Der Teddy Bar
09-03-06, 01:56 PM
The principle behind the NYGM Feature Revisited is as we near the release of the NYGM TW 2.2, is to highlight important technical and game play aspects of the NYGM Tonnage War Mod that many new comers may not have seen or that the old salts missed during the busy hey days or have forgotten/take for granted since they have been there for so long.
The feature in the spotlight today is the NYGM U-Tankers Mod.
U-Tankers (U-boat Type XIV), also known as milk-cows, were submersible tankers intended to serve as floating bases for U-boats at sea. Ten were built in total. They carried no offensive armament, only flak guns and up to 432 tons of oil which could be handed over to other U-boats. The first began operations in April 1942, while the great majority were sunk largely due to code-breaking of their rendezvous or transit movements in the summer of 1943. The last survivor based in France continued operations until April 1944, when she was sunk. Two absentees from the 1943 summer massacre were sunk while enroute from Germany on their first operations.
The original Silent Hunter 3 lacks any U-tanker facility for refuelling U-boats when away on remote operations. The basic principle to correct the omission is fairly simple (but not obvious): place a German land naval base in the middle of the ocean, and create an artificial submarine type (a U-Tanker) to patrol over it. This principle was first suggested by Sergbuto and later implemented by Sansal in his ‘MilkCows’ modification. The principle was altered again by Rubini for his ‘Harbour Traffic 1.46’ mod. My mod adds the principle of milk-cow bases to NYGM Tonnage War.
I feel it is pointless to try to emulate every patrol of every Utanker. Firstly, BdU sent out U-boats to patrol remote sea areas on the basis that a tanker would be waiting for them. Secondly, BdU used a series of auxiliary submarine tankers to augment the custom-built U-tanker fleet (especially the type XB minelayer, but also various handy Type IX boats to cover emergencies). Thus, from about June 1942 to June 1943 there was essentially continuous tanker coverage of the most important areas.
U-461: grid CC61, North-west Atlantic (10 April 1942 to 4 December 1942).
U-463: grid BD35, north of Azores (5 June 1942 to 30 June 1943).
U-460: grid EH53, off Freetown (5 September 1942 to 4 April 1943).
U-459: grid GG89, south of St. Helena, south Atlantic (10 September 1942 to 10 February 1943).
U-461: grid DF67, south-west of Azores (5 February 1943 to 26 March 1943).
U-488: grid DF67, south-west of Azores (5 June 1943 to 26 April 1944). ‘Brake’: no grid, east of Madagascar (Indian Ocean) (5 Sept. 1943 to 12 March 1944). This is a German surface tanker (really a composite of ‘Charlotte Schliemann’ and ‘Brake’), stationed for U-boats operating off South Africa.
For non users of SH3 Cmdr, Stiebler has written a program “SH3Patrol” to generate sensible random patrol zones so that you do not get the ‘NULL’ patrol grid. It can be found under C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\documentation.
The feature in the spotlight today is the NYGM U-Tankers Mod.
U-Tankers (U-boat Type XIV), also known as milk-cows, were submersible tankers intended to serve as floating bases for U-boats at sea. Ten were built in total. They carried no offensive armament, only flak guns and up to 432 tons of oil which could be handed over to other U-boats. The first began operations in April 1942, while the great majority were sunk largely due to code-breaking of their rendezvous or transit movements in the summer of 1943. The last survivor based in France continued operations until April 1944, when she was sunk. Two absentees from the 1943 summer massacre were sunk while enroute from Germany on their first operations.
The original Silent Hunter 3 lacks any U-tanker facility for refuelling U-boats when away on remote operations. The basic principle to correct the omission is fairly simple (but not obvious): place a German land naval base in the middle of the ocean, and create an artificial submarine type (a U-Tanker) to patrol over it. This principle was first suggested by Sergbuto and later implemented by Sansal in his ‘MilkCows’ modification. The principle was altered again by Rubini for his ‘Harbour Traffic 1.46’ mod. My mod adds the principle of milk-cow bases to NYGM Tonnage War.
I feel it is pointless to try to emulate every patrol of every Utanker. Firstly, BdU sent out U-boats to patrol remote sea areas on the basis that a tanker would be waiting for them. Secondly, BdU used a series of auxiliary submarine tankers to augment the custom-built U-tanker fleet (especially the type XB minelayer, but also various handy Type IX boats to cover emergencies). Thus, from about June 1942 to June 1943 there was essentially continuous tanker coverage of the most important areas.
U-461: grid CC61, North-west Atlantic (10 April 1942 to 4 December 1942).
U-463: grid BD35, north of Azores (5 June 1942 to 30 June 1943).
U-460: grid EH53, off Freetown (5 September 1942 to 4 April 1943).
U-459: grid GG89, south of St. Helena, south Atlantic (10 September 1942 to 10 February 1943).
U-461: grid DF67, south-west of Azores (5 February 1943 to 26 March 1943).
U-488: grid DF67, south-west of Azores (5 June 1943 to 26 April 1944). ‘Brake’: no grid, east of Madagascar (Indian Ocean) (5 Sept. 1943 to 12 March 1944). This is a German surface tanker (really a composite of ‘Charlotte Schliemann’ and ‘Brake’), stationed for U-boats operating off South Africa.
For non users of SH3 Cmdr, Stiebler has written a program “SH3Patrol” to generate sensible random patrol zones so that you do not get the ‘NULL’ patrol grid. It can be found under C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\documentation.