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After testing the Silent Hunter III, whose missions end always the same, I uninstalled. Reading books on German submarines, especially "Coffins steel" Herbert A.Werner is no wonder that in the end the u-boats always lost. The first glory years (1939-1942) were followed by a dark period when the German submarine fleet was almost totally destroyed. In the period 1943-1945 the u-boats did not hunt but were hunted. 85% of the crew did not survive the war, and the delay in the commissioning of submarines as the type XXI, forcing crews to fight all those with obsolete submarines, marching almost certain death. In short: a suicide. As if this were not enough, some designed Mods that make it even more difficult game conditions. At the end of these missions only "Mandrake" survives. So far the reality, what follows is my view: a game is to entertain and defuse the player, but playing in such conditions results in the opposite. Nobody in their right mind would risk unless 50% chance of winning. I have therefore decided to install Silent Hunter IV and fight on the side of the Americans against the evil Empire of Japan. At least that submarine warfare was more balanced conditions, but we'll see about testing the game and missions.
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If you play with the objective of surviving until the end of the war, it is very, very difficult to do in SH3+GWX.
But it was in real life. Only a handful of combat commanders survived the war.
I played SH3+GWX starting every career in 1939, and played 100% realism with no map contacts. I played "dead is dead", starting over in 1939 when I died. After many years and careers, I finally survived the war. Then I moved on to SH5.
In terms of bang for buck of game cost investment, SH3 was unbeatable for me.
The trick to survival in SH3 is this:
Never attack where there is a possibility of escort reprisal without enough depth under keel for dives to 200+ meters. Basically, stay out of shallow water.
Past 1941, never attack where there is a possibility of escort reprisal without 100% hull integrity enabling full-depth diving capability.
Once hedgehogs make the scene, never ever attack when you can be detected. You must now attack escorted targets from 5000m+ and hope your firing solution and FAT torpedoes score hits. It's basically "Hail Mary" shots on convoys at that point and then turn and dive for max depth while your torpedoes are inbound at that point.
With the advent of homing torpedoes you can basically pick off escorts at will if you let them chase you and you set up your shots right so that the torpedo doesn't chase a merchant instead. If you have enough homers, you can wipe out the escort screen and then rape the convoy with whatever you have left.
With the Type XXI it's fun times again. Between homing torpedoes and the ability to play underwater slalom inside convoys at 17 knots you are almost invincible.
Steve