BF10 and other patrol grids....
 

So, first the very specific question about my current patrol......

I've started a new career, 1939 style, and it's August 26th, and so we're still at peace (but my psychic love connection advisor warned me that we will be soon at war with Poland...), and I'm about to embark upon my 2nd patrol.

Except BdU has issued a patrol grid of 'BF10', which, insofar as I can tell, doesn't exist. Infact, it has no REASON to exist, given the handy reference on the convoy map...

1) So my first question is... 'wtf'. (does that possibly mean "patrol anywhere in the BF1x grids"?)


My second question is broader...

2) How much does BdU's orders actually matter? I mean, if you have a sub with a range of 20000km, do you actually beeline it to a random grid 3000km away, hang out for a day, and then shoot back to port? Do you meander over that way smashing up targets of opportunity, but leaving torps for your actual patrol grid? Or do you just go hunting?

3) Also, is there any practical advantage to completing a patrol (more experience? renown? etc?) If you don't, will the ghosts of UBoats Past, Present, and Future come and repremand you for your selfish and uncooperative ways?

1. You are correct, BF10 does not exist. It is a known error which happens from time to time, although I have never had it myself.

2. Orders from the BdU do not matter at all, you are free to go where ever you please, your intial patrol grid will be the only order from the BdU you will ever receive.

In reality the BdU agressively micro managed the majority of their submarines and regulary updated their orders through a constant stream of radio traffic, in GWX this is somewhat represented by 'immersion' messages that do not have any effect on the gameplay.

3. I tend to head for my assigned Patrol Grid (will meander on the way looking for targets) and do the 24hrs as it is nice to have somekind of 'goal.' Then I'll head off on my own and only return if I am out of torpedos or bingo fuel.

If you are playing GWX the patrol grids you are assigned tend to be in high traffic areas or on convoy routes so they are usualy worth checking out. In vanilla I believe the assigned patrol grids are random.

[RENOWN]
RenownReachGridObjCompleted=0
RenownPatrolGridObjCompleted=0

If you are running GWX (I assume you are) then you can edit the above section in data/cfg/basic to award yourself renown for completing your orders. Just change the '0' to a value you think you'll deserve. This helps add an incentive.

I believe this is exactly correct. A look at the KM gridded chart shows that the letter "squares" (which are not square at all) like BF are subdivided into (usually nine) medium sized squares each (generally) containing nine smaller squares carrying a two-digit designation, BF-11.

Since "10" is never used to designate the latter squares, it is logical that BF-10 represents the medium sized square consisting of BF-11 through BF-19.

Have no documentery evidence to support this but nothing else makes sense.

As for your other questions GWX removes the renown for reaching your patrol area and remaining on station awarded on stock. Therefore whether you patrol as ordered or go wherever is a matter of personnel choice. I go where I am sent but sometimes use SH3 Commander to pick the patrol square.

Don't quite understand what you're looking for in Question #3 unless you only wish to play out a series of single missions. At the end of a patrol there is improvements to buy (with the accrued renown), promotions to hand out and crew medals to award. Or if you sink a hospital ship you could find yourself shot...

Good Hunting

This is a well-known bug. You can use SH3 Commander to assign yourself a new grid, or you can just use GWX and ignore it, since they remove the renown for patrolling your assigned grid anyway.

So why is BF the only grid that this happens with?

What makes sense is what happened - they screwed up.

It's a game. You can do whatever you want. As I said in answer #1, you get renown for going to your assigned grid and more for staying there 24 hours. This is completely ahistorical. What really happened is you went to your assigned grid and stayed there until you were ordered to go somewhere else. I stay there for two weeks and then start rolling a 6-sided die. If a 1 comes up I move to an adjacent grid and pretend they told me too. After another week I'll move on a 1 or a 2, and so on. Silly, but it feels right to me.

What do you mean by "completing" a patrol? You go home when you're low on fuel, or low on torpedoes, or you're bored. The game doesn't care.

Try finding BF31. Bdu ordered me to patrol it. :huh:

The message is received, and signed all necessary measures are taken, do not wait for reinforcement, but attempts to attack, good hunting!

One of the reasons I use Commander and select my own destination...or should I have said destiny? :03:

I also use it. Forgot in my excitement to look at Patrol Grid before clicking check mark. :-?

I guess that's why they call it a check mark. Check before clicking. :DL

That depend upon who scripted the messages.

Not necessarily. If you examine the reproduction KM gridded chart that came with AOTD (a far nicer aid than that which came with SH3) you see the ALL medium sized square groupings sharing the same first number (BF-11 through BF-19 and EJ-41 through EJ-49 for example) have their borders thicker compared to the numbered squares but thinner than the lettered squares. Why would the actual originators of the chart do that if not to highlight those nine squares to be use with a single designator?

English Channel including Southampton, the Isle of Wight and the Solant? Easy pickings there in any U-Boat any time; if by easy you mean suicide by escort...

I was referring to SH3 and the 'BF10' specifically. Will the game ask you to patrol 'AN10' or 'AM20' or 'CD10'? They made a mistake, and that's the explanation for 'BF10'.

The nine sub-squares BF-11 through BF19 constitute the major part of the Western Approaches, the richest potential U-Boat hunting ground in both world wars. Covering as it does the area south of Ireland and west of Ushant and the entrance to the St. George Channel all traffic bound for Brest or the Irish Sea ports from the south had to pass through BF-10. If an error, it is one that leads you to some of the most target rich areas on the ATO during the 1939-41 time frame.

Strange sort of mistake, since no other 9-square contiguous grid square on the map offers so much potential.

BF10 may well be a real designation on the 'genuine' enigma map, but as far as I am aware, correct me if I am wrong, Silent Hunter 3 cannot tell if you have entered/completed your 24hrs patrolling 'BF10' as a grid cluster, so that is why it is a mistake/bug/error or whatever you want to call it for Silent Hunter 3 to offer it to you as an assigned grid.

That may be true but since GWX removes the renown for reaching a patrol area anyway, it is a glitch that has zero effect on the vast majority of GWX players out there.

As for stock SH3 I imagine that the inability to get renown for patrolling BF-10 is pretty far down the complaint list but it's been so long that I cannot reliably comment one way or the other.

My only contention in all of this is that an order to patrol BF-10 makes sense in a historical context even if not in the game.

I always suspected as much. :wah:

While I doubt any real boat was given that exact order, I see your point. A general 'Southern Approaches' order could be what was intended.