Wow - what a days work!
Java Sea - Feb 1942
Had been yo-yoing up and down all day to avoid an absolute shedload of air contacts, at about 6 in the evening I get a boatload of sound contacts on the hydrophone
I just got me a task force, and they are heading my way
I can see at least two escort carriers , two heavy cruisers and two light cruisers - plus the usual gaggle of destroyers
I am in about 90 feet of water, and the weather is perfectly calm - honestly the sea looks like a mirror
I hate doing attacks on escorted targets in shallow water, especially when the sea is this calm
But I cannot pass up this opportunity
Determine they are going at about 16 knots directly north
Looks like one of the carriers will go past my bow at about 3000 yards - I am happy about this
The only way I will survive this is with a long range shot
Just as I am getting ready to fire I take a quick scope check and see that the whole task force has tacked away from me
Dammit
After another minute or so I can see it looks as if they are now heading North West, away from me
It's a Hail Mary shot then
I guess that their speed after tacking will still be 16 knots
My shot on the escort carriers is now borked, but I still have an outside chance of hitting a heavy cruiser
Fire a longitudinal spread at the first CA
One torpedo about half a ship length ahead, fore turrets, aft turrets and the last half a ship length behind
As soon as the fish are off I head south and attempt to clear datum
Use the external camera to track the fish
(In a proper career save I do not use the external cam for things like this - but hey - I am playtesting this morning
)
From this screenie it is not looking too bad
However - all 4 shots miss astern
Nevermind - it always was a long shot
Let's just try and get the boat away safely
Then to my utter surprise about 3 minutes later I hear two very loud explosions
I can only guess that there was another column of IJN ships farther away that I managed to get a lucky strike on
Looks like it was a shot of about 5300 yards
Man I have never been that lucky before
About 30 minutes later I can still see the masts poking above the surface as the sun sets
Seems heavy cruisers do not sink that well in 90 feet of water
And as a bonus - the shots were from so far away that the IJN destroyers really had no clue where to look
I heard some desultory depth charging for an hour or so - but none of it anywhere near the USS Pike
I am pretty pleased with myself
In all the years I have been playing SH4 I have probably only seen a dozen or so Task forces, and 9 times out of 10 have not been in a position to intercept.
That is probably only the third heavy cruiser I have managed to sink (in nearly 10 years!!)
Even if this sinking was a mostly down to luck - I do not care
The USS Pike is shaping up to be a lucky boat
This build is shaping up to be awesome - great work everyone
Now I have to go back and land my agent on the coast of Malaya - wish me luck