I began to play Silent Hunter for the first time in a year. I hope you don't mind if I begin with my first career, which turned out to be rather short
The setup is Silent Hunter IV U-Boat Missions with Operation Monsun and several other mods.
This time I wanted some challenge, so I started a career in Mid 1942, all realism options enabled, except external view and view stabilization.
I want to operate on the US coast but I prefer the Type VII to the Type IX. But if we choose the 7th flotilla it will be possible for our Type VII boat to take part in Operation Paukenschlag too! Of course it's clear beforehand that fuel will just be enough to reach the US East coast and return, there will not be enough left to operate in the area. But in OM we can resupply at sea I am going to bet on another U-Boat or another friendly port.
South of Newfoundland we run into a Hunter Killer Group but could evade submerged. As you can see, it was pretty .. dark.
We also spot aircraft several times but manage to crash dive every time. I realize it was not very prudent to steer so close to the British bases in Canada, next time I should set a more southerly route.
We arrive at CA8755 and soon spot our first 5000t merchant, an American.
I usually suck at calculating the target solutions but I have a simple method. I use dead reckoning on speed (most merchants travel at 5-8 knots anyway), try to get as close as possible (ca 500m), make an ideal angle-on-bow of 90 degrees and fire a fan of two or three torpedoes.
I also usually attack on the surface because at this heavy sea a periscope attack just sucks. That works almost any time, as long as the merchant is not armed or faster than 10 knots.
As you can see one torpedo was a dud, but the other one sunk the ship.
No need to look for survivors .. unfortunately, although SHIV has this feature, life boats are not enabled in OM. I only saw them once when I sank a Cruiser but never from a merchant.
We complete our task of operating in our assigned area for 48 hours.
Although we used only two of our torpedoes, fuel is already under 50%, which may not even be enough for a return to St.Nazaire
It could still be enough for a resupply at El Ferrol. In any case we must get on the way back.
Fortunately we get orders to resupply from U-459 on the way and can return to our operations on the East Coast.
