Submarine Discussion

Hahahaha

Submarines are the least useful units in the game. Not even close. They don't take counterattacks, deal bonus damage to enemy navy, and take less damage from land units. But every single one of those abilities are completely worthless. First off, they're the ONLY ship with 1 range, meaning that the AI will NEVER be counterrattacked by your own subs either unless you corner them in or something. Secondly, every other ship has superior stats, particularily defense. Hitting a Frigate with a Submarine doesn't do a lot more damage than hitting a Submarine with a Frigate. Thirdly subs can't counterattack land units. So you're never gonna be sending them to wall off landlubbers and that's less useful than letting them land in the water and other ships are better at that anyway because they have better stats. 

They also can't help siege cities and are always the #1 target for enemy navy due to their inability to counterattack. Usually they do nothing at all or attack once and get completely destroyed in one turn.

WWI submarines were not very effective at attacking warships since they had to surface to fire. They were mainly used for stealth and attacking merchant vessels. It would be nice if they could not be seen or fired on until they attacked... But not sure that would help you very much since there are no merchant vessels in this game. The only thing I use them for are attacking navy generals if I am already given the subs. The navy general will not counterattack back, and if you have enough of them to get the navy general <50% in one turn it can help some. Still not worth the cost.

Subs were so much better in WC3 and WC4. I remember one-shotting a cruiser with Donitz

Makes sense since submarines weren't emphasized on much during this time period pre-ww2