Running the no fatigue mod I prefer to play with only 2/3 of the crew aboard. 1/3 is on duty, 1/3 is sleeping (and missing aboard), 1/3 is playing cards.

3 of 4 Officers

LI/OLt= Helm - Repair - Medic
1 WO/Lt = Watch and Flak
2 WO/Lt = Torpedo and Deckgun
(Lt can have 2 and OLt can have 3 qualifications)

My NAV stays OFhr = Helm

10 of 16 PO

1 Watch
2 Radio (for best hydophone performance)
1 Flak
1 Deckgun (later 2nd Flak)
1 Machinist
2 Repair
2 Torpedo

20 of 30 Crew

3 Watch
3 Helm
6 Machinist
7 Torpedo
1 Cook ;)

I'm in trouble whenever SH3Cmdr shifts a few guys around.
I don't have to nanny my crew but I have to order some people around to get the tubes reloaded.

For what it is worth:

From "Wolf-Pack - The Story of the Uboat in WWII" by Gordon Williamson, pp. 179-180 we have the following optimized crew roster:

"Commander Kapitänleutnant, usually referred to as 'Herr Kaleu'.
There were a few Korvettenkapitän-ranked commanders
and a number of commanders with the rank of
Oberleutnant zur See, particularly later in the war.
First Officer Typically, an Oberleutnant zur See (or Leutnant zur See
on boats where the commander was an Oberleutnant).
The First Watch Officer was usually referred to as the
IWO.
Second Officer Usually a Leutnant zur See and referred to as the
'Zweiter Wach Offizier'.
U-BOAT CREWS
179
Engineering Officer Generally a Leutnant or Oberleutnant zur See, his title
was 'Leitender Ingenieur' or Leading Engineer and he
was normally referred to as the 'LF.
Third Watch Officer This post was held by a warrant officer grade, typically
the Obersteuermann or Navigator.
Fourth Watch Officer This was a non-commissioned post often held by the
Oberbootsmaat or bosun.
The remainder of the crew would be made up approximately as follows (total
crew numbers could vary from boat to boat):
Stabsobermaschinist Chief Warrant Officer (1) Engine Room
Obermaschinist Senior Warrant Officer (2) Engine Room
Maschinenobermaat Chief Petty Officer (2) Engine Room
Maschinenmaat Petty Officer (5) Engine Room
Maschinenobergefreiter Leading Seaman (11) Engine Room
Maschinengefreiter Able Seaman (5) Engine Room
Funkobermaat Chief Petty Officer (3) Radio Operator
Funkobergefreiter Leading Seaman (1) Radio Operator
Funkgefreiter Able Seaman (2) Radio Operator
Oberbootsmann Senior Warrant Officer (2)
Bootsmann Warrant Officer (1)
Matrosenobergefreiter Leading Seaman (7)
Matrosengefreiter Able Seaman (3)
Obermechaniker Senior Warrant Officer (1) Torpedo Room
Mechanikermaat Petty Officer (2) Torpedo Room
Mechanikerobergefreiter Leading Seaman (1) Torpedo Room
Mechanikergefreiter Able Seaman (1) Torpedo Room
Sanitätsmaat Petty Officer (1) Medical Orderly"

Notice the preponderance of engine-room types - and the "mechaniker" torpedomen were mechanics trained in the maintenance of them - the "matrosen" were the ones who would be loading/unloading, etc - and any other grunt work.

Also, as to the original topic - I also have Line and Engineer Officers, with the latter concentrating on Mechanic and Repair skills, while the Line types are Helmsman, Watch Officer, and combat skills as needed. Because of the way Ubi made the Nav function an Officer one instead of a PO, I have one of the Officers fill in when using those functions - but don't have one permanently assigned as such.

Analysis of actual rosters of boats when lost (from http://www.ubootwaffe.net/ mostly) verifies the above; altho most boats lacked many of the slots shown, the emphasis on engineering and relative "undermanning" of the torpedo rooms as we tend to think of them are accurate.

This was also discussed in another thread, and on page 3 I posted the crew of U45 when lost in SH3 crew_config format:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...light=crew+U45

Crew Fatigue
 

I read in the GWX manual that medics do effect the fatigue recovery. Whether true or not I don't know. As for turning off FATIGUE,... I do believe it changes the Sim. I mean when U leave port evryone is fresh, as in RL. Over the course of the Patrol fatigue sets in. In the Sim my men do not recover as fast later in the patrol. To me this adds to it when running the engines, loading eels, or any task. I believe there were times when Capt.'s had to micro manage. Maybe not all the time but the boats were small. It really doesn't bother me. I have men slowly moving up in rank that can carry the load for others. It's nice to see.

VIIB & Survival
 

If you are still looking for advice on qualifications I will give you my own for whatever its worth. I know many people may like to play differently so take whatever I say and adjust accordingly to how you like to play. This setup has served me well on a VIIB for my play style, it has a heavy emphasis on surviving.

What is the most important thing to you on your Uboat? For me personally, its making sure me and my crew return home. I cannot stress enough how important the Repair qualification is especially later in the war, always think ahead. Consider the worse case scenario, what happens when a DC or Mine goes off and you have heavy damage, broken machinery, heavy flooding, possibly multiple crew members dead (maybe one of them was a repair guy), and the ship is sinking fast when you are already at 100+ meters down? oh and maybe that destroyer or one of his friends is coming back around for another DC run at you. It may be overkill in some peoples opinion, but I like to give every main officer the repair qualification as one of his three qualifications, as well as 3 petty officers with the repair qualification. Within my game I have crew fatigue still enabled (a bit toned down though) and I like having the ability when I have damage to be able to throw any of the main officers into the repair station to have him greatly boost its performance. A main officer with the repair qualification along side 3 petty officers with repair will max out the repair performance bar! So there is your repair team for dire situations, and if needed, you can even add other random crew to it.

The next thing on my personal list of importance is what the Uboat is meant to do, Sink Ships. The second qualification for all but 1 main officer is Torpedoman, as well as 4 petty officers with torpedoman qualification. This is nice because when submerged you can toss a main officer and 2 petty officers with the torpedo skill into both the bow and stern torpedo rooms along side other crew, which will really cut down the reloading time of torpedoes. Now what about that one officer that didn't get the torpedo skill? This officer, whom will become your watch officer, will get the Gunner as his secondary qualification, to help improve the performance of the Deck Gun for the times you sink ships with the deck gun. Just him alone, with no crew at the deck gun station will make its performance over half way maxed, and even though he has gunner qualification, he almost maxes out the flak gun station even with no crew at it hehe.

The last qualification for each main officer is a mixed bag to help clean up all of the rest of the stuff that might possibly be needed. Starting with the odd ball dude who already has Gunner, and along side the importance of sinking ships, you first need to find them, so he gets the Watchman qualification. As personal taste, I also like to have 2 petty officers with the Watchman qualification to make sure the ability to see ships is at a max at all times. You can have both or just one on the bridge at a time for the unfortunate case you take damage while on the surface and one of them gets killed you will have an extra. Also, if fatigue plays a roll in your game, you can remove the main officer from the bridge when needed or also to just protect him at times while the two petty officer watchman keep the performance of seeing ships at a max. A situation where I use one or two of the watchman petty officers on the bridge without the main officer would be when I am passing through straights, or in areas with a very likely chance of getting spotted by destroyers or aircraft. The next 3rd qualification for two main officers, (usually I pick depending on the officers voice), is Helm. I think its nice to have two main officers with Helm as 3rd qualification, so that you don't ever run into problems not being able to steer the ship. Having two lets you swap one for the other to let one rest in bunk so they won't get fatigued badly. The next 3rd qualification goes along side having Helm officers, and that is to have one main officer with the Machinist qualification who (if needed) can help run either of the engines in emergency situations. Also have 2 petty officers with the machinist qualification who you will normally keep running the engines. I usually keep one in bunk the other at the engine station along side 4-5 crew members to keep its performance reasonable. Once they get fatigued from long hours, you simply swap all of them out for the same type of crew who are in the stern bunk, and you just keep alternating them throughout your patrol to keep the engines running. The last officer's third qualification I like to set to Medic, as well as having 1 petty officer as medic. I do this because you will normally always have an officer who is in bunk and having the medic qualification helps out the other crew in bunk i believe, then you toss the petty officer with medic into the other bunk. Also if one of your crew gets injured instead of having him die, you can put them in bunk with both the main officer and petty officer with medic, which will hopefully save his life. So that's it for the main officers and most of your petty officers.

To fill out the rest of your petty officers, I like to have 2 Radioman to help with the Radio/Sonar stations. Next, I like to make 1 petty officer Gunner to man the Deck Gun who along side the main officer with gunner will make its performance over max then you have the two extra crew as well who man the gun. I like to put one as Flak to help defend against aircraft, but 99% of the time when I encounter an aircraft I crash dive because I would like to make it to the end of the war if possible. Messing with aircraft is very risky and could end up getting many of your men if not all of them including you killed. The Flak guy is again for emergency situations when I may have low battery or oxygen, or possibly flooding where I have to blow ballast and am required to be on the surface and fight it out, aircraft or not.

These qualifications are not mentioned in order, it was a long process to get to this setup. I added what I needed at the time and ended up with this. Of course, this setup is not bulletproof and can have problems just like any setup. A really bad DC can end your career even with the best crew. In the end It is up to you as captain to make the decisions to keep your boat and its crew both operational and alive.

Hope this may have helped you in deciding what qualifications you decide to pick for your crew... :salute:

WolfyBrandon

Have never seen a medic (PO or Officer) descrease fatigue. Having had a few wounded people that didn't die when a medic is in the same compartment he does recover health faster. While the healing process is very slow, the medic just makes is slow. For realism's sake there was always a medic on board a u-boat, 1 of my PO will always be a medic despite the 1 in a 1000 chance that I will be in a situation where he could be of any use.

2 of my officers will have the repair skill (the CE and Machinist) and 4 other PO's with it. I put a repairman in both torpedo rooms, the engine room, and one in one of the crew spaces - he's the main guy that I put into the place for repairs.

Helmsman is another skill that I believe has been prove to show no positive gains in any manner; even so I always have 2 people with the skill, the navigator and ce; again for realism's sake. With 5 officers I never find that I'm ever short on skills after a few patrols and get some experienced officers.

Just FYI, SH3Cmdr's "Realistic Crew" option provides a crew complement that is as close to historically accurate as SH3 constraints will allow. It is based on extensive research of actual u-boat crews.

Combine it with the "randomise crew details" option, which provides crew with history (rather than a boat full of all noobs), and you have what is arguably the most realistic crew config that you can have in SH3 (without resorting to replicating actual u-boat crew lists).

SH3 utterly stinks at crew modelling.

First off, I changed the basic.cfg file to totally eliminate crew fatique. As others have said, the Kapitan has better thing to do than put people to bed and wake them up again. Mütti did not join the Kreigsmarine.

My biggest complaint concerns crew qualifications. Over time, EVERY crewman had to become qualified in at least their own specialty. Accordingly, I modified the basic.cfg file for each SUBMARINE type by increasing the maximum number of petty officers to equal the total enlisted crew complement of each boat type. The minimum number of CREW was also reduced to zero. Max officers was increased to 7 so I can carry a qualified medical officer (on a type IXD2) and unqualified officer cadets, mechanic qualified LI in training, etc. My boats now carry only officers and warrent officers. Over the course of many patrols, I can qualify everyone aboard.

My usual crew configuration for a type VII:

Watch Officer - Watchman, gunner, flak gunner
LI - machinist, repair, torpedo
Navigator - helmsman, repair, watchman (I count him 1 of the 4 warrent officers historically carried)
Weapons officer - Torpedo, repair, flak gunner

3 CSWO (warrent officers): 1@ torpedo, mechanic, watchman/bosun.

12 SWO: (petty officers) 1 radio, 1 gunner, 1 flak gunner, 2 mechanic, 4 torpedo, 2 repair, 1 medic


24 WO: (enlsited crew): 3 gunners, 4 flak gunners, 8 repair, 5 torpedo, 2 mechanic, 2 watchman


That's 43 men + me as kapitan = 44.


I agree with the earlier poster - you can never have too many repairmen, especially later in the war. By having 2 in each compartment except radio, plus all officers repair-qualified as well, I don't need a dedicated repair crew.

Gunners are only useaful until late 1941, when merchants start shooting back - often with devastating results requiring the medic or burial at sea. Flak gunners don't become important until early 1941 - unless you like patrolling the North or St George's Channels. I will start out with 1 gunner, slowly increase that to 4, and then dismiss 2 of them, replacing them with up to 5 flak gunners. Flak gunners have a high mortality rate.




For a type IX, I'll add 13 enlisted men to bring total crew to 57;

5 SWOs : 1 radio, 1 repair, 1 mechanic, 1 torpedo, 1 watchman

8 WOs : 3 torpedo, 2 mechanic, 2 repair, 1 flak gunner

I may also add a Medical officer with no other qualification but Medic