Best way to 5-star a submarine?

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TentacleMayor
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Best way to 5-star a submarine?

Post by TentacleMayor »

What's the best campaign and method to achieve it?
GabeKnight
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Re: Best way to 5-star a submarine?

Post by GabeKnight »

Probably with Kriegsmarine shooting at all the transport ships.
ln1214
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Re: Best way to 5-star a submarine?

Post by ln1214 »

Use it for shore bombardment, since most land units cannot attack you, and you can attack every turn.
Also, remember to use your artillery when attacking unarmed transports.
Sartarius1
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Re: Best way to 5-star a submarine?

Post by Sartarius1 »

The easiest way to get a 5-star submarine is to do it during Rising Sun Japanese campaign. You can start leveling a sub from mission 4 (first naval level) but it is pretty hard to do it quickly. Also, pick a specialization to have all ships 1 star straight away.

How to use sub:
You know sub is invisible even when not submerged so forget about those pesky 2-tile moves. You can always keep it on the water and aim for weak targets - small boats (melee attack), transports and supply ships. You get a pretty good 77-160 xp per non-zero hit and about 22 per zero. After 2 stars you can use it effectively against big ships using torpedoes. It is very easy to keep it alive - AI targets it very rarely even when spotted.

But the most "big" gains are coastal units (except bunkers) and supply\boat. You can start gaining good amount of exp in level 9 (iirc), leave coastal units for your sub and just hit it turn by turn. Things will go faster after 2-3 stars. In 11 mission you can kill 2 ships, radar and coastal AA without any troubles. And last level gives you endless opportunities. East coastal cities contain several boats each and a coastal unit. Also, you have 100 turns for mission completion. Take your time, repair your sub if needed and farm xp. About 5000 can be earned only during last mission
airboy
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Re: Best way to 5-star a submarine?

Post by airboy »

Can someone direct me to a discussion on the advantages/disadvantages of elite replacements? If the advantages are worth it, the impact seems subtle.

Thanks!
Sartarius1
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Re: Best way to 5-star a submarine?

Post by Sartarius1 »

airboy wrote: Mon Jul 22, 2019 12:18 pm Can someone direct me to a discussion on the advantages/disadvantages of elite replacements? If the advantages are worth it, the impact seems subtle.

Thanks!
If you are playing a campaign avoid elite replacement at all for the first several missions. Even ER costs less the fewer xp you have you loose valuable resources and gain nearly zero. As infantry looses troops faster than any other classes (except for air fighters) avoid to use ER for them until mid-end of the campaign.

Xp stars values a lot but you need a strong core first. Try to select some "tankish" units or units you are taking care of and avoid to loose any strength on them. In future they will "tank" an enemy line while other low xp troops follow up.

General rule is - throw non-core units first to take hard hits. If you are saving enough resources for the first 5-6 missions then you can start using ER on all core units. But do not use it blindly on every unit you have. Look at the current xp progress, you can loose half a star but try not to fall behind 2k\4k\6k\8k xp. Using ER on 5-star unit is a bit useless as it will probably take that xp back.

The easiest units to level are tactical bombers, arty (very slow though), tanks (if used wisely), all navies except DD and subs. The hardest - infantry (non-heavy), air fighters

Tl;dr:
- Do not use ER at all for the first 4-5 missions
- If you have enough resources start using it on most tankish units you taking care of
- Start using it on all units in the mid-late of the campaign not to loose full stars (still use NR if you wont loose a star and it is costly)
airboy
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Re: Best way to 5-star a submarine?

Post by airboy »

I just checked on the save at the very end of my US Navy campaign I'm doing for an AAR. I have a save just before Japan surrendered.

Some tactical bombers reached 5 stars by the end because they typically took little damage. My artillery did not reach 2 star because they took no damage, had to move, and occasionally I would rest a unit for a turn to get it back into peak condition when the organization reached "red" status. The arty just did not do enough damage to get to high star level.

My big question is what is the combat impact of having stars? I could not see a clear difference so I stopped using elite replacements - ever.

And in most campaigns you have a couple of points in the 12 scenario cycle where you have to do a set of massive upgrades that almost depletes my replacement pool. I'm talking across multiple games - US, Japan, German, Finn, British, Marine - where I had carefully horded my replacement points to have them depleted when all of my infantry needed upgrading - or when fighters/bombers became obsolete (F4F Wildcats and Dauntless Dive Bombers for example are top of mind awareness).
Sartarius1
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Re: Best way to 5-star a submarine?

Post by Sartarius1 »

Impact is pretty high especially for tanks\infantry. AI wont attack your high star units if battle prediction is not good for them. I did last Jap\USA missions with AI did not touch my ground units in 95% cases due to high xp values.

I know we have different play style but I never ran out of resources and had 8000 before last mission in JAP and about 5k for USA. In Finn campaign I am currently redoing I have 2000 spare resources on mission 6. So I cant actually help you with management(

To sum up: XP value is pretty high and you probably should not neglect it. Also, your know those sneaky partial damage mechanics? When you hit for 0 strength but get some xp it means you actually do some damage, let's say, 1\2. If you hit the same unit second time for 1\2 damage before it rests it will loose 1 strength point. XP also affects this.
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