What's the Fascination with U-boats?

[Highbury]

Originally Posted by goldorak

Yes but when you start having 3 episodes revolving around the same theater it becomes stale very quickly. SH 2, 3 and 5. Some new blood is needed, and put WWII behind. Explore WW I, the cold war, anything except WW II.
History didn't start and end there, its beyond stupid to have games or simulations that are stuck in that time period.

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For alot of people, if they can bring something new to the WWII era or make it better each time, then they will never get bored of it. I think if SHV was going to just be just like SHIV in the Atlantic you would see much less enthusiasm for it.

[CptCrunch]

I sympathise with our American friends. Many of them can't understand the fascination with U-Boats (or the British need to reclaim the letters 's' & 'u' ).
After all America fought and won the only major submarine victory in history. America achieved against Japan what Germany set out to do against Britain and failed. Technically speaking her intervention in the war also won the battle of the Atlantic. The lend-lease ships and the sheer industrial might of America made her able to provide vast quantities of mass produced radars, asdic sets and degaussing cable quickly to combat the U-Boat threat. Whereas Nazi Germany with its intense distrust of science lost her early technical advantage of superior boats and for most of the war the U-Boat fleets fought a courageous rearguard action. Even thought the U-Boat was effectively neutralised as a major threat by late '43. These boats still tied up a huge amount of allied resources right up to the last day of the war and effectively prolonged the war for Germany. Had German scientists and resources been applied earlier to U-Boat development it is quite likely that operational true submarines such as the type XXIII & XX1 would have turned the tide of European war in Germany's favour. Also these later submarines were the design basis for all modern subs today - a huge technological tribute to German thoroughness.
As a European obviously my interest lies in this theatre. Also as a Brit who's father served on destroyers I'm acutely aware how this country stood alone in the early years of the war and overcame incredible odds against its survival. How close we came to defeat and how much science and sheer good luck played in this never ceases to amaze me. The German air-force and u-boat arm came within a hairs breadth of defeating us and it was only due to the corrupt and fanatical political system that issued their orders that they were not able to press their advantage home. The U-Boat arm was fairly soon into the war the only effective operational branch of the Kreigsmarine remaining and carried the burden of Germany's marine war right to the end. So many brave people were lost on both sides in the Atlantic theatre - around 30,000 for each of the u-boat, British merchant marine and Royal Navy plus the hundreds of thousands of nationals of all the other Allied countries and so many resources wee dedicated to the u-boat threat that this remains one of the most significant naval military engagements in history.
As far as game play goes I find the smaller intenser European theatre of SH3 more engaging. I like SH4 for a lot of reasons but trekking across 4000 miles of ocean, although an incredible long range achievement by the US, just to engage a few ships doesn't do it for me- if ever a game needed a teleporter it's SH4!
So yeah it's U-Boats for me although I also wouldn't mind the chance of playing the allied side