Is it worth upgrading to VIIC from VIIB?
 

Just got over 3000 renown - is it worth spending on a VIIC? from what I read of the specs, the only 'benefit' is a 3 sec reduction in diving time. :o

It gets a couple conning tower upgrades later, whereas the VIIB gets one.

VIIB looks cooler, dont waste your money ;)

:-j
Wolfy

I never saw much point to going from B to C with the Type VII - I kept my original Type VIIB until this past patrol (after I finished my 17th patrol, in Nov 1941), when I made the move to my new Type IXC 'cause with war clouds obviously on the horizon with the US I wanted to be ready to hit the East Coast for what I hope will be a repeat of the "Happy Times" :)

If/when the US Navy wakes up and/or I get tired of the long hauls to the East Coast, I will probably trade back down from my Type IXC to a quicker-diving and more nimble (and hopefully more survivable) Type VII, and going that direction I probably will take a VIIC next time, but if you already have a VIIB it doesn't really seem worth it to me to trade up just for a C variant.

thanks for the feedback. I'm prolly not going to upgrade - save my reknown for some other goodies.

Does anyone have a complete list of 'must have' upgrades?

You should upgrade, because you will have to, eventualy, when aircrafts become more dangerous, so its not worth upgrading your VIIB, and then you will have to replace it with VIIC, and upgrade it again, straight from the beggining. So upgrade to VIIC asap. VIIC also gets better equipment (better sonars and so on).

yeah good point re aircraft armament although i don't plan on battling it out on the surface with aircraft, however the extra upgrades sound good.

Re my second question - do you have a list of must have upgrades?

I usually go from a VIIB to a IXB.

The engine upgrade early in the game (1500 renown or so) is nifty; that will bring your standard surfaced speed to 16 kts. 20 at flank.
There're always anti-sonar coatings, snorkel, radar and such that need to be bought if you plan on surviving. Remember that a u-boat is passive until it is in battle, whereas the enemy is active until he is attacked. The thing to underline is that you should only allow yourself to be detected when you have already sealed the doom of a few T-3s and maybe some unlucky destroyers. :up:

Going from VIIB to VIIC - Not worthwhile.

Going from VIIB to VIIC/41 - Worthwhile. Better equipment and can dive deeper (if you use timetraveller's Crush Depth tool correctly.)

Well, VIIC/41 is practicly the same, as VIIC, so it think, that its more than worthwhile to upgrade from VIIB to VIIC. More than to upgrade from VIIC to VIIC/41.

what about the other upgrades? I understand now about the engine upgrade (which I'll do) - anyone upgrade their hydrophones? I know it states that they're more vulnerable to depth chgs however.....

Anyway, I'm prolly going to stay with my VIIB and hopefully upgrade to a IX in the future.

This is quite a question. I have had the same VIIB since the beginning of the war and my game is in the middle of 1941. I have all the upgrades that I can have. I saved my game and switched to the IXC but it takes forever to go across the Atlantic and I have to go at the slowest possible speed for fuel economy. I tried raising that multiplied time compression but it dosen't work (or show up). I went back to my VIIB and await the VIIC/41.

Prior to 1943 there's really no need to upgrade.

From my periscope... I'd have to go with a Type 7 for no other reason than it was the "Workhorse."

Hypothetically speaking, if you were a U-Boat commander in real life... odds are you'd eventually spend a lot of time in a type 7.