Damn Royal Navy keeps nuking my subs! What to do?

[Lightning War]

I'm relatively new to the game and yesterday I started a new game playing as Germany on the beginner setting.

I'm finding it extremely hard to keep my submarines alive. The Royal Navy keeps tracking them down and inflicting heavy losses.

Could a seasoned player please tell me the best way in which to use subs to reduce allied MPP?

Thanks for any help and advice!

[Lars]

Don't send them out till after the fall of France, and don't send them out alone.

Try to bait his destroyers into a trap. The Bay of Biscay is ready made for this. Put the rest of the German fleet in those ports and be ready to strike.

Oh, and dirty weather is your friend. Negates his air.

[Lightning War]

Too late; all 3 of my sub groups have been destroyed! Nevermind, I'll follow your advice next time around.

[Timskorn]

Yep, before France falls, it's good to keep them hidden. Get some tech in them too, you want to try and get tech level 2 at least. For the WaW expansion, that isn't as necessary early on as subs are more vicious and Germany gets more.

You need France and Norway though to help with supplying and re-organizing your sub fleet without bringing them all the way back to Germany. Hit and run, keep them in packs of 3 or more, make sure their supply doesn't fall below 5, and try to hit the shipping lanes as far away from their ports as possible so it takes them 2 or more turns to bring most of their fleet against you. The longer they are at sea, the lower their supplies go.

When they get enough experience, bring them back to France to give them elite reinforcements, it will pay off both in the amount of shipping they sink but also when fighting Allied ships. Higher tech is always nice too, as it increases damage and a subs % chance to dive. At the start of a game, decide if you are going to go for a heavy sub strategy or not. If you do, focus on sub tech and building an extra two or three subs. Having 6 subs at tech level 2 or 3 roaming around the Atlantic will prove costly to any Allied fleet.

Also, if you manage to cripple them with your subs and fleet, you not only crimp UK MPP convoys, but the US will have a much harder time shipping troops to Africa or the UK when you're sinking their units at sea.

[Canuck_TAR]

Don't leave the sub in 1 position for more than 1 turn.

[PPBoyington]

Originally posted by Canuck_TAR:

Don't leave the sub in 1 position for more than 1 turn.

Have you tested this tactic ?

Personnaly I was thinking the less I move the less chances I have to meet someone.

And for a good defense put your tech level at 3 as soon as possible, you almost kill a DD with one sub like that,working in pair of subs is a good methods also.

Last thing before fall of France go to atlantic from the extrem north, between iceland and groenland.

[Timskorn]

It depends on the situation. Typically you don't want to sit your subs in one spot for more than a turn because the AI and a human opponent will usually come looking for you right away. Take notice the most likely positions where your opponent will be sending his navy from, and make sure to move away farther away from that area on the next turn. There are only so many ports the UK fleet will operate out of, either the UK itself, Gibralter or Iceland.

It also depends on if you are playing SC2 or WaW. In SC2, you have to be extra careful and wily because throwing single ships around the Atlantic early on is beneficial to the Allied player. A single ship can hurt your starting subs, which is much different than in WaW. Here you have to bide your time and actually focus on building a sub strategy early if you want to have a chance against Allied ships, which are all decent at pinging your subs, while in WaW you need DD's to do that job.

In WaW, a single sub can be devastating to all Allied ships except for the DD, but even then it's a pretty even match in 1940 against the sub-hunters. In WaW, the Allies must move in packs with their fleet in order to take down U-boats effectively, otherwise it can almost be beneficial to sit a couple subs on a shipping late in mid-1940 and tempt them to come at you. Your subs are cheaper to replace than the expensive UK fleet.

[arado234]

If you get your subs to level 5 they just massacre any Allied ships(except destroyers should the Allied player upgrade them).The problem with is the subs then get fairly expensive and it will take away from your ground forces upgrades.If you go uboat warfare expect a long war against Russia but you should be able to keep the Allies off your back for along time especially if you combine your wolfpacks with your surface ships.

[scottsmm]

ya actually I think level 5 could kill anything including destroyers I've done it before. I had three subs attack a British destroyer fleet each sub took 2-3 strength points after the attack but the destroyer was sunk. Although you really shouldn't do this but I was in the middle of trying to destroy a HUGE American fleet. It had 5 armies, 4 corps,3 HQ's, 1 artillery, 2 tank groups, 2 special forces, and 1 paratrooper. I was determined to destroy this convoy and these destroyers kept getting in my way also I wouldn't be able to send a sufficient force to counter what would be D Day since I was fighting for Stalingrad, Moscow, and Leningrad. So I knew that I would lose the war if I didn't destroy the convoy.

[arado234]

If level 5 subs do get into attack transports,the transports have absolutley no nope.

Ive won against human players doing a uboat strategy but it is very risky,especially if the Allied player figures out what your doing early enough to counter it.

[scottsmm]

ya but that's not always the risk for me the risk would be Germany's next door neighbor the USSR because like you said it's often times very costly and will cost you in other areas.

[Hyazinth von Strachwitz]

When playing against the AI keep in mind that it cheats. When a human allied player ends his turn, he gets a pop up window at the end of the turn that Axis subs raid his convoys. When I play the Axis and put a sub on the convoy routes, the AI reacts straight away (moving DDs from England into my direction), and it knows exactly where my Subs are.. so playing the AI is not to compare with HvH.

[scottsmm]

yes that's also true but if you play as the Axis and try to attack convoys without destroying your opponents navy you find that out really quickly.