Better Mechanics : Combat

Better Mechanics Combat rebuilds Hearts of Iron IV combat around pacing, logistics, armor, air support, and battlefield flow.

This mod rebalances core combat defines to make warfare slower, clearer, more tactical, and more historically grounded without turning every front into an endless trench line.

Battles now last long enough for your decisions to matter. Good planning, supply, reserves, armor, and air support can break a front. Bad logistics, poor terrain, weak piercing, and careless attacks will punish you.

Combat Philosophy

• Combat should be slower than vanilla, but still decisive.

• Defenders should hold when supplied, prepared, and entrenched.

• Offensives should succeed through planning, armor, reserves, air, and logistics.

• Encirclements should be deadly.

• Tanks should be powerful, not invincible.

• CAS should support land combat, not replace it.

• Supply should decide campaigns, not sit quietly in the corner pretending to matter.

Key Numbers That Change Combat

• Organization dice: 4 → 3, fewer random collapses.

• Land org damage: 0.053 → 0.045, slower and clearer battles.

• Reinforcement chance: 2% → 4%, better reserve flow.

• Engagement width: 2.0 → 1.5, less perfect target saturation.

• First target focus: 35% → 60%, more meaningful focus fire.

• Armor piercing curve: 4 tiers → 11 tiers, partial piercing now matters.

• Equipment loss factor: 70% → 50%, less wasteful combat.

• Captured equipment: 0% → 15%, battlefield victories recover gear.

• CAS support width: 3 → 2, less air power saturation.

• Army XP cap: 500 → 950, long wars develop real armies.

• Armor deflection: 50% → 0%, removing hidden binary tank damage reduction.

• Unpierced armor org dice bonus: 6 → 5, tanks stay dangerous without becoming magical.

Land Combat Rework

• Lower land combat damage for a more realistic battle pace.

• Tighter organization damage variance to reduce random collapses.

• Strength damage remains meaningful, so battles still cost equipment and manpower.

• Reinforcement, engagement width, stacking, and overwidth have been rebalanced.

• Encircled and poorly supplied divisions are far more vulnerable.

• Combat lasts long enough to create real decisions instead of instant attack spam.

Armor and Piercing

• Armor and piercing now use a gradual tiered model.

• Partial piercing matters.

• Hidden armor deflection has been removed, so tanks are no longer protected by an invisible binary damage reduction.

• Armor now wins through the expanded piercing curve and battlefield conditions, not through a single all or nothing check.

• Underpierced divisions still suffer heavily against armor.

• Anti tank, CAS, terrain, supply, and combined arms all matter.

• Tanks are strongest when used properly, not when thrown forward like expensive bricks.

Supply and Logistics

• Supply grace allows short operations beyond the network.

• Long term poor supply now becomes dangerous.

• Low supply limits organization and weakens sustained attacks.

• Attrition is controlled so terrain hurts without deleting entire armies for walking.

• Trucks, trains, hubs, railways, and fuel are more important to campaign success.

Air Combat and CAS

• CAS is restrained but useful.

• Air power helps break enemy organization without deciding the entire land war alone.

• Anti air matters more against sustained enemy air support.

• Logistics strikes are more relevant against trucks, trains, and infrastructure.

• Strategic bombing is more consistent and more strategically useful.

Terrain, Forts, and Defense

• Rivers and major rivers remain serious obstacles.

• Forts are strong without becoming absurd.

• Dig in is tuned for prepared defense without permanent concrete immortality.

• Bad terrain rewards planning, support, and proper unit choice.

Training and Military XP

• Army, navy, and air experience caps are raised.

• Division design is less restrictive.

• Training provides useful experience at a real cost.

• Leader experience gain is faster.

• Special forces capacity is expanded while keeping elite troops limited.

What This Mod Is

• A slower and more readable combat system.

• A stronger role for logistics and supply.

• A better armor and piercing model.

• A more tactical land warfare experience.

• A combat overhaul built around player decisions.

What This Mod Is Not

• It is not an instant death combat mod.

• It is not a trench warfare simulator.

• It is not built around one perfect division template.

• It is not a pure realism spreadsheet.

Recommended Experience

• A prepared offensive with supply, armor, reserves, and air support should break through.

• A reckless attack into forts, rivers, bad terrain, and poor supply should fail.

• A surrounded army should feel doomed.

• Tanks should be feared, but not worshipped as steel gods. Piercing, terrain, CAS, supply, and combined arms all matter.

• Air power should support the land war, not play the land war by itself.

• Logistics should decide campaigns. Outrunning your supply network should feel exciting at first, then increasingly stupid.

• Defenders should hold when prepared, but not become immortal because they discovered mud.

That is the goal: realistic combat that remains dynamic, readable, and fun.

This mod edits defines and should work with vanilla and many mods that do not overwrite the same combat, air, logistics, and training defines.

Compatible with all DLCs.

If another mod changes the same defines, whichever mod loads last will usually win.

I am centralizing feedback, bug reports, balance discussion, and future plans on Discord.

Please use the Better Mechanics Discord Server for suggestions and reports.

Recommended companion playset Better Mechanics Collection

Older version support Hearts of Iron IV 1.16 Playset

1.16.10 Combat Version