Still interested in reports, but after Drumbeat, U-327 re-entered the Mediterranean so I could see for myself. Immediately got the gold retaking mission, which works very much like the enigma recovery, with a twist or two. Fouled up the first go, and reloaded during the search to try a different plan, and managed to complete it without drowning my diver this time. Sorry about that mate.
After that mission I got a itch to play a career with harder settings (I had been on 80%), and see if I could get Ace of the Depths. So I started a new career, the last one in the list, which puts the player in command of U-1172, a VIIC/41 out of Bergen in December of 1944. Ooof. I cranked up the settings to 90% and took an Arctic Convoys patrol.
It's like stepping out in to a hostile, alien world. Now I can't see a thing at night, not even the heading tape around the UZO, which is just different hues of dark, not that it would matter anyway since the thing is no longer stabilized. Down to five officers. No specialization. No acoustics, No Cross! The T5s aren't even researched and I have no rep points yet. Few upgrades are already installed, and there's little money. Set sail and was attacked several times by aircraft as we threaded our way out of port to the north, with no warning at all, since we have no radar detector, and the crew is green, and it's all up against it in this one. Managed to survive and head out toward our objective , and caught on to a formation making 'medium' speed and having 6-12 screws. Decided to shadow and see what it was, but the night was so dark there was no way to see what was out there, and no radar signals to use to judge relative position, just periodic hydrophone bearings. And I bungled it completely. They had probably already picked us up on radar, and it wasn't a convoy but all warships, about ten of them, out looking for just such an opportunity. No acoustics so not much I could do. Sank one destroyer dead astern with a stern shot, and then went deep, but got hit at 280m as we were already losing the battle and that was that, crushed by sea pressure. First time I've been sunk and it was quick. Just three days out.
But I thought, yep, that's the stuff
So I did it again. Same start, 90% and made it to the end of the war, where we scuttled U-1172 in the Bergen pen. Mixed barren anti-shipping patrols with a weather station and an agent insertion (Ireland). Sank nothing in all of them, except the agent insertion. As we were departing the drop, another U-boat started broadcasting beacon signals not too far away and we plotted an interception in AM grid. Got out ahead, but the escort all seemed to still be in position, the other boat had not drawn their attention yet. The lead destroyer got very close to our submerged position and I was scrambling for a solution, as it cut a big arc back around towards us and then right on past. Couldn't believe the luck, and it and the other escorts I could see all went off to hunt the other boat. When these happen I constantly mouse over the queued radio messages where it will say if the AI boat gets sunk, which lets you know when the escorts are probably returning to their positions, or free to hunt you.
This event left the convoy defenseless from our position on the port quarter and we knocked down four freighters for 26k and slipped away without counterattack. Only possible with the AI boat drawing them off. Those were the only ships we put under in the career. Ace of the Depths fired. Pretty cool experience. I managed to get acoustics and first an obsolete Metox and later a much more useful Naxos before the war ended. With so few rep points it was hard to decide what to spend them on, more officer slots, research, or other stuff. I only got three I think. You can understand what it was like for those green crews in 1945 who headed out in to the war zone. No doubt the settings played a part. Dark nights are very dark indeed. There are enough difficulty settings that a player can arrive at the 90% in variety of configurations, if keen to give it a go.