Sub classes?

[Soviet Creeper]

It appears no one has talked about my favorite boats, and thus I shall

The S18 and S42 are both very similar, the S42 has minor improvements and a bettter battery I think. These are very fragile, and cant dive very deep, but they are small. This allows them to operate a bit better in the shallows, and they are also great for harbor raiding. In RFB they also get to start with the 4in deck gun, which is of course way better than that tiny 3in. Dont expect to sink any large warship though, 4 Mark 10s wont do very much too anything. The only major problem for me is the lack of torpedos they carry, 12 max.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Soviet Creeper

, 4 Mark 10s wont do very much too anything.

Except that four Mk 10's have a much better chance of exploding when they should than the early Mk 14's

While the Torpex used in the Mk 14 is better suited for sinking ships than the TNT used in the Mk 10's, that Torpex won't be of much good if it is not exploded next to the ship.

I would rather hit with four Mk 10's than not hit with three out of four Mk 14's

[USS Drum]

One Sargo class has a interesting story behind it:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Squalus_%28SS-192%29

[Soviet Creeper]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Except that four Mk 10's have a much better chance of exploding when they should than the early Mk 14's

While the Torpex used in the Mk 14 is better suited for sinking ships than the TNT used in the Mk 10's, that Torpex won't be of much good if it is not exploded next to the ship.

I would rather hit with four Mk 10's than not hit with three out of four Mk 14's

very, very true, but I was talking about their effectiveness against Battleships and large carriers. Ive been unable to sink one, even when all 4 hit and explode. Perhaps bad luck. I do overall perfer the Mark 10, and am even willing to spend the renown to get them once I "upgrade" to a larger sub. 6 Mark 10s however, will more often than not put down whatever Im trying to sink. I only wish they had a tad longer range. I hate fireing at a distance convoy, only to have them run out of fuel 20 yards from the large modern tanker I was aiming at

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Soviet Creeper

very, very true, but I was talking about their effectiveness against Battleships and large carriers. Ive been unable to sink one, even when all 4 hit and explode. Perhaps bad luck. I do overall perfer the Mark 10, and am even willing to spend the renown to get them once I "upgrade" to a larger sub. 6 Mark 10s however, will more often than not put down whatever Im trying to sink. I only wish they had a tad longer range. I hate fireing at a distance convoy, only to have them run out of fuel 20 yards from the large modern tanker I was aiming at

Attacking a large warship can be fun but you do so much more harm to the Japanese war effort by killing her supply lines of course in theory you should try to destroy any warship you find.If you follow a few simple rules when using Mk.14s you will not have near as much trouble with them though one could argue the accuracy of doing this because we know what to do from the start in the game to avoid the duds in real life they did not know until later in the war.I think the odds of sinking a BB with mk.10s is pretty low they can take alot of hits even from much more powerful mk.14s and not go down.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Soviet Creeper

hate fireing at a distance convoy, only to have them run out of fuel 20 yards from the large modern tanker I was aiming at

How far away are you shootin?

[Stealhead]

20 yards beyond the maximum range of Mk10(though I bet they are cutting out a bit farther away than 20 yards) I am guessing my guess is that he is firing at them while in range but not realizing that the target is slowly sailing out of range.I used to have this problem way back when.If that is the case then his success rate could go up a bit if he gets new sub and starts using
Mk14s set to slow speed he is already accustomed to getting in to S-boat attack range with all that extra range of mk14s he should be good if the only error is firing from too far for MK10s to make it.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Soviet Creeper

It appears no one has talked about my favorite boats, and thus I shall

The S18 and S42 are both very similar, the S42 has minor improvements and a bettter battery I think. These are very fragile, and cant dive very deep, but they are small. This allows them to operate a bit better in the shallows, and they are also great for harbor raiding. In RFB they also get to start with the 4in deck gun, which is of course way better than that tiny 3in. Dont expect to sink any large warship though, 4 Mark 10s wont do very much too anything. The only major problem for me is the lack of torpedos they carry, 12 max.

I wish they would have better modeled the S-boats myself the S-boats had a bit of variation depending on who had built them and when they where overhauled.Some had rear tubes and the the hull was are much more similar to the appearance of German U-boats where as the ones in SH4 are all of the original "Holland" design though he did not design them they still had his look.It would also have been nice to have the various yard boats have their distinct conning tower appearances because there was some variation between Electric Boat,Portsmouth,and Maintowoc boats.We are stuck with generic ones that is just me being nit picky.

So far as I recall even in stock the S-boats start with the 4 inch 50 caliber gun and do start with this gun in TMO you can swap out for a pop gun though I have no idea why anyone would want to do that.Also the S-boats where designed for coastal waters in which case their range was fairly effective.The Navy basically needed subs badly and the S-boats where available so they got used around the Solomon Islands because it was in the range of their operating abilities.The Asiatic fleet had them for the same reason.In WWII some S-boats actually prefered to use the deck gun to get kills which was a feasible tactic early in the war.

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I wish they would have better modeled the S-boats myself the S-boats had a bit of variation depending on who had built them and when they where overhauled.Some had rear tubes and the the hull was are much more similar to the appearance of German U-boats where as the ones in SH4 are all of the original "Holland" design though he did not design them they still had his look.It would also have been nice to have the various yard boats have their distinct conning tower appearances because there was some variation between Electric Boat,Portsmouth,and Maintowoc boats.We are stuck with generic ones that is just me being nit picky.

Yup. This is the major problem with defining the S-class. I remember being surprised to learn that the 51 S-class submarines were anything but a homogenous, identical group and were in fact a class in name only. The S-class was actually made up of no less than six distinct groups that were built by four different manufacturers. The Navy considered all 51 boats a single class because they were all designed to meet roughly the same set of performance and military specifications. These specifications were approximately 800-1000 tons submerged displacement, length approximately 250 ft., surface speed 18-20 knots, submerged speed 14 knots for 1 hour and 10 knots for 3 hr, surface range radius of 5000 nautical miles, and 4 bow torpedo tubes (two reloads each). The Navy's reason for splitting up the design and construction was they felt Electric Boat was getting too politically powerful and was too fond of installing it's own patented (and sometimes inferior) gadgets in the boats.

Although ultimately proven to be flawed in many areas, both the S-1 and the S-3 designs were deemed satisfactory enough to warrant series production. The S-1 had better underwater maneuverability, was a fairly fast diver, and her single hull construction eased exterior maintenance. The S-3 had better engines and a longer range. In the end, the Navy felt that both types were nearly evenly matched, but ironically Electric Boat ended up with the bulk of the construction, mostly due to the much larger construction capacity of their yards.