I am starting a new career after colliding in a heavy fog with some DD. I lost a well seasoned crew and a VIIb.
I was in the 1st Flotilla out of Brest at the time.
I decided to try the 7th Flotilla, 1939 and noticed that you get a better boat with the VIIb, but you have a less usefull crew. The VIIb comes with a medic and no sonar guy for some reason. Also, launching from Kiel is a real pain in order to get to any action.
If you take the IIA with the 1st Flotilla in 1939, you have relatively short mission distances and you start out with a Sonar guy, which is very very useful. I think the smaller boat is a lot easier to manage a crew with and as someone else indicated, you can put a couple patrols under your belt, rank up a bit and then take over the bigger boats for the longer tours. I only wish the Type II could have a real deck gun! :hmm: