, not by pushing all the line but breaking in different places or by doing naval invasions or paratroops.

Now that we have ambitions on where the conquer and establish what kind or how many divisions we need. We can start picking our National Focus, Research, and Laws.

All these three has to work together as one team. It's best to not suffer "day ahead" penalties and unlocked the extra research slot around 1398 (because there are lots of cool stuff are opening by the time. Always look for +50% or +100% bonus reaserch options in the National Focus and always a good idea to lower the research time by computing technologies.

Now you have to pick your research. Always ready up your support equipment research first because you can't get any extra research bonus for this section in the laws. After some time when you gathered enough political power you can select some members to reduce research of your tanks, ships, planes, artillery or small weapons. If you always select the "reduce research time" ministers or companies before you research, you can get everything get done. Because of that you might want to research some excavation, to keep up with the market. If you are wondering about "but I want to start my tank (or else) production soon as possible" I am going to talk about that in construction & trade section.

You don't have to change your laws only once and stuck with It. You should feel free to change them when necessary.

Example:
Depending on your resources and civilian factories you should always consider more free approach for trade laws; the more free this is, the more research bonus and factory output bonus you are going to have. It's very crucial to have technological and production superiority!

Another member should be "division training time -10" military advisor after passing higher conscription laws and when you are fighting in a war you can change him into another but you should always have him If you are considering high level of conscription laws or rushing troops to pass German National Focus decisions.

You should always have higher Economy laws as soon as possible! Sometimes Its good strategy for Fascist governments to not increase the world tension little by little; for making sure the Democratic governments are having hard time passing laws or their national focuses. Again, you should change laws when needed and not pick them from memory.

Its always good idea to start with political power national focus, to boost your cabinet. Then focus ing on your industry, but you shouldn't go full industry either. If your research still has months to end you don't need to stack a third research bonus for the same technology.

You shouldn't research all vehicles, planes, ships or any other thing If you don't think you can produce It well. You shouldn't always rush things because you might not know when the war is gonna start especially in multiplayer games. The best way is to climb tiers. If you are too confident, then go for higher tiers.

These are very flexible decisions. Always look for more bonuses and to keep up with the bonuses now we are going for construction & trade.

Having strong economy is essential to keeping up with the attrition war. Bombers, partizans, wars... There are many factors you have to protect your economy from but one thing in the early game you have to be dealing with is the trade war.

For minor nations, I always hold at least 16 civilian factories. Having 16 civilian factories makes your construct Military factories while still constructing civilian to keeping up with the resource needs (15+1). Major nations start with very strong economy and you can focus more on production If need.

In the previous topic I said don't rush everything, climb the tier ladders. This is because you shouldn't import all resources unless war is near or you have a very strong economy. What that mean is you shouldn't produce everything at the start, you should pick one or two and focus on that.

Example:
If you are producing tanks, planes and artillery same time you gonna need a lot of resources! What that means is you have to import much of them or close your economy but that would result lower research bonus and factory output and construction speed. There for you have to plan your production with your current economy. Don't be afraid of production been behind, first set up your strong economy and don't trade all your civilian factories early on, or you are going to left behind on construction. Which is another important thing too.

There are lots of things to construct. Factories, infrastructure, radar, AA guns, etc... Not to mention you gonna need some coastal forts as wel and in later stages of war, you gonna need civilian factories too, to keep up with destruction.

Having radar is very crucial. Knowing where the enemy, behind the border and what kind of brigades they have. Also, It has more importance in the air war. Making your planes stronger and less accidents could occur!

You gonna need some AA as well. They will shoot down planes passively that means less production going into waste. Infrastructure is depending on your attacking strategy really. If you think your infrastructure can handle the current amount of troops you trained you don't need to focus on that too much but since the majority of your supply is coming from your capital state It's the best way to max the infrastructure in that area first.


At later stages of war you gonna need more infrastructure because of having more divisions and as your borders getting bigger the time between deployed point to the destination (they won't consume for 48 hours), divisions consume more supply when they are traveling too. Only then, later stages of war, you might want to have logistic support company and higher level of infrastructure. But remember It's all about planning your needs before the time comes.

*Creating a strong economy, having a good amount of MP, Anti-Air guns and not totally bringing destruction to my future lands by battles (focusing VP objectives) I can keep up with the repairs. Thus I spread my construction power to all nation.

Now here comes the fun part: Equipment & Production.

These two always play as a team. Well... basically: waste not, want not. It might be cliche but you shouldn't waste equipment ever. It's not that you won't keep up with the infantry weapons, It's the other high production value things are going to suffer If you spend too much factory on It. One thing you should always consider is keep producing 'basic infantry weapons' even you have higher tiers researched or have enough capacity too.

Why? Because It's much cheaper to produce basic equipment and this is going to be more cost, efficient when dealing with exercise losses too(4 factories can produce double the amount of basic weapons, comparing the same amount of factory producing tier 1 weapons). Before going into a war you can still give your stocked basic equipment to MP and garrison units. Making only your offensive and defensive divisions in need of higher level of equipment making you spend less factory on equipment too. Thus you can produce more tanks, planes or any other thing you need. *You can see a basic MP division.

Spending too much time & resource making every division better is wasting time and thats going to make your opponent better aswell; making wars drag unnecessary long. It's always to have optimal speed.

As I mentioned before in trade you shouldn't produce all at the same time in early stages of war or you have to import a lot, crippling your economy. Therefore you should spend more time on equipment and manage your division needs. Trade more only If you see your military factories are wasting and once you have consistent production of basic and normal equipment you are going to have more factories.
With the full efficiency, I can switch some of my factories working on basic infantry equipment to other places and I don't want to raise or lower the production rate In case I might need later. You should always check the finish date of a production at logistics and always prepare a steady rate of production, rather than rushing.

About Variants:
As the war goes on your army experience will not be so much trouble to maintain as the early game and you don't want to waste by holding 500 experience. Always do variants for your tanks, naval units, and planes. Starting from mid game you are going to need this small edge to convincingly win. Never be afraid of doing more clicks.


After we manipulated our equipment and production now we can finally arrange our army, planes, and naval forces.

While all this stuff happening, with the addition of world war, the managing could create some chaos, especially in multiplayer games. You should always keep your army organised by naming them for making their purpose clear. Like: MP, Flank assault, coastal defence, etc...

Also, It's best to create more theatre to manage commanders well by simply selecting and assigning to their new theatre. You should always use waypoints for your training soldiers. Keeping up with this management will help you in the later stages of war. Especially in multiplayer you can react much faster.

Always send your planes to reserves and create new air wings. There is currently an exploit that people can use. lesser planes you put on an airwing the better they fight but exploiting this isn't much fun but you are going to need smaller air wings eventually to arrange them well. I usually make It 100 wings and give order them easily. For minor nations, this number could go 50 or in the late stages where you have very high number of planes, you can increase the number by 200 planes per airwing. Don't forget to change your Aces as well.

Never get shy about managing naval warfare and do use 'Hold' during coastal battles to gain 'naval bombardment' bonus. Setting waypoints are now easy and always keep an eye separate your naval units for not stacking in the same docks or your repair time will reduce.

You should set priorities to your theatres and each individual divisions to spend your production wisely. With everything going in flow, steady pace you never have the fear of catching up the game.

With disipline If you keep managing your army, you can save more time in overall and rapidly play the game. Otherwise you gona have to pause quite a lot and thats a luxury you won't have in multiplayer games.

With everything tied all together, I've written about combat along in this guide but there are still some areas I need to write about. We established our training, resource, and production needs and now we are going to exploit the terrain by producing correct equipment and units. Pressuring VP's should always be the priority and finishing wars quick is essential to have a good amount of manpower in very late stages.

As a major nation, you should always have some paratrooper division and constantly take supplies, capture airports, and factories from behind the lines to hurt an enemy and make them open up.

Don't have to push all lines same time. Flanking and wiping out divisions is far more efficient and in the meantime the opponent wants to react your movement and making them fall back, so that means we can capture locations without wasting a single bullet.

You might want to keep an eye of weather in early & mid stages of war If you don't want to loose too much on accidents. As your planes get better you don't need to afraid of that, but also be mindful of every time you use planes on battles you get a higher chance of destructing your future factories but never afraid of using everything to your advantage.

Always find a way to counter-attack, giving penalties to attacking divisions. Always examine the terrain. Always pressure VP and do flanking missions.

...but war is not just about strength. Sometimes a good ruse is critical to gain momentum. Thus we go to the topic: Ruse!

Deception is a cost/efficient way to surprise your enemies and If they have taken the bait It has to hurt very bad! While HoI4 doesn't allow ruse by design, that doesn't mean we can still lure our enemies into our trap.

First of all, we can create ruse divisions by creating 1 brigade divisions and giving them old equipment. Same goes with the old tank by creating new "ruse" tank divisions we can assign them our old tanks and stack them on one land. If our opponent reacts and sent some reinforcements we can fully charge with our true offensive divisions in such an easily pace.

Another method is doing fake fall back maneuvers. By allowing the enemy to widen their lane we can make a cut off move to wipe out divisions. Same goes for doing fake naval invasions and confusing the enemy, making them guess the correct one.

Also in multiplayer, we can show a different path just before we are raising our encryption and we can surprise our opponents by going a complete different directions with our national focus.

So you see Its always to do more than just fighting head to head. Deception is must be a part of your strategy.

With the current version of HoI4, It's very difficult topic to write about; the diplomacy is currently broken. What I mean by this, devs wanted players to feel like sandbox and manipulate AI countries very easily. Thus now we can make a fascist USA or any other silly things very easily. Therefore I won't recommend any of the party boosting or coup in SP games because AI clueless to respond these situations.


But there are still some things to talk about: Trade influence. You should improve this If you are going for free trade to gain the losses of your resources by making AI trade with you. Improving relations and trade influence bonuses by your ministers.


But In multiplayer, players can respond alien party boosting by putting correct political ministers and securing your desired government type.


Lend Lease is an excellent way to gain some experience as well. Especially by giving away pre-war planes you can have a good amount of air experience.


About World Tension:

Basically, Allies want this to be high (especially USA) because they can't pass much of their laws and National Focus decisions. So Fascists always have to be aware of this when sending out volunteers, fabricating claims or annexing. Therefor Allies has to put pressure to the Fascists in order to them to act aggressively by embargoing trade or diplomatic manipulation or helping other minor countries in any other way.

For closing words. Never fear of trying new stuff and even though your usual tactics would work always find a way to improve them. Make them more efficient, find out the most optimal way to play your strat. Always tidy up your divisions by creating campaigns.
I hope this writing offer some new thoughts on how to improve your gameplay or If not I hope you enjoy the reading of It. Always make a long term plan and go steady and never let down yourself by losing.

It's a very enjoyable game and as the major patches in, I will update the Guide (If need be). See you on the battle and remember...

Speed is the key -Captain. Richard Winters

Credits

I thank Rita Rush for her amasing art. You can check her other work at HERE[ritarush.tumblr.com]
and Paradox for this cool game I enjoy playing.

Mods I Suggest

Foresty
Flavor Names Extended
Clearer Unit Mod Selection

More Division Icons
More Theatre Icons

25.07.2016
Did major grammar and spelling fixes.

09.07.2016
Released