Attacking a convoy during heavy fog ?

[matxer]

During heavy fog (in the stock game) I can't see more than 500 meters away, often less.

I tried to intercept a convoy. But in fact, it is the convoy which intercepted me !

I was almost rammed by a cargo, which hadn't even detected me.

I had trouble shooting torpedoes because you need at least a 300 meter distance.

When a ship is hit but goes on moving, I often lose it due to very poor visibility.

True, I can easily disappear when detected, but is attacking a convoy during heavy fog worth the waste of torpedoes and uncomplete kills ?

[danlisa]

Welcome Mate.:up:

Attacking in heavy fog is dangerous. Escorts can be on top of you (literally) before you know it.

If you are going to attack then make sure you get the kill in at the first attempt.

You are fairly immune in the early part of the war and can in fact be on the surface in the centre of the convoy without being attacked.

The only other option left to you is to shadow the convoy and wait for the weather to break. (if you do this, then please remember about the weather bug;))

Good Hunting.

[cardician]

And what would the weather bug be?

[Henri II]

If I attack a convoy in fog, I usually just snipe at the smaller ships on the sides or in the rear. I tried to go into the centrum for the bigger ships once, turned out it had a cruiser in there. After a full salvo from the main battery there was not much left of my boat.

[danlisa]

And what would the weather bug be?

The built in weather generator for SH3 is a little 'quirky'.

So for example, if you are shadowing a convoy in bad weather and you save while in bad weather, you will have the bad weather again after reloading for AT LEAST 2 days game time. I say at least 2 days because that's the amount of time used before SH3 decides if it should change the weather based on a percentage chance. This is why you see reports of bad weather lasting more than 2 weeks.

[Brag]

A succesful convoy attack depends primarely on your awareness of the tactical situation. Stumbling around in fog is simply a non starter. :dead:

[Corsair]

Just for info, using last version of SH3 Weather during my last patrol, I never had more than 2 days with the same weather and most of the time weather (wind speed, fog, clouds) was changing once or twice every 24 hours. It was July and I had 80% of the time good weather (clear/partly cloudy) with various wind speeds and directions.

[LeafsFan]

And what would the weather bug be?

that would be bug # 417.5 The weather often never changes in stock SH3, or at least doesn't vary for many, many days.

HB

[danurve]

Yeah dense fog, heavy rain. No doubt passed traffic like it wasn't there. Drop down to 30m for a sound check, hey look (hear), merchants headed off in the distance .. fading :stare: Makes a good Kaleun consider the Med. But there's always jazz happening in the W/approaches.

[Jimbuna]

Hydrophones are your greatest allie in heavy fog...the fog itself is of most benefit to the convoy and escorts. If an escort gets a whiff of you he'll run you down quicker than you can shout AALLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRMMMMM!! :arrgh!:

[Turm]

The built in weather generator for SH3 is a little 'quirky'.

So for example, if you are shadowing a convoy in bad weather and you save while in bad weather, you will have the bad weather again after reloading for AT LEAST 2 days game time. I say at least 2 days because that's the amount of time used before SH3 decides if it should change the weather based on a percentage chance. This is why you see reports of bad weather lasting more than 2 weeks.
I have a little evidence to the contrary, but the way the weather system works does explain why I have seen only 3 changes in weather in 7 patrols!!! (I'm still on my first career here since SH3 came out!). Once, I got clouds and slightly increased wind, on patrol 2 or 3. On patrol 7, my first in a Type VII, I had a change in wind speed from 5m/s to 7m/s, later back to 5m/s, and just yesterday in the night it changed to 13m/s, wind direction finally changing for the first time ever from 0 to 351! Astonishing ;) But I've yet to see any fog or rain between Sept 1939 and April 1940 :doh:

Anyway, the change I saw yesterday came after about 12-13 hours of game time (and about an hour of real time). I loaded the game at 9am in-game and saved around midnight.

Further to this, I had a silly save bug earlier in the patrol. Although I saved it when all was clear, my crew not alerted, when I reloaded next day my crew immediately went to alerted status and I had a pair of Swordfish off my stern about 10 seconds from their attack! This caused me to re-load the save point several times, to try to avoid deaths/damage that I was getting due to the error in the saved game. Eventually, I got off lightly so carried on my game as if it never happened.

Anyway, about an hour after this save point, the weather changed! (7m/s to 5m/s) Curious because I'd read about the weather bug, I reloaded yet again and replayed, and after the same period of time (~1 hour), the weather indeed changed yet again(and again 7m/s to 5m/s). So this small piece of evidence goes against the 'reset weather timer' bug when you reload. Twice it changed within an hour of reloading the same save point.

That said, the weather change came as I passed south between two grid squares, so maybe passing certain latitudes trigger a change, regardless of the timer used for calculating changes in the weather normally? No idea, but just another spanner in the works :D

I'm running stock SH3 1.4b with a few select mods.

[TarJak]

Get to where the escorts can;t see or hear you and keep tracking the convoy until the weather changes for the better. I never attack a convoy in heavy fog but have done well in medium fog in early war where the escorts a dumber.

[Dantenoc]

Early war with a slow convoy (like 5kts)? go for it :up:

Bad weather is your friend, it makes you invisible and even helps you sink your targets under the waves faster... all you need to know is learn how to cope with being blind (hydrophone ;) wink wink)

[Mooncatt]

i was just gonna mention the hydraphone too!
in heavy fog or any bad weather come to think of it, i would be at pd depth beating the hydraphone like it owed me money!!! then work out the range then raise periscope and u can usually make out some sillouettes (spelling?)

[Foghladh_mhara]

i was just gonna mention the hydraphone too!
in heavy fog or any bad weather come to think of it, i would be at pd depth beating the hydraphone like it owed me money!!! then work out the range then raise periscope and u can usually make out some sillouettes (spelling?)

Silhouette. You forgot the 'h' boy :stare: Now write it out 500 times and no patrol for you tonight

[Mooncatt]

:cry: but sir then i cant do a patrol :rotfl:

[Foghladh_mhara]

:cry: but sir then i cant do a patrol :rotfl:

Well perhaps it'll help us concentrate a little bit harder the next time. Poor grammar and spelling, like poor hygiene, reflects badly on you as a person. You have the ability but seem to lack the mental maturity I would expect of a boy your age. Do you want to sweep streets for a living? Is that what you want in life?

Oh hang on, that was a flashback to my schooldays :D

[Steel_Tomb]

Towards the end of the war its not so bad, if you know your pretty close to a contact/s just fire off a couple of acoustic homing fish and they will find the targets for you. Worked for me lastnight took down a large tanker with one, not to mention the liberty cargo and a medium cargo too :D. I had a lucky hit too there was an escort coming towards me from dead ahead so I pinged the sonar to get his range and fired a fish blind, I got him too was right chuffed!

[Jimbuna]

I had a lucky hit too there was an escort coming towards me from dead ahead so I pinged the sonar to get his range and fired a fish blind, I got him too was right chuffed!

Very fortuitous indeed kaleun :arrgh!:

[xlbob]

I tried to attack a convoy in bad weather once, it was dark, raining, the wave was high, and visibility was really low. I abandoned the attack cause ships were only visible when they're closer than 300 m. It was a really frustrating experience. Once the ships got farther than 300 m, it dissapeared.

After that, whenever I'm in bad weather (dark, rain and low visibility) I simply up the TC to 1024 so that I can avoid frustration :D

[robbo180265]

RIP Kaleun Willi Shultz. Died last night with all hands whilst attacking a convoy in heavy fog,rammed by a destroyer.

[Gezoes]

Sorry to hear that! I find fog quite useful when attacking convoys...

That is... stay on the bridge looking out and bring your best men too.

I personally have never been rammed that way.

I did get shot at ofcourse, but a good kaleun knows the sounds of a shell swooshing by :know:

[Jimbuna]

better to use your hydrophones in foggy weather :yep: :arrgh!:

[Henri II]

A have a question to the people who use hydrophones in fog. As far as I can tell it is more or less impossible to accurately estimate the range to a contact with hydrophones, and since you have to be at PD to fire torpedoes I find it rather difficult not to be rammed while creeping around at 2 kts in the middle of a convoy. So, what's the trick?

[Jimbuna]

The vessel/ship is pretty well near the exact point the direction line ends ;)

[Sharkfood]

RIP Kaleun Willi Shultz. Died last night with all hands whilst attacking a convoy in heavy fog,rammed by a destroyer.

Oh,such a shame.I hate heavy fog.In fact i don't try to attack in heavy fog exactly because usually something bad happens to my crew. :88)

Medium fog is ideal for convoy attack though.It also makes it easier to shadow it after an initial strike. :arrgh!: