I have never played CORE before version 0.30, and when I started up my first game as Germany I built myself a few subs, since I got some from the naval plan anyway and was curious to check out naval- and sub warefare. I thought that my subs sunk tons of transports even though I did not really used them as efficient as I should, so I decided to start up a test game to check if subs are as good as I suspected, or not (ripoff on Blue Emu-experiment in Vanilla).
First, let´s summarize what I have done to be able to execute my plan:
* Naval plan had to continoue. No big effort, since that is the obvious choise anyway (unless you never, ever plan to leave shore).
* All sub doctrines + the 38 sub building tech are researched when available. That leaves me a few techs behind in other areas compared to if I neglected the subs. I do not feel that I am seriously falling behind overall, however.
* Chief of Navy was changed to Dönitz just before the end of Czechoslovakia, so the dissent hit was neutralized. It can however give me 1% dissent sometime in the future, if I want to focus on surface fleets and want a better minister by then.
* 80 IIC submarines were built before the outbreak of war, so the cost was taken from the precious pre-war IC. The cost is a little hard to calculate due to hawk moves during the build, but total cost should be around 16-17 ICdays. The manpower cost is almost neglectable 80*0,1 = 8 Manpower. This is by far the requirement that feels the most, but put in comparision it is somewhat cheaper then building 2 Bismarcks. This left the airforce/army somewhat worse off at Danzig or war, but not bad enough to make any big difference for the early land warfare.
* Denmark had to be taken as soon as Poland is finished. Reason for this is that I did not build any long distance subs (they are slightly more expensive, and the goal with the experiment is to neutralize England as cheap as possible), so I will need Reykaviks navalbase to fully execute my plans. This is no big deal for me since I usually take Denmark just after Poland anyway when playing Germany, but still a requirement.
Then, the goal of the operation. When starting a campaign UK has 7349 transports, and the preliminary goal is to sink them before end of 1940. This will require an average of 460 transports per month sunk.
Finally, the setup for the operation. I organized my subs in wolfpacks of 5 subs each, sending 2 wolfpacks to each area of operation. Operating areas are the 4 areas surrounding Britain, and the 6 areas outside them, to have two rings for the convoys to pass. All wolfpacks are led by admirals with minimum skill 3, and either Sea Wolf, Superior Tactician or Spotter trait.
Early results:
Convoy raiding started as soon as UK declared war. September resulted in 410 convoys sunk, 50 below the goal for the months. This was not alarming in any way, due to a number of factors:
* All subs were not in position before the end of the months, after being rebased to Reykavik.
* 19 escorts has been sunk, and the UK starts with only 30. The absence of escorts should mean more sinkings of transports.
* No subs has been destroyed, and as a bonus one UK DD and one TP has been sunk by the subs. Also 7 danish convoys has been sunk, but that was not exactly a primary goal...
October results:
688 convoys sunk during October, almost 50% above the goal of 460! Another 5 escorts sunk, meaning that UK have lost 80% of their starting escorts (I do not know if they are building more or not) after just 2 months of war. 2 more allied destroyers are sunk, but the first 2 subs are lost! An average of one lost sub per month is very much acceptable, so if things do not get worse that is no big reason for concern.
November results:
Another increase in the sinkings, up to 720 convoys! The month started slower than October, but after Unlimited submarine warfare was researched 19th October sinkings went up bigtime! Doctrinewise Wolfpack tactics was started as soon as Unlimited submarine warfare was finished, and Schnorkel use is 85% finished at the end of month, but neither of them is likely to be finished during 1939. No escorts sunk during the months, and no subs either. However 1 allied CL and 4 DD are now at the bottom of the ocean.
This is how far I have played, and thought I would hear some thoughts on the early results. As expected, better or worse? Too good, too bad or reasonable?
Summary for the first 3 months:
1818 (the Danish not included) convoys sunk, 31,7% over my target of 460/month. That means that 24,7% of the UK starting convoys are gone in 3 months, even though September results were really low compared to the following months.
24 out of 30 escorts sunk, 80% of starting escorts gone.
1 CL, 7DD and 1 TP lost for the alliers, and 2 subs lost for Germany.
First, let´s summarize what I have done to be able to execute my plan:
* Naval plan had to continoue. No big effort, since that is the obvious choise anyway (unless you never, ever plan to leave shore).
* All sub doctrines + the 38 sub building tech are researched when available. That leaves me a few techs behind in other areas compared to if I neglected the subs. I do not feel that I am seriously falling behind overall, however.
* Chief of Navy was changed to Dönitz just before the end of Czechoslovakia, so the dissent hit was neutralized. It can however give me 1% dissent sometime in the future, if I want to focus on surface fleets and want a better minister by then.
* 80 IIC submarines were built before the outbreak of war, so the cost was taken from the precious pre-war IC. The cost is a little hard to calculate due to hawk moves during the build, but total cost should be around 16-17 ICdays. The manpower cost is almost neglectable 80*0,1 = 8 Manpower. This is by far the requirement that feels the most, but put in comparision it is somewhat cheaper then building 2 Bismarcks. This left the airforce/army somewhat worse off at Danzig or war, but not bad enough to make any big difference for the early land warfare.
* Denmark had to be taken as soon as Poland is finished. Reason for this is that I did not build any long distance subs (they are slightly more expensive, and the goal with the experiment is to neutralize England as cheap as possible), so I will need Reykaviks navalbase to fully execute my plans. This is no big deal for me since I usually take Denmark just after Poland anyway when playing Germany, but still a requirement.
Then, the goal of the operation. When starting a campaign UK has 7349 transports, and the preliminary goal is to sink them before end of 1940. This will require an average of 460 transports per month sunk.
Finally, the setup for the operation. I organized my subs in wolfpacks of 5 subs each, sending 2 wolfpacks to each area of operation. Operating areas are the 4 areas surrounding Britain, and the 6 areas outside them, to have two rings for the convoys to pass. All wolfpacks are led by admirals with minimum skill 3, and either Sea Wolf, Superior Tactician or Spotter trait.
Early results:
Convoy raiding started as soon as UK declared war. September resulted in 410 convoys sunk, 50 below the goal for the months. This was not alarming in any way, due to a number of factors:
* All subs were not in position before the end of the months, after being rebased to Reykavik.
* 19 escorts has been sunk, and the UK starts with only 30. The absence of escorts should mean more sinkings of transports.
* No subs has been destroyed, and as a bonus one UK DD and one TP has been sunk by the subs. Also 7 danish convoys has been sunk, but that was not exactly a primary goal...
October results:
688 convoys sunk during October, almost 50% above the goal of 460! Another 5 escorts sunk, meaning that UK have lost 80% of their starting escorts (I do not know if they are building more or not) after just 2 months of war. 2 more allied destroyers are sunk, but the first 2 subs are lost! An average of one lost sub per month is very much acceptable, so if things do not get worse that is no big reason for concern.
November results:
Another increase in the sinkings, up to 720 convoys! The month started slower than October, but after Unlimited submarine warfare was researched 19th October sinkings went up bigtime! Doctrinewise Wolfpack tactics was started as soon as Unlimited submarine warfare was finished, and Schnorkel use is 85% finished at the end of month, but neither of them is likely to be finished during 1939. No escorts sunk during the months, and no subs either. However 1 allied CL and 4 DD are now at the bottom of the ocean.
This is how far I have played, and thought I would hear some thoughts on the early results. As expected, better or worse? Too good, too bad or reasonable?
Summary for the first 3 months:
1818 (the Danish not included) convoys sunk, 31,7% over my target of 460/month. That means that 24,7% of the UK starting convoys are gone in 3 months, even though September results were really low compared to the following months.
24 out of 30 escorts sunk, 80% of starting escorts gone.
1 CL, 7DD and 1 TP lost for the alliers, and 2 subs lost for Germany.
