What's best thing to do

[hcs53]

USS Pollack,1941
What is the best thing to do to discover enemy ships remain on the surface or to occasionally dive and use sonar?

henny

[Dread Knot]

Your best chances for finding ships will almost always be on the surface, especially if you have any form of surface search radar. Plus, with the superior surface speed you can cover more ground in your search than plodding about underwater.

The Germans did the 'submerge and listen' method a lot in the Atlantic. But that's because they usually only had visual lookouts on the surface, which was limited even in good weather, and near useless in bad.

[hcs53]

I don't have surface search radar,what's the best speed,9k?

henny

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by hcs53

I don't have surface search radar,what's the best speed,9k?

henny

That can depend on what port you are operating out of. If you based at Pearl you always need to be conservative with a fuel reserve to get back. If you operating out of Manila you can burn a great deal more fuel as you don't have as far to go.

As far as surface search goes, speed is pretty much irrelevant. Underwater, the slower the better.

[hcs53]

Of life on board, one submarine veteran had this to say:

"Heading out to our patrol area, the submarine stayed on the surface. But when we moved into range of our sector where Japanese planes might become a factor, the submarine remained underwater all day. At that time we'd flip-flop our schedules so that most activity occurred during the night, when the submarine could be on the surface and we could get fresh air. During the day, when we has less air available in the submersed submarine, we slept. Normally we dove about 4 a.m., just before sunrise, and remained underwater until about one half-hour after sunset. Breakfast was served around 4 p.m., and after surfacing at night we'd do all our work. About midnight we'd have dinner."

[Hambone307]

If you are playing the American subs, I would definitely say to stay on surface regularly. If you don't have the Search Radar, on your turns go to decks awash and listen on your Hydrophones throughout your turn.
If you are playing the DLC and using a German sub, dive regularly to listen on the hydrophones, especially in bad weather. I can't express how many times I have almost run into escort destroyers and merchants in bad weather in the Typ. IX U-Boot purely from relying too much on my watch crew and not using hydrophones. That was a hard lesson learned, if you know what I mean!

[merc4ulfate]

Early war with no radar ... you submerge and listen especially if you TC gets jumpy.

[Armistead]

The game is not reality in many ways. Sonar works as good on the surface as it does dived, unless you're in a S class or using a mod that changes this. I think the only one that does some is Travs. As stated, even on the surface watch for clock lag. That simply means a group has entered into your contact zone. This lag will always happen regardless of your equipment of crew, but they usually don't pick up a contract, but you can. Get the lag, rotate sonar until you get a bearing and head that way. Just keep in mind a small group or a single often doesn't put enough load on your pc for you to notice lag and if you're not careful you'll find yourself getting shot at if you don't have radar.

I remained surfaced as much as possible unless in an area with too many planes. Try to hunt in straits or near harbor openings instead of the open ocean.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Don't listen to Armistead, he talks to his dog.

[TorpX]

Talking to your dog isn't odd. If your dog talks back, that's odd.

[fireftr18]

Wern, we all missed you buddy.


Welcome back!


Head over to The Bilge. Get caught up on the shenanigans.

[cdrsubron7]

It's beginning to look like old home week around here.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Thanks guys. I missed all of you too. BTW, I talk to my dog. He has all the answers. I took a furlough. I honestly didn't realize how long it's been. Started playing SH4 again, and thought of everyone here.