Giving out Crew Medals

[emtmedic005]

Now ive been reading alot of books on Uboats and some written by former uboat crewmen and most of them say how they all recieved medals after patrols. The one former crew member said his whole boat crew got the Iron cross. Was that normal? When i give out medals, using SH3 Commander, i usually award the men with the Uboat war badge after 2 patrols and award them with the Iron Cross 2nd class after 3 patrols. then i give out the Iron Cross 1st class for acts of bravery or for being an excellant crew member who helped out druing the patrol, for example the leader of a damage control party or the crewmember who spotted a good target.
How do you all hand out awards?

[Uncle Goose]

In WW2 it was common practise to hand out a certain medal to the entire crew, this was done to enhance the teamspirit amongst the crews. The most common medals for ordinary crews were the U-boat badge, Iron Cross second and first class. Other higher decorations depended on the personal level, some medals like the Knight's Cross were virtually out of reach for ranks lower than officer although there were a few handed out to petty officers for bravery. One must also remember that the medals were given in a certain order (U-Boat bagde, IC2de, IC1st, U-boat clasp, German Cross in silver or gold, Knights Cross,...You get the idea) and this made it hard for lower ranks to obtain higher decorations.

[Jimbuna]

In WW2 it was common practise to hand out a certain medal to the entire crew, this was done to enhance the teamspirit amongst the crews. The most common medals for ordinary crews were the U-boat badge, Iron Cross second and first class. Other higher decorations depended on the personal level, some medals like the Knight's Cross were virtually out of reach for ranks lower than officer although there were a few handed out to petty officers for bravery. One must also remember that the medals were given in a certain order (U-Boat bagde, IC2de, IC1st, U-boat clasp, German Cross in silver or gold, Knights Cross,...You get the idea) and this made it hard for lower ranks to obtain higher decorations.

It wasn't much different in the British navy.

[JScones]

I'm prolly similar to you emtmedic. The one difference is that I don't always award the IC2 after a set number of patrols, I award it based on patrol outcomes. Sometimes individuals will get the medal, sometimes the whole crew.

Remember, the crew of U-29 all received the IC2 after sinking HMS Courageous during their first *war* patrol.

Beyond that I'll occassionally award the IC1 on an individual basis to crew (moreso Petty Officers) coincidently for the same reasons that you stated, but that's usually the highest I'll go.

[Julius Caesar]

is it possible to reduce effect of medals on crew? I hate it when my crewmember that received iron cross 1st class becomes "iron man" and does't get fatigued.

[TomcatMVD]

is it possible to reduce effect of medals on crew? I hate it when my crewmember that received iron cross 1st class becomes "iron man" and does't get fatigued.
:o I gave an Iron Cross 2nd class to my WO and he gets as tired as anyone else!:damn:

[Jimbuna]

is it possible to reduce effect of medals on crew? I hate it when my crewmember that received iron cross 1st class becomes "iron man" and does't get fatigued.

You should also take into account the number of patrols they take part in brings with it experience and stamina as well.

[Julius Caesar]

is it possible to reduce effect of medals on crew? I hate it when my crewmember that received iron cross 1st class becomes "iron man" and does't get fatigued.
:o I gave an Iron Cross 2nd class to my WO and he gets as tired as anyone else!:damn:

Yes. 2nd class gives experience bonus.
See here:
http://www.mysh3.info/shiii/index.php?title=Medals

[U49]

I give out the correct amount of EK2 and EK1 to my crew... and I play with a heavy rotation on top of SH3commander....
Every patrol I rotate between 3 and 6 members of my type VII crew of 41-45 .. I just roll a dice :yep:
This means I give a medal, roll the dice .... and curse :damn: (sometimes)

Deutsches Kreuz will be given only in half the opportunities (infinit fatigue is too unrealistic I think, but twice a hero is good enough for me)

Ritterkruez is something, that I don't pass to my crew, up until mid-41 ... and than only for super-heroes....

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Hmm... I've always given all the awards sent by BdU, but after reading this thread I'll probably change it. I'm not going to use SH3Commander to "produce" medals, I'll rather skip giving some of them to my crew.

Next three iron crosses I'll pass to the families of my 3 killed crewmembers. I'll probably not award anyone with knights cross before I personally get it.

I also don't roll dices. I just pick some guys for transfering: 1 officer, 1-2 petty officers and about 4 sailors. I always choose these who went through many patrols, as everyone deserves a vacation and some more safe job after all that hell. :) SH3Commander stopped transfering my crew after I reduced it's number to about 40 men (VIIB), and even with SH3C "help" 1 transfer per patrol is too little for me.

[DirtyACE]

I have a few questions as this area of the game has always been sort of weird for me.

1. When you talk about transfering officers, how do you do that exactly using SH3Cmdr? And what do you base it on (experience, number of patrols, medals)?

2. I have completed my first patrol and sank 140,000+ tons, including HMS Hood. Should the entire crew get the Iron Cross 2nd Class for this? What about the War Badge?

3. I've noticed that in my crew there are a few who already have more than 5 patrols (with another boat probably) but they vary in rank and experience. Should I give each of them a promotion and the War Badge? I've noticed that a couple of them already have the Iron Cross 2nd Class too.

4. When promoting, do you do it simply based on experience or are there other factors involved? Do you ever not promote crew members even though their experience may say otherwise?

Sorry for all the questions. I just want to get a good understanding of how it was done in reality and also build some structure to my own promotions and decorations.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

I have a few questions as this area of the game has always been sort of weird for me.

1. When you talk about transfering officers, how do you do that exactly using SH3Cmdr? And what do you base it on (experience, number of patrols, medals)?

2. I have completed my first patrol and sank 140,000+ tons, including HMS Hood. Should the entire crew get the Iron Cross 2nd Class for this? What about the War Badge?

3. I've noticed that in my crew there are a few who already have more than 5 patrols (with another boat probably) but they vary in rank and experience. Should I give each of them a promotion and the War Badge? I've noticed that a couple of them already have the Iron Cross 2nd Class too.

4. When promoting, do you do it simply based on experience or are there other factors involved? Do you ever not promote crew members even though their experience may say otherwise?

Sorry for all the questions. I just want to get a good understanding of how it was done in reality and also build some structure to my own promotions and decorations.
1. "Realistoc crew transfers" SH3 Commander option ON, or manually dismissing and recruiting crew.

2. I think all of them would get anything they'd ever want + 1 month vacation and Fuehrer's handshake. :D

3. It depends on how you play. If you try to be role-playing, base the awards and promotions on your opinion about each one of the crew. If you don't care, just promote anyone you can. Try not to give all possible medals (crosses, to be more exact) at once, as the system of German WWII (and previous) crosses involved slow collecting them grade by grade - ICII first, then ICI, Knight's Cross and so on. I don't remember anyone getting his Knight's Cross at once for a extraordinar achievement (but that doesn;t mean it didn't happen, I could just lack knowledge).

4. I try to base it on particular patrol achievements and on some role-playing too. Usually any member of my crew gets his ICII after his 5th patrol (if he didn't get it before for some reason) just for sailing and fighting with me. But if we did particularly good, I can award them earlier (that hasn't happened for my last two careers however). ICI after like 8-10 patrols... but that hasn't happened as well. :D

As to promotions, I basically promote anyone I can, as promotion is not a kind of award, it's rather kind of grading "sea-worthiness" of a crew member. The more experience he has, the higher grade he should get, I think. I might be wrong about that though, again. :)

[STEED]

Medals are for wimps, the men and I do it for the Fatherland. :D

[Jimbuna]

Medals are for wimps, the men and I do it for the Fatherland. :D

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/6747/3658ed6.gif (http://imageshack.us)

[DirtyACE]

Is there any way of promoting a petty officer to a regular officer, or a seaman to a petty officer? I just released one of my officers for command training and want to fill the empty officer slot with one of my experienced petty officers. I've tried doing it with SH3Cmdr but it can't, says that the rank can't be applied or something of that sort.

[Kptlt. Siegmann]

Is there any way of promoting a petty officer to a regular officer, or a seaman to a petty officer? I just released one of my officers for command training and want to fill the empty officer slot with one of my experienced petty officers. I've tried doing it with SH3Cmdr but it can't, says that the rank can't be applied or something of that sort.
Warrant Officers (which make up the Petty Officer class in SH3) are in their own "category" so to speak. a Chief Senior Warrant Officer in game would be equivalent to the US Navy's CWO4 or CWO5. It would be pointless to become an Ensign (Sub-Lieutenant in-game) from that rank, so that's why I think the game and SH3C doesn't permit that.

Enlisted (sailors in-game) personnel IRL who don't remain in the enlisted ranks as NCOs in their career usually become Warrant Officers or Commissioned Officers, but not both, seeing as that's rather pointless.

Warrant Officers are specialists in their specific designator, such as ordnance (in the case of my dad), and come from the enlisted ranks where as Commissioned Officers are more general or broad in their duties.

Forgive me if I made an error, but I believe all of that is fact.


Ok, now to make sense out of that.
Yes "Sailors" can be promoted to "Petty Officers"
No "Petty Officers" can't be promoted to "Officers"

[DirtyACE]

Kptlt. Siegmann, thanks for clearing that up. In that case, how do I promote a sailor to a petty officer? As I said before, I tried SH3Cmdr for this but couldn't do it.

[Uncle Goose]

Kptlt. Siegmann, thanks for clearing that up. In that case, how do I promote a sailor to a petty officer? As I said before, I tried SH3Cmdr for this but couldn't do it.

If a sailor has the rank of "Matrosenhauptgefreiter" you can promote him to "Bootsman" but only if there is a place available for a petty officer on your sub, if you are filled up you cannot promote him any further.

[DirtyACE]

Thanks Goose :up:

[Kptlt. Siegmann]

In the "manage your crew" screen, you should be able to take any Senior Seaman and promote him to Warrant Officer using the arrows next to rank icon/name.

EDIT: That's interesting, I just tried to do it and it wouldn't let me...even when I have enough sailors (to not go under the minimum) and enough room for petty officers. I've promoted sailors to petty officers before through SH3. Uhhh...:doh::damn:

sorry...lol

[Puster Bill]

Medals are for wimps, the men and I do it for the Fatherland. :D

Meh. The men and I do it *TO* the Motherland.

[DirtyACE]

In the "manage your crew" screen, you should be able to take any Senior Seaman and promote him to Warrant Officer using the arrows next to rank icon/name.

EDIT: That's interesting, I just tried to do it and it wouldn't let me...even when I have enough sailors (to not go under the minimum) and enough room for petty officers. I've promoted sailors to petty officers before through SH3. Uhhh...:doh::damn:

sorry...lol

Well, here's some good news. You can promote sailors to petty officers and petty officers to officers, but you have to be in SH3 not SH3Cmdr. Then just go to your personel folder or whatever it's called, where you hand out decorations and promotions and just do it there. I just promoted one of my petty officers to an officer and did the same to a couple sailors.

[-SWCowboy.]

Warrant Officers (which make up the Petty Officer class in SH3) are in their own "category" so to speak. a Chief Senior Warrant Officer in game would be equivalent to the US Navy's CWO4 or CWO5. It would be pointless to become an Ensign (Sub-Lieutenant in-game) from that rank, so that's why I think the game and SH3C doesn't permit that.

Enlisted (sailors in-game) personnel IRL who don't remain in the enlisted ranks as NCOs in their career usually become Warrant Officers or Commissioned Officers, but not both, seeing as that's rather pointless.

Warrant Officers are specialists in their specific designator, such as ordnance (in the case of my dad), and come from the enlisted ranks where as Commissioned Officers are more general or broad in their duties.

Forgive me if I made an error, but I believe all of that is fact.


Ok, now to make sense out of that.
Yes "Sailors" can be promoted to "Petty Officers"
No "Petty Officers" can't be promoted to "Officers"

To add to that, Warrant Officers in the USN often are more respected than commissioned officers as they've been in the service much longer and have more experience leading their sailors than their commissioned counterparts.

Enlisted sailors can become commissioned officers but only on limited duty status.

[Kptlt. Siegmann]

Well, here's some good news. You can promote sailors to petty officers and petty officers to officers, but you have to be in SH3 not SH3Cmdr. Then just go to your personel folder or whatever it's called, where you hand out decorations and promotions and just do it there. I just promoted one of my petty officers to an officer and did the same to a couple sailors.

Are you sure about Petty Officers to Officers? I have not once been able to "promote" a Petty Officer to Officer via the barracks (SH3) or SH3 Commander.