Use for heavy tanks?

[Rep]

What is the use for heavy tanks in HOI4? Light tanks are fast, take less production, and have the best soft attack per buck.

Medium tanks are fast, and have the best armour for buck as well as decent hard attack.

Heavy tanks are slow but have usually ~20 more armour than mediums which can make them unpenetrable depending on tech. But they take lots of production and chromium which is very specific to land masses. And they take a lot of supply which restricts their use to high infrastructure locals.

When you get a supply of chromium and the production to make heavy tanks it usually is for me at least 1943 or 1945 and it simply makes more sense to keep production on T3 mediums and wait the 1 yr or so till you have the ultimate modern tank which obsoletes all the rest.

I want to use heavy tanks but the game is structured against their use.

As well in the future man the guns dlc fuel will be a factor too, and guess which tank design consumes the most amount of fuel?

Heavy tanks need love too.

[jackhickman999]

It is difficult to produce a lot of heavies tanks but they're very powerful.
You're trading the production efficacy/Numbers for raw power per width.

They're good for the UK in africa as it's a small front and they can push through well.

[BrigadierBill]

The thing with heavy tanks is that, the way the game calculates armor means that the first (highest-value) tank battalion in a division adds more armor than subsequent tank battalions; as a result, a single heavy armor battalion provides enough armor to protect an infantry division surprisingly-effectively.

Using heavy tanks or heavy tank destroyers as infantry support tanks is a good way to improve an army with limited manpower or too much flat terrain to defend (i.e. northern France). I'd still usually go for medium tanks instead, but at least its an option.

[andersrlarsen]

18 inf + 2 harm. make 48 (or 72) of them, and use fo fortify. if they get max entrencement, they are close to unbeatable.

usualy use that to defend german borders when playing soviet, along with 120 other inf divisions, and just watch germany suicide on my wall.
could do the same when playing germany.

other than using them in large battles, harm is useless. and unless you play ger, sov or usa, you wont get enough factories to justify them.

[Songbird]

Heavy tanks are nice 1941-1943. Not really worth it until then as a combat force. The main draw is to improve the armor rating of your division. You won't crate a lot of them like in light or medium divisions because they are too expensive. But like someone said one of them is enough usually.

My heavy tank divisions: 1 heavy, 3 medium, 6 mechanized. I add the mediums because they don't change the armor stat too much and are much cheaper.

Generally speaking in multiplayer heavy tank TD is for divisions that hold the line once war escalates to 1941-42.

In the same context heavy tank AA is a singleplayer unit that replaces the TD. The reason why you put heavy AA in infantry divisions is that the AI usually does crap tank divisions and AA pen is enough for them + they are cheaper.

On the offense, the big issue with heavy tank AA in MP is that it kinda is too slow to make use of the AA bonus. Full medium tank/moto/mecha are for example fast enough that the air suppiority bonus (reducing division movement speed) is annoying enough which is why people like to add medium AA.

Heavy tank SP is nice if the enemy can't produce tanks in a good enough quantity. In this case the piercing bonus of TDs would go to waste. I like to use them against crap countries or superior firepower MP opponents that think TD/AT is useless to teach them otherwise. One is enough tho because towed arty has less piercing than a light.

So to sum it up: the best way to give your infantry divisions more staying power and optional use in limited quanitity to give your medium tanks more staying power. I think this is also how they were historically used which is a nice touch.

Capture turkey, greece, sweden or portugal to kickstart your heavy game unless you start with chromium

[Bibo]

Well Songbird alredy answered but here is my 2 cents on the topic.

Heavy tanks are optimal when mixed in w/infantry divisions since they have matching speed they provide the infantry division with Anti-Tank capabilities as well as an increase in the armor and hardness departments, which are necessary in the artillery saturated multiplayer games. The optimal 20 width layout is 7 infantry battalions and 1 Heavy Tank battalion, support companies should be focused on increasing the reliability of the tanks since they are so expensive, so maintanence and logisitcs are necessary.

[kingarthur772]

You can give the normal Attack-Infantry (2 or 3 Devisions) 1 heavy tank brigardes. That makes the Standard-Attack-Inf very usefull. For now that would work easy, but with Patch 1.6 and the DLC Man at Guns we have to see, because Fuel is needed for mobile / mechanised Things (like Tanks), all Sort of Airplaines and Ships.

For Russia, America and England it will be easy to handle this more, because they have the Ressources Oil and can synthetise it easyer to fuel. All other States have to build up special Factorys to synthetise Oil and then synthetise it to fuel. That will be a challance after Patch 1.6 and the new DLC is comming. YEAH!!!

[Meowser has not]

Supposedly theyre good at busting bunkers

[Rep]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I don't play multiplayer much so I guess I didn't see the use for them in singleplayer only. We'll have to see what the new meta is after man the guns.

[Doc_Holliday]

I've been having loads of fun making heavy tank divisions as Germany. I go about it in a different way than how a lot of players use them. Instead of creating a huge army of heavy tanks or having to create a lot for my infantry divisions, I create a 20 width "Heavy Tank Division" consisting of 4 Heavy tanks, 2 LTSPG's, and 3 Motorized Divisions. Once I unlock and create enough of Mechanized and HVSPG's I'll switch out the motorized and LTSPG's. In my playthroughs as Germany I create 2 "Mobile" armies consisting of 6 LT armored divisions and 4 Motorized. By 1938-39, I usually have the Tiger researched and I start building them out. Once I can create my heavy division, I only create 4 divisions with 2 going to each army. The idea is for the 2 Heavy Tank Divisions to start the initial attack against a single province and break their lines. Once a breakthrough has happened they swing around to attack the two neighboring provinces to widen the gap while the faster light divisions and motorized race through and create pockets. One catch though is that if you let the AI start the attack from a battle plan, the Motorized divisions seem to always start the initial attack so you have to micro manage the Heavys to attack first.

When building heavy tanks in the beginning, you should only start off with a couple divisions and wait for your industry to create reserves to sustain them. Once you do have a huge amount, then you can create more divisions. I do agree with some who have commented before. They are only really good if you can crank them out in high volumes before 1942. If you can, then they are pretty much unstoppable. After 42' though, you pretty much are wasting too much time to get them researched when you should have your eyes on the 43' models or the MBT's.

[dzantor]

Originally posted by Rep:

What is the use for heavy tanks in HOI4? Light tanks are fast, take less production, and have the best soft attack per buck.

Medium tanks are fast, and have the best armour for buck as well as decent hard attack.

Heavy tanks are slow but have usually ~20 more armour than mediums which can make them unpenetrable depending on tech. But they take lots of production and chromium which is very specific to land masses. And they take a lot of supply which restricts their use to high infrastructure locals.

When you get a supply of chromium and the production to make heavy tanks it usually is for me at least 1943 or 1945 and it simply makes more sense to keep production on T3 mediums and wait the 1 yr or so till you have the ultimate modern tank which obsoletes all the rest.

I want to use heavy tanks but the game is structured against their use.

As well in the future man the guns dlc fuel will be a factor too, and guess which tank design consumes the most amount of fuel?

Heavy tanks need love too.

Tanks are useless since cavalry is much much better. Cavalry has speed and needs much much less supply.

[KriegerKR]

Originally posted by Espek:

Originally posted by Rep:

What is the use for heavy tanks in HOI4? Light tanks are fast, take less production, and have the best soft attack per buck.

Medium tanks are fast, and have the best armour for buck as well as decent hard attack.

Heavy tanks are slow but have usually ~20 more armour than mediums which can make them unpenetrable depending on tech. But they take lots of production and chromium which is very specific to land masses. And they take a lot of supply which restricts their use to high infrastructure locals.

When you get a supply of chromium and the production to make heavy tanks it usually is for me at least 1943 or 1945 and it simply makes more sense to keep production on T3 mediums and wait the 1 yr or so till you have the ultimate modern tank which obsoletes all the rest.

I want to use heavy tanks but the game is structured against their use.

As well in the future man the guns dlc fuel will be a factor too, and guess which tank design consumes the most amount of fuel?

Heavy tanks need love too.

Tanks are useless since cavalry is much much better. Cavalry has speed and needs much much less supply.

Cavalry is only better in low-supply areas. In europe you'll be wanting light tanks for speed which can make encirclements at least 5 times faster than cavalry.

[Doc_Holliday]

Originally posted by Espek:

Originally posted by Rep:

What is the use for heavy tanks in HOI4? Light tanks are fast, take less production, and have the best soft attack per buck.

Medium tanks are fast, and have the best armour for buck as well as decent hard attack.

Heavy tanks are slow but have usually ~20 more armour than mediums which can make them unpenetrable depending on tech. But they take lots of production and chromium which is very specific to land masses. And they take a lot of supply which restricts their use to high infrastructure locals.

When you get a supply of chromium and the production to make heavy tanks it usually is for me at least 1943 or 1945 and it simply makes more sense to keep production on T3 mediums and wait the 1 yr or so till you have the ultimate modern tank which obsoletes all the rest.

I want to use heavy tanks but the game is structured against their use.

As well in the future man the guns dlc fuel will be a factor too, and guess which tank design consumes the most amount of fuel?

Heavy tanks need love too.

Tanks are useless since cavalry is much much better. Cavalry has speed and needs much much less supply.

Calvary can be good, but you still need some kind of punch for the initial attack. LT SPG's or some kind of armor. Otherwise you're going to be losing a bunch of manpower.

[Zefurion]

Use Heavy tanks in combination to 40 width Infantry divisions. Only supply 2 - 4 Divisions with heavy tanks because they are expensive. Then use these 2 - 4 divisions to break enemies that are entrenched in key positions, opening the way for light tanks to move through and surround enemies.

[p]

Originally posted by Rep:

What is the use for heavy tanks in HOI4? Light tanks are fast, take less production, and have the best soft attack per buck.

Medium tanks are fast, and have the best armour for buck as well as decent hard attack.

Heavy tanks are slow but have usually ~20 more armour than mediums which can make them unpenetrable depending on tech. But they take lots of production and chromium which is very specific to land masses. And they take a lot of supply which restricts their use to high infrastructure locals.

When you get a supply of chromium and the production to make heavy tanks it usually is for me at least 1943 or 1945 and it simply makes more sense to keep production on T3 mediums and wait the 1 yr or so till you have the ultimate modern tank which obsoletes all the rest.

I want to use heavy tanks but the game is structured against their use.

As well in the future man the guns dlc fuel will be a factor too, and guess which tank design consumes the most amount of fuel?

Heavy tanks need love too.

defense and fort busting n ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[jojeck]

Heavy tanks combine very efficiently with cavalry since they both have similar movement speeds. To use them together as Germany in the early war simply build up your cavalry template to 20 width (with Recce and engineers to boost movement through terrain). Recruit say 12 divisions of these before Poland or France and exercise them up to regular. Use them in support of the medium tank panzer divisions. Convert them to Heavy Cavalry divisions one by one as Heavy tanks become available.

Meanwhile after getting the research agreements with the USSR from the focus tree, research the Panzer 3 (very early) and then go for Panzer 4 (to boost the armoured divisions) and use the research bonus to get the Tiger 1 in 1940 (about 120 days) instead of the Panther (290 days).

The Tiger 1 needs chromium and if you divert to Sweden,Yugoslavia or Greece then you should get plenty (in 1940 / 41) without paying for them through trade.

A 20 width cavalry division with 1 battalion of Tiger 1 is formidable attacking or defending against 95% of the divisons the enemy has at this time. Use them on their own or to support regular 40 width Panzer divisions with medium and light tanks (Panzer 4, 3 and 2). They are a cost effective way to hold the flanks while teh panzer divisions breakthrough and make encirclements. Their armour and piercing bonusses mean they can face any infantry or tank division on at least equal terms. Most divisions wont be able to pierce them and will suffer the armour penalty, but any that can will themselves be pierced.

As the war progresses one or two of the cavalry battalions can be replaced by mechanised infantry to add puch and hardness and some obsolete tanks (panzer 3 and 2) can be added if there are enough in the stockpile.