Submerged sub not spotting

[pjg100]

Ran a submerged German sub from west of Scapa to North Sea. It moved adjacent to and under several UK surface vessels but did not reveal any of them. A few hexes to the east, another German submerged sub moving north revealed several UK surface vessels under which it moved. Germany and UK at war. Weather was storm in both areas. Both subs had high supply. So why did one reveal UK vessels and the other not?

[BillRunacre]

They have a 50% chance of being stopped by enemy Destroyers while running in silent mode, could it be that?

[Kornstalx]

Page 117, 6.5.7. Submarine Movement

Silent – Set to run silent and pass through enemy naval units undetected,
though with only 2/3 their normal number of Action Points...
...The Sub’s Silent mode represents movement beneath the surface
where Subs can pass through any enemy units unless they end their move
next to one, or they pass through a hex occupied by an enemy Destroyer.

Your first sub made it through the ships without stopping because it successfully passed the rolls to do so. The second sub failed a roll and was stopped -- this caused a surprise encounter. Subs in Silent Mode are meant to be used for ambushing enemy ships on the *opponents* turn, and for passing through their units without being revealed on your own turn. Passing through an unknown enemy naval unit without either of you being revealed is one mechanical caveat of Silent Mode. Also note there are huge (50%) combat penalties for naval combat (attack and receive) when in Silent Mode. However, Silent Mode has enormous bonuses to attack if you actually ambush the enemy on their turn.

If you need your sub to actually scout, use Hunt mode. Once you run into (and spot) an enemy, after the combat is resolved you will automatically enter Silent Mode. The other alternative is to remain in Silent Mode, but only move one-hex at a time. Note that doing this really nerfs your Spotting Range on units with more than one hex vision, however. Regardless, any contact you make on your own turn while in Silent Mode will have crazy combat penalties.

Don't think of it as Surface/Submerged modes; it's deliberately not named that way. Thematically, Hunt Mode includes submerged activity. Silent Mode is "avoid all contact on my team's turn".

[pjg100]

Thanks for the responses. The issue isn’t that the sub in silent mode was or was not stopped by a destroyer. It is that one of the subs revealed - spotted - the various surface vessels - CC, CL, etc. - that it passed through and the other did not. I see nothing in the manual indicating that subs in silent mode don’t spot enemy vessels that they pass by and in my experience they generally do. However here one sub spotted the surface vessels and rheynother did not despite the fact that the weather conditions etc were identical and both subs were in silent mode.

[James Taylor]

All naval and air spotting / recon is malfunctioning in the new patch.

I haven't tried land units, but they're probably dysfunctional too!

[Kornstalx]

ORIGINAL: James Taylor

All naval and air spotting / recon is malfunctioning in the new patch.

I haven't tried land units, but they're probably dysfunctional too!

Wait, really?

[James Taylor]

No, not really.[;)]

What happened is my FoW feature somehow became unselected(must have happened after the patch 1.02 activation). But, the spotting mechanism is not working as it did in WiE.

Evidently the passive spotting feature for Maritime Bombers and Carriers is not functioning as all that is illuminated is the adjacent
hexes like when the unit is moved, like all others move. LR has no effect at increasing spotting ranges at the beginning or end of movement.

Also, in WiE(1.15), when testing, the initial spotting(before movement) and subsequent spotting after movement will illuminate hexes in storms, which is in direct conflict of what is written in the manual. This only happens if the unit(CV or MB) begins or ends its movement in a clear weather hex.

Perhaps, even though I can find no reference to it, this feature has changed for WaW, but again, it is in direct conflict with the LR spotting features in the manual.

Its a pretty big deal as it completely alters your recon strategy, at least it does mine![:@]

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks for the reports on the spotting issues, I've made adjustments for follow up patches for both WiE and WaW.

[pjg100]

Thanks Hubert.