Cavalry in Hearts of Iron 4 is an interesting battalion since it is a lot faster than Infantry, with a max speed of 6.4 km/h, but it unfortunately requires more Supply and Infantry Equipment.
Full Cavalry divisions aren’t usually something players aim for, considering that trucks and armored cars exist. Most of us will aim to modernize and get our troops inside trucks to move faster.
Recommended Read: Hearts of Iron 4 – United Kingdom Guide
However, if there is a way to build overpowered Cavalry divisions, then you won’t need to build hundreds of thousands of trucks and armored cars anymore.
In this guide, we will show you the best Cavalry templates in HOI4 that you can use from 1936 to 1942 without feeling technologically overwhelmed by your enemies.
Table of Contents
- Most Important Combat Stats for Cavalry Divisions
- Best Cavalry Template in HOI4
- Best Land Doctrine for Cavalry Divisions
- Best Cavalry Template for Garrisons
Most Important Combat Stats for Cavalry Divisions
When it comes to stats, the Cavalry is amazing in HOI4 due to its 6.4 km/h speed.
Considering that they are very similar to Infantry divisions, you can overwhelm enemy lines instantly if you build divisions similar to your Infantry with Cavalry instead.
The problem with large Cavalry divisions is that they will require a lot of Supply and more Infantry Equipment than Infantry. They also have less Defense and Organization than them.
If you can stack enough troops with some Medium Tanks, you can fix the Defense problem, but the Supply will always be an issue with these divisions.
The most important stats for the Cavalry divisions in HOI4 are:
- Max Speed
- Soft Attack
- Breakthrough
- Air Attack
We will mainly use the Cavalry divisions as we would normally use Tank divisions. Build a lot of Soft Attack and Breakthrough to get through any defensive position and overrun enemy divisions with speed.
The Air Attack is also important because these divisions will often be behind enemy lines, and they will get hit with a lot of damage from CAS.
We’ll also make sure to stack some Defense and Armor on this division so that we can use them in any situation and make sure that nothing will get through a line of them.
Best Cavalry Template in HOI4
There is a Cavalry template for HOI4 that you can use from 1936 to 1942.
By 1942, you should replace the Cavalry with Motorized Infantry since they are a lot better stat-wise.
Still, if you manage to fight aggressively from the start, you could theoretically use this template until the end of the game.
Here is what the best Cavalry template in HOI4 should look like in 1936:
- 3×3 Cavalry
- 1 Medium Tank
- Support: Engineer + Motorized Recon + Logistics + Maintenance
You can also see the division template in the image above.
Though most of the support companies aren’t available from the start, you should be able to get them after half a year. The most important support companies are Engineers and Recon.
This division will be very fast and will work similarly to a light tank division. You will need the Medium Tank battalion to get some Armor and Breakthrough.
The beauty of this division template is that all you need to do to make it better as time passes is to add new battalions slowly to it.
Though you can’t really get Logistics support companies right from the start, they will make this division a lot more viable, considering you can lower the Supply consumption from 10 to 40%.
Though this division template uses a lot of production cost and will require a relatively powerful industry, it is the best choice Cavalry fans have in HOI4.
Improving the Template
Once you get more Infantry Equipment and Manpower, you can first increase the Cavalry battalions to 3×4. After that, a huge priority will be adding Anti-Air battalions under the Cavalry ones.
You should have 3 lines with 4 Cavalry battalions each and an Anti-Air at the end.
Another thing you can do to improve this division is to add a Medium Tank battalion in the last two lines until you fill it up to 50 width.
Here is how this HOI4 Cavalry template would look like at its best:
Final Touch
Once you research Engineer Company II in 1939, you will gain access to flamethrowers.
Now, you can create a Flame Light Tank in the production tab. You can now add a Flame Light Tank support company to your Cavalry division.
Though stat-wise, you won’t really see a huge change, you will now have a lot of Attack bonuses for almost all terrain types.
This will make your division impossible to stop, considering you will also have incredible speed and powerful Soft Attack and Breakthrough.
In theory and practice, this division should be powerful enough to destroy most armies in HOI4 and quickly get behind enemy lines, allowing you to encircle all enemy divisions.
Best Land Doctrine for Cavalry Divisions
The main reason you will see people online hating on Cavalry divisions is that there is no special Land Doctrine that properly buffs them.
Infantry, Tanks, and Artillery all get incredible buffs from some of the available Land Doctrines.
However, Cavalry doesn’t have a special doctrine, considering that they are a dying breed, which should, in theory, be replaced with trucks and cars.
Still, if you want to do a only-Cavalry playthrough, you will need to figure out which Land Doctrine fits your army best.
Well, the best Land Doctrine that works well with Cavalry divisions in HOI4 is the Mobile Warfare Doctrine, also known as the Blitzkrieg.
First of all, you will get increased speed from this doctrine and also buffs to tanks, which you will have a lot of in your army if you use the template we’ve shown above.
The next two upgrades will generally be useless, but they will give you access to Blitzkrieg, which will make your Medium Tanks even better at breaking through.
There is no upgrade in any of the Land Doctrines that gives buffs to Cavalry. This is why you should change the Cavalry with Motorized Infantry once you get to a later date since they will be much more powerful.
The Mobile Warfare Doctrine is good for Cavalry because it will generally increase planning speed and the general speed of the army, making the best point of this division even more powerful.
Best Cavalry Template for Garrisons
Cavalry are also incredibly useful as Garrison divisions in HOI4 due to their natural Suppression stat.
This is why you will need to use the best possible Cavalry division template for Garrisons since you will otherwise lose a lot of Manpower and equipment for nothing.
There are two division templates you can use for Cavalry as Garrison in HOI4 that are effective:
- 2 Width Cavalry
- 50 Width Cavalry with Military Police
At the start of the game, a simple 2 Width, 1 battalion Cavalry division will be the best Garrison template to use. No support companies are needed here.
You should also avoid using an MP for the 2 Width Cavalry division since you would actually lose equipment for no reason.
The MPs increase the Suppression of the division by 20 to 50%. If the division has a lower Suppression stat, the increase is lower.
But, Garrisons will need equipment per division, which means that if you need 1k 2 width divisions to garrison your resistance territories, you will also need to give the necessary resources to produce 1k MPs.
The 50 width Cavalry will have a much higher Suppression stat, which will hugely increase with one MP support company.
But, you will need a lot of Army Experience to form this huge division, which makes this an optional, late-game Cavalry Garrison division.
That’s everything you need to know about the best Cavalry templates in Hearts of Iron 4!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
