Just got my Italian ss5. I agree with all the comments above. The torps are the same power as IJN ss torps, most powerful in the game. The ss3, ss4 & ss5 all have 4 front and 4 rear tubes which is nice. I am starting with 35 torps loaded in front and 16 in rear, may go to 12 in rear. Will see. The critical issue with the RM subline is speed, or more accurately lack of speed. I have 3 engy's lvl 93, 87 and 86. All are bve with 150+ vets each and my starting speed in the ss5 is 22/31. The crew is BO 97, 2 torpers 97, sonar 93, planesman 93, rep 78, 3 engy 86, 87, 93.
The ship has 5 supp slots(3 engy, sonar, planesman) 2 r slots on ship, 2 torps slots and and BO. If I take off the two engies and the rep(he is in a R slot) I still have 22/31 for speed. The SD drops from 724 to 384. The speed issue is considerably lower than that of all other nations ss lines.
I will add that the ships manuever very well, turn tight and are very narrow in profile but the lack of speed is a challenge. If this happened in a bb line people would be screaming. This same combination of crew and engy's on the ss4 produced 23/32 for speed. I hope this issue is addressed and corrected. I was hoping that higher lvl engy's might solve it but the comment above that lvl 120 engies don't help is very disappointing. I don't expect them to be better than all other nations, but I do expect them to be comparable in speed.
I will add that I have ss5 subs in all nations as a basis to make this comparison.
