Don't see....

[DaChook_00]

Started my first patrol, sunk 5 ships, and afterwards I got points deducted for sinking the first ship on my patrol bc they said it was neutral. Ahr, it was flying the British flag! I'm supposed to sink anything flying the British flag!

[Grumpy Old Dude]

Were the target ships lit up red on your map? If not, then you weren't yet at war with Great Britain probably.

[DaChook_00]

Why am I sent out on patrol on the North Sea before I'm at war with Britain then? It's 1939, the only nme's we're the Polish then... Not highly likely you find them somewhere between Britain and Norway...

[old.school]

Originally posted by DaChook_00:

Why am I sent out on patrol on the North Sea before I'm at war with Britain then? It's 1939, the only nme's we're the Polish then... Not highly likely you find them somewhere between Britain and Norway...

Prize rules...neutral ships heading for enemy ports can be attacked. The timeline doesnt actually give you a chance to sink British neutral ships heading to Polish ports. But you will see plenty of neutral Norwegian ships heading to Ireland/Britain (one they are enemies of Germany).

[DaChook_00]

I know that, just wasn't aware Great Britain wasn't an nme yet, the short period before you get the radio message. Just don't see why I'm sent out already, since you won't find ships heading to Poland there, and the Norwegian ones heading to GB or Ireland aren't nme's either by that time. Just unlucky, I guess, bumping into that ship before the radio message...

Meaning... Shouldn't there be a short patrol on the Baltic for a first mission, starting from Kiel. Like SH4?

[Grumpy Old Dude]

Like all things military, it does not matter whether you see why you were sent out or not; you were. Period. End of debate. THAT, is precisely how the military works.

Now, if you NEED a 'why'? Shakedown cruise for you, your crew, and your boat. How's that?

[DaChook_00]

Uuuh huh, in real life yeah. Here we're talking a good game that still could use a little improvement.... Herr Kaleun!

[Red_Seven_]

Imagine the German naval command at that time.

Your country declared war on Poland which isn't exactly a naval superpower and aside from some support and supply stuff you're not bothered with any action.

Nevertheless there's the looming threat of an French and/or British intervention including the possibility of a full fledged war within just the next few hours. Both of them definitely naval superpowers.

Now you have to decide what to do next. Leave all your assets at their ports where they're sitting ducks - especially the subs - and a surprising first strike of an allied bomber raid could cost you a significant amount of ships. The other option would be to send everything out, lowering the risk of losing everything at once plus raising own awareness on possible movements and being in an advantageous position if things escalate quickly.

I don't know who in his right mind would prefer to sit and wait in this situation. Also if you don't send your assets out when already at war, what would you do in peace time? Let all your ships rot laying at anchor forever?

[old.school]

Originally posted by DaChook_00:

Uuuh huh, in real life yeah. Here we're talking a good game that still could use a little improvement.... Herr Kaleun!

A lot of ships got sent out even before Germany invaded Poland. Germany was anticipating British and French hostility after they invaded Poland.

[old.school]

Originally posted by Red_Seven_:

and a surprising first strike of an allied bomber raid could cost you a significant amount of ships

And if you look at the timeline of events on Sept 1939 this is exactly what Britain did. Britain and France declared war on Germany 3 Sep and 4 Sep British bombers hit Kriegsmarine ships in the Heligoland Bight where Wilhelmshaven is located. So @OP if you had waited until Britain had declared war on Germany before setting out of Wilhelmshaven you'd be getting bombed by the British while you were in the middle of tutorial #2 trying to figure out how to load torpedoes and potatoes on your sub lol.

[wolf310ii]

Originally posted by DaChook_00:

Ahr, it was flying the British flag! I'm supposed to sink anything flying the British flag!

Was it the british flag? What did it look like?
From far away the danish or norwegian flag looks like a union jack, but britsh ships didnt fly the union jack, merchants had a red flag with a small union jack in the upper left corner and warships a white flag

[DaChook_00]

Definately British. It showed in the summary as well. A ship registered in GB sailing from London to Bergen. Anywho, it doesn't matter. Glad I made the headlines... "Numb Krautz sunk neutral ship!"

[kandnil]

The game starts in August 1939, Britain is at war from September 1st. The time before all hell breaks loose, I see it as a chance for the players who will be new to the game once it's been fully released, to get to know the mechanics of it all, test out dive times, test crew setups, run dry attacks to learn the ropes, before it all gets serious. Same thing in SH3+GWX. I much prefer this over the original SH3 that starts on the day Britain enters the war and I quite frankly hope this month of relative quiet will stay in the full release.

[DaChook_00]

They could have made it clearer in the mission briefing that you're not supposed to sink anything untill you get the green light.
Played many hundreds of hours of SH3 and 4, but it's always been a scandalous buggy mess, even heavily modded. So far this one seems much better indeed, though I bumped into some stuff that could do with improvement. Like airplanes. It's september '39. I'm about 250nmi west of Dundee. An airplane comes, I dive and instantly it drops a depth charge close to me.... It's even just before the Happy Times, they should barely know uboats were there. Why is there one flying around with depth charges already?

[The cursed Jäger]

Originally posted by kandnil:

The game starts in August 1939, Britain is at war from September 1st.

The game earliest start is September 1st 1939. Britian and France declared war on Germany on September 3rd 1939.

[kandnil]

Originally posted by The cursed Jäger:

Originally posted by kandnil:

The game starts in August 1939, Britain is at war from September 1st.

The game earliest start is September 1st 1939. Britian and France declared war on Germany on September 3rd 1939.

You are, of course, entirely correct. I confused myself there pretty good,