Review: NYGM Tonnage War for Silent Hunter III

[Leoz]

The purpose of this review is to inform new players of Silent Hunter III about some of the really great game mods that are available. Like GWX, NYGM is one of those game mods.

This review is subjective. The bigger picture is that if one is playing Silent Hunter III, in any form, that is a good thing. It is only to point out things that I really like about this wonderful game mod.

Background: I have been playing Silent Hunter III since the start of 2016. I have about 500 hours in the stock version and a few hundred more in GWX. Just as someone must fish or golf every weekend, I must play this game because I love it. I have excellent generalist background in almost all areas of WWII. So I come to this game with a great appreciation of the bigger picture. That includes a love for U-boat.net.

Computer setup. I use a low tech computer (about 5 years old). I run Silent Hunter via Steam on Windows 10. This game is the only reason I have a Windows computer as otherwise I wouldn't need it. Current hardware is a Dell laptop with 6Gb of RAM and a solid-state hard drive. Hooked to a 27-inch monitor. This single use for the computer allows me to have it stripped only for this purpose. For example, no services running that don't contribute.

I don't do any wide-screen / higer-res settings in the game.

How I came to be using NYGM. Not long ago, I was having some computer operating system problems. Silent Hunter III / GWX was crashing to desktop a lot. After fixing up the computer OS and reinstalling vanilla Silent Hunter III, I decided to try out NYGM. At the time, I was totally dedicated to GWX as it offers a great gaming experience.

What I found out was that NYGM better fit my game enjoyment.

Style of gameplay. I would rather be out "at sea" in Silent Hunter III than finding this or that game mod and fiddling with things. To me it is all about the "sea time".

I use stock 100 percent "realism". My target acquisition methods are to do everything I can to determine a target's course and speed. Once I do that, I prefer to then position my boat for the best, manual, 90 degree shot. I don't have a need for fancy scopes and only, occasionally use the analog computer for locking up a shot, usually only if there is a second target and I have already fired at the first.

I am comfortable with convoy attacks and go in with the goal of spending 2 fish each for each of 2 targets, get out and away, catch up later and try a reattack.

So, I spend a lot of time scribbling (so to speak) on the pencil plotting board (F5). This took me a long time to learn but I am comfortable with it.



I also don't mind completely goofing up a shot and missing everything, as it is part of the bigger experience in the game.

For example, on one NYGM patrol in late '42, off the Port of Spain, two freighters came along in trail. The first was real pretty. I messed up the speed estimation with one shot. Acquired the second target; put the stopwatch against it vs. the length of the ship and came up with the proper speed: 6 knots. Two type IIs and sunk.

It took me 5 hours to track down the first ship , get ahead of it, and by that time the weather picked up. Someone on the ship probably saw my periscope splash and then it started zig-zagging.

Sea-state pre-matured 2 torpedoes, another missed. Then lowered the running depth for the next shot. A hit and stopped the ship. I went around it and half-an-hour later, another for a coup de grâce.

For not a lot of tonnage. An 8000-tonner came along later and made the total take for the patrol, not a complete disaster.



What I like about NYGM.

What I found was that NYGM, gave me a lot of things in its stock form that I would otherwise have to go hunting for: environment, audio, ships and so on.

Audio. I like the audio a lot. It isn't too intrusive. My first submerged attack showed the plume of the torpedo hit and then a second later the sound. Impressive. Again, you can put any sound in almost any mod. What is good for me is that out-of-the-box. Another thing I like out-of-the-box is not being bothered by radio messages that don't have any impact on my patrol.

Stock visual: nice. You get 16km horizon, lifeboats from sunk ships. visuals of ship damage and smoke are interesting.

What I consider out-of the box, for NYGM are the first 4 packages. These are, the base package, two updates and a ships package.

Ships: I love the ships in NYGM. The ship package is a lite-version of a gigantic mod made years ago before my time in this game. These ships look more like something you would see in the photos of u-boat.net. All in all, very classy and yet another thing that allows one to be immersed in the game.

Recognition manuals are serviceable. Lucky for me I use the vertical mils on the periscope vs. height as some of the recognition manuals are wrong and I have to designate a feature on the ship I want to use for height. Probably a form of realism there. My observations with the ships over many patrols was they integrated well into the game: both in singles and convoys.



U-boat crew management. For me, NYGM offers a great, happy medium that meets my requirement of: "yes I want to do some of this" and the other part, "don't make it too much bother". I like the modifications NYGM made (less engine room crew).



You also get a fairly capable crew. As one of the old-timers on this forum stated, "Donetz didn't send sea cadets out on patrol". This is true. You get a fairly trained crew in NYGM. Noting the difference between being trained to an acceptable level vs combat experience.

Management back at base. This is a new experience for me with NYGM. The tonnage you sink is your "currency". You don't buy subs and equipment. They are available with a time scale to work them up before patrol. Example: 90 days to go from a B to a C type VII.

Torpedoes. NYGM covers the early war torpedo reliability by forcing you to use the magnetic pistol; which is both magnetic when used in that attack method and contact if used that way. As opposed to contact-only. All of my previous attacks in stock SHIII and GWX were always contact-only as I don't have time to setup a shot and then hope the pistol works.

I like this approach in NYGM. Again, as mentioned, in higher sea-states I have seen some of my torpedoes pre-mature by wave impact. Nice attention to detail. And, a new experience for me.

Sub damage and trim in NYGM. I love it.

My first patrol ended with my U-boat forced to the surface. NYGM gets it I think in that, if you take some damage that may affect your buoyancy, you can end up shipping water that can only be made up by going faster under water and thus, burning up your batteries at a higher rate.

On my first patrol, I had received some minor damage from a night surface action (the lead image in this review). I didn't beat the time-distance clock on trying to get out of a hot exit from a convoy and dived. Silent running doesn't allow you to use pumping. I got down to 150 meters and after a half-hour under, my trim started to decay. While under depth charge attack, I would relieve from silent running just for a minute to get some pumping going and then back to silent running. As an example: I have never been taken out, early in the war (1939-41 being my favorite playtime) by depth charge attack in GWX. I know how to get out of bad situations. Or, thought I did.

NYGM gave a strong performance in this regard. As my trim got worse, I was forced to gradually up the speed to maintain depth. As if excess water could not be shed. Things degraded enough to where I was no longer silent. The enemy above was persistent. In about 7 hours of submerged time, I had almost run out the battery. Forced to the surface, that ended the patrol. But...that whole patrol was an amazing experience.

On another patrol, I attacked 2 ships. I thought it was safe to come to the surface and did not examine the first ship enough. As soon as I broke the surface I started taking gunfire. Crash dive. Arrest the dive at 30 meters. And struggled...struggled to get back to periscope depth. Looking at the F7 damage page showed a yellow area to the stern which would not repair yet would not tell me there was any damage. Possible trim tank or stern plane damage. Based on this, I cut the patrol short and went home.



NYGM‎ is all about convoys from the BE to AM area you are going to run into them. My first patrol of a second career, October 1940, with a night surface attack starting just after midnight, my first attack took out two ships. I had two type IIs loaded in tubes 2 and 3 for the first target. then locked up two type Is on the second target. The first target, an ore carrier took one hit forward. It slowed down, and fell behind the convoy. I sank that hours later. The second target, a large freighter, broke in two.



Turn around and get out of there. The stern tube missed another ship. Observed the convoy from a long distance, reloaded the forward tubes and attacked later. Around 1pm. 2 freighters sunk. One immediately and one fell to the rear of the convoy and sank 20 minutes later. Didn't gather the correct speed for this attack, but, good enough. Exit and reload again. Two remaining torpedoes forward. The two torpedoes in deck storage were still there and stayed there for the whole patrol. 3rd attack around 230AM took out a large freighter. This time I put a stop-watch on its speed and rounded up instead of putting in the exact speed. One torpedo hit in the aft hold, the other hit even further back. The ship eventually went down by the stern. This convoy attack, and thus the only combat for this patrol yielded 30,000 tons. It was work.

I will probably stay with NYGM. It has a nice feel to it and gives me the kind of game experience balance I like.

NYGM, like other mods is a tribute to those that came before us and provided such wonderful things for a computer game. Thank you.

If you are using GWX or another mod, don't change just to change if you are all about the sea time and can't be bothered. However, if you decide to try NYGM, I think you will be nicely surprised.

For now, I am settled into NYGM and very thankful for such a fine game experience.

[ivanov.ruslan]

Impressive presentation Leoz,thank you

[ghost02]

Fantastic review!

[Prometheus]

I never tried NYGM mod I play GWX 3.0 gold ever since. After reading your review I definitely must try NYGM.

[Vince82]

I enjoyed reading this.

[Niume]

Author now make WAC review because its really under rated In my opinion Wac is way better at campaing visuals are great sound not bad