Size Does Matter
 

Everybody knows the Fleet boats are bigger than the Sugar boat. Am curious as to see the actual size diffrence between the Sboat and a fleet boat, so I parked an Sboat beside a Balao class so I could see the actual differance. Wasn't at all suprised but was kinda neat to see how much boat the Japs would see if spotted on the surface or how much of a target yer offering Bongo Pete as he drops ashcans on top of your head. lol :D

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z93/dhuget/Sboat.jpg

Interesting, the manual said it was roughly 30 meters longer but this makes much more sense. For me the biggest bonus the s-class still has is it's insane diving time.

Whenever I get a 'plane spotted' notification I can easily get the boat under before anything bad happens whereas with the Gato I had before even a crash dive sometimes wasn't quick enough.

I'm really happy with my sugar boat for the moment though there are times (for example when facing a huge task force like the other day :cry:) when I wished I had a little more, I don't know, 'umph' in there. :yep:

Oh yeh baby!!:lol:

I thought with subs, it was sur-prise that mattered. :hmm:

Bigger is better!
 

I don't care if he admires my quick diving time after he's sporting six holes in his hull below the waterline! And then I'm sporting four loaded torpedoes in reserve. One reason U-Boats were not more effective is that they didn't carry enough firepower. Type IX skippers may yell now. :p I am not aware of any RL skippers who wouldn't trade a sugar boat for a fleet boat and leave all their belongings behind in their haste to make the trade.

I'll duck now....:lost:

I wish i remembered to grab the type 9D2 data files so i could import it in game and line it up next to a gato in a single mission. I could do that for a reuglar type 9, but the D2 was bigger.

Of course, this is assuming they are scaled the same in size.

err, "plane spotted"??? that's what SD radar is for? Never been damaged by aircraft in my Tench, Gato or Balao class boats - radar gives plenty of advance warning to dive (note, not even crash dive) to a safe depth.

Of course, if you prefer to toot around in your kiddie boat, that's okay with me :D When you're ready to join the real submariners, we might let you have one of the big boy boats :lol:

One other advantage to the pig boats is that for some reason, even thoughthey don't dive as deep, they are almost as tough as a Balao in terms of hitpoints, etc (tougher than the early fleet boats, in fact, by quite a lot). Seems wrong to me.

tater

I hate to be the one doing this, but someone was going to eventually, so it may as well be me. So heres a few screenshots of a Late war type 9b uboat, next to a prewar Tambor fleet boat. I think the scale on both sub models is the same, but i could be wrong.

(in any event, i think comparing late war 9D2' uboat to a late war Tambor or Gato would be a fairer comparision, in both dimension, and deck armament )

http://www.ducimus.net/sh4/tambor_9b_01.jpg
http://www.ducimus.net/sh4/tambor_9b_02.jpg
http://www.ducimus.net/sh4/tambor_9b_03.jpg
http://www.ducimus.net/sh4/tambor_9b_04.jpg
http://www.ducimus.net/sh4/tambor_9b_05.jpg

:rotfl: lol, my Kiddie boat just recently had orders to do a Raboul Photo Recon of reported carrier activity,early 1943. Turned out to be 2 carriers very shallow water, close to shore.Took my photo and attacked carrier and sunk it, was however DC in extremly shallow water , no damge done to my kiddie boat, makes me wonder though! how one would have faired in one of the Big Boy Boats, :arrgh!:

Ducimus : Am I missing something, the 1st photo{Down View} Uboat looks shorter, but in the second photo (side view] Uboat looks longer.

Being closer, the u-boat will take up more lateral visual width per metre than an object behind it. This is why it 'appears' longer. Note also that some of the stern of the fleet boat is actually below the water, or near enough.

If you were to take that same shot with the fleet boat first in view, you wouldn't even see the u-boat!

Fleet boats were whales compared with u-boats (type VII in particular), but they were - as has been said ad infinitum - built for a dramatically different theatre. That extra size was handy for comfort and packing away a lot of ammo and stores.

:roll: Well, of course, the kiddie boats are best for playing in the shallow end of the pool! :lol:

I'm reading Clear the Bridge! and it almost sounds like they were on a submergible restaurant that has some torpedo attack capability that the USN found handy in wartime.

Um ... yeah well ... I didn't figure that SD radar bit out until not too long ago to be honest. Until then I was relying on the men actually spotting the planes. :oops:

The tower on the Gato is HUGE. I wonder why they made it so damned big.