been playing a long time
 

has anyone ever survived from the start of the war to the end of the war playing GW X at 100%

I play at full difficulty except i like to keep external views for entertainment and I dont turn on the periscope wave effect (I think no wobble is slightly closer to the real life optics). I've done around 6 careers and have never got beyond mid 1944.
I'm usually fairly cautious but I have not figured out how to attack 1944 convoys. The problem is that while I try to shoot from long range I'm so restricted in speed the convoys sometimes roll straight over me. If the weather is at all reasonable I cannot shake off 1944 escorts and they will eventually get me. I guess that's fairly realistic.
I understand in real life the type VII's stuck to coastal waters and shot GNATs then tried to hide on the bottom.

I think as in real life the best way to survive the war is to transfer to a type IX and hide in distant waters where there may still be some lone merchants to bully. That's going to be very boring.
Unless there's some trick I don't know about?

The type II was a coastal boat. The type VII was used in the open sea similar to the IX, in fact in practically the exact same function, albeit the IX had significantly more range. The VII alleviated the range problem in part by using its dive and regulating bunkers as fuel tanks, and also by way of milk cows.

Very true up to 1944, however my understanding is that after D-day the type VII's usually operated in inshore waters around the UK and off Norway. They were no longer able to chase convoys on the surface, and the difficult inshore sonar conditions gave them a chance of escape if they revealed themselves by attacking. There's a book about it "Donitz's last gamble", that I have to admit to not reading :doh:
i don't think SH3 can really model late war accurately. There's no advantage to sitting on the bottom (isn't there a mod for that?), but then on the other side no foxers or tactics to counter acoustic torpedoes, no mk24 mine, no sonobouys, no squid... In those circumstances including the type XXI is a bit like including a UFO.

It's still a good challenge trying to end the war in a conventional boat, and if you don't use the external views it's difficult to detect that things are not proceeding as they should historically. Unfortunately I have always failed the challenge!

Ah! Yes agree, looking strictly late-war.