Nuetral Ships Galore?

[Dutch]

Hey guys I'm loving O:M only having played it about a week now.

One thing I have noticed is the tons and tons and tons (it seems to me) of neutral shipping. I have done 3 war patrols (1 with the U-7, and currently on my second with the U-12 Type IIs, Its Nov 39) and I have only seen 2 English Merchants (with my two torps being duds. The second, I couldn't see the flag till the last second and rushed my solution and missed..) Now I understand the duds and the rushing of solution was all my fault. But my God Captains where are the targets?

I find ships galore along the East Coast of the U.K, get my solution and perfect firing position only to have to turn away because its Norway or Finland or Greece or Netherlands.

Please do not perceive this as a complaint. I'm just curious if you all or having similar situations?

[SgtSabre]

It's probably because it's early in the war. In '39 the convoy system was not in place, so you won't see much of that. Also, so early in the war there weren't that many countries at war with Germany. As the war goes on, most of those neutrals will turn to enemies.

[sckallst]

I just now got done doing a long, perfect setup on a merchant making its way through my patrol area in the middle of the North Atlantic. Had a radio message that she was coming from over 150km away. Pick her up early on sonar, do some TMA to get a good course, triangulate to get an initial speed read. Fine tuned it coming in. I had her tracked so perfectly I probably could have shot without looking. Last second, find out she's Dutch. Not yet spring 1940, so I let her go.

Yeah, it's not as fun as making things go BOOM, but, for me at least, just doing the setup to that degree of perfection (with no map contacts) provides a nice degree of satisfaction.

Yeah, very early war North Sea is just a mess of mostly neutral traffic. Welcome to the war. Try not to start another one.

[alexradu89]

4. One of the problems with “stock” SH4 is the way it treats the “detection” of neutral shipping (i.e. it basically ignores them). This behavior became unacceptable from a gameplay point of view during the development of the early war combat operations. Therefore there are “no neutrals” in OM. It will be up to the player to determine if a ship needs to be engaged or not. During the early phases of the war these normally neutral ships will remain unarmed. Also from review of the records, Uboat captains sink supposed “neutrals” during their early combat patrols

Taken from the OM thread. Creator's words. I either sink it, or let it go. If I let it go it means it's an ally.

[McHibbins]

Indeed there are no neutrals in OM but if I going to sink everything, it will be a big immersion breaker for me.

Spotted an unarmed medium freighter sailing under panamesian flag last night.
Wanted to let him go until I saw the column of army trucks on his deck.
This is "Konterbande" or definitely war material for an enemy of germany and so his luck ran out

I think this is a propper way to handle the mass of neutrals in early war.

BTW: there´s also a very good mod outside named "Csengoi´s Enemies of Germany" which shows you the war entrance of every nation via F1.

[Dutch]

Sill in the same patrol just a few days later. Came across a small convoy (the map said large but there wasn't but maybe 10 ships plus escorts). The escorts were English. So I decided what and the Sam Hill is Tommy doing "escorting" neutral units.

Needless to say a 9319 ton K Merchant (Swedish Flag) and a 4561 ton Medium Passenger Freighter (Norwegian Flag) aren't very happy. They should have known better than to sail in a convoy protected by Tommies.

That will be one of my house rules, if I see a convoy and it is escorted by U.K/U.S all ships within said convoy are free targets. Else why would they be escorted if neutral?

All in all a nice little patrol. heading back home now very pleased with the way the war is looking.