Night Attacks - How?

[Segwin]

How on earth do you guys manage to attack anything at night??

Saw my first convoy but to tell you the truth I couldn't make heads or tales through the scope. I surfaced :88) only to meet the local welcoming committee which weren't tossing flowers my way. Crash dived with damage taken.

That didn't turn out as planned!:huh:

Any tricks?

[C-4]

Hello,
I know this is really a cheat, but if you have visual contact with the enemy ships, and if you're looking in the right direction, the name of the ship shows up on the notebook on the upper right hand corner. When you see the name of the ship change, you know you're looking at something.

I have no idea how the pros do it. Maybe I should get a better monitor and turn up my contrast.

C-4

[THE_MASK]

First of all are you using Grey Wolves or NYGM 2.2 or what .

[kylania]

Get in front of them and wait. Once the lead ship passes by you can sneak in a little closer, so you're 1000m or less from the outward column of the convoy. Just sit and wait, as they pass you (merchants have horrible vision at night) let 'em have it, the just scoot away before anyone sees you.

[AVGWarhawk]

Yeah, get their general direction of travel. Work you way to the front of their path . Remember you are low in the water and hard to spot. Attempt to stay way from the escorts as best possible. Once ahead and they are steaming towards you, sit and wait until a solution comes to take out a few. You will not get them all but a few going down beats none at all! It is hard at first but you get it. Sometimes I just stop and lock the UZO to find out their general path of movement. Once I have an idea of that, off I go to beat them to the front of the line!

[Segwin]

Sorry, TGW & SH3 commander

[THE_MASK]

I get in front and side on to the convoy . Use your binocs to checkout where the escorts are . I get in position so i can approach at 7mts depth(decks awash) and 2 knots max .

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/979/darknesslp6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[WilhelmSchulz.]

Here read this. :know:

http://www.communitymanuals.com/shiii/index.php?title=Torpedoes

[P_Funk]

How about night surface attacks within the convoy? That was the standard in the early war. I always have trouble getting in on the surface. Either I don't wait for enough darkness or I can't see enough in the dead of night to slip in. And there isn't much mention of that in any wiki.

[TarJak]

How about night surface attacks within the convoy? That was the standard in the early war. I always have trouble getting in on the surface. Either I don't wait for enough darkness or I can't see enough in the dead of night to slip in. And there isn't much mention of that in any wiki.

this is pretty hard to do as you have to get a little too close to ships to be able to do it without being able to be seen. from the tests I've done I can get to within about 300m at dead stop without being seen and again it is all dependant on the crew status of the ships. An elite crewed DD without radar will spot you at around 3km. (I'm using GW1.1a). I think most of this is set in AI_Sensors.dat so if you want to mess around with these you might be able to get closer.

[Ducimus]

First thing ill do is get sound bearings. Ill sit there for like 5 to 10 mins and just get a good feel for the convoy's size and general direction, and guesstimate on the speed based on experience. Which isn't hard. usually around 7 to 9 kts is what they travel.

Then i'll plot it out a track that's crosses the convoy's track, just ahead of them. Once i have visual sighting, ill move in, bow pointed towards their track, but maintaining a slight lead on the convoy so that when i get within range, i wont find myself looking at the aft end of the convoy with few ships. A straight 90 is acutally, many times, a poor angle as it minimizes your shootable targets. I try to arrive slighly ahead preferbly with a 90 degree angle to the lead ship. That way i can angle inward towards the convoy and maximize my chances of hitting something. Too much of an angle however leads to duds.

When approaching, you want to move in swiftly, but not too swifly. the higher your speeds the greater your chances of being spotted. Generally speaking i dont think you want to move any faster then 14 kts when making your run. Arguably lower then that if using NYGM. around 2600-2800 meters is about when ill start shooting. Any closer then that your chances of getting spotted are pretty good. My first two fish slavo ill shoot at mediem speed. The 2nd two fish salvo ill shoot at mediem to high speed setings. Right after the 2nd salvo, ill make a hard turn to bring my stern tubes to bear, shoot the 3rd salvo (tubes 5 and 6) as a parting shot, then haul ass at full flank speed with only my stern showing.

Early war im usually undetected, so ill start my reload, shadow the convoy, and make another run as soon as i can. If im persistant enough, and latched onto the convoy in the early evening, i can make about 3 runs against a single convoy before first greylight conditions.

[P_Funk]

Good stuff Ducimus. But has anyone here had consistent luck with the old Kretschmer early war tactic of riding between the columns at night? He never failed it seems and so far I'm not doing so hot with that.

[Steeltrap]

I think he's talking about not being able to SEE anything i.e. very dark. I had this problem as well. Seems to be largely dependant on your monitor, and your graphics card's settings. Play around with them and you should be able to see what you're doing.

As for technique, the others have it right. Light fog can really help you get closer, too.

I try to come in from the forward 30-45 degrees angle, as that allows me to turn at the last minute for a good 70-90 degree track to target. Also means I'm not showing broadside to the ships until it's too late for them. This is a little trickier in that you've got to time it with the escorts - the front one often zig-zags across the front of the convoy, meaning you can approach the convoy while it is heading AWAY from you if you time it properly, fire, then run away by the time it turns to come back.

[Castout]

I've given up trying to hunt during night times. It strains my eyes too much. Especially deciding on AoB. cos i always play at 100%.

[melnibonian]

Hello

I would suggest to try to change the settings of your monitor. Increase the contrast so you can see things on the screen.

As far as the tactics I usually try to plot an intercept course and then I wait for the merchants to come towards me. If there is a single (or maximum 2-3 ships) target I stay on the surface at zero speed with the deck gun manned (depending on the weather conditions). When the target is around 1000-500m away and at 90 deg AOB I fire a single torpedo (more than one sometimes depending on the type of ship and the weather conditions). Once the torpedo hits I either finish it up with the gun or fire another one. If I'm hunting a convoy I stay at periscope depth and I try to position myself between the lines. That way I can use front and aft tubes to cause maximum damage.

In both cases I try to be in position before the ship/convoy arrives in order to avoid being detected.

[AVGWarhawk]

Melbonian has a point here. I make screenshots and post them on that thread for screenshots. A large majority of my shots are at night. First viewing you can see nothing really. If I adjust the constrast and brightness, I can make it almost like a dusk type darkness and see everything. Go check out my screenies in that thread. You will see most are night shots that I adjusted the contrast and brightness. These were just dark before my adjustments. My point here is adjust the brightness and contrast via your monitor or videocard if it is just so black you cannot see anthing at all during game play.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=83681&page=80

Scroll to you see the two dark blue night screenies. Basically this is how I see the night while in game. Just a bit darker though. Feel free to use any under AVGWarhawk as desktop pics. I would be honored LoL

[Castout]

I changed the contrast setting via my graphics card control center then I calibrated my monitor. Now it's a lot better. even i think it's a bit too bright for the night.

Stalked a convoy shortly after. But all 5 torpedos missed. Hahahahah guess i'm a lousy shooter. Can't see the masts quite well with those big waves...AoB is still the damn thing.

[Cue-Ball909]

I also have problems with night attacks. I changed my brightness and contrast which helped, but I can't see the nationality flags on the ships. Heck, I can barely see them during the day! My last patrol I sunk 8 ships, two of which were neutral. I didn't know it until I'd seen the green 'sunken ship' mark on the map.

[P_Funk]

I think that while there are some things where realism is a good idea in terms of darkness I think that most people don't always have a top grade monitor and a perfectly dark room in which to get ideal conditions. I think that in order to get the same level of awareness as a Captain would have had on the bridge I and others need to artificially increase the brightness. Staring at a dark monitor isn't the same as staring into the dark for real.