battlestations

[Laffertytig]

what effect does battlestations have and when should it be used?

[Aramike]

From my brief experience, it activates your Damage Control team, arms your deck gun and AA gun if you're on the surface, and maximizes the efficiency of every department on the boat.

I guess the best answer would be to use it whenever you're facing imminent danger.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Remember to shut it off or else your crew will be heavily fatigued. Especially if you do any time compressing.


RDP

[Capt. Shark Bait]

and deactivate damage control when silent running, or they'll hear you

[JALU3]

It brings all three shifts on-line, and activates all those who were stated above. This means that everything is max manned, and the most experienced are taking their battle station positions. To be used only when necessary. You can make most runs on target without it to be honest, you just wont have the reload or the repair time as fast, so only use it when going against a hardenned convoy. Furthermore if your tactics are sound, you fire from far enough, and become a hole in the water underneath the thermal layer, way underneath, you should have no problem hitting that choice target.

[Aramike]

Question: what if the DC team has nothing to repair? Will it STILL be heard if not shut down during silent running at GQ?

[groomsie]

Originally Posted by Aramike

Question: what if the DC team has nothing to repair? Will it STILL be heard if not shut down during silent running at GQ?

Last night I went after a fast TF (2 carriers, 2 BBs, 1 CL, 5 DDs) returning to home waters...sea was like glass and mid-afternoon, clear skies and lots of planes, so I went deep to wait and evade detection, came up with the big carrier ready to cross my firing line (using DO'K Method). Put 6 fish into the carrier and sent her to Davy Jones...

But with all that I was at battlestations and prepared for a beating from the escorts. Recalling this thread from yesterday I checked an my DC team was activated even though nothing to repair, so I "deactivated" them to try and ensure I was as quiet as possible.

The short of it was the escorts never even dropped a charge. Now part of that may have been a fast valuable TF moving away at 18 knots is going to want their escort, but that was by far the easiest evasion of a group escort of that nature I've even acomplished. So it made me wonder if that "deactivation" of the DC team--who had nothing to do per-se--actually made me quieter and aided in my evasion.

Anxious to hear the opinions...

[JALU3]

They WILL hear you, with your DC crew active, as they are busy checking everything even if there is nothing that you know is damaged, and make a lot of noise doing it. Remember your no good playing heroic against one of the two-three escorts that they will leave behind to pick up survivors and hopefully take you out. Just be a whole in the water, enjoy your coffee quietly and let your crew know that you're proud of what they did. There will be time for celebrating and all the hooting and hollering later.

If you haven't already done so, rig for silent running, drop your speed below 1 knt and leave the area, get well underneath the thermal layer and become that hole in the water that everyone wants you to be. Make sure that DC crew is not doing anything, as they shouldn't notice you if you follow my advice, or atleast with the vanilla version.

[groomsie]

Until this thread it had never occured to me that the DC team automatically activates at battlestations and needs to be deactivated if want to remain as silent as possible. Makes sense, but may explain why in the past I've often had difficulty with evasion with covoys/TFs with more escorts (since these are often the ones I'll go to battlestations for).

Thanks for confirming this.

[Vacquero]

I think I read somewhere in The Bravest Man, that Dick O'Kane would stand down from battle stations during an evasion, so that there were fewer people up and moving around. Can't remember for sure though if that was indeed in that book, but I've been trying it lately with varied results.

[tomoose]

Laffertytig;
you've probably noticed that the DC team does NOT stand down when you secure from battlestations and that you have to stand them down seperately. I consider it another oversight by the devs from the original game. I'm still using 1.4 so perhaps it was fixed in 1.5 (I'll be surprised if it was).

[John Channing]

Having used both 1.4 and 1.5 my DC crew always stands down when I secure from General Quarters.

Never had a problem like yours.

JCC

[magic452]

I have the same situation as Tomoose, have to stand down the DC team separately.
Might be a TMO 1.4 thing. No big problem you are on the buttons anyway.
Only time I use battle stations is when I need the DC team, fast torp reloads or
Battle Stations surfaced.

Magic452
Sink all but six and save them for pallbearers.