Why bother to upgrade conning towers?
 

If the Type VII submarines with type VII/4 conning tower have no deck gun - why would you upgrade?

:hmm:

And for other subs, same question... is there a list somewhere on what benefits go with what tower?

Re: Why bother to upgrade conning towers?
 

Tower 1:
1 x 20mm flak

Tower 2:
2 x 20mm flak

Tower 3:
1 x heavy flak = 1 x 37mm or 2 x 37mm or 4x20mm
2 x twin 20mm = 4 x 20mm

Tower 4:
3 x heavy flak, choose either 1 x 37mm or 2 x 37mm or 4x20mm

Re: Why bother to upgrade conning towers?
 

Tuché

so, better/more flak guns and no deck gun... hmmm :hmm: is this due to the arming of ships in later years where you can't unload on a fishing boat?

pros & cons ? I'm just not seeing the benefit yet... or at least why you'd upgrade to type 4

Perhaps so you can really slam it to those pesky aircraft with the upgrade, while torps are your really your best weapon against ships. Sure, you won't have a deckgun, but you'll still have your best weapon for ships.

In later years of the war with the advances in ASW technology, it would have been pretty much suicidal for a U-boat captain to stay on the surface shooting at ships. With the arming of merchants, it would have been rather crazy to duke it out on the surface. Even though I don't think the game implements it, a U-boat without a deck gun had a slightly higher speed under water.

Is the conning tower visibility implemented in the game?
I mean, the conning tower #1 should be much less visible on surface than later (and bigger) towers.
By the way: I always use conning tower #1, (even in 1944-1945)just for eyecandy and because I usually do not fight airplanes on surface.

In RL, aircraft dove upon unsuspecting subs so quickly (eg out of cloud cover) that they often had no chance to submerge. Thats what the flak was for. It happens in SH3 too, but not as often as I would have it expected to.

chicken ... :P

:D

so if I'm also not planning on fighting aircraft, I guess I should save the renown for other things - unless, and I've done it before, is use the flak guns to have some fun shooting at disabled ships :arrgh!:

I do the same, I like to keep my boats profile as small as possible. Does anyone know for sure if bigger towers make it easier to be seen?
I always keep the VIIc/2 tower, it looks neat and tidy, plenty of room for the watch crew to stand on deck :yep: . And while I use the deckgun and flak very rarely I still want to have both, so I'm more versatile.