Beginning of the war/Messages

[Dogfish40]

Kaleuns,
Hostilities have started. It's Sept' 3rd '39 and I'm getting lots of messages. (Playing GWXgold W' Commander) and some of the messages are telling me to adhere to the international laws regarding warning unarmed, unescorted merchants before sinking them.
I suppose that my question in a nutshell is this; We're now at war with Poland, England, France (to a degree), Australia and a few others. Can I sink unarmed Merchants from these countries?? Or, am I confined to Warships orArmed or escorted Merchants and the like?
Thanks (Danke)
D40

[frau kaleun]

I've always assumed that a lot of those messages are for historical immersion, to reproduce what was really going on politically at the outset of the war ("yes we're at war but we're hoping country X will change its mind so we don't want to make them TOO angry" etc.).

In terms of how the game keeps track of such things, once Germany is at war with a country, any ships flying that nation's flag are fair game. Even if you get a message saying "OMG don't sink British capital ships, we're hoping for a diplomatic resolution" it doesn't matter. The game doesn't keep track of that stuff when it comes to giving and taking away renown for ships sunk.

You should have a pull down chart in GWX with all the different nations' flags on it, it will have dates that tell you exactly when each nation "counts" as Allied (enemy), Axis (friendly) or neutral. It's really only the date and a nation's status on that date that matter, all other stuff about who can be attacked and who shouldn't be attacked because of this or that rule/treaty/gentleman's agreement/etc. can safely be ignored unless you want to follow those orders to the letter for the sake of more realism.

[Dogfish40]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I've always assumed that a lot of those messages are for historical immersion, to reproduce what was really going on politically at the outset of the war ("yes we're at war but we're hoping country X will change its mind so we don't want to make them TOO angry" etc.).

In terms of how the game keeps track of such things, once Germany is at war with a country, any ships flying that nation's flag are fair game. Even if you get a message saying "OMG don't sink British capital ships, we're hoping for a diplomatic resolution" it doesn't matter. The game doesn't keep track of that stuff when it comes to giving and taking away renown for ships sunk.

You should have a pull down chart in GWX with all the different nations' flags on it, it will have dates that tell you exactly when each nation "counts" as Allied (enemy), Axis (friendly) or neutral. It's really only the date and a nation's status on that date that matter, all other stuff about who can be attacked and who shouldn't be attacked because of this or that rule/treaty/gentleman's agreement/etc. can safely be ignored unless you want to follow those orders to the letter for the sake of more realism.

Thanks, It's good to know. I kind of figured as there is no way to "warn" a non-combatant ship like a merchant of your intentions to sink it, as was done at the beginning of the war. So I just wanted to make sure of that. I do like all the messages however, as for me it does add to the historical realism however, if I get a chance, that ship is going down, non-combatant or whatever!!
Thanks for the feedback,
D40

[frau kaleun]

You're welcome. SINK 'EM ALL!!!

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

You're welcome. SINK 'EM ALL!!!

Welcome Frau, to SubSim's 10K soon,

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Vendor

Welcome Frau, to SubSim's 10K soon,

Oh my, I hadn't noticed that I was that close!

[Sailor Steve]

The game doesn't care about any messages. It only knows Enemy, Neutral and Friendly. I personally adhere to all those rules because I got tired of just sinking ships long before SH3 was released.