Royal Naval or German for Battle of the Atlantic

[nathan]

Hi all,

does anybody know on how to win the game in both The Naval and the Germans

[The Inept European]

Do you mean as in, what are the victory conditions? Or, tactically how do you achieve the victory conditions? Or, how do you avoid dying of boredom or old age before meeting the victory conditions? ;-)

[darrencubitt]

For the Germans, I find the all-sub fleet the fastest way (although also the most repetative). Use at least 2 subs per zone, with 3 or 4 being preferrable. By having multiple subs in a zone, the game engine will usually place your subs on opposite sides of the convoy/fleet, meaning at least one sub should be in a good position to attack. Dive immediately to shallow depth and stalk the convoy - watch their zig-zag to try and predict their true course. Concentrate on sinking the warships since you can then use the "sink all merchants and withdraw" to finish the battle. Close to within 3000 yards before coming to periscope depth (insta-kill range), fire your torps and then dive to shallow again to avoid the immediate repercussions. Repeat until you win.

For the British, it is less methodical. I like to start buy buying all the Revenge Class BBs (5 of them) and using them along with a pair of destoryers each in the main shipping lanes. The Revenge Class are the cheapest BB, but also have a turret limited to 20 degrees elevation. They also have 15" guns which will make short work of the German capital ships *once in range*. The destroyers can deal with the subs.

Learn to get good at dodging torpedoes in the big ships and keep them away from coastlines where German air support may be present. You should be able to finish off the German surface fleet well before Bismarck and Tirpitz are launched. This will give you time to restructure your fleet (and you should have plenty of Renown by this stage) to better deal with the big-gun ships. Remember - the H-39s will also eventually appear.

The rest of the fleet can be a destoryer/sub mix with the odd cruiser if you like. I recommend only having destroyers operate in at least pairs - this allows them to support each other with smoke and radar obfuscation if they need to run away, and also allows you to keep a sub on sonar with one destroyer whilst depth-charging with the other. The British subs are useful as scouts to find big ships (and sink them if in a good position!), or for those area where it's too dangerous to send surface ships because of air cover.

[MateuszEZG1988]

From my perspective. As Royal Navy I recomend to base your fleet on destroyers. Create an swift task force allong main convoy areas. Batleships are necessary only to destroy the German capital ships e.g Bismarck class. With any other class (e.g. Scharnohorst, Gneisenau) the heavy battlecruiser like Repulse (fast and well armed) will deal with them sufficently. Although I recommend no more than max. 5 capital ships in fleet. Your primar problem are U-boots. Aside the depth charges, you may use the torpedos, when the U-boot is at periscope depth - pretty effecitve!. Good choice is to have also two aircraft - they allow you to control the airspace in sector and give variety of the means of attack.

[Triggerhippy]

While the above is all true for tactics the actual way to win is the bar at the top. As the Germans you have to sink enough merchants to turn the bar red and as the British you have to stop this.

[WahooSS238]

Excellent advice and strategy (Darrencubitt). For the RN I take a similar approach with 2 DDs and a County Class Cruiser to cover each shipping map icon. The BBs are big fat torpedo magnets and I seem to do better with the more nimble CAs. I enjoy a few CVs mixed in to drop depth bombs on the subs while the DDs spot. The 20 ship limit is extremely frustrating. Where is this "sink all merchants and withdraw" option? I have 935 hrs on Atlantic Fleet and have not discovered this yet!? Playing RN most of the time one does not run into German convoys very often.

[IRDCAM]

Trick to RN is get rid of the initial large ships in the KM, then switch to anti-submarine task groups and protect the convoy routes. Tribals are the best dual purpose DD's initially, and an escort carrier can complete the hunter killer group.

RN submarines in the Med can stumble upon merchants other than that, pretty useless.

As KM wolf pack U-Boat fleets can ruin the Allied's chances. Minimum of 4 boats per. And upgrade to Type XXI's ASAP.

[Skybaxx]

Originally posted by WahooSS238:

Where is this "sink all merchants and withdraw" option?

Whilst in-game, click on the icon for the grid mini map, then click on the ? symbol. If you have destroyed all warships (ie, those that can fire back at you), there will be an option to 'sink all merchants and withdraw'.