No convoy attacks

[BRedgie]

Periodically during our PBEM game we have noticed that German subs located on convoy routes with supply and 96- 100 percent effectiveness will not attack the Allied convoys. i.e. no mention of any convoy attacks at all in the Reports and Statistics screen. We have previously (prior to the last 2 turns) seen results showing 0 damage to subs, escorts and MM's but the last two turns did not show any convoy attacks at all.

no convoy attack 2.png (2.19 MiB) Viewed 574 times

The turn before last (Sep 25, 1942) showed no convoy attacks with these 2 sub groups in the exact same positions. During the intervening German turn (Oct 9, 1942) 1 sub was added to the group on the South Atlantic convoy route and the group on the African coast convoy route was resupplied by an oiler and again no convoys results. The screen shots are for the start of the Oct 23, 1941 turn. Why are the subs not attacking the convoys?

[MagicMissile]

Hello,

One reason could be that you opponent turned off the convoy routes. Allies do that occasionally if MM losses are too high.

/MM

[ncc1701e]

Absolutely.

[canuckgamer]

I'm playing the Allies in this game. The UK no longer has any MM's but a message comes up saying USA MM's are being used in place of UK ones. The convoy routes where there haven't been U-boat attacks are routes that the USA cannot assign any escorts to because they are not active on those routes. This must be why this is happening.

[canuckgamer]

The situation in our game brings up something that I have previously commented on. Unless u-boats are impacted by the loss of effectiveness they can stay out at sea raiding forever by using oilers. Long range subs can stay out 9 turns so one oiler refill increases that to 18 turns or the equivalent of about 9 months. You would think a crew would have gone insane by then. I believe the capability of surface sinks is impacted by a reduction of effectiveness so why not u-boats?
My opponent has gone all in with the uboats as you can see by the number he has. I have allocated the maximum to escort technology throughout the game. We are now in to the second week of October 1942. Off the top of my head I can't remember what tech level I am at for escorts but I think the USA has been at 1943 for some time while the UK will be at that level in a couple of turns. I will check when it is my move.
I have CVs on convoy routes since the entire Italian surface fleet has been sunk but even with +4 modifiers the u-boats are still sinking MM's without losing much. As I indicated in my previous post the UK no longer has any MM's. U-boats are cheap to build and hardly expend any oil. If they are not impacted by loss of effectiveness then it is no wonder they inflict the damage they do.
The results for lost MM's and u-boats vary quite a bit from turn to turn. I'd love to see the combat tables for u-boats attacking MM's and escorts attacking u-boats. Do escorts actually decrease the numbers of MM's sunk or is strictly them attacking u-boats and hopefully sink some of them?

[Nirosi]

I have rarely seen, if ever, the UK running out of MMs. Did the UK buy MMs?

For the oilers, I understand the argument, but from my experience it is a non problem as the u-boat will need to go back to port for repairs. By 1941, they get it often enough to make a 9 mont cruise pretty much impossible.

How many Allied escorts are active and what tech level.? Also, how many U-boats does German have?

For you question, Alvaro has confirmed that escorts do not protect MMs, they simply kill subs.

[AlvaroSousa]

Correct. The abstraction is that the sub has to go back to port. So instead of a sub staying out there forever they need to go back to port when damaged. This reduces the time at see and abstractly protects MMs by having escorts in the lane.

It was easier doing this than some super complicated system with exploits.