Hilfe! No sinkable ships anywhere blues...

[Vainamoinen]

First things first - GWX is great, and I'm having a lot of fun, but...

I've just completed my fifth patrol with a type IIA from Kiel, and it's now April 1940. Each patrol I head for the designated area, hang around for a day and then go to the coast of England. I move down the coast, 50-80 km from it, until I start running out of fuel. During that time I have come across the grand total of one (count 'em) sinkable ship, which I missed sending to the bottom as it was moving away too fast for me. The two juicy freighters I did find turned out to be Norwegian and Dutch. :damn:

I accept that that's probably how things really were (I'm on 84% realism, I love the external camera too much to give it up), but what can I do to increase the odds of finding something? I regularly dive down to 25m to check the hydrophones, I always have good look-outs on the bridge, and I keep playing Lili Marlene to attract a tanker or two, but no luck.

Any tips gratefully received! :up:

[AVGWarhawk]

Get a bigger boat with more fuel and fish. Use the shipping lane map on the main F5 map. There out there man, trust me:yep:

[bigboywooly]

April 40 eh
Get yourself off to Northern Norway coast

Some big fish there at that time
Weserubung and all

[irish1958]

That's why they made hydrophones.
When I was a young lad, I ask my father, "how does one get a girl?"
He said, "go where the girls are."
As usual, BBW has said it all.

[Corsair]

With a IIA also found quite a few targets hanging around outside of Hartlepool...

[Vainamoinen]

Norway it is then - many thanks lads.

Getting a bigger boat has been hampered by my lack of renown due to not finding any ships ...agh.

Have moved up to the heady hights of a IID, though. :arrgh!:

[Steppenwolf]

You might want to check out Reece's increased traffic mod. See this thread:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=107637

[AndyW]

My observation is that Englands Eastern Coast is meager from 1940 onwards (but that was back in the stock game). April 1940 makes Norway a good hunting ground. But be prepared: You now may find enemy ships but the torps will suck big time :nope: - torpedo crisis!

IIRC, the IID has enough fuel to make it into the Irish Sea / North Channel and back if you don't make a too large circle around Scotland. Much shipping going on there on the Western side of England.

Cheers,
AndyW

[Der Kolkrabe]

Last night infiltrade Dunkirk (April 4, 1940)...total tonnage 92052 :up:

Two passenger liner, landing ship tank, heavy transport, auxiliary cruiser, 4x admiralty V&W class, 2x tramp steamer & medium merchant... left Italian merchant but take two fishing boats and motor vessel :lol:

Starting time 04.30 and left harbour 10.00...

But my sub was VII and only damage is when hit harbour wall... Bernaaard!!! :hmm::rotfl:

[P_Funk]

Well GWX certain does its job. The whole point of convoy systems and carefully organized traffic was to limit the areas that you would find it in. That meant that you could have all your escorts (and back then they were woefully short on them) in one area so that your protection net was tighter and easier to deploy.

Find the right traffic lane and you'll be like a drunk fisherman on his anniversary.

[shegeek72]

You might want to give the War Ace Campaign mod a try. It may not be as historically accurate as GWX, but I've never failed to come across some kind of action (except perhaps way out in the middle of the Atlantic out of the shipping lanes).

For example, while heading home passing through the English channel I encountered a fishing trawler. Small fry, but I figured for the fun of it to surface and sink it with the deck gun. The trawler was just about in range when two Brit aircraft showed up! So I crash dived and just as the Brit planes flew on a couple Luffewaffe aircraft showed up and strafed the trawler! :p

I thought since friendlies were in the sky to surface and finish off the trawler, but as soon as I did the Brit aircraft showed up again! So it was back under the surface. I decided this was too much trouble for a paltry trawler and headed back on course to Brest. This was after a satisfying patrol of sinking, among other ships, a pyro that put on a lovely show when it exploded and an ore carrier. :up:
--
http://tarafoundation.org/sh3_wac_banner3.jpg

[xlbob]

Try the strait between Orkney and Shetland, but you don't have to enter the strait, just patrol the area before the strait ... plenty of ships traffic there. Sunk my first whale factory ship there, it was escorted by one tramp streamer. The escort ran away after the first torp hit the whale factory:rotfl:

[Vainamoinen]

Well, Norway it was, and as promised there was plenty of traffic in and around the fjords, picked up a Royal Navy task force straight off.

I had a real shock when I went to dive, though: in the game the fjords are only 10 metres deep, rather than the 800 metres in real life. :hmm:

No wonder I got a good, well-deserved depth charging to end my career right there. :roll:

[Brag]

Try the strait between Orkney and Shetland, but you don't have to enter the strait, just patrol the area before the strait ... plenty of ships traffic there. Sunk my first whale factory ship there, it was escorted by one tramp streamer. The escort ran away after the first torp hit the whale factory:rotfl:

That area worked very well for me. 2 patrols in a canoe and had enough renown for a VIIB (no extras) :D

[Vainamoinen]

Try the strait between Orkney and Shetland, but you don't have to enter the strait, just patrol the area before the strait ... plenty of ships traffic there. Sunk my first whale factory ship there, it was escorted by one tramp streamer. The escort ran away after the first torp hit the whale factory:rotfl:

That area worked very well for me. 2 patrols in a canoe and had enough renown for a VIIB (no extras) :D


Sounds good, thanks. I'll try that in my new stab at September 1939 in a dugout. :up: