Welcome aboard, skipper!
Despite its age, SH4 is still a great game, and the tech savvy kaleuns of the community have frequently breathed additional life into it.
As mentioned in the posts above, the Midway stop out and back is just about mandatory for any mission out of Pearl to the Japanese home islands.
Unfortunately if you run out of diesel oil, it's game over... You cannot call for a tow into port or to replenish underway (UNREP)... Really frustrating to run out of fuel 10 miles from a refit base... or so a friend tells me
Accordingly, when the fuel level drops to about 60%, monitoring fuel remaining against distance to Midway is a skill worth developing.
Later in the war (or with some mods) more refit locations become available, allowing much longer and more productive patrols.
Early in the war, the boats in the Asiatic fleet are extremely limited in speed, range and refit sites, and with their reduced torpedo loads, they are more a more demanding assignment. Also, as the Japanese took over the Philippines and Java, they became unusable as refit sites/home ports, with the only warnings being a radio message and the slanted Home Port anchor moving to a safer location.
Good hunting!
