first kill in GWX

[shegeek72]

No big deal, but just sunk my first ship in GWX. Was patrolling in '42 (CC grid, IIRC) at night, submerged when hydrophone dude reported a contact, then another, closing, fast speed (12 kts)! I surfaced and ran at flank speed to get to attack range, but when I submerged they were 1000m further away than I expected! So ran flank, submerged, until I could identify them via periscope. First one was hospital ship...woah, leave that one alone! But it was followed by a juicy transport. At about 1800m I fired two fish... one hit! The transport immediately turned a spotlight on me, but once I lowered the periscope it lost me. It slowed to 6 kts, so I started an intercept course for another attack. However, a few minutes later: "she's going down!" :rock:

Guess it was a good hit, though it was too dark to see. Hope I didn't rattle the cages of the people on the hospital ship too much! Maybe gave someone a heart attack. :lol:

http://tarafoundation.org/sh3_hospital.jpg

[Jimbuna]

Congratulations on your first kill kaleun....that's one closer to becoming an ace :arrgh!:

[AVGWarhawk]

That ship looks neutral to me:o

[Kpt. Lehmann]

LOL, in the alpha stages of development I went on my first test run and somehwat immediately faced a moral quandary.

1940

Picked up small convoy inbound to Southwest England... not even 300 km away...

American destroyer escorting a hospital ship and what looked like an American troop transport.

I didn't fire on any of them.

[shegeek72]

That ship looks neutral to me:o
Correct. That's a hospital ship that I didn't sink.

[CWorth]

The neutrals are to be left alone as well.They are not targets as you will loose renown for sinking them just as you would loose renown for sinking the hospital ship..

[fredbass]

The neutrals are to be left alone as well.They are not targets as you will loose renown for sinking them just as you would loose renown for sinking the hospital ship..

And when you down a hospital ship, you lose something like 10,000 renown. :arrgh!:

[shegeek72]

The neutrals are to be left alone as well.They are not targets as you will loose renown for sinking them just as you would loose renown for sinking the hospital ship..
How does one determine whether a ship is neutral at night when you can't see the flag? And why would a country send troops across the ocean if it hadn't entered the war yet?
--
http://tarafoundation.org/sh3_dark_gw3r.jpg

[bigboywooly]

You will find in GWX that the single nuetral contacts are lit up
Of course you will find them in convoys but obviously they will be darkened there :up:

[andy_311]

And if they are under armed escort sink them all.lit up or not

[hocking]

If there lit up at night, they are neutral. If they are dark, they are enemy.

In the daytime, if you they start zig-zagging as you approach them, they are enemy. If they stay straight on course, they are neutral. You can also see their flags better in the daytime.

[fredbass]

Well if you want to make sure to you have renown added rather than deducted, then you'll make sure it's not neutral. Don't assume.

For me, I just use the free camera and do a fast zoom up to the ship and take a look. :shifty:

[CWorth]

And if they are under armed escort sink them all.lit up or not
If there lit up at night, they are neutral. If they are dark, they are enemy.

Does not matter...the game makes no distinction between the lit and not lit neutrals.To the game they are all neutrals whether lit,under escort,in a convoy or unlit.

Lit or not lit you will still loose renown for sinking them.

In the daytime, if you they start zig-zagging as you approach them, they are enemy. If they stay straight on course, they are neutral. You can also see their flags better in the daytime.

Well if you make your approach properly they should not start zig zagging..if they are zig zagging before you fire then you messed up with your approach.

[hocking]

CWorth, read my post again. I sunk a Brazilian small merchant at night because it was not lit up. It was during September, 1940. Brazil was still a neutral country at that time. I did not get any deduction from my renown for doing this. I am playing GWX, so maybe that makes a difference, I don't know. All I know is that I like to play the game as realistic as possible, and during 1940 all UBoats were instructed to sink any ships that were running blacked out at night, so that is what I do.

Furthermore, I run straight up on merchants during the early years of the war to identify them since their are so many neutral ships running around, and you can't simply look to see if they are running lights or not because it is daytime. I would not do this if they are with an armed escort of course. Furthermore, I don't have to worry about most of the merchants having deck guns or things like that during this time of the war. I just run right up on them to within 700 meters or so, and put a torp in them if they are enemy. When they start zigging and zagging, they are definitely enemy ships trying to evade me, so it makes identifying them that much easier. From 700 meters, it doesn't matter if they are zigging and zagging when I shoot, you can't miss from that range regardless.

Is this realistic. You bet it is. In the early periods of the war, UBoats would actually drive straight up on merchants to identify them. If they are neutral, they would check what they were carrying, and sink them if it is contraband. If they are enemy, they would simply allow the crew to abandon ship, and then sink the ship. On some occastions, they would actually just take the ship back to a German port. Sounds funny I know, but that is how they did it until convoys really started rolling from 1941 on.

[bigboywooly]

If you didnt get a loss of renown it wasnt Brazilian
As at that date they are neutral
The game doesnt recognize if they are lit or dark as there were no lit ships in the original release
Neutral is neutral - lit or dark - and you will lose renown

[bigboywooly]

Oh first convoys began in 39

HX.3 Saturday, September 30th 1939 from Halifax - Liverpool (Saturday, October 14th 1939) go to HX.3 page (http://www.warsailors.com/convoys/hx3.html)


OG.1 Monday, October 2nd 1939 from Bristol - Gibraltar (Sunday, October 8th 1939) go to OG.1 page (http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/ob/ob012.htm)

SLF.3 Monday, October 2nd 1939 from Freetown - Liverpool (Friday, October 13th 1939)

OA.13 Sunday, October 1st 1939 from Southend - Dispersed (Wednesday, October 4th 1939)
OB.13 Sunday, October 1st 1939 from Liverpool - Dispersed (Wednesday, October 4th 1939)

[hocking]

Convoys were actually used back during World War I. Convoys were definitely used in 1939 as soon as the war broke out, but they were very far and few between. You will find that well over the majority of the ships sunk during the "Happy Times" of 1940 were actually ships traveling by themselves, or in small groups with very little destroyer escorts with them if any at all. Britain simply didn't have enough escorts capable of defending enough convoys in the Atlantic to support Britain's economy. Britains economy is dependent on imports/exports. They were very hesitant to force all merchant ships to travel in convoys because they feared it would wipe out at least 1/3 of their economy due to the delays of waiting on convoys to form up. Basically, it was worth risking ships and sailors by having them continue to operate as normal in an effort to keep Britains economy going.

But, after the "Happy Times" of 1940, they knew they had very little choice but to put all merchants into convoys. In fact, as I mentioned before, a huge percentage of the ships sunk during the "Happy Times" of 1940 were ships not traveling in escorted Convoys. Obviously, statistics showed that ships traveling in escorted convoys were definitely less likely to be sunk. With this information, Britain got the US to start building tons of Liberty Ships, and Britain along with the US started building Destroyer Escorts that were capable of escorting convoys across the mid-Atlantic. They correctly saw that convoys were the way to go, regardless of what happens to Britain's economy. In the end, they discovered that the impact to their economy due to convoy merchant shipping was not very negative at all. Going into late 1941, and in 1942 and beyond, finding a single merchant ship was near impossible. I guess this is what I meant when I said "that is how they did it until convoys really started rolling from 1941 on". Donitz didn't even get to test his "Wolf Pack" theory successfully until late 1940, over a year into the war.

So, seeing merchant ships traveling in small groups, or by themselves, in GWX during 1940 is very realistic.

As far as the loss of reknown, I will take your word for it. I will say that I did not notice a loss of reknown when this episode happened. I guess it is very possible that I did lose some reknown, but it must have been such a small amount that I didn't even notice it. Like I said, it was a Brazilian Small Merchant. I have no idea why it did not have any running lights on. The next night I ran across some other Brazilian ships, and they definitely had their running lights on. I checked my reknown at the end, and it looked pretty normal to me seeing how much tonnage I had sunk.

[LeafsFan]

Convoys were actually used back during World War I. Convoys were definitely used in 1939 as soon as the war broke out, but they were very far and few between. You will find that well over the majority of the ships sunk during the "Happy Times" of 1940 were actually ships traveling by themselves, or in small groups with very little destroyer escorts with them if any at all. Britain simply didn't have enough escorts capable of defending enough convoys in the Atlantic to support Britain's economy. Britains economy is dependent on imports/exports. They were very hesitant to force all merchant ships to travel in convoys because they feared it would wipe out at least 1/3 of their economy due to the delays of waiting on convoys to form up. Basically, it was worth risking ships and sailors by having them continue to operate as normal in an effort to keep Britains economy going.



The RN had to divert a fair number of destroyers in 1940 to anti Sealion duties.

HB

[hocking]

That is definitely true LeafsFan. This was another problem Britain was facing. In a nut shell, they just didn't have enough destroyers to provide escorts across the atlantic oceans on a regular basis. In fact, most naval commanders thought using navy ships to escort merchant ships was a complete waist of naval resources. They thought they should do nothing but engage the enemy, and they considered other naval surface ships to be the enemy.

Britains first attempt to correct their lack of escort ships were to build a bunch of Flower Corvettes, and Hunt Destroyers. Flower Corvettes, and later the Hunt Destroyers, were terrible mid-atlantic escort ships. They were more of a coastal escort ship rather than a high-seas escort ship if you know what I mean. They were just way to small, and not fast enough. Britain learned this when they built several tons of these ships in the late 1940's. But, this is what they mainly had when the convoys really started rolling in the late 1940's and early 1941. Sailors hated these ships on escort missions because they knew it meant nothing but sea-sickness, being wet all the time, and being cold all the time. But it was Britains quick-fix on their lack of escort ships for convoys.

[bigboywooly]

True it was a quick fix
Didnt work after the Biscay bases became available so the Hunt was improved and they looked towards the Frigates
Besides the bulk of the sailors on a corvette were reservists anyway with only a few important jobs going to regular officers
Obviously as war continued they got a lot more experiance

And while its true the corvettes were used for coastal escort along with Trawlers - the ships turning for home at a designated point - leaving the ocean escorts to it,Then they would be met the other end by escorts to guide them home ( like the Happy times mission )
This is one thing that cant be modelled in SH3 with the Rnd system
Any ships in the group from the start are there for the entire journey

[azn_132]

These are my first two kills in GWX
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m172/PS_gamelover/SH3Img1-1-2007_3.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m172/PS_gamelover/SH3Img1-1-2007_3-1.jpg

[Jimbuna]

Well done kaleun :up:
You are now on your way to medals and promotion :arrgh!:

[azn_132]

Well done kaleun :up:
You are now on your way to medals and promotion :arrgh!:
Thx, but I use one of those homing torp on the flower and two TIII on the tanker, but the other tanker and flower ran away from me.

[azn_132]

Well done kaleun :up:
You are now on your way to medals and promotion :arrgh!:
I just got promotive to Oberleutnant z. S. after 5 patrols.
And earn both Iron crosses, Uboat War badge, and the Uboat front Clasp for sinkin 14 ships total 98965 tons.

[Jimbuna]

Well done kaleun :up:
You are now on your way to medals and promotion :arrgh!:
I just got promotive to Oberleutnant z. S. after 5 patrols.
And earn both Iron crosses, Uboat War badge, and the Uboat front Clasp for sinkin 14 ships total 98965 tons.

Well, at that rate Doenitz might be able to retire early :up:

[azn_132]

Well done kaleun :up:
You are now on your way to medals and promotion :arrgh!:
I just got promotive to Oberleutnant z. S. after 5 patrols.
And earn both Iron crosses, Uboat War badge, and the Uboat front Clasp for sinkin 14 ships total 98965 tons.

Well, at that rate Doenitz might be able to retire early :up:
And me be the commander of the Uboats and Jimbuna will be my second in command.

[Sea Wolf]

I like to sneek up under neutrals then surface next to them :D

[azn_132]

I like to sneek up under neutrals then surface next to them :D
One time I did that and the Flower that is tryin to attack me but instead attacked the neutral ship I was under in.

[Jimbuna]

Well done kaleun :up:
You are now on your way to medals and promotion :arrgh!:
I just got promotive to Oberleutnant z. S. after 5 patrols.
And earn both Iron crosses, Uboat War badge, and the Uboat front Clasp for sinkin 14 ships total 98965 tons.

Well, at that rate Doenitz might be able to retire early :up:
And me be the commander of the Uboats and Jimbuna will be my second in command.

Steady on there young man !:hmm:
Since when did a medic outrank a Sea Lord :arrgh!:
:rotfl: :rotfl:

[azn_132]

Well done kaleun :up:
You are now on your way to medals and promotion :arrgh!:
I just got promotive to Oberleutnant z. S. after 5 patrols.
And earn both Iron crosses, Uboat War badge, and the Uboat front Clasp for sinkin 14 ships total 98965 tons.

Well, at that rate Doenitz might be able to retire early :up:
And me be the commander of the Uboats and Jimbuna will be my second in command.

Steady on there young man !:hmm:
Since when did a medic outrank a Sea Lord :arrgh!:
:rotfl: :rotfl:
I joined the forum in Apr of 2005 this is 2007 I never post anythang till like now.