a revised tank guide. based on the original guide. still made by me.

Introduction

I made a tank guide and foolishly decided to us a historical propaganda as its icon. steam decided it was inappropriate thus i am re-uploading this guide to remove it, since steam wont let me edit the old one and republish it.

original introduction text

tanks are powerful units in hearts of iron 4. they are not as good as they used to be, but with some tricks they can come a little close to their former greatness.

idea from

by New Sheed

please read the whole guide before asking questions. you have no idea how meany people keeps asking me where stabilizers is without reading the research section of the guide.

Template

this is my personal tank template the support company and the ratio of mediums can be ajusted to your prefarance. this is how i do it.

don’t forget to use these things:

• engineer : on the 3rd tier upgrade you get attack buff while crossing rivers
• recon light tanks : less recon than armored cars but much better stats
• anti air : stops cas from murdering your tanks
• flame tanks : more attack in hills and forest and lots of other places
• note : arrange your mechs like this too, I found it helping me not accidentally putting in 10 of them. 2 rows of 4 kind of make them look like 2 rows of 5. sounds dumb but it happens to meany people.

 

Basic of tank designer

the tank designer has 6 important common elements, consistent across all tanks.

1. speed : effects how fast tanks go, should be consistent across all of your templates. decide on a number and stick to it. recommended number : 8km/h same speed as mechanized, 6.4km/h same speed as cavalry.
2. reliability : you can keep at the back of your mind. tanks that have less reliability suffer extra casualty in combat due to attrition, they also gain back their organisation slower. but if you are planning to upgrade your tanks the first batch can have lower reliability because an unreliable tank is better then no tanks. if your main stay tank have low reliability, you might want to consider producing extra to compensate for more losses or changing them to have more reliability.
3. suspension : always default to bogie, if it’s not fast enough switch to Christie. except on mediums.
4. armor : riveted armor is best in my opinion. they provide just as much breakthrough as welded armor and gives the tank -20% production cost. i think they are worth it
5. engine : gas engine is best because it buffs speed, the only good stat engine buffs.
6. upgrades : maximize armor upgrade while maintaining the decided speed. do not go over 9 because then it cost extra resources to produce.

 

Medium tank design

medium tanks have 1 job

MORE BREAKTHROUGH, MORE BREAKTHROUGH, MORE BREAKTHROUGH

if you can achieve this job, you have made a good medium tank. this is how I achieved it.

good tank design :

1. stabilizers : 5 breakthrough

   
    

2. armor skirts : 3 breakthrough

   
    

3. small cannon : 2 breakthrough (slows down tank)

   
    

4. extra ammunition storage : 2 breakthrough

   
    

5. smoke launchers : 1 breakthrough

   

 

Medium tank destroyers

The tank destroyer’s 1 job in this template is to get as much soft and hard attack as possible.

MORE ATTACK, MORE ATTACK, MORE ATTACK, MORE ATTACK

they however have -40% to breakthrough so its not worth investing into breakthrough modules

if you just make a unit that has high attack its good, this is how i did mine.

1. gun : heavy guns, they give the best attack. but advanced high velocity cannons are also good.

   

2. turret : fixed super structure, so you can have the cool gun

   

3. secondaries : the canon gives extra 5 soft and 3 hard attack.

   

4. mg : machine guns give 2 soft attack, beats having anything else.

   

 

Light flame tanks

flame tanks have -75% debuff to most of its stats, it is not wort it to spend any production on it. this is how you make one as cheap as possible.

• chassis : use early light tank chassis, they are super cheap.
• suspension : don’t forget to use wheeled suspension they give -10% production cost. ignore the reliability, there are so few of them and they are so cheap it doesn’t even matter.
• DO NOT FORGET TO SET THEM TO FLAME TANK ROLE

you need to research engineer 2 and make a light flame tank template to add these to your units

Recon light tanks

Recon light tanks are an inexpensive way to buff your unit’s stats. its main job is to do as much damage and as much breakthrough as possible. ignore cost , there are a maximum 24 units per unit. so even if its the most expensive light tank in the world it wont matter much.

1. Gun : choose high velocity cannon they give the most total attack.

   

2. turret : choose 3 man turret for the most breakthrough.

   

3. other modules are just the same as mediums they are :
    
   • radio

     

   • stabilizers

     

   • Interleaved road wheels

     

 

Progressively upgrading tanks

I always say bad tanks is better than no tanks. and even better,

you know how the best industry tech is dispersed industry? you know how that let’s you keep production efficiency when switching models? these “bad” tanks are also building efficiency for better one later on.

basics of progressive upgrading.

you need the speed to be the same and maximize the stat that the tank is made for while basically ignoring reliability. since these are going to be replaced with much better tanks why worry about loosing them.

example

my medium tank progression :

(click on it to make it bigger)

this is not supposed to be set and stone, please don’t take this as a bible. we research things differently. all players will have their own upgrade path.

Research

instead of just researching for tanks before nsb. now you have to research the part that are spread through in different tabs. here are the tabs that have important research on them

support

support tab is key to getting flame thrower for flame tanks. they are located in engineer 2.

armor

1. engine upgrade : gives you the ability to upgrade the engine to 9, anymore is a waste of resources.
2. improved medium hull : it is the best balance between reliability and production cost. best tank hull in my opinion.
3. armour upgrade : gives you access to armour skirts, they give ok breakthrough without costing too much.

   

artillery

the artillery tab is where your tanks get their punch from here are the most important upgrades.

• 1. anti-tank upgrade : where medium cannon 1 come from.

  

• 2. Improved anti-tank : gives you access to improved heavy cannons.

  

• 3. Improved anti-tank upgrade I : gives you improved medium cannons.

  

• 4. advanced anti-tank : gives you advanced high velocity cannon and heavy canon 3.
   

  

electronics

the electronics tab gives you access to 2 very important techs.

• 1. radar techs : gives you access to radar and their improved variant. they give a modifier instead of flat number of breakthrough.

  

• 2. improved computing : gives you stabilizers.

  

 

Tactics

this section is talking about the in game tactic that the commander chooses, not tactics as how to play.

attacking tactics

the best attacking tactic for tanks is breakthrough.it gives the most attacking modifier of 25%

the second best is blitz. it only gives 15% but it does counter delay so there’s that.

defending tactics

best defending tactic is guerrilla tactics. they give the enemy -70% attack but it also gives you -60% attack. but the important thing is it reduces your combat width and makes neat division people design to fit in the terrain not fit anymore, thus giving them debuffs.

Doctrine

there are only 2 doctrine in no step back that are any good when using tanks, mobile warfare and superior firepower.

mobile warfare

in my opinion the best option for any tank nation. mobile warfare provides good breakthrough and let’s you use blitz and breakthrough tactic the earliest. this means you need to spend less xp overall for your doctrine. most of the good buffs are also located early in the tree compared to superior

firepower. and you get more tank org. reducing reinforce memes.

• 1. armored spearhead : for the tank breakthrough stat buff and the blitz tactic
• 2.blitzkrieg: for the breakthrough tactic and organisation to tanks.
• 3. desperate defense or modern blitzkrieg : unlikely to get before the war starts, see what situation you are in and act accordingly. desperate defense is really funny tho.
• trolling. werwolf guerrillas : unlocks guerrilla tactics, best defending tactic in the game.

superior firepower

the other “viable” option for doctrine. it used to be meta before no step back comes out. superior firepower provides more attack, compared to mobile warfare. however it provides less breakthrough overall and takes longer to get to the good buffs. in that time you will lose to a mobile warfare build. but if you prevail until unlocking the techs for higher breakthroug.h SF might just beat MW, its personal prefrance.

• mechanized offensive : for armor breakthrough and the blitz tactic.
• concentrated fire plan : for the 10% hard attack
• combined arms : for the breakthrough tactic and +10% attack to tanks.

 

Commanders

commanders are an important part of making a tank unit good. these are important traits for a general to command a tank effectively.

• adaptable : adaptable reduces the turrain penalty, making tanks more effective at attacking in forests and hills.
   

  

• panzer leader : to increase the attack for tanks , stacking modifiers and increasing attack exponentially
• improvisation expert : improv. expert gives +10% to land movement speed and also let you use the “makeshift bridges” ability.
   

  

one example “good” general

Micro tricks

how to “use” tanks

tanks are a great unit to attack with, with a combination of high attack and breakthrough they thrash anything on the attack. however they are terrible on defense, a tank will (in most common situation) lose on the defense against other tanks.

tanks on the offensive

tanks have high attack, and with the bonus from planning and veterancy they gain an even higher modifier. if we to stack all these bonus the tanks attack would be very high, potentially above 1000 attack.

with tanks being terrible at holding gained ground, it might in some situation be beneficial to start out the battle by using a tank to attack without moving than move in infantry afterwards. like the video below:

note : to attack without moving press ctrl+alt+right click without a front line assigned to the unit.

tanks on the defensive

as mentioned before, tanks suck on the defense. to hold ground with tanks, have them sit behind the line. when holding infantry looses the battle, attack the units that just moved into the tile. demonstrated below:

Stacking modifiers

this section is highly theoretical. you will not and cannot achive the maximum results shown.

attack modifiers in this game help each other reach a higher number. the more modifiers you stack the higher the number goes. here are some modifiers that increase attack:

• planning skill gives 2% per level, up to +20% max planning.
   
• thorough planer gives +10% to max planning.
   
• attack skill gives 2.5% per level, up to +25% attack bonus.
   
• panzer leader gives +16% to tank attack.
   
• cavalry leader gives +12% to mechanized attack
   
• a field marshal gives half of their bonuses to the unit so if you have the theoretical best commanders your tanks would get a +59% attack bonus.

now time to bring it all together:

this is the theatrically highest modifier I can think of, but more realistic modifiers might look like this (recreated general from a real game)

Conclusion

we are done, thanks for reading and leave suggestions or questions in the comment below, so i can implement them into the guide, and make it the best it can be.

this is a revised version still made by me, steam removed the old one because of the Hungarian propaganda poster that contained the naz* symbol.

Hope you enjoy the post for Hearts of Iron IV No Step Back Tanks : Reloaded, If you think we should update the post or something is wrong please let us know via comment and we will fix it how fast as possible! Thank you and have a great day!