You're going to have problems modelling a 3 shift crew mate. Something to consider would be using the damage repair space as an extra quarters, then moving that shift to rest quarters to regain their fitness before going on duty again.

I believe the rotation scheme was 8 hours on, 8 hours "free time", 8 hours off, except for the guys on the engines those had 4 hours on

<shameless plugging> there's a whole section in the GWX manual devoted to exactly this</shameless plugging> :D

U boats definitely used hot-bunking and the crews grew larger later in the war.

I find that In a type VII u boat I have 5 crewmen that don't have quarters when surfaced, I put those on the electric engines for "maintenace"

when submerged you have 1 crewmen you can't stash in the diesel room, I store him in the forward torpedo bay, but he will get fatigued.

for a IX u boat it's 6 spares surfaced and 2 surplus when submerged, for the type II there's no such problem, except there's not enough bunks for all the officers to nap at the same time :D, The type XXI is so generally stupendous there's even enough room for the crew :D

you could of course take one or two crewmen less than the maximum, shouldn't impair efficiency too much.

for a rotation scheme, I generally use the well rested guys to replace the tired ones, although after chasing a convoy at the edge of visual range for a whole night you do tend to end up with a boat full of exhausted crew....

Many thanks for the advice fellas, ive just graduated from the Naval academy and am now awaiting my first command and my first GWX career, my skippers notebook is already full of tactics and helpful notes from this forum.
Does anyone else take their boat on a shakedown/workup for the first patrol to get rid of moss and good german beer out of their system?

I don't think you can do this. When you "go to port", BdU will assign you a mission, and you must do it. They take a dim view of "shakedown" cruises, I'll betcha:D

For myself, I would like a "Shakedown Mod", which allows you to go close to Danzig, and see what Polish ships you can take out. But I don't think there's a way of making this part of your overall career. However, I'm not a modder, so I'll let them answer this question!

As to the German beer, the only answer is time ...

GWX 2.0
 

Hi Guys

Yep, it's good ole (just turned 71 yrs) Rob and I have a question as it's been a long time since I've done this.

I want to start with a VIII in the 7th Flotillia. What year, etc do I choose to start my new career so that I can end up in St. Nazaire?

EDIT: I wish to start with a VIII and be able to transfer later to the 7th Flotilla at St. Nazaire. So, where do I start???

Rob

external load
 

how do i get the crew to load the external torpedos into the sub

Rob, start in any flotilla but the 2nd, that's the longrange boats, or start in the 2nd with a VII and when they transfer to lorient you transfer to the 7th which should be in st. Nazaire at that time.

Never have transferd, me, I stick with the original flotilla, but I run several careers in different years/flotillas at the same time so I can do what i feel like at the time :D

Papajones, just make sure there's enough crew in the right torpedo room and then drag and drop the eels from outside to inside.

Personally I uncheck automatic loading because the crew will transfer 1 eel inboard, then load it into the 1st available empty tube, then transfer the next.

Since transfering eels from outboard to in was a timeconsuming and dangerous operation during which the boat couldn't dive to get away from planes you want to get it over with asap :up:

I have a question about promotions. I have played many careers, but I cant recall ever getting promoted above oberlt. How does the system work.

Selecting Mods & Downloads
 

Hi from a newbie. Thanks for this most excellent string.
I've played SH I and SHII over the years, but I have just been given SHIII because I've been a good boy (or something - maybe they just wanted me out of the way for the next 6 months or so).
I am after suggestions as to which mods/patches I should take up, if any, and in what order.
I note the long list of mods in the download section and without experience or guidance I think it would be easy to get lost in cyberspace, rather than lost in the gameplay.
The DVD is V1.4 (in the bottom right corner when the game loaded - I couldn't find the usual "About" section anywhere, so that's the best I could come up with). Not being sure, I downloaded V 1.4b (Asian/Australian version) and installed - didn't seem to object. So far so good?
Next I found V 1.45 in the downloads, which seemed to be a collection of worthy patches etc. Downloaded & installed OK, it seems. That's where I decided to come to periscope depth and check around. Should I stop at that and just play the game for a month or so to get my sea-legs back before looking for anything else, or would you old salts suggest any other must haves at this beginning stage?
Thanks for any comments or recommendations. (Let me know if you think I have already gone too deep, & need to RTB and start over.)
Gryff

When finding a convoy, once that rush of excitement settles down, standard practice and BDU dictate that it should be shadowed and position, course and speed reported every 8 hours and not to attack until all boats are in position, does anyone follow this procedure?, and does it have any actual effect in the game? ie do other u-boats within range converge? or am i just wasting time reporting in and should i just attack!

It will only have limited effect you might cause some Luftwaffe assistance if near a friendly base, but how often does this happen?

If you decide to shadow, I'd only do so until dark, then mount 2 or 3 attacks during darkness, each attack hopelfully followed by a quick evade escorts and end around to get back into optimum position.

I f you have any eels left at that point you could do another end around or shadow during the day and go for it again.

My best so far was attacking a convoy 3 times in a 90km stretch one night, after that there wasn't a whole lot left. I sank 12 out of 20 merchants.


Whoa! look what they did to my Avatar :D

Good Shooting Keptin!, how well escorted was that convoy?
With the old stock SH3 i used to spend days shadowing and reporting in, before getting fed up with no reply from BDU. Im on my first ever GWX patrol, assigned to 2nd flotilla, U-36, and am patrolling grid BE61, just had a signal, convoy approx 250 km to the sw of me so am plotting intercept course, have a good feeling about this!.

Reference to my previous question about crew management, today i purchased a book: Wolf Pack The story of U-Boats ii ww2 by Gordan williamson, its a fab book and has a complete chapter devoted to U-Boat crews, Lifestyle, training, watch positions, exact no. of seaman, stokers, petty officers etc.

IIRC that convoy had 3 DDs and a Black Swan or some such, oh and a Dido CL I think, that was first to get sunk :D

I've seen so many different convoys in so many different places in the last few months they all run together, except the memorable ones with something special in them, like an escort carrier.

Thanks for the Heads-up
 

Yep, I've re-installed SHIII, Patch 1.4b and Downloaded & installed GWX 2.0 - what an amazing effort the team put in! It makes my head ache thinking about the hundreds of man-hours (in reality, more like 1,000's of man hours) put in to create this 1Gb patch! Unbelievable commitment.
Am just doing the Naval Acadamy so far - even enjoying that! Found a couple of excentricities which I will post on the GWX Modder's forum - I'm sure that there will need to be a little patch (to 2.1) in a couple of months once all the little tweaks are known, but to have such a major mod work so well straight up is a real testament to these guys.
Salut!
Gryff