Medals and Qualifications

[Twitchy]

Who should I use my medals on? And what qualifications should I assign. I'm wracking my brains off which qualifications to assign and whether or not I should assign them to officers or petty officers. Tips?

[Ula Jolly]

I normally prioritise my promotions (not qualifications) like this:
Best officer
Watchman
Sonar Man (preferably two of them!)
Machinists
and then comes after need.

The two smallest medals are given to pretty much everyone, but all officers should have at least some! If you get an Iron Cross any class, it's a really nice moral booster, and makes the person perform very well for very long.

As for qualifications, I NEED at least two sonarmen, and then it's good with a watchman with gunner/flak competence! An officer for the torpedo room is not bad, either, and if you are the heatseek.. receiving kind, better have an officer with repair abilities!

Oh, and I think it's better to have a lot of petty officers with good qualifications rather than a few officers with excellent.

[1916]

I just give the medals to those who have served the best on the patrol. To figure that out, I give it officer in that served longest in the given compartment. For example, if I sunk a large amount of tonnage, I give the medal to the longest serving crew member in the forward torpedo compartment. If I survived a good amount of damage from depth charges, I will give it to the crew member I feel helped me the most in escaping. Just track members you see doing well and give them what they deserve. Other then that, I don't know of any system or proper way of giving out medals.

Good luck in figuring this one out!

[captainclasp]

This has been a longstanding debate on qualifications. Medals are easier - the better medals should go to your officers first - then warrants - then enlisted. Realize that you cant give a gold cross to a sailor that doesnt already have the "lower" ranking medals.... the biggest thing on medals is they decrease fatigue levels - once you give someone a gold cross - they can stay on duty the entire patrol without losing a pixel of fatigue. I currently am in a IX-B and have 2 Warrants with gold crosses - I never have to worry about engines cutting out now! All my officers are fully decorated (except for wound badges!). Try to get the best patrols you can - especially early in the war when its easier to do - and you can get enough crew medaled to help on the long term fatigue.

As for quals - this depends on your style of play. Like using the flak and deck guns - go with a watch officer with these - as well as a warrant or 2 with flak and at least one (you get him free to start) with deck gun. My deck gunner is a Sr CW with a gold cross - if I have my watch officer (Watch/Gun/Flak qual) on the tower - I get max effectiveness from the deck gun with just my warrant. I have found that "max effective" isnt exactly accurate - i get MUCH better results with flak qualified AA gunners than with non-qualified - even at max "effectiveness" my non AA qual'd sailors cant seem to hit a thing - but put my AA Aces on - and watch the RAF loose lots of hardware!

If your a pure "submariner" - then your first quals should probably go to promoted warrants - sonarmen - followed by torp qual's to officers, then to warrants. A good engineer would have the repair function - and if you put him on DC and fill his team - he can be very effective!

Personally - I dont find much use for the medic - and have yet to see anyone explain what a "helmsman" qual does.... If anyone knows - please post - bc I have been wondering for some time...
Good Hunting!

[billclifton]

i may be wrong but i thought i read somewhere if your crew in the control room has helmsman qualifications this improves dive times.also i remember someone saying a medic stationed in crew quarters improves recovery of fatigue.

[Twitchy]

Helmsman qual lets you actually drive the fricken boat. One time I didn't have a helmsman and I couldnt steer the boat.