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They work very well in conjunction with Aircraft but they are just not going to stand up to British Escorts/CVs. 30-40 merchant/escorts are the max you will get against a decent opponent and that's a stretch... I think they should be harder to detect by air till the tech is on par cause in the beginning of 1940 it's over.

I have seen this in 5 separate games. They however work in local raiding like the Russian Convoys with Air cover. Though that's it...

By what year?

The U-boats can raid the first few turns. After that you run into CVs, Greenland Bomber, their limited range. Probably Ireland is invaded by a smart UK Player and now you got extra reach there... so in transit the U-boats get hammered coming out and coming in. With the 10 Escorts for 1 lane you really aren't doing much without taking damage. I've maxed out under 40 merchant/Escort Hits and that's with good effort and buying a sub. 1940 is the end of the U-boat War. In fact the beginning of 1940.

Soviets can still be hassled if you use air support to keep the CVs off. Plus they have limited capacity in this department to transit supplies.

UK has to build the strategic bomber though - it does not come for free. And have to spend cash in escorts and merchant marine. And tech escorts. (Which anyhow it's not that hard considering pratically all they need are 5-6 techs including Escort vessels).

But I'd not have CVs able to hit submarines. I mean the regular CVs. Escorts should do the battle against submarines, and land based planes.

I do understand the investment Cohen. It is not a free counter however. I cannot see it worth it to the Axis to pursue this strategy without Gibraltar and a West First strategy.

It might be slightly more viable with more Oiler Ships and just Long Range U-boats. Put 1 short range in and 2 long range in the build over a period of time. And yeah stopping CV strikes on them...

Put 6 or more developed attack subs in ONE SINGLE hex and you can erase the whole merchant marine fleet of UK over time.

ORIGINAL: Octavian

Put 6 or more developed attack subs in ONE SINGLE hex and you can erase the whole merchant marine fleet of UK over time.

No longer possible in beta 5. Limit is now 3 subs in one hex. No more "doomstacks" [:)]

For your information, Battle - in our game UK and Soviets have a combined amount of 30+ escorts (all teched up - yes have to tech even Soviet escorts) to '41 level atm. So I think my convoys are relatively safe (As the last exchange saw 3 merchant marine sank vs 4 sub HP hits).

But it's a cost - that otherwise would have been a few more units to toss around by the Allied end.

Current issue is that Lend Lease to Russia seems to not let the Allied merchant marine to function for it.

ORIGINAL: battlevonwar

They work very well in conjunction with Aircraft but they are just not going to stand up to British Escorts/CVs. 30-40 merchant/escorts are the max you will get against a decent opponent and that's a stretch... I think they should be harder to detect by air till the tech is on par cause in the beginning of 1940 it's over.

I have seen this in 5 separate games. They however work in local raiding like the Russian Convoys with Air cover. Though that's it...

Pick different lanes and spread out the subs
Pick the lowest recon level hex.

Realize if the UK is using carriers vs Subs they ARE NOT using carriers in the med and you should have free reign.

Also you can attack carrier forces with subs.