Surviving the war?

[Wargamer]

Has anyone actually survived the entire war in one campaign? I've played SH1 for nearly twenty years and the most I've managed is 11 patrols. I'd put about 80% of my deaths down to these terrible American torpedoes. Considering the attrition rate of the pacific submarine fleet I can see why they only served four patrols. Any tips on survival? Any major don'ts I need to think about?

Just out of curiosity, did the submariners know how bad their torpedos were? I know the submarine service had balls of brass anyway, but if they knew their primary weapon was massively unreliable as well one cannot help but admire their courage.

[Vox165]

Just out of curiosity, did the submariners know how bad their torpedos were?

Before the war the Bureau of Ordnance were aware of tech problems but remained unclear. Because of major manufacturing/production difficulties and very high cost of each torp they were not adequately field tested. When war broke out they came up short of supply and testing. .

U.S. skippers became the “field testers” . They were the first to realize that U.S. torpedoes had major problems, and they found out the hard way as a result of failed attacks.

[XenonSurf]

Originally Posted by Wargamer

Has anyone actually survived the entire war in one campaign?

I've been playing the Commander Edition since it came out in 1996, and I'm still playing it time permitting, to my taste it's the best sub sim of the Pacific area regarding destroyer AI and tactics.


However: NO, I never have won a complete campaign in all those years on hard settings (I play on hardest settings except the depth indicator enabled which is 95% realism).
My major grip with SH1CE is that if you sneak at a convoy at close distance ready to fire your spread of torpedos, the destroyers will locate you at the very moment you don't use 'silent running' - their knowledge of your position will be instantaneous which of course is not realistic, that's a rare quirk in the game which has cost me many careers



XS

[JconradH]

I have, maybe twice, but I played SHCE many times for that. I play 100% realism, not 125%, so that must have helped. I posted some gameplay videos else where here. One is my last patrol of the war, and surviving.