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I LOVE mines but it seems like my own ships hit my offensive minefields more than the enemy does.
I started leaving my subs prowling in the offensive minefileds I laid sometime around version 2.0 of the game. It is quite effictive, although you can lose subs if you are not careful.
I think targeting minesweepers should be the top priority for subs, even more so than CVs because the risk is much lower.
If there is one thing I would like to see changed about mine warfare it is the DMS. I think they should not be allowed to act as minesweepers in any task force that is using "fast" movement, such as bombardment or surface combat task forces.

< Damien Thorn: I LOVE mines but it seems like my own ships hit my offensive minefields more than the enemy does.
I started leaving my subs prowling in the offensive minefileds I laid sometime around version 2.0 of the game. It is quite effictive, although you can lose subs if you are not careful.
I think targeting minesweepers should be the top priority for subs, even more so than CVs because the risk is much lower.
If there is one thing I would like to see changed about mine warfare it is the DMS. I think they should not be allowed to act as minesweepers in any task force that is using "fast" movement, such as bombardment or surface combat task >

Yes, but what does submarines targetting minesweepers have to do with history? Why on Earth would a submarine commader see a small minesweeper as a priority target over a fat tanker or a fleet carrier? Yes the minesweeper is less dangerous to approach then the carrier, but sinking that little craft doesn't help the war-effort much.

I also have never heard of WWII subs systematically protecting minefields (to be exact I have never heard of subs doing that, though I would not be astonished if it happened occasionally). So it seems obvious that such a tactic is not based on the realities of a battolefield, rather on the design of the game. Abusing a game's rules in such a way is often considered gamey and tends to lead to either boring games or house rules prohibitting certain actions.

For the DMS, you are right. I'd see them sweeping mines the traditional way (instead of using their automatic guns) if one or more ship of their fast taskforce hit a mine, but running at such speed they would not be any better at spotting mines then the combat ships they are escorting.

Marc aka Caran...

Caranorn wrote:< Damien Thorn: I LOVE mines but it seems like my own ships hit my offensive minefields more than the enemy does.
I started leaving my subs prowling in the offensive minefileds I laid sometime around version 2.0 of the game. It is quite effictive, although you can lose subs if you are not careful.
I think targeting minesweepers should be the top priority for subs, even more so than CVs because the risk is much lower.
If there is one thing I would like to see changed about mine warfare it is the DMS. I think they should not be allowed to act as minesweepers in any task force that is using "fast" movement, such as bombardment or surface combat task >

Yes, but what does submarines targetting minesweepers have to do with history? Why on Earth would a submarine commader see a small minesweeper as a priority target over a fat tanker or a fleet carrier? Yes the minesweeper is less dangerous to approach then the carrier, but sinking that little craft doesn't help the war-effort much.

I also have never heard of WWII subs systematically protecting minefields (to be exact I have never heard of subs doing that, though I would not be astonished if it happened occasionally). So it seems obvious that such a tactic is not based on the realities of a battolefield, rather on the design of the game. Abusing a game's rules in such a way is often considered gamey and tends to lead to either boring games or house rules prohibitting certain actions.

For the DMS, you are right. I'd see them sweeping mines the traditional way (instead of using their automatic guns) if one or more ship of their fast taskforce hit a mine, but running at such speed they would not be any better at spotting mines then the combat ships they are escorting.

Marc aka Caran...

You will hit your own mines if you lay them in any hex other than one that has a dot with your color. As for subs hitting mines, that hasn'ty happened to me for as long as I can remember playing UV. Having a minesweeper lay in wait for targets in a minefield is not gamey in my opinion as a mine rarely sinks anything but a small PG or SC so the sub is looking for crippled ships which seems historical to me. A sub need not be waiting for minesweepers in particular but if you send them in with a sub then what happens is to be expected. In any event I wouldn't think it any more gamey than sending in 5 or 6 MSWs to clear a minefield since usually only 1 or 2 would be sent in to clear just a path through a known minefield with bouys set as markers.
I agree with you on the efficiency of DMS with a bombardment group.They should be sent ahead separately with the bombardment or SCTF following but I don't think the game mechanics let you do this for bombardments.

I really got no problem with mines as they are in the game now. Only exception to that is I would like to see subs hit them once in a while. They are immune as it stands now.