early weaponry suggestions?

[boris.glevrk]

Just bought this and currently grinding.
Is it just me or does the "main" gun seem to be encouraged to stay empty? it's expensive, and not necessarily stronger than utility guns of similar RP. Worst of all, it seems to have blindspot on the front.

I removed my 20mm Oerlinkon after losing my first boat, and moved toward double 50 cals on the cheek turrets , plus a pair of Mk13s. What would be a more recommended direction of upgrading? or should I try to get a few extra boats first?

[the7thguest]

I usually start with upgrading the MGs to 2x 50 Cals, once that is done I work towards a double Oerlinkon or what it's called. It has nice high velocity and will deal with the raising threat from planes very efficiently and only needs one gunner, usually my 2nd officer.

I use that setup until I can get my double bofors, then I rotate gunners with loaders so all get their 5 stars and make one repair guy a 4th gunner. At the end I got 4 gunners, 2 loaders, 1 medic and 1 repair (and the co of course) and got a ton of fun and success with it.

I used mortar before patch a lot, but this patch I use Call ins more and once you got a full squad with Bofors, not much that can get in your way.

[boris.glevrk]

Originally posted by the7thguest:

I usually start with upgrading the MGs to 2x 50 Cals, once that is done I work towards a double Oerlinkon or what it's called. It has nice high velocity and will deal with the raising threat from planes very efficiently and only needs one gunner, usually my 2nd officer.

I use that setup until I can get my double bofors, then I rotate gunners with loaders so all get their 5 stars and make one repair guy a 4th gunner. At the end I got 4 gunners, 2 loaders, 1 medic and 1 repair (and the co of course) and got a ton of fun and success with it.

I used mortar before patch a lot, but this patch I use Call ins more and once you got a full squad with Bofors, not much that can get in your way.

I was trying to use main gun ONLY with bofors, and then I sank like 3 times in a row, to the point that my current ship only has a single oerlinkon.

I'm thinking about restarting a campaign as we are losing too many ports already.
I'm also thinking about more oftenly switching to torpedoes and hunt merchants instead. 4 Mk13s only cost 3000.

[boris.glevrk]

Also what kind of "anti-shore" weapon do you recommend? I tried bofors, M45 and oerlinkon and I don't think they are effective tbh.

[Chris_M]

Originally posted by boris.glevrk:

Also what kind of "anti-shore" weapon do you recommend? I tried bofors, M45 and oerlinkon and I don't think they are effective tbh.

Mortar.

I almost exclusively use the mortar. It takes a while to get used to it, but keep going at it, and before long you'll be dodging shells at full speed *while* at the same time sending those shells out to kill the gun emplacements.

Mortar works better imho on machine gun nests too, as they take a *lot* of regular bullets. About 5 mortar shells does it.

Mortar works on ships too. Especially hunting enemy supply ships. Put a smoke screen on them so they can't fire at you, and just hit them until they sink while you stay behind the smoke on low speed or idle.

My basic setup from zero is to upgrade the machine guns to .30 cals and get the mortar + 2 depth charges.
First I save up for more ammo and repair kits to fill all slots. Then main gun. Then upgrade to 50 cals. It's not linear, I might not have enough RP for the main gun, so use 50 cals for a while until I can downgrade them to 30 cals and get a main gun.

[boris.glevrk]

Originally posted by Chris_M:

Originally posted by boris.glevrk:

Also what kind of "anti-shore" weapon do you recommend? I tried bofors, M45 and oerlinkon and I don't think they are effective tbh.

Mortar.

I almost exclusively use the mortar. It takes a while to get used to it, but keep going at it, and before long you'll be dodging shells at full speed *while* at the same time sending those shells out to kill the gun emplacements.

Mortar works better imho on machine gun nests too, as they take a *lot* of regular bullets. About 5 mortar shells does it.

Mortar works on ships too. Especially hunting enemy supply ships. Put a smoke screen on them so they can't fire at you, and just hit them until they sink while you stay behind the smoke on low speed or idle.

My basic setup from zero is to upgrade the machine guns to .30 cals and get the mortar + 2 depth charges.
First I save up for more ammo and repair kits to fill all slots. Then main gun. Then upgrade to 50 cals. It's not linear, I might not have enough RP for the main gun, so use 50 cals for a while until I can downgrade them to 30 cals and get a main gun.

Thanks for your input, will definitely try mortars next.

I'm now in my second campaign and I think I'm having fun with Mk 13s. I even managed to sink 3 tankers in one sortie (two ships by torpedo, third by air support). Also sinking just one merchant is equal to the income of 10 recons.

Edit: also I think the shore defenses being hard is not because bofors/oerlinkon are bad, simply because they are not "light" shore defenses.

[Disaster]

I second mortars. They are the only utility weapon you can use while in the heat of the battle IMO. You can aim and dodge at the same time.

For early game I recommend getting the mortar as soon as you can for the reasons stated by Chris_M. It is so useful. Early game your risk level should be low so that you are rarely targeted by planes in a dangerous way. With a mortar you can take out coastal tankers which will give you decent RPs. Then you are on your way.

I've played through three times and I've settled on mortar -> dual orlikon -> add a couple squadron allies -> torpedos -> rockets -> replace orlikon with double bofors.

[KilluH]

i dump both 30 cals and get one dual 50 up front and one orlechan in the back. then two scout missions later i have two dual 50s and 20mm. this is good enough for early game for me. i never bother with utility weapons. just ammo all over no med or repair. then 2 bofors and two torps up front 3 depth charges and two acoustic torps and im set

[Alkirin]

Mortar is severely underrated, not only for land but also even for taking pot shots at slower large ships.

You'll want to play extra careful early on though. If you lose your boat before you get your first meaningful upgrade, may as well just start over really.