In this guide, we will go over everything the game has to offer in terms of crew management.

I will go over every sub menu and I will provide examples where applicable.

But first a disclaimer:

You might wonder why I have more sailors and an additional officer in some of the pictures.
That is because I use various mods to make the game align more to the historic values of U-boats and to add realism. So I can have a crew of up to 36 instead of 27, which is just slightly more than half of the crew size of a real Type VII U-boat.
You can read about a typical U-boat crew[uboataces.com] by following the link.
And you can review my mod selection here:
https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3525432709
Maybe there are mods in there you wanna try out.

But no mods are necessary for a good crew management setup and I will show an example of this at the end of the guide, how I would set it up, if I were to start a new campaign without mods.

In friendly ports, you usually have access to the recruitment officer.
Through him you can recruit new sailors or hand over survivors, that you have picked up.
The third option is to assign the crew. But that is done much more efficiently through the appropriate menu. Move your mouse pointer over the "Menu" on the top right of your screen and then select "Crew" and you'll get to the menu directly, without having to speak to the recruitment officer.



The most basic and self explanatory menu.
Here you select which officers and sailors are assigned for active duty on your boat.
Just activate or deactivate the checkbox in the column "Boarded" to assign or remove a character to or from your boat.
The only character that always has to be on the boat is the captain, of course.
As you progress in the game, you will get more officers and will have to leave some on shore.
But they can still become useful for research in the headquarters.

This sub menu is divided into two categories: Officers and Sailors.

It basically regulates which tasks your crew has and, more importantly, what their priorities are.
In short: The higher the number, the higher the priority.
This means that a task with priority 5 will be done before a task with a lower priority.



In the officer category, you define the tasks and priorities of each individual officer.
It is logical that you want your officers focusing on tasks that are in their area of expertise.
Meaning:
- Leaders should do watch and navigation duties. But first and foremost should they keep the crew calm during stressful situations. Nobody wants a frantic crew when utmost discipline is necessary. Like when trying to escape angry warships during a saturation with water bombs.
- Engineers should maintain the engines, do torpedo loading and maintenance and definitely do repairs, if needed. In fact, that should be their highest priority. This might save your boat.
- Radio operators are assigned to radio and hydrophone duties. But in reality, they were also trained medics and the game represents that well. So their main priority should be to render medical assistance, if needed.

In general, all priorities are only in effect, when a situation requires them to be.
Medical assistance is only triggered, if somebody needs it.
Repairs are only triggered, if the boat is damaged and so on.

If you're wondering, why my officers don't have other duties, like manning the guns.
That is done individually by me.
See the "General tips" section for that.

Don't be confused by the very high priority of rest. It only affects the officer when he is off duty and is supposed to rest. It just makes sure that he is indeed resting and not wasting his precious energy on other mundane things.

If two officers with the same task are active on the same shift, the officer which has a higher priority in that task will win over the one with a lower priority.

And if you're wondering where the cook skill is.
I use a mod that removes this skill from all officers.
In reality, a ship cook or "Smutje" as he is called in German, wasn't even a staff officer.
It's completely ludicrous that the game even has that skill.



In the crew category, you define the tasks and priorities of each sailor assigned to a specific shift.
The priorities should cover a wide variety of tasks. Don't neglect cleaning and cooking duties. Those are essential to keep crew morale up.

You can also create new shifts for your sailors, in this menu.

Notice: The priority of watch and engine room duty are very low in this picture, because I have dedicated officers with assigned sailors that cover those duties. If your officers have other duties, like navigation, you should increase the priority of those tasks.

In this menu, you manage the hours your shifts and officers are on or off duty.



I use two shifts for the sailors which rotate after six hours (like it was in reality).
Each shift has two main officers assigned to it. A navigator and an engine operator.
I also have two officers that share watch duty. They change after every three hours, because I want them fresh for combat situations.

The radio operator and the torpedo mechanic also rotate every three hours for the same reason.

In this menu, you assign individual sailors to the shifts and to officers.



The increased crew size, a mod offers me, allows me to have 13 sailors active at any given time.
With the vanilla crew size this is reduced to 10, if you want to have a balanced work schedule.
Basically it would be the same setup like in the picture, just with one sailor less on the officers.
Check the "Vanilla setup" section, to see it with the normal crew size.

The radio operator and the torpedo mechanic have no sailors assigned to them.
This is handled individually by me, when it's necessary.

In this menu, you can assign specialization points to three different categories.



Each specialization point is assigned to an individual sailor and is final.

Be careful, you can't un-assign a spent point.
If that sailor later turns out to be a coward you have the tough choice of removing him from the crew, losing that specialization, or keep him and risk that he is losing his nerves again.
By losing the specialization I mean that it's not active or one less when he is not on board.
The sailor doesn't lose the specialization.

In this menu, you can customize the dive schedule and activate or deactivate a few other options.



As you can see in the picture, the dive schedule is deactivated at this point.
To activate it, open the 'Depth meter' (F5) and activate the 'Dive schedule'.
It's the last option. The button with the clock.

The times are set for when the chief radio operator is on duty.
This way he can use the hydrophone to listen for contacts.
One hour is usually enough.

I personally only use it in hostile waters or while I'm patrolling my assigned grid.
I handle it manually in all other situation.

I also suggest to activate the three standing orders.
They take a lot of micro management off your hand.

Here is how I would set up the crew, if I were to start a new campaign with no mods.

This section is a work in progress.
I'll add more information to it, when something comes to mind.

How to keep your crew happy

Keep in mind that a clean boat is essential for a happy crew.
For hygiene and tidiness, which affect morale negatively, if they're not kept in order.

You don't need the cook skill at all to raise your crew's morale.
Just offer them a variety of food choices in the 'Galley' and they will be happy.
The more different types of food you stuff in there, the happier they'll be.
But that also drains your food storage more quickly. So be aware of that on long voyages.

Turning on the radio will also raise the morale.
For this, I suggest a radio mod. Otherwise the radio will get very boring very soon.
The vanilla game has a very limited choice of music.

You can also have an officer play cards with the crew, to raise morale.

Lastly:
You will notice that, after some time, your crew will get generally tired.
This will lower the morale gradually and the effect will increase with time.
To get your crew fresh and motivated again, you should send them on a holiday once in a while.
For this, speak with your liaison officer, when you are in your home port.
Holidays also have other positive effects.
They will be explained when you select a location for the holiday.


A word on torpedo maintenance

You can ignore it for the most part.
It only becomes crucial when you are about to attack something with torpedoes.
If you're using the seven officers, the vanilla, game offers you, you'll have to assign one or even two of your engineers to do torpedo duties in those situations.
The eighth officer I have on my boat (Vinzent Steiner) is specifically for that duty.
He also serves as the second radio operator, for when the main radio operator sleeps.


When and how to use the deck guns

The situations when you could and should use the deck guns are very limited, compared to when you would want to use torpedoes. It's mostly when you have spotted a single ship or a convoy without escorts . If you're lucky and you find a convoy with only one escort, you could sink that one with a torpedo and then use the deck guns against the defenseless ships. This will only happen early in the war, though.
The normal scenario, you would use the deck guns, is after you crippled a ship that hasn't sunk yet. Then you can wait for the convoy and the escorts to move on and emerge when it's safe and finish off the ship with the deck gun.

Select the officer, you want to man the gun and then click on the gun.
You can only do that in the close up view, where you see the compartments of the boat.

You can automate the shooting or do it yourself.
To automate it, click on the ship you want to target and in the menu (lower left corner) open the targeting menu (cross-hair) and click on the officer manning the gun.
If you want to shoot yourself, click on the cross-hair on the officers portrait.
Aim at or slightly below the water line of the ship.
This way the shells create holes where water can flow into the ship and slowly sink it.

Addition: Later in the war, 1942 and onward, the opportunities to use the deck gun are getting less and less, as you will spend most of the time underwater (thanks to the snorkel) to be somewhat save from the escorts and allied air cover.
You might want to remove the deck gun at some point, to increase the underwater capabilities of your U-Boat. For this, speak to the warehouse guy in port and customize your boat.


Ideal officer setup

In the vanilla game you can have up to 7 officers on board.
I suggest a setup of 4 leaders, 2 engineers and 1 radio operator.
This way, you can have one leader doing navigation and the other doing watch duties.
The engineer can work in the engine rooms or do torpedo duties, if necessary.
One radio operator is enough and also historically correct. Just give him shorter shifts, so he is well rested at all times. You never know when you'll need him on the hydrophone.

If you use a mod that allows you to get more officers on board, don't go with more than 8 total or you will run into problems with sleeping space. The game only has 4 bunks for officers and one for the captain.
Furthermore: If you're using more than 7 officers, some of then can go missing during missions where you have additional personal on board. Like an agent or war correspondent. For those missions, you should reduce the officers on the boat to 7, to be safe.


Feel free to give me tips, of what I could add to this section, and feedback in the comments.
And don't forget to give this guide a like, if it was useful to you. :)

And remember:
It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go.

PS: You can read about some of my exiting missions here.

I decided to add this section to post some useful tools that I come across and that might be of use to you.

As the nights can be really dark sometimes (especially with darker nights active),
it's useful to know the moon phases. In comes the Moon Phase Calendar[theskylive.com].
The calendar goes from 1900 all the way up to 2100.