[trynnallen]

I am sure some will take this the wrong way but I have a question, what’s the fascination with U-boats anyway. SH 2, SH 3 and SH 4 the U-boat add-on and now SH 5 all with U-boats. I know the U-boat was considered the best boat at the time by some, but really why does everyone like playing on the ‘Loosing Side’. By the end of 1943 the U-boats were nothing but an Iron Coffin with maybe a 20% chance of getting home again.

I got introduced to subs at the tender age of 7 when my family was invited for a tour of a LA class sub that docked at Norfolk. It was neat, but it wasn't any neater than the USS Arkansas (saw her commissioning), or the USS Nimitz. In fact the two surface ships had a lot going for them that the sub didn't. Subs faded from memory until 1982 (we were stationed in Oslo by then). When as a school we ended spending two days in the bomb shelters under the school because the Swedes and the Soviets were playing dodge'm with live ordience down in Stockholm harbor. This was the "Whiskey on the Rocks" incident. Fast forward to 1989 and my Junior year in H.S. my thesis paper for history (Because our history teacher was a mean S*B who believed that the only way to teach history was to use a metiphorical pick axe and jam it into the students brain. You learned, but it wasn't fun or interesting.) was the Pacfic war, I just had to find a topic. On the fifth attempt to get my thesis approved I had stumbled on the Pacific Submarine War. This hooked me. It was something I could bite into more to the point it was something my teacher knew nothing about and while I couldn't baffle him with BS I could out think him. Subs followed me through college and grad school. If I ever needed a handy topic in US history it was there for me. In grad school it was useful as a good means to get into the US Navy Achieves on their closed days.

But all of the subsims except SH2 I just couldn't get into much. Not because they weren't good, they were, but because I couldn't play the Allies. I have really nothing against the U-boat arm, but I can't "suspend my disbelief" to make the sim fun. I have the same problem with TIE fighter, Fighting Steel, and other FPS or sims that I have to play on the "bad" side. I can play the game it just doesn't hold much interest or hold it for long.

That being said, I would love to play the Brits in SH4 or SH5 or even the Italians in the Med. The Med I think is vastly underutilized for siming. Yes it mostly ends by 1943, but even after that it wasn't exactly a safe place to steam.