Supertest: Tier VI German Submarine U-69
4 min readSo… considering the fact that submarines might soon be joining the game with their special game mode, I thought that I might as well have a closer look at the tier VI submarines that received updated stats and not just placeholders. I personally expect to see submarines during the next Public Test for the Update 0.9.4. but we shall see.
As you might guess, these stats are heavy work in progress, anything might change and some parts definitely will change until they reach the live servers but still, we can at least get a fairly good idea of what to expect. Also, there are a few things that I have to interpret on my own so I might be off. For example, there is the battery recharge rate that doesn’t have an actual unit of measure so I’m guesstimating what it could be.
Now, better be safe than sorry so:
Since I’m still waiting for confirmation on the background story of the Tier IV German aircraft carrier Rhein, I thought that I might as well stick to German ships. As such, I will start this small series of stats review with the submarine U-69.
The German submarine U-69 was the first Type VIIC U-boat of the Kriegsmarine. This type of submarine was the most produced by Nazi Germany during World War 2 with 568 units commissioned, forming the workhorse of the U-boat forces.
Among the Type VIIC, the most well-known unit was U-96, featured in the 1981 movie Das Boot.
When it comes to U-69, she was launched on 12 October 1940 and commissioned on 2 November 1940. Overall, for a U-boat, she had a fairly long career, lasting more than 2 years in active service. In total, U-69 sank over 72 000 tons of gross register tons of Allied shipping. Her most notable attack was on the civilian ferry SS Caribou, which sank off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1942, killing 137 men, women and children.
During her whole active service, the U-69 took part in 10 patrols with the last one ending up with her sinking.
On 17 February 1943, she was operating with the Wolfpack Haudegen in the middle of the North Atlantic, targeting the convoy ONS 165. During the attack, she was forced to the surface by depth charges and was then rammed by the British destroyer HMS Fame. None of her 46 crew survived the sinking.
Hull | Engine | Hydrophone | Torpedoes |
U-69 |
Propulsion: 2 800 hp | unlisted |
G7e/T4 Falke |
| Tier | VI |
| Health | 8 300 HP |
| Displacement | 1 070 tons |
| Main Armament (NON-FUNCTIONAL) | |
8.8 cm SK C/35 | 1 x 1 88 mm |
| Torpedo Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 6.600 km |
| 533-mm | 1 x 4 533 mm at the front 1 x 1 533 mm at the rear |
| Maximum speed | 24 kts |
| Turning Circle Radius | 660 m |
| Rudder Shift Time | 5.19 s |
| Surface Detectability | 4.32 km |
| Air Detectability | 1.44 km |
(What allows submarines in games to see their surroundings below the surface.)
| Acoustic wave lifetime | 7 s |
| Acoustic wave speed | 940 m/s |
| Update Frequency | 10 s |
For that section, there are a lot of unknowns since we are dealing with completely new mechanics so more than the others, take it with a truckload of salt.
| Battery | |
| Battery capacity | 410 |
| Speed required to recharge | 1/4 of max speed or less |
| Recharge rate | 3.3 (units/seconds?) |
| Sonar ping | |
| Reload time | 8.0 s |
| Wave hit lifetime | 25.0 s |
| Wave range | 6.6 km |
| Wide ping | |
| Width | 1.0 |
| Energy cost | 15 |
| Ping speed | 47 kts |
| Narrow ping | |
| Width | 0.4 |
| Energy cost | 15 |
| Ping speed | 75 kts |
| 1 x 5 533 mm G7e/T4 Falke | |
| Reloading Time | 67 s |
| Maximum Distance | 6.6 km |
| Firing angles at the front | -10° to 10° (4 torpedoes) |
| Firing angles at the rear | -10° to 10° (1 torpedo) |
| Damage | 15 100 |
| Flooding Chance | 277 % |
| Speed | 58 kt |
| Surface Detectability | 1.2 km |
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 |
Damage Control Party  Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s | Maximum Depth  Number of charges: 4 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 60 s | Hydroacoustic Search  Number of charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 180 s Torpedo spotting distance: 3.0 km Ship spotting distance: 4.0 km |
The armor
The U-69 has a double-hull configuration with the outer hull being 10 mm thick and the pressure hull is 19 mm thick.
Early observations
When comparing with the other tier VI submarines, from what I can see, each nation will have its own distinctive features.
When it comes to U-69, she has a better Maximum Depth consumable with one more charge, a longer duration and a shorter cooldown. She also has a Hydroacoustic Search consumable while the U.S. submarine Cachalot has an Engine Boost and the Soviet submarine S-1 has a Repair Party.
Out of the 3, she also has the hardest hitting torpedoes with the highest flooding chance but in return, she has the shortest torpedo range.
When it comes to the sonar pings, she has the slowest ones but at the same time, they consume less battery than the others. This means that she can stay underwater while being able to ping enemy ships for much longer than the others.
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Anything about the torpedo stealth of the submarines?
U-69…
Nice…