S class - slow to recharge?
 

I'm doing my first ever patrol in an S class, and I notice that it takes a lot slower for the batteries to recharge, compared to later class boats. Is this a characteristic of this class of boat?

Yes.

I'm not sure if it's on purpose in the game, but the S Boats are from the 1918-1920 era, and electricity and batteries were still a relatively new phenomenon, so I like to think of it as the game simulating old-tech equipment that's worn-out, like me... :D

yep, the s-class boats were leftovers from WW! and in reality were supposed to be scrapped but when pearl harbor happened we were caught unprepared and so they were put to use even though 50% of them sank just from mechanical or structural failures and not by the enemy. they were in fact death traps and it was "almost" suicidal to sail in them. they were too leaky, too old, too slow, to lightly armored, too limited in range, too limited in torpedos they can carry, too limited in battery life and underwater range and took damn near all day to recharge the batteries so crews often only ran submerged when absolutely needed and had to recharge batteries at night or in bad weather and pray they weren't spotted doing it.

And if you think the S-boats in the game were bad, the ones in the war were rusty, leaky, had severe reliability problems, most were a 50-50 proposition for a 100' dive. Worst of all were the diesel engine problems from the early copies of MAN German diesels where the bad translation resulted in critical errors in the mechanical construction of the motors.

It was a very unpretty sight. For a small hint of reality, load up Webster's S-boat mod. It's like piloting an eggshell with cracks in it. Definitely a white-knuckle experience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_S-class_submarine :oops:

Wow I gotta transfer to a more modern sub asap. While on patrol I came across a small merchant. He was ahead of me doing 9 kts, 7000 yds in front. But even at flank speed I couldn't catch up with him, I was doing 9 kts too. I was recharging my batteries and that was the best speed I could muster. I broke contact and resumed patrol.

Wait'll you catch one, and they've got a DD with them... You can dive, but you can't always hide... :lol: You definitely do not bull in full-steam ahead and start shooting when in a Sugar Boat... unless of course, you don't mind starting your career over... :03:

its a completely different style of tactics you use, just assume anything in front of you is uncatchable, it usually is, even slow merchants can take forever to catch.

instead, limit attacks to targets coming towards you or sit in ambush points where targets need to come in your direction.

if you attempt to catch a target you need to get out to a range they cant detect you and surface at night to speed in front of them and then lay in wait in front of them.

think of an s-boat as an ambush predator only, its not going to be successful if you try to chase targets

once you learn to use these tactics its very fun and its the challenge that makes it so

as mentioned, my s-boat mod makes them as fragile as they were in real life and is a great mod to experience the realistic dangers of serving on an s-boat. I really would recommend you stick it out and earn your stripes on the s-boat before moving to the "fancy" fleet boat class subs that are more reliable and more heavily armored

Finally after my 3rd patrol I was offered a new boat - I jumped at the chance and got a P class. Was hoping for a Gato or Tambor but I'll take it.

The last patrol in the S class was frustrating - out of the 12 torps I expended (Mk 14s) I missed one, 2 ran too deep and 9 were duds. Yes, not a single successful torpedo hit this patrol. (Feb/Mar 1942).

I should've followed my instincts and loaded her with Mk 10s before I went on patrol.

I cant stand duds so I turn those off, that is one point of realism I don't need to have in my game, I find it challenging enough without "unknown" failures like duds to frustrate me lol.

a lot of people feel as you do at first but then later on miss the challenge of the s-boat and go back to it from time to time to test themselves

We might have to have cdrsubron7 do some converting on his new S Boat missions, so that they'll do Stock and couple other mods... He's got this knack for doing excellent missions...