"Realistic" Crew Management

[Hoss1193]

Originally Posted by Blue

I have settled on some numbers for the crew of my Tambor........6 officers, 11 Chiefs and a Seaman/PO ratio of 1/2(not sure if thats typical though). I will remove members randomly to maintain this composition. Most often chiefs and PO will go. This, i think is typical in rw. Carrer changes, contract ending, etc. I will most often recruit seaman. I try not to have a "perfect" manpower composition also. A section or two may be headed by a PO. A deck watch may go with a Chief leading.

Tom

I'm a little confused by this.

I began current (and first) career - an early '42 - in a Porpoise, progressed up through Gato, and currently nearing war end in Balao. Began career with something like 8 or 10 khaki (officers + chiefs). After a couple of patrols, I decided to rotate senior Lieutenants off and get some more Ensigns and Chiefs.

So I move out LT Supersailor, and try to drag in ENS Tenderfoot...and uh oh, despite LT Supersailor having transferred off the boat, I *still* had "too many officers". Hmmm....well let's see how far this goes....I wound up kicking guys off the boat until I was down to FIVE officers and chiefs before I could recruit one or promote one of my 1st Classes to Chief. Had a similar experience with Petty Officers when I winnowed them down to see where the "promotion/recruitment" limit was (I think this was either my last patrol in the Porpoise or first patrol in the Gato when I did this).

Ever since, through all Gato and Balao patrols, I've been maxed out at six officers+chiefs combined. So yeah, I not only have Petty Officers in charge of compartment watches...I have Petty Officers in charge of MOST compartment watches.

I spread out my khaki among the compartments - one in Engine Room, one in Conning Tower, one in each Torpedo Room, etc etc. With six compartments and three watch sections, that's 18 different regularly rotating watch teams...12 of them headed by Petty Officers.

Now, if that's the limit, cool, 6 khaki for a crew of about 75 seems reasonable enough (actually, that seems a little light by modern practice - IRL, I served on a minehunter with 9 khaki in a crew of 50 - but WW2 might have been different). I'm still puzzled, however, by these questions...

1. If the limit was that low, then how/why did the game START me with many more Khaki and Petty Officers on my first, smaller boat? and...

2. How is it that some folks seem to have many more khaki (and/or P.O.s) on their boats and are able to move them around easilyl?

Is there some basic management tool that I've completely missed (linked to Renown perhaps? I'm sitting on 29k Renown in late '44..is that average, high, low?)

Separate-but-related...for special abilities (e.g., Riposte, Perfect Pitch, etc), I've only seen Officers or Chiefs develop those...yet I've read posts that seem to indicate that other folks have many more than six of these abilities on their boats. Have never seen a Petty Officer pop an Ability; does it happen?