Amount of Crew

[Mooncatt]

i just wondered if anyone else does this.....
when recruiting crew i never fill my sub to the max, the reason behind this because once the crew get tired there is nowhere to put them even replacing them with sailers in the bunks i still have no space, does anyone else employ this kind of thinking?

[andy_311]

Nope, I run a IXc boat so I need my crew at Max.

[Sailor Steve]

Type II. You never have enough crew to do everything.

[wamphyri]

I do what you do mooncat. I find that if i'm under the waves there's not enough room in the cabins for the idle crew so i'd have to leave them in areas where they'd start getting all "exclimationny"(use that word in english class and your doomed to fail) on me even tho they aren't doing anything. In a VII(anytype) I max the officers but the sailors I drop the the minimum to 23 I think it is.

[panthercules]

I also generally run with a slightly smaller than max size crew, so that I don't have extra guys that don't fit in the crew's resting quarters when off duty - having those extra guys just complicates crew management too much. I find I've been able to do this in the only boats I've tried so far (VIIB, IXB, VIIC - can't remember how it worked in the Type II I used very early on) while still staying within the limits of the historical crew sizes - my current VIIC has 45 guys (5/13/27), and according to u-boat.net the normal complement for this type ranged from 44-52 men.

However, now that it's getting late in the war I may start carrying some extra guys to beef up my repair crews and give me some spare replacements for guys killed topside in air attacks:hmm:

If you start a career with SH3 Commander you can select the "realistic crew" option. This will give you less crew than the maximum.

Type II's carried 25 total including officers. Type VII's carried 44 made up of 4 officers, 10 NCO's and 30 ratings. Type IX's early in the war carried around 48 total crew. As the war progressed and AA armament increased, thus the number of crew increased as well.

Generally speaking there was the captain, first watch officer, second watch officer, and LI (chief engineer). The remainder of the crew were NCO's and ratings at a 1 to 3 ratio.

[Puster Bill]

Originally Posted by wamphyri

I do what you do mooncat. I find that if i'm under the waves there's not enough room in the cabins for the idle crew so i'd have to leave them in areas where they'd start getting all "exclimationny"(use that word in english class and your doomed to fail) on me even tho they aren't doing anything. In a VII(anytype) I max the officers but the sailors I drop the the minimum to 23 I think it is.

You have to remember that an 'exclamationny' sailor is better than no sailor. I like to keep full crews myself. That way, I can keep some in the bunks all nice and rested for when I have to rotate them. Having fewer sailors doesn't allow one to do that. Plus, it comes in handy when you need to have a damage party, which happens *WAY* too often with me.

Originally Posted by Puster Bill

You have to remember that an 'exclamationny' sailor is better than no sailor. I like to keep full crews myself. That way, I can keep some in the bunks all nice and rested for when I have to rotate them. Having fewer sailors doesn't allow one to do that. Plus, it comes in handy when you need to have a damage party, which happens *WAY* too often with me.

Interesting points there, also remember you need the full crew especially if you loose them to injury from air or surface attack. The last thing you need is to battle any repairs while you are losing men on the deck to enemy fire while you try to dodge aircraft etc. You will soon find that there are not enough men to do the job!

[Kresge]

I used to run with the maximum crew that could be rested at one time while submerged. Now, running a corrected fatigue mod, I enlist a full crew, especially since I'm in the middle of '42 and have lost a few to air attacks!

[Iron Budokan]

I run a full crew. Everybody works on my boat, even the sick and wounded. I mean everybody. I have a Luger in my cabin. Any slackers get capped in the back of the head when I take them up on deck for night watch if they don't pull their weight.

I run a taut ship. Some of the crew say it's akin to Dante's Inferno. But I call it home.

I also play at low TC a lot of the time. So it's not usually a problem to switch 'em out and rest 'em when needed.

[Iron Budokan]

Got me to thinking....once I accidentally hired too many men (or a bug allowed me to have too many men) on my boat. I could barely control the thing. Only when I got back to port did I see I had too many sailors and petty officers on board...more than the maximum!! I'm pretty sure this was in stock SH3. Anyone else ever experience this?

[Jimbuna]

I always use max crew from day one You have the most options that way and you are also gaining them valuable experience for the tougher times ahead

[Cobra_mkII]

I go for max crew always now. I had been toying with the idea of limiting my crew when starting my next patrol, I was homeward bound.

Anyway I got jumped big style by 3 aircraft in relativley shallow water, darn they are good in GWX. I sank like a brick "Das Boot" style, hit the bottom at 120m (thank goodness I was not in deep water) with five compartments flooding badly.

I spent the next hour prioritising on flooding control. A mad surface dash home later on had me really grateful for a full crew as so many were to tired to control flooding and they were all rotated through the bunks to up repair compartment efficiency. With minimum crew I would have lost the boat from flooding.

Now two NCO's and an officer are repair qualified (I only had an officer repair qualified in the past).