By what criteria do you award medals?

[Annatar]

The title's pretty self explanatory I guess. When you give out medals to the crew, how do you decide who gets them?
They gave me an Iron Cross to award to a crew member after my last patrol and, frankly, I don't think anybody deserved it. I mean, life on board a uboot is no picnic, but still; they're not exactly hotbeds of conspicuous heroism.
In the end I found myself awarding the Cross to my Watch officer because he got a bit wet while standing on watch. :p
Perhaps I should have saved the medal for a more memorable patrol in which half the crew ended up dead or something. :hmm:

[KeptinCranky]

Good point, awarding iron crosses for getting wet seems a bit ecessive

I generally award medals to the crewmen I feel contributed most to this patrol's score, if I found all the ships I sunk by hydrophone, the sonar dude gets them, if I did a night-time surface attack it goes to the deckwatch and weapons officer
If I used the deck or flak guns those crewmen get the medals, especially if I took some incoming fire.
If the boat was damaged the repair crew is eligible too

I also award the uboat badges to crewmen with at least 2 patrols completed

[iambecomelife]

Back when I played actual patrols I would usually give medals to the crewmen on duty in the torpedo room during a successful attack. Ditto the deck gunners. I also was generous to the sonar operators, whom I looked at as unsung heroes. They might not fire a shell for the entire war, but they're just as important as anyone else.

[Puster Bill]

Originally Posted by Mikhayl

Same as Keptin', also IIRC the medals give a "bonus" to the crewman so it's a good move to give them to the important guys, sonarman, watch officer, torpedo & repair guys, etc, depending on what you feel is the most important for your boat.

This is what I do.

In regards to promotions and awards, I give them in this order:

Officers
Qualified petty officers
Unqualified PO's
Seamen

I don't think it necessarily makes much difference, though. I used to award them haphazardly, and it didn't seem to make the crew less efficient.

[predavolk]

I give them awards based on how it will improve their performance, and how important that performance is for the ship. For example, the highest medal should go to officers, as it improves the performance of everyone else working in that compartment. Not very helpful for say, the bridge crew. Fatigue-resistant medals should go to those who get fatigued most often.

The Silent Hunter 3 Community Manual outlines the benefit of all the medals. So they go where they are needed, generally going to higher ranked individuals before lower. When all else is equal, I give it out to those individuals with the most experience.

[mcf1]

I personally reward with medals the officers first especially the WO, then the petty officers with a qualification and at the end the sailors because, I don't put all of them to work at the same time (I don't think it's possible) and so I find them "expandable"

[UnderseaLcpl]

My goal is just to get everyone on board enough medals that they can get laid by flashing them. Its the least a Kaleun can do.