Convoy hunting...how far do people go?

[Khourieat]

So I went after my first convoy this weekend, with a vengence at least, I've picked off a single target and ran away before (it's called flanking, it's a tactical manuever damnit!), but this time I really tried to sink my teeth into it.

As far as I could tell, it was a 12 ship convoy (set up in a 4x3 grid) escorted by 3 destroyers. I came in from the side, let two torpedoes go and played cat and mouse with one of the escorts for a while. The first torpedo hit a small merchant, the second a C2 (not bad for my career my actually!).

Eventually I managed to shake off the escort and went after the convoy again, this time I managed THREE targets in one try: A troop transport, a C3 and a T3 tanker (was complete luck too, I had aimed for the small merchant behind it since I didn't really have time to aim for a weak spot, was about to crash dive to escape).

But after this I was starting to get too damaged to hunt them effectively, I was worried I was going to lose the u-boat to pressure/hull integrity trying to escape the escorts the third time...

So that's 5 out of 12, not amazing or anything, but it did boost my renoun by quite a bite...how do the experts normally fare against a large convoy like this? :hmm:

[bigboywooly]

Well thats not a bad tally for a convoy attacks
And you live to attack another day

Any convoy attack where you sink something and sail away is a good one

Job done :up:

[Khourieat]

Well thats not a bad tally for a convoy attacks
And you live to attack another day

Any convoy attack where you sink something and sail away is a good one

Job done :up:

lol so hit and run is pretty normal? I wasn't sure if I was "supposed" to sink them all, or take what I can and run off for easier prey...

And by "supposed" I mean..."good" :yep:

[Corsair]

It depends very much on what year we're in (which means how good/equipped the DDs are) what time of the day (and preferably of the night) and what weather conditions.
But yes if I managed to sink 5 targets every time I get at a convoy, I would be very happy. :D Sometimes I've been happy to sink even 1 and get away with it...

[bigboywooly]

There are no hard and fast rules in convoy attacking
Sometimes you can sink 1 and take an awfull beating and other times sink the lot
Take each one as it comes

As the years go by it gets harder with more escorts and radar

[Khourieat]

Hmmmm works for me then!! Woohoo, lets celebrate!

Drinks all around.

Hmmmm I seem to have forgotten my wallet in my u-boat though ;)

(One day I'll graduate to a game with a > 0 realism setting, right now though, my u-boat has training wheels.)

[bigboywooly]

:rotfl: :()1: :()1:

We all have to start somewhere

[danurve]

There are no hard and fast rules in convoy attacking
Sometimes you can sink 1 and take an awfull beating and other times sink the lot
Take each one as it comes

As the years go by it gets harder with more escorts and radar

Amen to that.


Why just the other night I attacked a convoy heading West into AM53. Scored 2 C2's, swung around and fished a 3rd. She didn't go down, I'm out of fish and so I thought to follow her under the convoy untill they left her behind or I could sneek between the lines while the escorts were off looking about. Well, she didn't get left behind and the convoy is going slow enough where even wounded she kept up.
Figgured I could surface and finish her off... :sunny:
I was wrong.

[Heibges]

If I find a convoy I generally can sink 5 to 7 ships.

I will conduct 3 attacks over the course of 36 hours.

I will usually fire 2 fan shots of 2 eels each, then spin around and fire my aft tube and a target of opportunity.

Then I break off the engagment, move away from the convoy, reload my torpedoes, and start the overhaul maneuver again.

[Brag]

Well thats not a bad tally for a convoy attacks
And you live to attack another day

Any convoy attack where you sink something and sail away is a good one

Job done :up:

lol so hit and run is pretty normal? I wasn't sure if I was "supposed" to sink them all, or take what I can and run off for easier prey...

And by "supposed" I mean..."good" :yep:

Congratz, good tonnage :yep: and it is hit and run --hit and try to get out alive. If you have torpedoes hit 'em the following night. When in doubt pull out, just like you did. :up: :up: :up:

[Keelbuster]

Nice work - i'd be happy with a Troop Transport, a C3, and a T3. That's got to be >20k right?

Generally I keep coming back till I run out of torpedoes or sustain damage that prevents me to dive.

You did the right thing.

Kb

[Mooncatt]

it depends for me. i will make my attack and fire all 4 fish 2fish to 1 target. that usually puts em down. i will then sneak away but by then i have at least 2 dds on me. eventually they will leave and head back to the convoy which by then are quite a long way off. if i feel lucky and conditions permitting i might make another pass at the convoy.

[zaunkonigII]

Me? I usually meet it head-on at flank speed (I need the turn-rate), fire two all-tubes homing torp spreads, then go silent and crash-dive. When the first hits come, I set sonar to track nearest warship, drop a decoy when it comes near, double knuckle and then when the DCs come I go to flank speed towards the front of the convoy, then all stop. Generally the escorts will be left behind, I pick them one by one and then head towards the rest of the convoy and gun them down. I bagged about 40k this way. Of course, it works only as planned about 35% of the time, and 50% of the time I get sunk :rotfl: . No matter, just reload save and repeat.

[Mooncatt]

ahhh so you dont play DID then? no wonder you use such "gung ho" tactics. i play DID and am a lot more careful with what i do

[zaunkonigII]

ahhh so you dont play DID then? no wonder you use such "gung ho" tactics. i play DID and am a lot more careful with what i do

Yup. I'm still playing at 40-48% realism (depending if I need good screenshots), so I'm nowhere as good as the veteran Kaleuns here. But I learn, and maybe in the next couple of months I can go up to as high as Hard :know: ! But nowadays I can't live without auto TDC, WeapOfficer assist and MapUpdate :smug: .

Also, it really is a fault of mine, SH3 or not, to abuse the save system and all that :D ... At times I wish life has a "save" feature, but heh, life is permanently DID, and SH3 gung-ho tactics don't work here :D .

[Tiny]

Yesterday I made the craziest attack I've ever done so far, Heavy fog, Heavy raining waiting for a large convoy to come out of the mist (sweat).

Then starting to hear a destroyers sound (no external, 100%) and the destroyers almost ramms me in his zig-zag running...if he just knew...and I was holding my breath just waiting for the whole boat going upside down and destroyed by collision, but he passed me with about two to one meter...:o

Then after a while a Whale ship on 13000 tons shows up and my periscope won't lock onto him!!! so after almost losing it I ordered vannziniger fahrt and began to race along side it and managed to slam 3 torps into him and while diving down and succesfully avoiding being DC'ed I could hear him going down............Just like in Das Boot!!!

[Mooncatt]

hehehe awesome tiny nice story :up:

[mariuszj1939]

My tactics :
- max 2-3 targets for stock SH3 - T3/T2/Troop transport/C3 or seldom Liners
- max 2 targets for GWX - Whale Factory Ship/Pyro or Large Merchant /or good escort as Fiji or BB/

I sunk only two times whole escorts and ... more ships
Two reasons :
- rich renown convoy - a lot of tankers
- good weather for deck gun attack (I finished a lot of targets)

[Woof1701]

Sinking escorts normally is not the right thing for me in a Typ VII. Not enough torpedoes anyway to kill the whole escort screen. If there's an opportunity to get rid of the lead DD the easy way I don't shun it though.

Hit and run is the only way to do it.
However, sometimes in early war I also get lucky and find myself in the middle of the convoy after my first attack and I try to stay near a merchant on periscope depth and check my position relative to the merchant every minute or so. That way I'm pretty safe from the escorts since they generally don't get near enough to attack even though they know where I am. So I've got time to reload my torpedoes. Right when my shadowing escort swings away for another turn I go to flank speed and dive to 25 meteres turn 90° left or right below the merchant I was "hiding" with and come up to PD to attack the next row with 2 spreads of two torpedoes. That only works with weapons officer though. Normally the shadowing escort will take some time homeing in on you because he has do go around the merchant you dived under and sometimes doesn't aquire you on the spot. As soon as the torps are away I crash to 150 meters and change course in the direction of the nearest merchant and try to sneak away. Pretty risky business though. Got myself killed on more than one occasion. Never works later in the war either because you normally can't fool two or three escorts shadowing you at the same time.

[Foghladh_mhara]

Well I'm still a new recruit to SH3 and have only encountered 1 convoy in the north channel but my attack went: Spot convoy on surface in daylight, plot course, Full flank ahead to ambush position. Periscope depth and wait for my prey. Up scope there they are, down scope. Off to TDC to set up my manual attack, struggle for 5 mins on whether to use magnetic or impact trigger and set running depth and AOB. Time to recheck range back to the scope. Up scope. Bugger its already up and has been all the time! Escort looks very big because he's right on top of me. Dive. Die. Bang head on table and start new career. The end

[Jimbuna]

My tactic: Don't do anything thats got you killed in the past!! :nope: :arrgh!:

[Brag]

Yesterday I made the craziest attack I've ever done so far, Heavy fog, Heavy raining waiting for a large convoy to come out of the mist (sweat).

Then starting to hear a destroyers sound (no external, 100%) and the destroyers almost ramms me in his zig-zag running...if he just knew...and I was holding my breath just waiting for the whole boat going upside down and destroyed by collision, but he passed me with about two to one meter...:o

Then after a while a Whale ship on 13000 tons shows up and my periscope won't lock onto him!!! so after almost losing it I ordered vannziniger fahrt and began to race along side it and managed to slam 3 torps into him and while diving down and succesfully avoiding being DC'ed I could hear him going down............Just like in Das Boot!!!

Yes! Those low visibility adventures can be scary. well done! :up:

[OneTinSoldier]

If I find a convoy I generally can sink 5 to 7 ships.

I will conduct 3 attacks over the course of 36 hours.

I will usually fire 2 fan shots of 2 eels each, then spin around and fire my aft tube and a target of opportunity.

Then I break off the engagment, move away from the convoy, reload my torpedoes, and start the overhaul maneuver again.

That's pretty much what I do too. I like to take out one of the escorts if I can, otherwise I find it can be hard to get my foot in the door.

[RawRecruit]

I usually try to wait till dark and go in on the surface. I get in position dead ahead of the side escort and match his speed, far enough away so I'm not seen. As soon as he starts his weave out to the side, I turn in and begin my attack. My last attack got me a C3, a T3 and a Whale Factory ship for 4 torpedoes! :)

My best attack was an East-bound convoy that was only guarded by a lead and rear escort. I attacked in the side and scored two C3. The escorts tried to find me but I evaded them. So I reloaded,went in again, fired a single torpedo at each of my four targets and sunk a T3 and disabled a C3 and a small merchant. I hit a large merchant, too, but it kept going. I dived and the escorts ran about before going back to the convoy. I waited for a while, submerged and skulking about the stationary ships, and reloaded my last torpedoes (only 2 left at this point). After the convoy had moved on a bit, I surfaced and torpedoed the C3 and deck gunned the small merchant into oblivion. I then hit flank speed and headed South before East, thus sidestepping the escorts that raced back to find me. I sped on past them and caught back up with the convoy and dashed in at the damaged Large Merchant and finished her with my last torpedo. I did this rather hurriedly whilst under fire from some guns on a freighter. I about turned and scarpered for home! It was totally exhilerating and, at just shy of 80k tonnes, my best patrol to date! :rock:

[XXi]

Depends... on the weather, year, situation, the Uboot I have.
Recently, I `ve intercepted a small convoy of 8 tankers and 2 large cargo ships in the Caribbean, mid 1942 while navigating IXD2. It was night and weather conditions were good - I stayed on surface and attacked from the starboard, firing a salvo of 4 torpedoes to 4 targets, then I moved a little bit and fired 2 aft torpedos at a merchant - set deep because of the angle and risk of a dud torpedo.

In two nights battle I managed to destroy all convoy except one cargo and both DDs - they were very unexpierienced and ran out of DCs in the first night. It made all the attacks on the next night so damn easier :D

If the weather is bad enough, I tend to remain surfaced ( or submerge only for short ) and make surface attacks within the convoy at high speed. Of course, such tactics is OK until 1941-2 then it`s just too risky.

In general I adjust the tactis to suit the situation, but there are several things I try to avoid.
I never ever attack in shallow water, that is if there`s less than 75-100m. Preferable areas for daring attacks are 100-200m deep. It`s deep enough to hide and if everything fail there is a slight chance you`ll stay at the bottom and still manage to repair and surface instead of beeing crushed. Of course, it`s just a slight chance.
I avoid attacks in heavy fog and rain - sometimes I use it for getting into a convoy, but on the other hand, there is a risk.
And of course I don`t like areas where patrol planes are often met - if I`m closing a convoy and get spotted by a plane, everything messes up.

[RawRecruit]

Yeah I should have mentioned that the above was in early-mid 1941...any later and that would have been suicide!

[danurve]

...

I will usually fire 2 fan shots of 2 eels each, then spin around and fire my aft tube and a target of opportunity.



http://www.huntny.us/sh3/2_22_07/21_19.jpg

Gaarrrrrrr .. :arrgh!:

[High Voltage]

I tend to play it safe and attack only fishing boats and unarmed tugs. My last attack cost me 6 torps but netted me almost 2000 tonnes...:rock:

[robbo180265]

I tend to play it safe and attack only fishing boats and unarmed tugs. My last attack cost me 6 torps but netted me almost 2000 tonnes...:rock:

I'm having one of "those" patrols at the moment:doh:

[Doc1234]

Hi all,

I am playing 100% realism, with GWX mod. i will shadow a convoy for hours, diving and listening on the hydrophone when I lose visual contact. Sometimes I will encounter a convoy at 0800 and shadow until it gets dark 2300!!!! sometimes. I then will try to get within 400-500 meters and will shoot two fish per vessel. I aim for the closet vessel. Most of my attacks are on the surface. So far, one career without dying I have sunk 85,000 tons. Got lucky one mission and encountered a battleship and sent her to the bottom. Hope i don't die before reaching the magic 100,000 ton mark (more or less when U-Boat captains were awarded the Knight's Cross) Good Hunting to all!