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03-05-23, 06:49 PM | #1 |
Swabby
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SHCE (SH1) Has Has anyone ever had a fire onboard? In the motor room?
I was playing a new career beginning December 1941. My S-Class boat had a successful but harrowing patrol in South Japan from Pearl Harbor. Our patrol was successful and we made it back OK. The harrowing issue was rough seas and barely enough fuel to return from patrol, lol. We given a P-Class boat, the Pickerel, and were sent from Pearl to Northern Japan. We received a report of a small(?) convoy with 10 ships headed South and made a successful intercept in the early morning. None of the merchants had guns so we surfaced after firing all 6 tubes, 4 bow and 2 stern, and surfaced to use our deck gun. Within 25 minutes aircraft were picked up on radar and we crash dived to 150 feet. We surfaced again 15 minutes later and proceeded to track all the remaining ships. We sunk 2 more when our lookouts spotted incoming aircraft, and we crashed dived again, and then resurfaced 20 minutes later. We did this 3 more times, each time, all without any advance radar reports; though the radar WAS functioning. We were closing with the last ship, the first one we damaged two hours prior, when the lookouts again spotted another aircraft. We fired our last torpedo at 2100 yards, set to slow speed, an oblique angle, and set to 2 feet depth, and then crash dived again. Before we could get below, we took slight damage to the motor room from aircraft machine guns. While at 200+ feet, that slight damage became a fire! I have never experienced this in SH. Has anyone else?
Last edited by JconradH; 03-14-23 at 06:35 AM. Reason: would like to change the title. |
03-07-23, 09:03 AM | #2 |
CTD - it's not just a job
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Oh yes, fire... multiple times over the years. Almost as bad of a situation as a broken battery bank... be ready to have to surface, since the smoke from the fire does affect your O2 and CO2 levels of your boat. While not as bad as the chlorine gas resulting from the battery bank being compromised, it still is NOT good... You are usually warned by the crew about the breathing hazard, and that's when you need to get some air in the boat. I cannot remember how to activate the repair team, or even if you do... but prioritize that fire.
Do you not have SD radar on your boat just yet? You want to crash dive prior to the spotting of aircraft if at all possible. By the time you see them, they have usually seen you, and it is basically too late. While the damage model is a bit strange in the game (still so in SH4), it does teach you to respect airplanes... lol - Good luck with it |
03-07-23, 09:26 PM | #3 |
Swabby
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Thanks for your reply, Propbeanie!
This is the original Silent Hunter (Commander's Edition). I cannot prioritize repairs, they just happen. I have the early SJ radar- this patrol was March 1942. From much reading, the early SJ radar was not as effective as the later versions as a career progresses in SH, as well as the real war, so sometimes the sightings happen before we get a radar warning. Pretty scary. SH manual says the P Class boats were notoriously slow at diving. On a patrol in Northern Japan in January 1942, my radar did pickup multiple flights of aircraft, and I dove when they were just under 11000 yards away- just in time. In the Gato, Balao, or Tench class boats I have been OK to crash dive at 8000 yards and make it down to 150 feet safely. I cannot remember any fires in the past 4 years of playing. I've had chlorine gas plenty of times, lol. It certainly adds to the tension and excitement- hoping the fire gets put out before having to surface and get bombed and or strafed again. I have to say I do appreciate that I don't have to tell my crew to rest, make meals, load torpedoes, and effect repairs; that's why as captain I have officers and crew. |
03-08-23, 04:09 PM | #4 |
CTD - it's not just a job
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Yes, the XO handles the rotation... lol - I couldn't remember about the damage control team... but I thought there was SD air search radar in SH1 CE, which came before the SJ... ??
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03-09-23, 07:45 AM | #5 |
Swabby
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Thanks, Propbeanie! ��
I mispoke. SJ is surface radar. and came first. Oops. They did improve both radars throughout the war, and in the game. It's now June 1942 and was given a T class boat after 2 patrols with the P class. I had forgotten that the early convoys with only 1 or 2 escorts zig zagged, lol. Thankfully I was far enough out to gauge the shifts prior to my attacks. I've been firing at 20 to 30 degrees versus 90, waiting at least 5 seconds between shots, and setting my depths to 3 feet for DDs and shallow draft vessels, and 10 under the max draft for larger ones. That seems to help with dud and missed torpedo shots. Still had a 40% dud count my last patrol. �� I had forgotten how long it takes to get from the start of the war even to mid 1942. Last career took 7 real months to finish the war. |
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