Matrix Games Forums

Anybody tried multi-submarines TF?
I’m trying to find the best useful way to employ ss

In a multi sub TF, only one sub will fire at a time. So most players don't do it. Others will chime in at some point....GP

If I get more than one sub arriving at the same port; I would create one TF to move them all together... less clicks[:)]

maybe for SST or sub minelaying purposes? otherwise 1 sub per TF

As Allied I have used the multisub TF but it doesn't seem to offer any advantage. Although I still use it when I have multiple subs in a port to move them to the same general area I split them up as they arrive near their area of operations.

The US started to use the wolfpack tactic towards the end of the war as the Japanese began to protect their merchant shipping better. The game does not seem to simulate that tactic well however.

Although every Japanese merchant ship was required to send its noon position in code (a rather simple cipher - not the JN25 series) to the IJN each day the Allied player does not benefit much from the fairly early penetration of that cipher. Occasionally a single merchant ship may show up in a particular hex in the Allied SIGINT report but relatively rarely.

Meanwhile the Japanese Player gets to use its seaplane equipped submarines to search every hex (not very well admittedly) within 4 hexes of every sub so equipped when the aircraft involved, the Glen, could just barely complete to a radius of one hex during the hours of daylight (the aircraft was designed to fly to a radius of 4 hexes. conduct a reconnaisance and return to the sub).

The merchant shipping used three different codes. I think that each major organization used its own code.

The merchant shipping used three different code

And they were all being read by the Allies pretty much from the start. Like in a school of minnows the individual survived because the predators (submarines) caught somebody else.

Thanks for the info guys. So the wolfpack is not a solution I see.

ORIGINAL: George Patton

Thanks for the info guys. So the wolfpack is not a solution I see.

Depends what you are trying to do. To cover as much area as possible, lone subs are best.
But if you want to set up an ambush in a choke point, using a pair of subs per TF can work really well. One sub detects the enemy and may or may not get a shot. The other sub benefits from this detection and very often gets a shot at the enemy. Even better, if the first sub shot and got a damaging hit, the second one is very likely to finish the cripple.

That's what I have been seeing with my paired subs. BTW, if the choke point extends for a couple or three hexes, I try to put a pair of subs in each hex to continue to reap the benefits of detection.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: George Patton

Thanks for the info guys. So the wolfpack is not a solution I see.

Depends what you are trying to do. To cover as much area as possible, lone subs are best.
But if you want to set up an ambush in a choke point, using a pair of subs per TF can work really well. One sub detects the enemy and may or may not get a shot. The other sub benefits from this detection and very often gets a shot at the enemy. Even better, if the first sub shot and got a damaging hit, the second one is very likely to finish the cripple.

That's what I have been seeing with my paired subs. BTW, if the choke point extends for a couple or three hexes, I try to put a pair of subs in each hex to continue to reap the benefits of detection.

+1

I am not sure on the mechanics, but they do seem strangely effective.

Can be deadly on CV ambushes.