Complete Template Tutorial for HOI4 Old World Blues

I have created a Complete Template Tutorial to help players both new and old conquer the Wasteland in Hearts of Iron 4 Old World Blues.

Hearts of Iron 4 is a notoriously difficult game to master but at least it has a tutorial to get you started. Old World Blues unfortunately does not, but this video will change that.

0:00 Intro
0:25 General info
3:00 Infantry Templates
11:55 Motorized Templates
17:42 Special Forces Templates
25:35 Robot Templates
30:35 Garrison Templates
35:00 Bonus Tips

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#heartsofiron4 #oldworldblues #fallout #hoi4 #owb #tutorial #guide

[steelfury]

Thnak you for explaining the combat width, that has been my problem and my lack of understanding in it.

[ThekaiserXD]

Brilliant! Have been struggling with my latest playthroughs coming back to hoi4 after a few years

[Zoverts]

This is a really good video. It gives a good template and even explains why its like that. Great Video my dude thanks for the help!

[michaelpardee]

I've been looking forward to this.

[ltspaniard]

I’ve been waiting for a video like this for months, thank you!

What are your thoughts on Lawkeeper units?

[lornexw]

great tutorial smokey! looking forward to more east coast content🙏

[bighillraft]

Great video! I was wondering though if 40 combat width divisions might be viable as well though. I know in the unmodded game, it used to be that max combat width used to always be 80 as well, and people would use 10, 20, and 40 widths (particularly for a few very good offensive divisions)

[matask.]

Bonus tip:
mobile enforcers do increase suppression and for more resilient garrisons you should consider going down the truck, APC research path as hardness reduces garrison damage taken.

Situational tip:
if you play as New Vegas enforcers are worse than securitrons at suppressing, as they require far less manpower, and cheaper to produce (0, 4 and 53 if I remember the numbers correctly), and keep in mind that you shouldn’t use CNC robot attachment (support company), as they basically only increase production costs for no benefit, and do use dogs as they give up to 60% suppression bonus.

Bonus tip:
when choosing to go down a path of ballistic, laser, or melee only choice is ballistic or laser, but wait it’s probably not for the reason you think, if going down ballistic first research the first tree melee tech even though 2nd melee and 2nd ballistic is mutually exclusive, but 3rd melee and upgrade called “warriors equipment” (which eventually leads down to the 3rd ballistic weapon) aren’t mutually exclusive, and the main reason to do it this way is for the 10% speed upgrade for mutant and normal infantry. If you go down laser path you can’t get that sweet bonus, because 2nd melee is mutually exclusive with 2nd ballistic, and 1st laser is mutually exclusive with “warrior’s equipment”, unless a country already starts with 2nd melee and 2nd ballistic or there is a country with a focus that adds 2nd ballistic (Kingdom of Manitoba) or 2nd melee research and if you already have researched the opposite tech, mind you that you should have it already researched before doing the focus, otherwise the research won’t bear its fruits, if not straight up cancel itself, (I personally like to have researched one more tech after it just to be sure) then you can have the best of both worlds (10% speed) (mind you that you still can’t have ballistic weapons, because 1st laser is mutually exclusive with the upgrade).

[ДжонниМилославский]

As for the Direct Control thing, you offset the org loss by not just using robots. The entire premise of Direct Control is that you field mixed divisions of human troops and robots. By 'direct control', they mean 'under the direct leadership of a human', you see. Direct Control is most useful for nations like Diana or Vault City, which can get access to both advanced robotics and strong human troops.

If you're fielding an all-robot army/playing as a nation that is meant to go robot purism, then you gain nothing from Direct Control. Wasteland Autonomy is the correct route for an all-robot military. Same with the 3 techs under Robotics that tank the org of everything but robots. Those are all good for a pure-robot army, but terrible for a mixed one.

[joshuafarris]

What do you think about radios and mobile fortifications for the infantry? Seems like conventional warfare always gives you these in the right tree, but I have also got them from scavenging.

[doodooman]

For div tips I’d just say never use light robots have literally a 20 width hr brick with at a dog and possibly chems, for inf I’d just say 20 width only inf with at, and for designated sf and pa the most important thing is rushing the later gun sf and pa techs, and as well I like 20 width bricks, you could change some for demo troops but that reduces your maximum damage but it will make you win battles faster

[stargamer]

Finally, I can now conquer the Wastelands with Hayes at the charge with an actually decent division template

Also i have a question. If I go with Hayes path for NCR do you think i should use Refined Warfare for my PA units or use Conventional Warfare for a general play through?

[nemnchurch]

I´ve only recently come back to hoi4, expicitly because of your videos on Old World Blues and I´ve been enjoying the mod it a lot more then the basegame since. A template guide was exactly the video I needed, so I am extremely thankfull for that and wanted to use the opportunity, if you, yourself a Paladin at the game, could give some advice to an initiate like myself.

I mainly wanted to ask, what your opinion on power armor support companies is, since I am under the impression, that they give a nice boost to 10 width power armor templates, because they do not use up the special forces cap and can compensate for the loss of armor, which occurs when adding other support companies. My question extends to the use of power armor support in general aswell. Furthermor I wanted to ask, how you see the inclusion of CnC robots in non robot templates, since they give a boost to organization and armor. And my last question is about the more logistics oriented traits of unit leaders. Which ones are good to use? Is Idiot Savant useful for power armor, lead foot for non motorised templates and is Life Giver worth it over other traits?

[TheCROHELLBOY]

Great tutorial as always!
What template would you recommend for a smaller nation that doesnt have a lot of industry but has a wide border to cover?
I am thinking of maybe a simple 10 width infantry without support but I'd love to hear your thoughts. 😁

[dea_aka_decontractor]

I wanted to ask somethint, should i use super heavy robots? If yes, then what template would be preferable?

[chadoftoons]

I managed to use milita and i believe this guide isnt complete until somebody figures out why there are bonuses for it everywhere. One example: I am a complete beginner at Hoi4 but saw somebody play this and tried it, another friend tried playing new victoria and was complaining about the lack of factories. I figured no better way to learn than the worst possible scenario. So when you have 1-2 Arms factories making anything is quite difficult but militia take less firearms. You can sell anything on the market even without having the opinion to buy it so you make explosives to get massive opinion and then buy melee weapons to arm your militias. Now you have mid-game armed militias close to early game if not even lategame melee weapons (you can get some opinion from some nation choices) and then deploy your squad of 10-20 militias. A naval invasion atleast forces the AI to waste their entrenchment bonus with every AI taking rooted as a trait it feels impossible to get enough breakthrough to match what is always 3 divisions of 100 defense.

I might be pretty wrong in my approach and it might be bad but if somebody making this thought there has to be bonuses for them that deep in tech there has to be a use case!

[Flyffer]

since org doesn't matter for garrisons is the CNC support for the robot template doing anything? I thought it pretty much only boosted org for robots

[GhostCryProductions]

Can I just get a cheat sheet of the division templates, please?

[NightmareOmegaX]

What do you think about power armor support? I have read elsewhere they are one of the best support companies.

Also would recon support be good for defensive infantry as a 3rd/4th support company as long as organization can stay above a certain threshold?

[Mclairdd]

thx for this tutorial, you should do more for owb or other mods, it really helps dumbasses like me lmao