The Infantryman, His Rifle, and Victory

A lot of people say tanks are the key to winning the war, but this can be misleading. Without proper logistics and attention paid to terrain and weather, your tanks will get bogged down and put out of action. Do you know who doesn't need gasoline and functions well in most situations? The infantryman. Sure he may die by thousands, but its his boots that walk the ground and guarantee victory. This guide will describe how to fight a war without using all that mechanized equipment.

Disclaimer

This Guide is a suggestion for how to reduce logistical nightmares, lessen the effects of terrain on your offensive, and to praise the brave efforts of the infantryman who goes about conquering the world for you. This Guide is obviously for the ground war only, as the infantryman is unfortunately not able to fight on the sea nor in the air. This Guide is also not a guide for quick victory, since your victory will only come as fast as your infantry can march.



The creator of this guide is in no way responsible for the destruction of your country if you try the strategies presented in this guide and lose thousands of lives in the process.

This Guide is also WIP and is not near completion. It will be updated with images and more detail soon.

Who Is the Infantryman and What Can He Do?

The Infantryman is your most basic combat soldier. He has a rifle, a bayonet, a uniform, a shovel, and, most importantly, a pair of boots. Depending on your tech level, he may also have some basic support weapons and a more advanced rifle. He does not have a lot of equipment and thus does use up as much supplies as mechnized units. Considering the relatively short production time, this means that a large infantry force can be produced and supplied far easier than a mechanized force.

His rifle gives him the ability to enage enemy troops and take the offensive. With a bayonet attached, he is capable of seizing ground and pacifying rebellious provinces. As he carries the same weapon as the more mobile mechanized and motorized divisions, the average foot soldier can deal the same damage as his more mobile comrades.

His support weapons, including machine guns, light artillery, and AT weapons, allow him to defend his position against heavier enemy formations. With his shovel he can dig in, further increasing his defensive ability. Placing him along good ground, like rivers and mountains, he is capable of holding up far larger enemy formations.

The most important asset he has is his boots. This simple piece of equipment allows him to traverse any terrain in any condition. Sure, he can't move as fast as trucks or tanks, but he can easily go up mountains, through forests, and across rivers. Most importantly, being on foot gives him a huge combat advantage in urban combat, where he can slip through alleys and buildings to ambush and knock out the mighty tank. Considering that many victory points are located in cities, you will need to attack and defend urban environments. The infantry is the best unit to do those tasks with.

Types of Infantrymen

There are many different types of infantrymen. They range from an untrained militia draftee to an elite skyfalling paratrooper.

The Militia/Partisans
A cheap and fast brigade to produce, they are usually hopeless in combat and are only suited to occupation duty. Not that they are good at suppressing revolt, they are just really cheap and can saturate an area with their numbers. The advantage of militia units is that they require very little supply, so they can be deployed to the far flung regions of your empire and subsist on their own. It is possible to use militia in an offensive capability, but this requires powerful support assets. In the capacity of a resistance unit, the militia/partisan is a weapon to irritate and distract your enemy.

The Garrison
Theoretically capable of matching the regular infantry brigade in defensive firepower, the garrison brigade is well suited to static defense. It is slightly more expensive than a militia brigade and is going nowhere fast. Garrison troops usually consist of older men whose usefulness to the regular army has expired. Equipped with militia grade weapons and loafers instead of boots, in practice the garrison is a totally immobile unit that can be quickly destroyed or otherwise neutralized. The garrison can be useful as an occupation force or as a static defense for fortified cities and islands.

The Regular Infantry
The basic combat brigade and standard to which all units are judged. The infantry brigade consists of the average draftee usually between 17 and 24 years of age. The infantryman is usually in the prime of his life and is capable of performing tasks that the older men of the garrison would find too taxing (such as moving). Able to move as fast as his feet will carry him, the infantryman can and will reach the destination you have assigned for him regardless of terrain or weather. As this guide will go on to explain, the standard infantry brigade is the backbone of the army and it can perform all tasks adequately. It can attack, defend, seize territory, ford rivers, assault islands, siege cities, and win the war.

The Marine
Like your standard infantryman, the Marine is a young warrior armed with a rifle and ready to go to work assaulting the enemy. Unlike the average rifleman, the Marine is comfortable at sea and enjoys long walks on the beach. Such walks usually involve high explosives, machine guns, and lots of dead enemies. Even though the Marine is best suited for seaborne invasions, he is jsut as comfortable fighting inland. The amphibious equipment his supply officer manages is also capable of facilitating river crossings, allowing Marines to more easily establish bridgeheads over rivers compared to other infantry. Marines take time to train properly, but they are worth the time and effort.

The Paratrooper
Armed with slightly lighter and more portable weapons systems, the paratrooper is a combat infantryman who jumps out of airplanes to seize enemy territory. With transport and air supply, the paratrooper is capable of operating deep behind enemy lines attacking supply dumps and supporting partisan uprisings. However, his lighter weapons make the paratrooper less effective against mechanized troops than other elite infantry formations. This relative weakness can be offset by rapidly bringing ground troops and air assets to back them up. Other than capturing key objectives, the paratrooper is very effective at putting down revolts. Depending on the range of transport aircraft and available air bases, a single airborne division is capable of policing half a continent by air dropping on the revolters and then marching back to base. However, given their long production time, relative to standard infantry, this is not the best use of these elite warriors.

The Mountaineer
Some people like hiking, and when drafted these hikers can become Mountaineers. The mountain brigade is the elite infantry brigade that specializes in mountain warfare. Like paratroop brigades, the mountain brigade has lighter support weapons than the standard infantry brigade. This lighter equipment makes it easier for them to fight in mountains and hills. They make combat significantly easier in areas like Italy and Chile. Despite their benefits in mountain and hill combat, their longer production time offsets their benefits. If you know in advance that you will be fighting in the Andes or the Alps, they will be useful. If you aren't, standard infantry can get the job done just about anywhere.

The Elite
Some countries have elite infantry units like the British Ghurkas, the Soviet Guards, or the German Waffen-SS. These are elite formations equipped with top quality weapons and manned by highly motivated young men with well trained officers. Basically, they look cool but do the same job as the average rifleman. As the point of this guide is to simplify infantry warfare, these fancy dressed fellows should be left in the barracks.

Motorized and Mechanized Troopers
If the average soldier hopped into a truck or a half-track, then he would be one these gas-guzzling troopers. Sure they are faster and better protected than your everyday foot soldier, but they do the exact same job and cost more to do it. Remember, its better that more bullets and food get shipped through your ports and supply stations than gas. You can't fight with barrel of gas, but you can fight with bullets and well-fed infantry.

The Engineer
Like the motorized troopers, the engineer relies on trucks and vehicles to get from place to place. While able to use flamethrowers in combat, the engineer is not really a combat unit. His purpose is mainly the construction of temporary bridges that allow your troops to cross rivers faster. By doing this in combat, the engineer reduces the river crossing penalty, increasing the attack power of your other troops. If you expect to cross many rivers or fight in close quarters in cities, you may want to take engineers with your infantry divisions. If rivers are not the dominating feature of your campaign, then this gas-guzzlers can be left at home.

The Cavalryman
This dashing horseman was once the pride of the European armies, but since the advent of rapid fire rifles he has been relegated to the less glorious position of mounted infantry. The American cavalryman has always functioned in this capacity, so he is already suited to riding to battle and dismounting for combat. Although they ride between battles, these mounted infantry still do their part in battle. They are also capable as functioning as a poor man's tank, charging in the old fashion to break through enemy lines. Unlike tanks and like their footbound comrades, they are fueled only by food and fodder, making them comparatively cheap to operate.

Friends of the Infantry

Your infantryman is a tough soldier who will always get the job done. However, that doesn't mean he has to do it alone. The infantryman has many friends who will help him acheive success on the battlefield.

The Artilleryman
Whether he is manning a howitzer, an AT gun, or putting up a cloud of flak with his AA, the artilleryman always has the infantryman's back. The artillery brigade is armed with heavy cannons and provides supporting fire to suppress enemy defenses in the attack and pin down advancing enemy formations. The anti-tank brigade is armed with anti-tank cannons and provides powerful defensive firepower against the evil mechanized formations of the enemy. The anti-air brigade is armed with AAA and protects the infantryman and his supply dumps from enemy aircraft. Like the infantryman, the artilleryman marches to battle on his own two feet while mules and donkeys haul the heavy guns. He may be slow, but provides the punch that guarantees the success of the infantryman.

The Pilot
Whether he is providing CAS or dropping supplies to hungry soldiers, the pilot is the infantryman's guardian angel. Although he hogs fuel for his plane, the transport pilot is essential for airborne operations by providing the lift to the fight for the paratrooper. The transport pilot also keeps his paratrooper friends well supplied with ammo and food by air dropping it directly to them. The tactical bomber and close air support pilots keep enemy mechanized formations away from vulnerable paratroopers by interdicting enemy reinforcements. They are also useful in helping clear out tough pockets of resistance. If you have a lot of paratroopers, make sure he has many pilots to back him up.

The Sailor
Certainly there is a strong rivalry between the marine and the sailor, but without the sailor the marine can't reach the beach. Sailors crew the transports that bring the soldiers to battle, drive the landing craft that bring the men to the beach, and man the powerful guns of the battleships that suppress the enemy defenses. If you are fighting on the coast, make sure that you have sailors and ships ready to support your infantry on the ground.

The Merchant Marine
The merchant marine is a sailor who works for the shipping companies. His job is to man the ships that make up the convoys that bring the bullets and butter to your infantry. Your rifleman may never meet him, but the merchant marine is the essential cog in your supply wheel. Be certain that you have many ships for him to crew, so that he may bring supplies around the globe to where ever your troops may be.

The Tanker
Expensive to build, long to train, and costly to supply, the tanker is the prima dona of ground warfare. Sure he is powerful, but enough infantry can clamber over onto his turret a shove a grenade in his hatch. If you can spare the production to make some tanks and train some tankers, feel free to do so. However, the point of this guide is to avoid such mechanized monsters that hog supplies, so I would advise against them.

Forming Divisions

Depending on your tech level and what mods you are running, the number of brigades in your division varies. In the base game, you have four (4) brigades with a possible fifth if you have researched Superior Firepower Doctrine. If you are running the brilliant WWI mod by Dizzle3, which is my personal favorite of mods out there, then you have three (3) brigades with a possible fourth. The following advice is for the vanilla game, but modified it can also work for mods.

The Infantry Division
The Infantry Division is going to be the core of your army. The game template shows the division consisting of three (3) infantry brigades. This is a good base but is weak when faced against mechanized formations and entrenched positions. It is best to add an artillery brigade to this to give the rifleman the supporting fire they need to take entrenched positions (3/1 formation). To cut costs while maintaining good defensive power, a division of two (2) infantry brigades and one (1) artillery brigade is a good option. With Superior Firepower, it is a good idea to make the fifth brigade an AA brigade to protect the skies above the soldiers. If you are confident with your fighter cover or are certain that enemy air power is weak, making the fifth brigade another artillery unit is a good option for more firepower to counter enemy infantry. If you plan to use the division for defensive purposes, then an AT brigade would be useful.

The Airborne Division
Since only paratroopers can jump out of planes, it would not be wise to attach any non-paratrooper brigades to their division. Having four (4) brigades of paratroopers only takes up more space on the planes, which will limit the number of divisions you can drop in the assault. The best size for the airborne division is three (3) brigades of paratroopers, as this provides enough firepower for combat and allows more divisions to be deployed in the initial drop. Superior Firepower Doctrine does not benefit the airborne division.

The Marine Division
The game template for a marine division is three (3) marine brigades. This is the best for a basic marine assault force. If your expect your marines to be doing a lot of combat inland, it would be good to have an independent artillery brigade that you can attach to the division once it has left the beach. As with the airborne division, adding extra brigades just makes the marine division heavier. Superior Firepower Doctrine can be helpful once your marines are deployed well inland, that way more support brigades can be attached to them.

The Mountain Division
Of the elite divisions, the mountain division is best suited to benefit from support weapons. As the mountain brigade has slightly less penetration power than the standard infantry brigade, which is increasingly apparent at higher tech level, it is best to use the AT brigade instead of the artillery in the standard 3/1 formation (3 infantry, 1 support brigade). For the offensive in mountainous terrain, the division only needs the three mountain brigades as the support brigade would get bogged down in the attack. For a defense of a mountain range, the division only needs to consist of two (2) mountain brigades, as this will be sufficient against most attackers. Unless you are Switzerland, you should follow the 3/1 formation. With Superior Firepower Doctrine a 3/2 formation (3 infantry, 2 support brigades) is recommended, with the support consisting of artillery and AT brigades.

The Security Division
This division is designed for policing and occupation and is not a template found in game. The security division can be created from many brigade types. My preferred format is to use two (2) militia brigades and two (2) MP brigades. The 1/3 formation (1 militia, 3 MP brigades) is also highly effective as it simply prevents revolts from organizing. With Superior Firepower Doctrine a 2/3 formation (2 militia, 3 MP) is suggested. Another tactic is a single garrison brigade with three (3) MP brigades. This format also works in 2/3 formation with Superior Firepower Doctrine. A Cavalry division of three (3) cavalry brigades is also highly effecive in anti-partisan operations.

The Garrison Division
Well suited for being shipped out to small islands, the garrison division only requires two (2) brigades to hold off normal amphibious assaults. However, given their low cost and quick production time, it is advised to form divisions of three (3) brigades. It is not necessary to attach support brigades to a garrison division, but if you really wanted to give an artilleryman some leisure time in the South Pacific, I'm certain he wouldn't object.

The Mixed Division
If you have played as the Japanese, you should be familiar with their Mixed Brigade formations. These brigades consist one (1) infantry, one (1) AA/artillery, and one (1) engineer brigade. This is a useful formation when fighting on large and spread out front where an individual division will need to attack and defend itself from a large variety of enemy troops, such as if you are the Japanese fighting in China. Due to the fuel requirement of the engineers, they can be problematic to supply.

The Partisans
Militia thrown into the fray against main force units is never a good plan. However, they may end up in that situation. Since militia acting as partisans only need to cover a large area and distract the enemy, forming divisions isn't necessary. It is best to keep them as individual brigades so that they can cover a larger area.

Organizing and Tracking the OOB

Just as brigades are the building block of divisions, divisions are also the building blocks of larger formations. Creating larger formations is easy, but it can get out of control if you don't pay attention as you build them.

Army Corps
Commanded by a Lieutenant-General, the Corps consists of one (1) to five (5) divisions. The Corps Commander has an effective command range of _____, so it is best to keep the HQ and the divisions within a province or two from each other. This will also produce a high density of troops on the front lines, which is essential for the human wave tactic to succeed. The Corps is best when it consists of units of all the same basic type, such as a marine corps or an airborne corps.

Army
Commanded by a full General, the Army consists of one (1) to five (5) corps. The Army Commander has an effective command range of _____, so it is useful if you are playing as a country that has many decent leaders available to employ. If for example you were playing as Peru, you might want to skip this formation whereas if you were Germany you would want to have multiple army level formations.

Army Group
Commanded by a Field Marshal, the Army Group is where you can attach armies or independent corps. The Army Group Commander has a longer command range, so with small countries he eliminates the need for standard armies.

Theater
Commanded by a Field Marshal, the Theater is the largest formation. It is where you would place independent garrison brigades that have been deployed to random Pacific islands, fleets, air assets, and ground force formations of Army and Army Group level.

Keeping Track of Your Troops
As your formations expand, it can become tricky to keep track of them. Thankfully, the game creates a very easy system to follow. Some countries like Germany and the United States start off with a very simple system that is easy to follow, which makes your job easier. Others, like the Soviet Union and Nationalist China, have atrocious systems that will drive you crazy. If you are dealing with a painfully confusing system, it may be best to disband all HQ units except for one Theater and then reassign troops from there. It will be a pain, but it is better than trying to find out where everybody is in the middle of a war. Whatever system you decide on, the game's built in system or one of your own creation, just stick with it and don't change it too much. If you keep changing your system, you may get confused and entire armies may get lost.

Keeping Track of Leaders
Leaders are a lot harder to keep track of because you have to remember what unit they were assigned to. However, leaders are not as important as one might think. Certainly, they may make or break a dicey situation, but the point of large scale infantry combat is to avoid such a dicey situation by throwing more men at it. Important leaders are the ones with the commando trait and the logisitics wizard trait, since these are the men that deal most effectively with supply issues. Any man can defend or attack, but it takes a true general to make sure his men don't starve to death.

How to Use Your Infantry: Divisional Level

The division is usually the smallest formation deployed into combat and it can deploy with two strategies: Attack and Defend. The division can also be split into its brigades for more manuverability over a wider area.

Attack
This simple command is also called "Forward!" You give the division an order to move forward, and the infantry start marching. When they encounter enemy troops, they will engage them.

Defend
This command is so simple you don't even have to give it. When your troops come under attack they will bravely shoot back and hold their ground until the enemy is driven off or they are routed.

Split Formation
Splitting your division into its component brigades allows your division to execute more complex manuvers such as flanking and encirclement. This is especially useful during police actions where a concentrated division will spend days or even weeks chasing the easily defeatable rebels around the countryside. Spreading out also helps to prevent rebellion by covering a larger area under direct military occupation. However, this formation has its downside as the component brigades will not recieve the leadership benefits of the divisional commander.

How to Use Your Infantry: Corps Level

Consisting of up to five divisions, the corps is often the best organization for most missions. Corps can be deployed massed as if they were a large division or spread out to enable even more tactics.

En masse
Stacking all your divisions and the HQ in one provicne and advancing them all together allows your corps commander to direct the engagement. This will allow your corps commander to gain experience faster due to his direct involvement in the battle. This tactic is useful for making headway against dug in formations that are not capable of being flanked due to terrain constraints or supporting enemy formations. The problem with this formation is the stacking penalty resulting from putting so many troops in such a confined space. When used in a defensive formation in a city, an island, or along a narrow stretch of land between two bodies of water, this formation is hard to break through. If properly supplied, a massed infantry formation can hold back larger enemy formations, including tank formations.

Spread Out
Consisting of multiple divisions, the effectiveness of a corps can be maximized by spreading out those divisions across a wide front. When advancing, your troops will be able to cover more territory as well as masking larger formations behind the frontlines. This also allows your corps to surround and neutralize enemy strongpoints. On the defensive, a spread out corps placed along good ground (along rivers, mountains, coasts, etc.) can prevent larger formations from advancing. In a defensive posture, a spread out corps can also mask reserve formations just like in the advancing posture. Should your forces have to retreat, a spread out corps can conduct a fighting retreat, launching small counter attacks to delay the enemy main column.

Raiding
Like the spread out formation, a corps sent out to raid will spread its divisions over a wide area. Unlike a spread out corps, the raiding corps will not engage enemy units. Its purpose is to slip behind enemy lines and cut through enemy supply lines. This may involve surrounding an enemy strong point, but instead of attacking the postion, the corps will move on leaving the strong point cut off from supply. A raiding corps deep behind enemy lines, such as a para-dropped corps, can cut key supply routes and knock out isolated command units, such as army group and theatre level commanders.

How to Use Your Infantry: Army Level

Flying Columns
When Napoleon Bonaparte campaigned across Europe, he split his army into corps formations and had those formations march along separate routes to engage and surround the enemy. This formation lessened the strain on the central supply line as the units would be able to live off the land. Napoleon also found that this manuver would allow his troops to move faster and conquer more terrain. The spread out columns would also disguise the intentions of his armies, keeping them guessing and giving Napoleon the initiative. It was an early 19th Century version of blitzkrieg optimized for the foot soldier. Flying columns will also allow your troops to bypass enemy strongpoints to engage and surround enemy main force units, making the rest of the campaign simply a mopping up operation.

Death Stack
If you weren't satisfied with the results of an entire corps massed in a single location, you could mass an entire army in a single location. This is called a Death Stack, as that is what it will bring to the enemy. Your Death Stack should be able to eventually batter down any enemy defense in your path, taking heavy losses in the process and taking a long time to do it. It may also be easily beaten by an enemy force, since it will eat up all the supplies in its location and suffer a massive stacking penalty. This is another reason it is called a Death Stack, since it brings death to you. It is not advised to use a Death Stack, unless you are an idiot. In that case, go for it.
(Note: In other Paradox Interactive games such as Victoria 2, the Death Stack is highly effective. However this is not the case in HoI3)

The Blanket
Your troops are spread out across the entire front, extending the front as long as possible. Your divisions are arrayed next to each other, with likely no more than two divisions per province and no reserves behind you. This Blanket manuver is to outflank your enemy and cover them in a blanket of your troops. If the Blanket fails to fall over the entire enemy line, you can use the spread out technique to defend the long front. It is not the best strategy, but it can work on a quiet front so that you can free up troops to be used on less stable fronts.

The Double Line
Your army arrays itself in two clear sets: a forward and a rear. The forward section should consist of at least two corps arrayed end to end so as to cover a large front. The rear should consist of a reserve corps, or two if you can spare a corps. These reserve corps should be placed a province or two behind the center of your army, placing them more or less equidistant from the front line of corps of the forward section. This way you can move your reserves to the front to assist in holding back an enemy attack or adding extra power to your own attack.

The Triple Line
In this arrangement the army is divided into three sections: a skirmish, a main, and a rear section. Assuming the army consist of five corps, one corps should be assigned to the skirmish section, three to the main section, and one to the reserve section. The main and the reserve sections are deployed as they are in the Double Line setup. The skirmish section should deploy its corps spread out a few provinces ahead of the main section. Its purpose is to scout ahead for the army and to delay enemy attacks against the army. When advancing, the skirmish line moves past enemy strong points to move deeper into enemy territory. The main line will then surround and destroy those strongpoints, with assistance from the reserves if necessary. When defending, the skirmish line spreads out and attacks enemy advance units on the flanks. If engaged, the divisions of the skirmish line should pull back towards the main line. The skirmish line should delay the enemy for as long as possible to buy time for the main line to dig in. If the main line is sufficiently entrenched, the skirmish line should either move to the rear to act as another reserve or just join the main line.

Basic Infantry Tactics: Human Wave

Forward Comrades! Crush all who stand before us!
If you have a lot of manpower and production, taking losses is not important. So if you are playing as the US or the Soviet Union, this may be a strategy for you. It is a very straight forward plan: go forward and do not stop going forward. As you see, a very basic tactic indeed. In fact it is so basic, that it might not even be a tactic. The point is, remember to attack. If you attack, the enemy has to defend. If the enemy is defending he can not attack, but instead only react to your plans. If you can attack everywhere, then you have no reason not to (ex. Soviet Union in late 1944). Keep sending troops forward at the enemy until the enemy retreats. If your men drop out of battle, give them time to recuperate and then send them back into the fray. You may need to alternate which units attack and which units rest to maintain a constant state of battle against your enemy. This tactic almost always results in ridiculously high loss rates. Again, only use this if you have a lot of manpower to spare and have no morals or concern for human life.

Basic Infantry Tactics: Entrenched Defense

Not One Step Back - Stalin (and later Hitler)

If you don't have enough men to attack, or have expended your attacking force, you may be forced to defend. If you are the Soviet Union in June 1940 and you know what happens next year, then you may also be interested in a heavily fortified frontline. If you are France, you alreay have a defensive line so your intentionis already to defend. In the most simple approach, your units are arranged along a front with the enemy and your orders are simply to stay put and hold off any attacks. Try to maintain a continuous line of units across the entire front, otherwise the enemy can pass through and hit your defenders from the rear.

They Shall Not Pass! - Petain (and Gandalf)

The key to a good defense is the terrain. A defensive line along a river is good, since the river crossing penalty makes enemy armored formations significantly weaker. A defensive line in the mountains is nearly impenetrable when guarded by a skilled mountain division. A mountain across a river? Well, that's perfect. Unfortunately, not all your borders and interior lines can be anchored on mountains and rivers. So do you best to arrange your line to take advantage of the forests, swamps, and hills. Do not be afraid to use cities as frontline positions. The urban warfare effect boosts the firepower of your infantry and weakens the attacking firepower of enemy tanks. Cities tend to have heavy AA defenses built in, so your infantry benefit from the local AA support. Unfortunately, your defensive line will have to pass through long stretches of plains. Do your best to minimize the exposure of your troops to the plains and tanks that ride across them, but keep in mind that it is better to have a straighter and smaller front that cuts across the plains than a roundabout front with salients and bulges. The bulges in your line can be cut off by a good pincer movement, leaving your soldiers encircled. Also, pay attention to how many provinces border the province you are defending. Try to make your line through provinces that would only have one border with a hostile province. Try to minimize the number of provinces exposed to numerous enemy provinces. Such provicnes only serve as force maximizers for your enemy, who will use them to pierce your line.

Forts Win Wars - Spongebob (and I hope Vauban, the great 17th Century engineer)

To deal with those difficult to defend positions, such as a province with numerous attack points or a line along the plains, the construction of a fort can turn that terrible ground into good ground. If you have time and have a good idea of what strategy your enemy will use, you can build forts in key positions to create firm anchors for your line. The coastal plains and valleys of Italy are good places for forts, since a fort there can anchor the line in the mountains that run down the peninsula. Forts make any ground more defensible, so if you can afford the production, it might be an idea to fortify the good terrain as well. You could also make your entire border a fortified line. If your entire border is the Maginot Line, the enemy is going to have a hard time breaking through. The total fort line is only feasible for small borders and natural choke points, like Panama or Korea. Long borders, such as the Amur River between Manchuria and the Soviet Union, are not feasible to fortify completely.

We Will Defend Our Island, Whatever the Cost May Be -- Churchill

Islands are excellent positions to fortify since they can only be attacked by sea or by air. This means that a small garrison can hold out against a far larger foe. To effectively defend an island land and coastal forts must be used. The use of coastal forts is obvious, but the land forts less so. The land forts are useful in the case of an invasion by paratroopers, who will not suffer the fort penalty caused by coastal forts. Thus land forts are necessary to defend against paratroopers. Heavy AA is also helpful in defeating the accompanying aerial forces deployed during an invasion while a good port level is essential to keep supplies flowing in for your troops.

Infrastructure and Supplies

Now that you know how to command your infantry, here is how to supply them. A rifleman without food or ammunition is a rifleman who won't be able to do his job. Give him the supplies he needs to get the job done.

Supplies
It is essential that you go to the production menu and make sure you have alocated at least the minimum suggested production points to supplies. It is best if you keep supply production at 25% higher than the minimum so that you can build up a supply surplus. Although it may be difficult to get other countires to agree to sell you supplies, it is always helpful to import supplies to help aleviate production stresses. Alternatively, you may also wish to invade other countries to take their supplies.

Infrastructure
Infrastructure is the roads your troops travel on and, more importantly, the roads your supply trucks and wagons drive on. Higher levels of infrastructure make it easier to transport supplies and thus allows more supplies to transferred through a province. Unless you are invading Germany or the Low Countries, you probably will want to be building infrastructure as your troops advance. Certainly, this is a long process, but when the war moves at a walking pace, you have the time to do so. Infrastucture also makes it easier for your infantry to move, but the roads are mainly there of the supply vehicles to move along. Infrastructure can become damaged in combat, but this shouldn't be a problem for your infantrymen. With their boots they can march over the shattered roads and damaged bridges that would stop an armored divison in its tracks. This leads to the very simple strategy of break theirs, build yours.

Ports
Ports are the facilities which allow you to ship in supplies to your troops at the frontlines. Maintaining high level ports close to the front will shorten land supply lines, meaning your troops will be able to get their supplies more efficiently. If you are invading, it is not advised to break enemy port facilities since a damaged port can't effectively ship in supplies. Broken infrastructure may delay supply shipments, but a broken port means those supplies never get shipped in.

Air Transport
If the ports are busted and the bridges are down, then the air transport is the only way to give you men the supplies they need. Drop supplies over the LZ of paratroopers or onto a decently infrastructured province under your control. The supply dump can then form there and then logistics units can ship the supplies to men at the front.

Improving Logistics
This can be done through the tech tree (described later) and through improvements to infrastructure. You may need to build infrastructure and ports as you advance. Air bases in ports and supply hubs are also a must for proper air supply. Building more convoys and transport aircraft can go a long way to making sure more supplies reach the troops at the front.

Suggested Research

Since your concern is to make sure your infantry are the best trained and equipped, you will want to make sure your research is not wasted on silly things like tanks or fighter planes. Focus your research on things that improve infrastructure, production, manpower generation, and of course infantry defensive and offensive capabilities.

Infantry
On the Infantry research tab, you will obviously want to research most of the techs there. Focus mostly on the Infantry Small Arms, Light Artillery, Support Weapons, and Anti-Tank Weapons. Improved Security Forces should also be a top priority if you plan on conquering other countries. Depending on the environments your infantry will be fighting in, you will also want to research the specialized equipment. However, keep in mind that you should not waste research on equipment for environments you will not be fighting in, such as Austrailia researching Arctic Warfare Equipment. Depending on how many militia and garrison units you plan to field, adjust your research to make sure they have a decent level of Militia Small Arms and Militia Anti-Tank Weapons.

Armor
This is the tank and mechanized forces research tab, but there are a few important techs for you to research here. It is essential to research Anti-Tank Ammunition and Muzzle Velocity and Anti-Tank Barrel and Sights. Just because you aren't using tanks does not mean the enemy isn't using tanks. Keeping your anti-tank tech current means your artillerymen will be better able to fend off tank attacks. Researching Artillery Barrel and Ammunition and Artillery Carriage and Sights is also important to provide fire support for your troops. The Anti-Air research is not as important, since infantry are less vulnerable to aircraft.

Escorts
Nothing really important here unless you have all the DLC, in which case you will want to get the landing craft techs. Basically, don't waste your research here.

Capital
Nothing important here. The battleship is outdated and the carrier isn't as useful as it mgiht seem. Unless you are Japan or America, you can skip this research section. If you are Japan or America, focus on carriers since you probably won't be building more battleships.

Bomber
The key techs to research here are Cargo Hold and Large Fuel Tank. Four Engine Airframe is helpful to improve the survivability of your transport aircraft. Medium Bomb, Medium Fuel Tank, and Twin Engine Airframe are helpful for making sure your tactical bombers can support your ground troops.

Fighter
Fighters tend to not be useful (except in the BlackICE mod, where they are exceptionally useful), so you can ignore them. If you hav research to spare, improve your fighters. If you don't, make sure you can manuver your transports and bombers safely to the target area to avoid interception by enemy fighters.

Industry
Your first focus should be on Industrial Production and Industrial Efficiency in order to boost the production of your existing factories. Construction Engineering and Advanced Construction Engineering will be essential to expanding your industrial base and your infrastructure. For small countries that do not start out with these techs, they should be the very first techs you research. Agriculture, Education, and First Aid are essential to keeping your army in fighting shape, providing increased manpower, increased officer output, and reduced attrition respectively. Combat Medicine is not as important, but can be researched if you have the research to spare. Electronic and Mechanical Engineering unlocks Census Tabulation Machine, which unlocks Mechanical Computing Machine, which then unlocks Electronic Computing Machine. These techs improve research efficiency and are important for increasing your reseach capabilities. Remember, war smarter not harder. Heavy AA Guns and RADAR research is useful for defending your infrastructure from enemy aircraft, but is not essential.

Secret
There are two tech blocks here that merit your attention. The first is the Helicopter block, especially the MedEvac tech. The MedEvac tech allows helicopters to rapidly transport wounded soldiers to medical facilities, improving the morale of the men (by 10 points!). The other important tech is the Nucler Bomb. To get the bomb research towarsd it must begin as soon as possible down the Civil Nuclear tech block in the Industry tab. Supporting research of Nuclear Physics in the Theory tab will greatly improve research efficiency towards the bomb. Since it only really takes 1 to 2 points of leadership to research the bomb on time, it is recommended to pursue the bomb if you have a decent level of industrial capacity. If you can afford to build a nuclear reactor (34 or 64 IC, I forget which) then you should pursue this tech. If you can not build the reactor, then you can not build the bomb and should thus spend your research on techs more directly associated with improving your infantry.

Theory
Theory techs imrpove research efficiency by reducing the theory decay. This is only useful in regards to Nuclear Physics, since you should already have a high level of Infantry Practical from building your infantry based army. In this tab you will a very useful block of three techs relating to supply and repair. These techs are Supply Transportation, Supply Organisation, and Civil Defense. These techs are useful for reducing the loss of supplies during transportation from the factory to the depot to the troops. Civil Defense helps you repair your vehicles, aircraft, and ships faster. All three of these techs are worth getting, but you can pass on Civil Defense to focus on more infantry related techs.

Land
The bottom two tech blocks of six techs each. Get them. Especially Operational Level Organisation and Infantry Warfare. (More details to come soon)

Advanced Infantry Tactics: Airborne Operations

There are three main objectives that your paratroopers can fulfill: raid, invasion, and occupation. We will return to the occupation mission in a later section, so here we will focus on raids and invasions.

Raiding
Sometimes you need to throw the enemy off balance but do not wish to occupy the ground. In such a situation the best strategy is quick raid behind enemy lines, and no unit is better at this than the paratrooper. The airborne division (usually consisting of 3 airborne brigades) is well suited to parachuting onto strategic enemy targets and taking them out. If your navy has blockaed an inferior enemy fleet in a ligtly defended port, your paras can drop onto that port and by capturing it, force the enemy fleet to battle and its destruction. Once the enemy fleet is destroyed, your own fleet and transports can move into the port to pick up your paras and ship them home. A similar strategy can be used to attack inland targets such as airbases, victory points, supply choke points, and enemy HQ's. Simply airdrop your paras over an enemy airbase and once your paras occupy the base, fly in the transports and fly them home. This is useful to dispersing enemy ground attack squadrons, as the paras will force the enemy aircraft to rebase somewhere farther away, thus giving your other troops a break from enemy aerial attack. When victory is close at hand and the enemy is only just a few points short of surrender, dropping an airborne division on a enemy victory point behind the front can be a quick way to victory. Be careful though, as any mistake in timing the evacuation of the paras or dropping them in without any intelligence may lead to the death of some of your finest soldiers. Conducting a raid is always a gamble, but with proper understanding of enemy positions, it can be a gamble worth taking.

Invasion
Invasion from the sky can be carried out in two ways: as an independent invasion force or as a supporting invasion for a seaborne assault. We will discuss its role as a supporting force in the Invasion from the Sea section of this guide. The key to invasion is securing supply lines, specifically a port, with which reinforcements can be shipped in. Landing paras directly on a port can acheive this objective instantly. Landing them deeper inland can allow them to seize victory points, air bases, and even isolate enemy units. By landing in an arc paras can fold around an enemy unit, permanently destroying it. Landing deep behind enemy lines can be supported by air supply, enabling your troops to keep advancing. Even though air supply is possible, but it can be cut off by enemy fighter aircraft or by enemy troops overrunning the drop zones. This is why it is always best to secure at least one port in which reinforcements of regular infantry can be shipped to the front, as well as supplies. Airborne can also be used to capture islands, and are often the best for the task when your force lack naval superiority. For example, Italy and Germany have trouble gaining control of the seas but need to knock out Malta and Crete to protect supply lines to Africa. The only way to knock out those Allied positions is to use paratroopers to directly assault the islands. This can also be used in the South Pacific and in island hopping campaigns, since the transport aircraft tend to have decent range.

Advanced Infantry Tactics: Invasion from the Sea

Like with paratroopers, your marines and sailors are capable of raiding and invading. The strategies used here are almost identical, but with slight differences.

Raiding
While being used historically to throw the enemy off balance or to test the viability of a full invasion, seaborne raiding operations in HoI3 are rather risky. You could send marines to assault an enemy port so as to drive the enemy fleet into battle, but then the enemy runs straight into your transports making it difficult to get all your men back home. If you land at any location other than a port with a small force (a single division or even a single brigade) you run the risk of that unti being cut off and destroyed for no significant gain. In the Pacific small raiding groups can be used to take isolated islands or even walk their way across island chains, where the limited front and landing penalties prevent enemy units from out flanking them. This strategy can be used anywhere where there are islands and your faction has naval supremacy. For example, Germany can use this strategy to occupy islands in the Baltic. A small force stationed on the small and usually insignificant island of Saaremaa can be a major distraction to Soviet forces in the Baltic countries, as it could potentially threaten their flank. The strait provides an attack penalty to any Soviet attackers, so as long as the troops there are kept supplied via air or by a newly constructed port then pressure will constantly be exerted on that flank. The British could do the same in Denmark, especially Copenhagen.

Invasion
A naval invasion is the only way to win the war for most countries. Whether you are the Western Allies trying to liberate Europe, Germany trying to knock out Britain, or a very fortunate China aiming for revenge against Japan, you will need to get your troops across a body of water to strike the enemy's homeland. Following the exact same strategies as airborne inavsions, the seaborne invasion will have the same results. It is of course recommended to directly assault enemy ports so as to gain an immediate supply point, but you can land in locations without ports. Landing on eiher side of a port allows your troops to pincer it and avoid the landing penalty, which is useful if you are not using marines. Late game production times on ports can be relatively quick so it is possible to build your own port at a landing site, provided that the enemy does not press against your bridgehead and that you have sufficient transport aircraft to keep the troops supplied from the air.

Combined Arms
Of course, the best invasion strategy utilizes both aerial and naval forces. As your marines attack the ports, your paratroopers land behind the enemy, thus trapping the enemy in between. This should be enough to overcome most defenses, opening a large gap in the enemy lines for you to exploit. Additionally, having troops landing by both air and sea means more troops will be in the combat zone faster than if you invaded by just sea or air. An example of this would be a German invasion of Britain. Germany will not have naval supremacy nor air supremacy, so the window of opportunity will be very limited. Thus, the German player would have to quickly seize a British port (Plymouth is a good choice) using paratroopers and then immediately ship in reinforcements while the Royal Navy is, hopefully, somewhere else (perhaps distracted by a suicidal run by the German battle fleet somewhere in the North Sea).

A Warning
That being said, any invasion is a major risk since if it fails there is little chance your troops will be able to retreat to home. So, if you do plan to invade, make sure you do so with overwhelming force and support from your navy and your airforce. While you can pull this off without naval or supremacy (as I did at Saaremaa and at Plymouth), success is not guaranteed. The enemy can always show up and sink your transports or overrun your drop zones. Invade with caution, but if you do choose to invade you must commit fully. Remember the saying about all you eggs being in one basket? If you are confident enough, ignore that saying. Who dares wins, right?

Advanced Infantry Tactics: Occupation Duty

Once you have successfully invaded one country, you must now prevent the local population from rising against you and damaging the much needed infrastructure and factories. There are many different ways of doing this, some normal and some completely insane.

Militia and Garrisons
While militia and garrison troops may not be useful in combat, they are good for holding ground. Pair them with police brigades (1 militia to 2 police per division) and they can effectively contain unrest. You will just need to spend a lot of production and manpower to blanket the enemy countryside. Cavalry has better suppression than infantry and moves faster, so pairing cavalry brigades with police brigades can be a good alternative. This is also a good use for any of those random cavalry divisions that are in your starting OOB. You can break up those cavalry divisions and attach the police brigades for a quicker and less manpower expensive police force.

Aerial Occupation
Sometimes you just don't have enough manpower to afford a large police force. Here, paratroopers can be used to economize. While they won't be able to suppress the unrest, paratroopers can be rapidly deployed to the site of any insurrection to put it down. The partisans rise up, the paras drop down on them, the partisans are slaughtered, and the paras march back to base ready to load up and fly out again. This will give you the feeling of an interminable guerrilla war, but it will at least deny the territory and its resources to your enemy.

An Insane and Uneconomical Idea
If you are using the Aerial Occupation strategy you will find that sometimes the enemy partisans move quickly to another province, which means your paras have to march a bit to reoccupy everything before they go back to base. One way to stop this is with nuclear weapons. If you were to drop a nuke on the partisans two things would happen: 1) they would suffer signifcant organizational damage which would prevent them from moving into enemy (your) territory; 2) the nuke would destroy the provincial infrastructure and thus slow down the partisans' movement speed. This effectively locks the partisans in place so your paras can just land on top of them without the need to chase them down or reoccupy any lost ground. There are obvious flaws in this strategy, some economical and others moral.

Advanced Infantry Tactics: Guerrilla Warfare

This section is dedicated to the exact opposite of the previous section: insurgency! If you are the allies and you have lost territory to unrelenting tide of Nazism, you may need to fight a guerrilla war in occupied territory until you are strong enough to launch a full scale invasion. There are many ways to do this, but the goal is always the same: to keep your enemy off balance.

Partisans on the Defense
The partisan is very weak and can never stand up to an enemy unit in combat. They are even too weak to shatter an HQ brigade. All they can do is run around the map temporarily liberating territory. While this may not seem particularly useful as there are really no enemy bodies to judge your progress by, this does serve a very important role. Primarily, your temporary liberation will stop occupied factories from producing weapons for the enemy war machine and will disrupt supplies flowing to enemy troops and air bases. Your partisans may even be able to overrun enemy air bases, forcing their planes to relocate farther from the front. This can be an effective irritant when you are the defensive, such as if you are Soviet Russia in 1941. Given the difficulties of the supply system, a single partisan unit taking a key depot could effectively shut down enemy mechanized operations across an entire front. For example, a Chinese partisan retaking Shanghai in 1943 (assuming you managed to survive the Japanese onslaught that long) could effectively sever Japanese supply lines in central China. Of course, Shanghai may be garrisoned and thus be untakeable, but you can still cut the supply line by surrounding the city. The partisan does not need to take cities to win, all he has to do is merely cut supply routes. Just blocking a key road for a day can cause a major supply back up that can shut down the front.

Partisans on the Attack
While effective on the defense, these same strategies can be used effectively in support of the general invasion. French partisans could knock out German air bases and cut supply routes to weaken resistance when the American and British troops land in Normandy. Partisans can also help invading paratroopers by surrounding enemy units to give the paratroopers a multi-front combat bonus. Tie this into the strategy for combined air and naval invasion, and you should surely see an impact on your enemy's ability to wage war. Additionally, developing resistance cells can provide vision into occupied territory, allowing you to know where your enemy is located so that you can attack where he is weakest. Knowledge is also an important weapon in your arsenal.

The Airborn Commando
You may also wish to use your paratroopers as commandos, conducting raids deep behind enemy lines. In a previous section we have discussed how to launch airborn raids and how to exfiltrate, but we didn't really discuss why you would want to. While the paratrooper is much more expensive than the partisan, there is actually less risk involved. Your resistance cells can be discovered and destroyed by enemy MP's and garrisons. Your paratroopers can only die if they get caught. Still it is an expensive way to conduct guerilla operations, but it is useful since it wastes fewer lives. Additionally, if you wanted to save your partisans after things get a little too hot for them, you can use your paratroopers to help your partisans fight their way to a port for extraction by your transport flottillas. Once you get them all to safety, you can combine your partisan brigades into a full division, which will have some combat capability to be utilized in the general invasion.

Advanced Infantry Tactics: Tactical Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear weapons are slow to build and require expensive aircraft to drop. Their primary function is to drop enemy national unity so you can win the war by holding just a few of their cities. You can, if you wait enough time, drop a lot of nukes on all your enemy's cities and watch as their national untiy plummets to 1%. Then a single paratrooper lands in their capital the war is over. GG well played, right? Wrong. That's boring and it misses the whole war. What's the point of a global war of infantrymen if its over in a nuclear holocaust? That's no fun at all. So instead of using your nukes as strategic weapons, you can also use them as tactical nukes.

Tactical use of Nuclear Bombs
Nuclear weapons do a gand total of 0 damage to enemy manpower and equipment. They do however do a lot of damage to enemy organization. With a few nukes you can completely disorganize a entire corps of enemy super heavy tanks to the point that one of your partisans could defeat them. That too is also a little ridiculous, so use your nukes sparingly. Use them to breakthrough the deadlock of enemy fortified cities or to clear a beach for invasion. I once watched a friend playing as Germany invade the US and he had to use nuclear weapons to break the American trench line at the 5th Battle of Montpelier. That was a war to watch. And with nuclear weapons, you too can have fantastic and cataclysmic wars!

Hearts of Iron IV Compatability

Generally, the basics of this guide are compatible in HoI4, although HoI4 removes the partisan, the militia, the garrison, and the command staff from the unit roster. The more advanced features, such as air supply and partisan operations are completely invalidated by the simplified supply system. The command structure is completely gone, so you only need one general controlling everything.

Additionally, tanks and aircraft are no longer prohibitively expensive so you can produce them in large quantities. Of course the infantryman will be the backbone of your army, but he can now be augmented by more and cheaper tanks. My recomendation would be to pack your infantry divisions full of artillery and have a few light tank divisions to break the enemy lines. You could use cavalry for that role too, since they are still quite effective. Air warfare in HoI4 is very important, so fighter production will likely take up half of your factories. You really can't neglect aircraft in HoI4 like you can in HoI3.

However, HoI4 does do one thing very right. That is nukes. Nuke production increase with the number of reactors so you can effectively produce a large nuclear stockpile to use in tactical battles. The national unity penalty of nukes is, in my experience, lower so you get to use more before your enemy surrenders. It also has a very nice nuclear explosion visual effect, so you can see the joy that is the mushroom cloud.

Conclusion

Well, we finally reached the end of this basic guide to the Infantryman, his Rifle, and Victory. We have seen how the various infantrymen differ from their mechanized comrades. We have seen how to organize them efficiently and how to command them effectively. We have learned some basic tactics and operational strategies for both the defense and the offense. And we learned some things about nuclear weapons too.

Hopefully, you have benefited from this experience and your countries will be stronger for it. Go forth and conquer! Let the world know the power of the infantryman and let his rifle bring you victory!

[V1rusX]

Really nice job
I hope Paradox interactive put more work in Hoi3
It is a masterpiece and has great potential

[The Libyans]

Mixed Brigades are great because of the poor infrastructure and climate in SE Asia makes tank warfare difficult, and having the usual 3inf-1art division can be taxing on supplies in the jungle. So I usually go without any artillery in my infantry divisions, and a mixed brigade in each army or corps, you still have some combined arms firepower that helps a greatly on attacking a strong point or augmenting a good defense point.

[Dr. Quackers M.D.]

Do you know who doesn't need gasoline and fun, infantryman....

[StarlingKing]

Excellent read. Thanks for your efforts, they're much appreciated.

[Attila the Hun]

Great! I personally prefer HoI3 warfare to HoI4 warfare, except equipment production.

[Roszek]

Brilliant guide, 10/10

[Ketsa]

God bless the merchant marines

[Fanstar1]

fighters do stop britain bombing your industry as germany

[Maddog]

Who cares about HOI 4

[buddy266]

Except brazil just avoid brazil (they will most likely be axis anyway)