officer positioning
 

Hello!

I was wondering is it necessary to keep Weapons Officer or Navigation Officer stationed during patrolling?

I usually station my WO while engaging ships and reloading torpedos.

Second question:

Is an officer with flak/gunner qualification worth anytning? You cannot man flak or deck gun with an officer.

No

Oh my yes.

I try to have Weapons and Nav both manned when the officers don't need a rest (if for no other reason than that this ain't a cruise ship! ;) ) Eventually, if they get decorated with the German Cross in Gold, you can leave them at their posts 24-7.

IIRC, having an officer qualified on gunnery and flak will significantly improve your efficiency (the green bar above each compartment) in those areas. My watch officer is always qualified as a watchman, a gunnery officer, and a flak gunner, in that order (although the order does not matter). By the same token, having an officer qualified as a torpedoman greatly improves the efficiency in torpedo compartments when reloading.

Am I the only one who thinks this is too much of a 'bonus'?

Don't get me wrong, I <3 getting the gold cross. But since I first realized this was the case, all of my dealings with my crew has this fact in mind.
Who I give medals to and whatnot is all done looking ahead to getting gold crosses.

Again, I do like it overall. Just wish it weren't so much an all or nothing thing.

Not at all. It's pretty ridiculous once you get all the officers decorated with it, and enough petty officers - you end up with a handful of crew that can run the whole boat without a break - and as you say it does tend to put your crew on a "track" towards becoming uber men.

On the other hand, I stick to awarding the GCG because it's better than the alternative - having to micromanage each compartment. My rule of thumb is to try to decorate based on experience points for all medals, starting with officers.

But there are quite a few around here who refuse to give the gold cross award.

The only officer I move is my Watch officer when he's not on the watch tower the only other place I put him is the forward Torpedo bay. but thats just me.