SH3 Commander Awards
 

Is there a guide on the rules of rewarding your crew, things like which crew member gets what awards/promotions etc? How do you determine skill allocation?

I've only ever used the stock version of giving awards, usually 1 skill allowed and some war badges, promotions etc
The temptation to create an uber crew is one I've always strived to avoid.

I make a false patrol at the beginning of each career - sail around the harbor and dock again - and then go into Commander and give every officer and PO a skill. The 1WO and 2WO already have the watch skill, so the 1WO gets Torpedo as a second and the 2WO gets Gunnery. I designate one Oberfanrich the Navigator, give him Watch as a skill and use him for a de facto 3WO, and then I start on the petty officers.

The fact is that there's no such thing as an unrated PO, it's what makes them a petty officer. You spend your days at sea as an unrated enlisted man studying for a rating. By the time you get that rating you're already pretty experienced.

In real life the U-Boat Badge was created in October 1939, and was normally awarded to every man who had completed two war patrols. I use Commander to hand them out after that date, and everyone who meets the criterion gets one. I give out medals only to crewmen who I think deserve them. If a man is wounded I make a note, because after he is healed the game won't recognize him as being injured and you can't award the badge. Commander overrides that, but you have to remember who it was.

Ok, good advice, thanks Steve. What about promotions and other medals though, with stock I always sorted them in priority first but eventually all crew would end up with the highest accolades as well as the officers.

I give one promotion per patrol, to the man who has the most experience in his curren rank (at my discretion, of course). Medals I'm very stingy with unless I think someone really earned it. I'm also using Commander's Realistic Career Length, so I'm usually not around long enough for everyone to be weighed down with tin trinkets.