Safe pastures for milk cows

[SoulShock]

I'm about to relocate to Brest after finishing operations in the Arctic Sea. I have 3 milk cows at hand which I would like to relocate in order to support operation Drumbeat. I have read that allied forces can butcher your cows if you're not careful about their area of deployment.

Does anyone know of safe pastures in the Mid- to Western Atlantic?
Particular grids would be much appreciated.

[cm138]

i am not at that point yet but i guess keep them away from land (land based aircraft) and convoy routes

[SpaceBikerV]

I remember i placed a milkcow far from a convoy route and it still got sunk

Either there’s a convoy route where i placed it or milkcows are fated to be destroyed. 10 of them existed in real life and all of them perished

[Klavo Hunter]

The Milk Cows might be destroyed while transiting to their new locations, if I read radio reports right one of mine got destroyed trying to transit the english channel while moving from the mid-atlantic to the Arctic... not my most brilliant moment, now I'm missing out on being able to hit the Second Happy Time along the American East Coast!

[SoulShock]

Originally posted by Klavo Hunter:

The Milk Cows might be destroyed while transiting to their new locations, if I read radio reports right one of mine got destroyed trying to transit the english channel while moving from the mid-atlantic to the Arctic...

Well, that answers a question I had in mind. I currently have 5 milk cows at my disposal and was wondering if I should try transiting one through the straight of Gibraltar just to see if she can make it to the eastern Med.

Either way - I think I will redeploy 2-3 of them to the South Atlantic once operation Drumbeat comes to a close.

[dbond1]

You'll probably be shifting them around as needed, depending on your current objectives and patrol areas. But to answer the question, in my first career I used BD9 for most of Black Pit and Last Stand. But it won't be long before you have multiple cows, so I had one south of Iceland, one in BD9, and one south of the Azores, but I shift them around often, which you can do even at sea.

I have yet to lose one through two careers, but I am mindful to keep them off the beaten path.

[SoulShock]

Originally posted by dbond1:

[...] in my first career I used BD9 for most of Black Pit and Last Stand. [...] I had one south of Iceland, one in BD9, and one south of the Azores [...] I am mindful to keep them off the beaten path.

That's interesting - I never considered south of Iceland as being safe, given that Iceland is depicted as enemy territory and convoy routes tend to arch northwards.

During Black Pit, BD6 & BD9 was a designated patrol area, with the northern edge of BD6 being a frequented area of convoy operations - at least during my play-through.

I agree that the Azores, and Cape Verde, seem to be safe - for now. At the very least they are marked as neutral. I currently have a milk cow 3 grids west of each of them, mainly as a refueling station to cross the Atlantic.

I deployed the rest of my herd in a crescent moon shape along the east coast of the United States, but not within the area of Drumbeat operations (BA, BB, CA, CB, DA, DB, DC).

[dbond1]

Sound plan, I reckon. In my second career, I just finished Drumbeat, and so had them in entirely different spots. One about 1500km east of Halifax, one about five grids south off Boston and one down near Bermuda. It's fun shifting them around as needs arise. I like this mechanic a lot. Works very well.

The cows in the game are a bit of a hybrid. The boats are Type XIV, which were not torpedo supply boats, that was Type VIIF. So the devs took a little license to let the players bring new fish aboard.

[dbond1]

In my current career, the good boat U-998 deployed to the Arctic, since Arctic Convoys is the last remaining campaign objective for me to finish. We had two cows, and I shifted them to AC3, north of Murmansk, and AF1.

After the fourth patrol I noticed a message icon that said the cow in AF1 had been lost to enemy action. I don't think we needed confirmation that they are vulnerable, but I can now confirm it.