Matrix Games Forums

Sorry if this has already been discussed but I've been busy for a while now...

Anyway I was just wondering if anyone else has had any issues with submarine effectiveness since the introduction of the 2.1 patch?

Reason I ask is because ever since I've installed the 2.1 patch my subs (as either side) rarely will be able to sink any more than 5 ships per turn with 1 or 2 more likely. The enemy subs on the other hand are ravaging my poor little merchant marines....

I'm aware that the shipping routes have been altered but no matter how much I try I simply cannot seem to make my subs effective for anything other than depth charge practice...

I'm guessing you are the US.

What year is it? The USN sub happy time didn't really start until mid 1943, and they rarely got over 40-50 ships sunk per month (5-10 ships sunk per turn). By 1944, this is when the IJN got slaughtered by US subs.

The reason that they don't act very well early on, is...

1. poor torpedos (these remain poor throughout the game, but, you have more subs later on to make up for it)

2. lack of close bases (if your subs' home base is 1 000 km away from their hunting area their results will be lower)

So, to solve this, you should have your sub home bases at the closest allied base (with a large enough port) to the action. As you advance through New Guinea/Central Pacific you will capture better and better sub bases, and your kill numbers will really increase.

Also, the latest version (ie. 2.2) will have an upgraded OBC, with the USN recieving A LOT more Gato class submarines (around twice as much). Both the USN subs and the IJN merchant fleet has been redone.

Originally posted by Major Tom:
1. poor torpedos (these remain poor throughout the game, but, you have more subs later on to make up for it)

You may want to take a second look at this Major. As I remember it, the game is hard wired to start plugging in good parameters for those US torps later in the game. With the original game you can load a save game from mid/late '44 into PWedit and see the new good torp values plugged in. Pretty sure of this.