Catching up to fast-moving Convoy's

[Kweli]

Question/Concern about catching up to a fast-moving Convoy...

A few times in the game ive located a fast moving convoy, at FLANK speed they either stay at 'constant distance' or slowly inch away... and I can never catch up...

Ive been able to surface my sub and quickly catch them... but once they see me they start to zig-zag and i loose all 'ambush' advantage

What are you guys doing in this situation?

[NefariousKoel]

Do what they used to do... an "End-Around"

Figure out approximately how fast and on what heading they're travelling... Run at high speed on the surface just outside of sighting distance and get a ways ahead of them. Pull up right in their line of advance and wait for them to come to you! :arrgh!:

[AVGWarhawk]

End round my friend. Plot projected path and speed. Go around them out of sight. Once around them submerge and wait to ambush. Let them come to you.

[Kweli]

Im going to have to figure out how to plot this 'end-around' course...

Thanks guys

[tater]

It's actually too easy in many cases to end around, particularly the military task forces. Every single one in game has AOs that limit their speed to 11 knots. In RL, those big juicy targets should be steaming at more like 18 knots. You should either luck out and be in front of a TF, or be SOL.

[Quillan]

It depends on the makeup of the task force. I ran across the mother of all task forces a couple of nights ago: 2 Ise-class battleships, 2 Furutaka-class heavy cruisers, 2 Mogami-class heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers (Naka and another whose name I forget) plus a couple of tankers, and 6 escorts. The tankers slow down the whole group.

[Kweli]

Who would be your primary targets in a convoy like that?

I can never figure it out.... I just go for the ship that looks the biggest

[Quillan]

In that particular case, I launched all 6 front torps at the lead Ise from 4400 yards out. I was low on torpedoes at the time; I only had 8 left, all in the front, so I just turned after launching them at slow speed and began evasion. If I'd had a full load, I'd probably have launched 6 at the lead Ise, spun 180 degrees and put 4 into the second Ise hoping to at least cripple it, then dealt with it later.

[SteamWake]

Ive never heard of it called end around but its the same principal. I called it shadowing.

Basically run a parallel course to the convoy, at a high rate of speed. Typically you can out run them.

Position yourself ahead of the convoy on their anticipated path and lay in wait.

It takes some time and patience but its really as simple as that. Only thing is one sighting by an aircraft and the whole thing can be spoiled.

[Kweli]

When your shadowing them... how many NM are you?

I assume they are not visiable on the maps either? Basically your just guessing where they will be... and a change of course may screw you up??

When you reach your 'end' point... do you submerge to parascope, or deeper for hydrophone?

[NefariousKoel]

I generally stay about 9-10 nm away from the nearest (usually escort) ship in the group. More if the escorts make really wide sweeps outward. Under 8 nm away and the chance of being spotted starts rising drastically.

Doing that leaves you out of sight, but if you know how fast the convoy is moving you can easily set a speed that will get you ahead of them within a 50 or 60nm run if a slow or medium speed convoy.

[-Pv-]

The end around is used when you are not in a position in front of a convoy when sighted. Most of your attacks should start in the front 45 degrees anyway.

Early in the war, the AI appear to be programmed to slow to the speed of the slowest high value ship, so if you are in a tough position, put one fish in anything of value you can get your sites on. That will slow the whole convoy for a while so you can make repeated attacks. Once a ship is stopped or sinking the others will finally leave it behind. I like to stop several ships in my 1st attack and pick them off with the deck gun later. Will get more sinkings that way than hammering with 6-8 torps per ship.

I think most people consider "shadowing" when you are simply keeping in contact with the ships without being seen. Pacing them. Making contact reports.

Like everyone so far has said, track the convoy for a while just staying out of visual range (later in the war you have radar to worry about) and don't forget about possible air patrols near the coast. "Shadow" them. The clock is always ticking. Get a feel for their track by placing marks along positions of certain non-escort ships and draw lines through the tracks using the ruler tool. Using a little bit of math, figure out where they will be in the next 1/2 hour and place a circle with a .5 mile radius on the track line. This is one probable attack circle you can use as an initial attack position. Be ready to modify this 1st guess as conditions change. Get yourself in an attack profile when both you and the target(s) reach the circle. This requires you to make a high speed arc around the outside of the convoy keeping just outside the sighting distance of the closest escort. Keep in mind different escorts my be the closest to you in any given time in the arc, so be prepaired to switch tracking targets.

During day the risk of being sighted when under 8000 yards increases depending on your speed and profile (angle.) The faster and more 90 degrees you are (to the escort) the more likely to be seen. During the night, you can get as close as 3500 yards (depending on lighting, fog, waves and enemy crew alertness) to escorts and as close as 2000-3000 to merchants (again depending on conditions.) If you use deck awash techniques, you can reduce sighting distance about 10-20%.

Again as others have said, if you get way out front, you can submerge on their track and sit there nearly completely invisible using no battery and let them storm into your ambush. The only trick is getting that 1st out-front escort to slip by without detection, but I have to leave you SOMETHING to learn...

-Pv-

[Ducimus]

End round my friend. Plot projected path and speed. .

Javoel Herr.... oh .. wait a min.... nevermind..:roll:

http://www.ducimus.net/sh4/release/help_range_chart.jpg

[don1reed]

...if you're driving an "S" boat, forgetaboutit, you'll never catch them unless they fall into your lap.

[davejb]

End around -
also depends on speed of your boat and time of day, a fast(ish) target might take too long to get ahead of before dawn's rosey light makes high speed surface runs 'gamey' (at least) or dangerous.

High value units are frequently oilers - the combattants need to keep fuel stocks up, as high speeds are part of the armoury and if your fuel levels are low you simply cannot run at high speeds unless oars are fitted in time for the return to base. This means that by sinking the suport oilers you've severely hampered the employment of the whole TG. Having said that, everyone would go for the battleships probably...

[Bilge_Rat]

end around at flank is the best way, you can never catch them underwater.

yes those japanese TFs need to be reworked, they regularly moved at 20+ knots to avoid subs. The AOs need to be moved into their own TFs.

I also don't believe the japanese would have AO's accompanying TFs all the time, except for specific operations such as Pearl Harbour, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal or the Philippines Sea where they might have to operate away from a port. Even then AO's were always in their own TFs behind the main TFs.

Except for operations, after early 1942, IJN TFs were always steaming close to or from one port to another.