[Tomcattwo]

On the crew management issue, I try to do it sort of like real life. It's important to balance how many crew you take on patrol with you and where they are at at any given time. For instance, I take 43 crew with me to sea on a Type VIIC (other classes you may wish to vary the crew size given the size of the ship):

5 Officers (1WO (Erste Wacht Offizier or First Watch officer), Leading Engineer (LI), 2WO, OberSteuermann (Navigator), and another 2WO (Obermaschinist - Torpedo)). This is not unusual for a real U-Boat crew who normally had: 1WO (the Executive Officer, also responsible for Weapons), Leitendende Ingenieur (Leading Engineer, LI pronounced "AhLee" in German) )2WO (also responsible for Communications and Sonar), Obersteuermann (a Warrant Officer rank who often stood bridge watch, and was also responsible for food service/provisioning), and they often took either an Oberfahnreich (Senior Midshipman), another Prospective Commanding Officer or another 2WO in training. so 5 is not unusual.

14 Bootsmanner (Stabsoberbootsmen (Senior Chief Petty Officer), Oberbootsmen (Chief Petty Officer), Bootsmen) - Petty Officers, 6 Engineers, 2 Torpedomen, 1 Repair, 1 StabsOberboatsmann (the Chief of the Boat - Senior Enlisted Man), 2 Radiomen/Sonarmen, 1 Helmsman, 1 Gunner/Bridge Watchstander

24 Matrosen/Maschinen (Haupt X Gefreiter (Gefreiter = Private or Seaman), Ober X Gefreiter, X Gefreiter) Basically, these come in two basic flavors: Maschinen (includes engineers and torpedomen) and Matrosen (Deck Div).

Not represented in game is the cook. Crews had one cook only and he stood no watches, but had to prepare meals 3 to 4 times per day for the entire crew for the entire duration of the patrol using only a small oven and stovetop with one or two burners - poor sad bastage...

The watches for enlisted are set up Port and Starboard - 6 hours on/6 off in normal steaming. They are manned as:

1) 4 on Bridge watch (in the rack if not on the surface, since they will tire quickly in poor weather)

2) 3 in control (planesmen = 2, aux maschinist = 1)

3) 2 in Sonar/Radio (1 Petty Officer, One Gefreiter)

4) 8 in either diesel (if surfaced) or E-Maschinen (if submerged): 3 x Petty Officers, 5 x Gefreiters

5) 2 x Petty Officers (the COB and Senior Torpedoman) in the Reparturmanschaft - they lose the least energy there - some folks even adjust the fatigue value in basic.cfg to make this be 0 energy loss in here

The 5 Officers are set up:

1) 1WO and LI (Engineer) are port and starboard at Helmsman (basically Officer of the Deck)

2) The other three rotate from Berthing to Nav to Bridge watch when surfaced or berthing to Nav to E-Maschinen or Repair if submerged. They basically stand 12 on/6 off but they recover fatigue quickly and they're Junior Officers - they can hack it :p

So what this leaves then for the non-officers is:
8 off watch engineers in the Heck (Heck = Aft) Bunkraum ( 3 x Petty Officers and 5 x Gefreiters)

11 off watch "coners" in the Bug (Bug = Bow) Bunkraum (4 x Petty Officers and 7 Gefreiters) and 5 "open" spots.

Two off watch officers go into the two empty "Officer" bunk spots.

This works out well when you submerge - the bridge watch will automatically pop into the empty berthing in Bug bunkraum and will go back to the bridge when you surface again. This setup ensures you are getting maximum efficiency in your engineroom, Control room and on the bridge for lookouts/guns.

You could probably even get away with 41 crew and leave two guys permanently off the watchbill and use them as fill in's for torpedo loading evolutions (this would represent the COB and the Leading Torpedoman) and do away with the two "watchstanders" in Reparturmanschaft.

So what I do then is the following "transit" routine:
1) Watches shift at 0600/1200/1800/0000 game time each day (you could probably just as easily do 8 hour or 12 hour watch rotations). At those times I go to 1:1. It takes little time to swap the 19 off-watch enlisted folks and 2 off watch officers with the on-watch personnel. If you put them in the same berthing spot every time, it gets even easier with practice to swap out the watches. Then I go to 32:1 TC.
2) Watch the most fatigued sailor in 32:1 until he has recovered all his fatigue. Takes about an hour to an hour and a half game time (in 32:1, this is roughly 2-3 minutes real life time)
3) Then go to Seekarte (Nav Chart) and go to 64:1 or more to continue transit. I usually use 256:1 As pointed out above, at TC above 32:1, your crew will neither gain nor lose fatigue level. Transit until it is time for the next watchsection change. Rinse and repeat.
4) if you need to look at something, plot courses or such or want to watch the sunset or to bring the boat to Sehrohr Tiefe (Periscope Depth), then switch to 1:1, do what you need to do, then switch back to 256:1

If you engage and must reload torpeoes or must do some battle damage repair, you'll have to move off-watch crewmen into the appropriate space. You'll have to carefully manage their fatigue levels as you do your work - don't exhaust the off-watch crew entirely. That to me is part of the challenge of being a skipper. Once the work is done, you'll need to manage the crew's fatigue again by remaining longer in 32:1 to build up the exhausted crew coming off watch and not killing your crew that just moved weapons/did repairs. The extra five spaces in the berthing compartment allow you to pull off the most exhausted on-watch crew members and get them a bit more rest (at the loss of some operating efficiency for the boat) - which may force you to consider lying doggo on the bottom, or submerging for the day at slow speed etc. - these are real command decisions you must make. However, as you transit, you will eventually gain more fatigue than you lose, and be able to get back to the normal transit watch routine.

I find this methodology allows me to have some control over the management of my crew, without a great deal of painstaking micromanagement. Just wish I had a way to do a port and starboard watch turnover with a single button! :hmm:

I'll see if I can post a picture of my transit routine crew screen when I get home. I also have a handy crew "Watch Quarter and Station Bill", 1 page in Excel format, that I use to keep track of who is supposed to be where and I'll post that as well.

R/
TC2