U-Boat and Raiders Posture in shipping box??

[TrenchFoot]

I have read different explanations of the best posture for German Raiders and U-Boats in the shipping box. Such as:

1. It does not matter
2. It does matter
3. It sometimes matters
4. I have no clue
5. Its in the manual
6. Its not in the manual
7. Its in the patch
8. Stay green/green in the box
9. Stay orange/green in the box
10. Stay pink/hot pink in the box
11 Think Out side the Box!

SO...what is best? So far after a year my U-Boats and Raiders have sunk nada. And that IS with Brit transports in the box.

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[Kensai]

It should not matter. If it matters, then there is a bug. Actually, I would have preferred if it mattered, ie when passive the submarines should be there but not attempt to sink ships.

Notice also that some raiding by the Germans is also happening all overseas sea regions and in case you don't want a "normal" battle you need to set them as single units (to have maximum hiding) and passive as well.

[Altaris]

Posture should not matter. There is a bug in the Baltic Shipping Box in the current version which will be corrected in the patch where combats are handled with normal rules, so postures do matter here.

[AndrewKurtz]

Does the same hold true for Blockade boxes or does posture matter?

[Kensai]

All boxes (blockade or shipping) should have the special abstracted rules.

[TrenchFoot]

It should not matter. If it matters, then there is a bug. Actually, I would have preferred if it mattered, ie when passive the submarines should be there but not attempt to sink ships.

Notice also that some raiding by the Germans is also happening all overseas sea regions and in case you don't want a "normal" battle you need to set them as single units (to have maximum hiding) and passive as well.

I send them as single. I have them as green/green in the Atlantic box and nothing is ever sunk? It seems the idea that it does not matter seems to actually matter?

Or is it just a case of mind over matter?

[Kensai]

TrenchFoot, are you certain there are enemy merchant ships to sink? Cause with the current release build the AI unfortunately moves out all the merchant ships from the boxes the second turn in the game. You probably cannot sink anything cause there is nothing there. Also, consider submarine techs: they get much more efficient from the second tier up.

[Ace]

Blockade boxes have normal combat, so if the Germans want to sail out and break the blockade they are free to do so.
Shipping boxes however have abstracted combat since they represent all those merchant traffic spread accross the ocean. So, large Jutland type battles can't be simulated there

[AndrewKurtz]

I send them as single. I have them as green/green in the Atlantic box and nothing is ever sunk? It seems the idea that it does not matter seems to actually matter?

Or is it just a case of mind over matter?

If an abstraction, I wish the game made things like single or stack irrelevant. It should truly be an abstraction instead of requiring any micro management like this to gain an edge.

[Kensai]

Blockade boxes have normal combat, so if the Germans want to sail out and break the blockade they are free to do so.
Shipping boxes however have abstracted combat since they represent all those merchant traffic spread accross the ocean. So, large Jutland type battles can't be simulated there

Now that you say this, it makes perfect sense for blockade boxes to actually be normal sea regions.

If an abstraction, I wish the game made things like single or stack irrelevant. It should truly be an abstraction instead of requiring any micro management like this to gain an edge.

Well, the engine cannot know that since hiding ability decreases the larger the stack. But I think once you are in the shipping box there is no problem. The problem is in the normal overseas sea regions where both normal combat and abstracted raiding can happen.

[RGA]

Useful discussion, thanks.