I'm accustomed to running the boat with 4 officers. Two officers with helm qualification alternate as the CE (with the other one resting) and two officers with watch qualification alternate on the bridge (again, with the other one resting).
When I submerge, the bridge officer goes to either the NO or WO spot, depending if I'm going to attack something or not.
So most of the time I have both the NO and WO spots empty and two officers resting. The adverse effects I've noted:
- Unable to access any of the NO or WO commands.
- Unable to access the Weather command from the watch officer.
- No reports for sinking ships. (But this isn't a problem, because if I've torpedoed something and am submerged, the watch officer is sitting at the NO spot, since he can't be on the bridge anyway).
If I manually plot a course, the ship starts following the course I plotted even without a NO. I can't, howewer, order "Return to course." without the NO.
If I need to check weather, range at current speed, depth under keel, or just return to the plotted course, I move in a resting officer for a minute to do that.
If I need to ask for weapon officer assistance, I move in an officer for a minute. And if attacking submerged, that's where my bridge officer goes until I shoot my torpedoes. (During surface attacks, I usually move in a resting officer just before shooting, to be able to ask for assistance and open tube doors from the uzo if needed.) After shooting, if submerged, the officer moves to NO spot to report sinking ships.
This way I always have 2 out of 4 officers resting unless I use one momentarily for NO/WO commands, or some of them are helping my men reload torpedoes or repair the ship.
No officer fatigue problems ever.
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