Commerce Raiding Tips

[iambecomelife]

Hey guys,

I recently ordered the game and I've been having a great time with the fleet vs. fleet actions in campaign. However, I was wondering if anyone knows how to implement a good anti-commerce strategy on the German side? I have mined locations outside of enemy ports, but the minefields haven't sunk anything except for one British destroyer. I have sent subs out on patrol, but they never seem to sight anything. - even when I place them near shipping lanes. I noticed on other threads that other people are having much more success against British cargo vessels. Any recommendations?

Thanks.

[Bullethead]

As the Germans, the most important merchants to go after are in the Channel, because these directly impact the progress of events on land at Verdun and the Somme. Take out enough of these and you might win WW1 in the summer of 1916. But if you fail in that, merchants still help you win at the bottom line as to who's better off at the end of 1916.

Merchants typically hug the coast until they have to cross some wide body of water, and then they tend to do that at the narrowest point. So filling the Straits of Dover up with mines is always a good idea, as is always having U-boats patrolling there. The lower Channel should also be assigned to U-boats. And putting a few CLs and a bunch of DDs in Zeebrugge or Oostende for surface raids is also helpful, although the Brits and French are strong enough to start with to give you some trouble, and get reinforced if you're too successful.

There are also a fair number of merchants coming in from overseas (as in entering on the west and south map edges), many of which head for Liverpool. Thus, patrolling and mining there or at the entrances to the Irish Sea is also helpful.

Right now, when your subs or mines do anything, it's just reported as a transient line in the text buffer in the upper left corner. What's here is mostly sub successes. With mines, you usually have no idea if any foes have hit them, unless you happen to have a unit there to see it happen. But mine losses do show up in the game_log.txt file, so if you want to read the enemy's mail, you can look through that periodically. Just search for the word "mine!"

[Gammel]

i did spread up my submarine divisions to single submarines and ordered each single sub to patrol on it´s own. :arrgh!:
march separeted - strike united!

don´t know if that was a good idea, im only on day 2 of my campaign.

[Bullethead]

[quote=Gammel;1093208]i did spread up my submarine divisions to single submarines and ordered each single sub to patrol on it´s own. :arrgh!:
march separeted - strike united!quote]

That quickly becomes a micormanagement nightmare, so I suggest you use the Area Patrol order instead. With this, you pick the center of the patrol area and its radius in map hexes, and that's it. No more worries. From then on, the TF will automatically maintain about 1/3 to 1/2 of its ships on station wandering randomly around the patrol area, another 1/4 to 1/3 in transit to or from the patrol area, and the rest in port refitting and repairing.

I sometimes split a couple of zeps off (subs are too slow for this) to drive around independently exactly where I want them, but all my patrol boats, obsolete DDs, subs, and zeps are on area patrol.

[Gammel]

I :/\\k: micromanagement some times...

:up:

...but thanks for the tip and explaination about area patrols - will give it a try.
I didn`t know about exactly and was too lazy so far in
reading the whole game manual.
I hate reading bigger documents on the monitor and will have to print out the whole book.

From then on, the TF will automatically maintain about 1/3 to 1/2 of its ships on station wandering randomly around the patrol area, another 1/4 to 1/3 in transit to or from the patrol area, and the rest in port refitting and repairing.Will they care about own mines?
Value to set there is patrol radius in nm i guess...?

[Bullethead]

Will they care about own mines?

Your ships are safe from your own mines while moving on the campaign map. They can hit them in battles, but you see them then so can avoid them.

Value to set there is patrol radius in nm i guess...?

No, the radius is in map hexes, of 25km each. Hit F3 to turn on the shipping lane overlay, so you can see the size of the nearby hexes.

[dc1962]

Per your answer above, I looked through the game log--I assume that the log is choronological, and the later events are at the bottom? Also, I checked for mine and there is an overwhelming number of hits. Is there a way or trick to just track the BDA for our mines?

[Bullethead]

Is there a way or trick to just track the BDA for our mines?

Not at present. The general idea is that you'd hardly ever know what your mines did, because usually nobody on your side is there to see it happen and the enemy isn't going to want to tell you.

[iambecomelife]

Thanks for the recommendations. I have been having a little more success nowadays. I put my subs on area patrol and they are pretty good at hunting enemy destroyers & monitors in the channel. I also created an independent strike force of CL's and DD's to go commerce raiding. They manage to bag the odd freighter from time to time (although they obviously need to be kept away from the British heavy units).