Merchant Fire-Suppression
 

Can a merchant's deck-gun be suppresed by a sub's flak gun(s)?




Shot

I never tried. If I use the deck gun against a merchant with a gun, I stay far enough away that it's a non-issue.

For me, right now, the jury is out on that one: having conducted some experiments on an old aft-engined tanker, after stopping it with a torpedo, I couldn't suppress its 25mm Hotchkiss (?) gun positions, even after making direct hits on the gun positions with 4' HE shells - plus direct hits from a 40 mm Bofors and twin 20mm Oerlikons - from about 900 yards to 500. :hmmm:



Other, more experienced captains might have better results to report.

I just tried this in the Artillery Training mission. I was touch-me close to the freighter, enough so that I could see the individual crew members. No one seemed to notice when I raked the decks with the twin 20s.



This would seem to say that no, the sub's AA guns won't affect things like a freighter's deck piece.


The experiment may need to be run against a target with a deck gun, though.


Interestingly, I did sink the sampan which was on-hand for the same mission, so maybe there's something in the game which declares a deck gun suppressed if the freighter takes a threshold quantity of damage.





Shot

based on experience, no, you cannot disable a ship's weapons directly.
a ship's gun (cannon or mg) will continue to fire at you as long as its platform is viable.

here are some things i have witnessed by playing:

• a merchie fired continuously at me until a secondary explosion split her into two pieces.
• a DD fired continuously at me until a torpedo hit it in the stern and the stern gun platform (and of course the guns mounted on it) was destroyed. then the weapon stopped firing. the DD sank a minute or two later.
• i manually fired many shells from my deck gun directly at a ship's gun emplacement with hits and the weapon continued to return fire until i gave up and submerged.

does that answer your question?
good luck. and good hunting.:salute:

There has to be a damage zon for a gun to be able to take damage, or its "platform" has to be destroyed. This would include shore installations also. Normally, an un-necessary complication to the game. The gunners will sometimes shoot until beneath the waves. Here's a video from an early FotRSU test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQAUs0FZAlw

... entirely too long, but at 9:40, you can see the bow gunner, in a fireball, still manning his gun station, ready to shoot his enemies, if he can only target them. Must be a good strap used to keep him there... Of note is the two torpedoes I hit the damaged Tonan Maru with at about the 8:50 mark, and the way the animated characters "die". No panic, they just "lay down" when the water gets to them. How'd they survive the explosions?... :roll: oh well. Such is the game. :salute:

Edit: ... and I'm following KaleunMarco again... I'm not following you, seriously, I'm not... :har:

That would seem to be that, then.



Not that it would have been a viable strategy for the most part, I imagine; but the last three patrols have put me in bad weather which made visual detection of the enemy all-but impossible unless I was inside of 500 meters. As you might imagine, my deck gun got quite the workout. Hence the question.




Shot

That quiet dignity goes with the tailored suits (possibly pinstripes?) and ties that some of the merchant seamen are wearing, along with those who are nattily dressed in white shirts and ties, jackets, (maybe) corduroy trousers and sneakers. They are a model of how to dress when working on a merchant ship.


That said, I do find the way that the gun crews stick to their guns, even when the bows or sterns of the ships might be perpendicular to the water, is a little bit unrealistic.

That might be one reason why the original Ubisoft Camera in the game wouldn't let you get in real close... :har: :salute:

I have had marginal success against merchants with combined deck gun and 40mm flak guns that I add as soon as they are available...

IMO even twin 20mm flak guns won't do much except against sampans, junks or fishing boats...

No, but you can shoot off depth charge racks off escorts:D

yeah, you can, but that is a tough shot when you are shooting at an unarmed merchie. to take an aimed shot at a DD means you are surfaced and within 6000 or 8000 yds with the DD probably shooting back at you with four or five weapons of his own. no, thanks. it's called a submarine for a reason.:salute:

Well, because of the game it isn't as risky as you might think, but reserved for needed moments. You can barely surface enuf to activate the gun station and shoot and take lil damage while you're still basically dived. I've done it when trapped in shallow water by a few escorts and damaged to the point I have to do something or die. Also works great for the 40's to take out ships without taking much to any damage, just have to watch for runs by escorts and time it.

I have been in fog banks where I can make out the silhouette of the ship and fire manually at them but they can not fire at me. I also remember Sinking the Yamato with sonar only bearings in a storm once off the coast of Truk. Was less that 800 yards away but I did not know what ship it was upon firing.

Yes ... if you sink the ship with them.