I don't bother having an officer with machinist skills, as I can fully operate the engines by having just one machinst PO and the rest seamen. Helmsman seems a completely useless qualification; who knows if it originally had a purpose but didn't make it into the final release version of the game? I also don't notice much difference from having the gunnery qualification, since I only use the gun to finish off cripples and even then I move in close enough that even a blind crewman could hit the target. The qualifications that I find useful are repair, torpedo and watch. I have two officers qualified with watch, as well as one PO for each watch; seamen fill the remaining slots. I also assign four PO's the radio qualification, simply because that has the most effect on the green bar above their compartment. I use "no fatigue" only on the first patrol, simply because I find that easiest for crew management. After the first patrol I use GWX 8 hour fatigue and assign all of my seamen qualifications for the compartments where I work them. I know seaman qualifications do not take in the game, but I use them as handy markers to make crew swapouts easy. I have two seamen for each vital slot: engines, watch and planesmen, the rest are assigned as torpedomen to help out the torpedo qualified PO's.
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