9th_cow
05-16-07, 10:43 AM
ok, third mission in a row, go recon the same darned harbour. alright its mid 42, ill just tear over there at full speed and refuel along the way.
except i got bored. as you do repeating the same thing over and over ( perhaps because i didnt radio in a report when it said the mission was complete ? )
anyways, first order of buisness, check out some ports in IJN hands.
same old, destroyers and fishing boats. not worth the risk in shallow waters.
so i head north, the traffic here is insane. i pass 3 convoys, none excite me much so i ignore them, and keep going north, there are some 20 something contacts in this area all the time.
finally i pick up a convoy in a nice deep area of the sea ( or is it ocean) poor convoy tonnage wise, only one thing worth a shot. so i fire 4 at him. well i guess i got the speed wrong, all 4 missed.
some time later i do get an impact so come back up to periscope depth and see a boat on the horizon burning, nose under water, engine chewing air. of course it wont sink, and doesnt. i decide to give up and leave.
next day, finally something worth a shot. euro liner, 4 escorts, nice depth beneath me.
i fire 4, 1 dud, but all 4 hit. 18K to my name. not bad for 8 torps ( inlcuding the 4 wasted in the night before)
ok so much for that idea, 4 days on station, nothing else turns up. so i leave. and start making my way to my destination. when i get surprised by some aircraft, worse still i get hit by them too.
i dive under and set about controlling the damage, repairs take some time, but i get them done, a quick look about with the observation scope and i come back up, to get rid of the water i took on board.
obviously seconds later more aircraft were sighted.
never mind i want to test my performance now ive been damaged, so i crash dive, then decide to test max depth, oddly i can make it safely down to crush depth.
good news for once, im pretty much 100% operational then. i surface, finish of repairing the engines and batteries.
4 hours or so of diving and surfacing i finally give up and decide to stay under, there is a carpet of aircraft out there. and at the same time as im going under i get a contact report, heading directly at me is a massive task force ( never intercepted one this size before)
ok damage controll teams in place i take them of battle stations, on theyre heading they will be with me in a few hours. my guys can get a rest.
i raise the scope and keep watching the horizon for a long time. untill finally the first destroyer comes into view. 10 minutes later i almost pass out with joy.
never seen a carrier before and here are 3 of them in a row, 2 battleships, 2 seaplane tenders, cruisers, destroyers, troop ships. you name it, as far as the eye can see. as it is i possitioned my self wrongly and thought, caution to the wind!
im not missing this opertunity. i order ahead flank and bring my nose to bear, almost ready to cry :) as the first, and second carrier tear past me at speed.
and finally i get the nose around again, i guess speed, hammer in range and angle on bow asap. and fire 4.
all 4 hit and a cheer goes up then i make a mistake, i calculate again and fire the last 2. before theyre out the tubes the carrier almost rolls over 100% and i miss with the last 2 anyway.
ok max depth and get out of dodge, i turn south and sneak away, now these guys are moving, so if i stay down i lose them the next 20 or so hours, are none stop action, tearing along at full speed on the surface, diving to avoid planes, dodging destroyers sent to investigate the one time i didnt dive quick enough.
now in darkness i finally get back in there, infront of them, i lie deep and wait, then get a nasty shock. remember those 4 torps i wasted on the convoy and the 2 i missed when i fired on the already sunk carrier, well now i have 2 tubes left in the front :doh:
i could have cried right then :) as it was i turned my tail to the convoy, plotted theyre course, and got quite lucky, it brough the carriers withint 900 feet of me, i got the speed way of again, but managed to nail the second carrier with my 4 rear tubes.
i took a pot shot at a kongo passing to my front must have got the speed wrong yet again, and the torps took of miles infront of it. thats it, 4 fish left and they ain loaded. no way am i going to get another shot at these guys.
i dive and leave the area, and im now heading back to my original mission, i wont be sinking much else thats for sure.
and to think i wasted 8 torps in total. and as a result let a carrier, and a few battleships get away from me.
my previous patrols all ended with between 28/52 K very few misses that could be avoided ( premature detination, or evading by the target)
now i get the biggest gift a sub commander could ever hope for, and i cant hit a thing hehe
i do have over 80K for this patrol though, revenge for the hornet i would say !
just goes to show, never bother taking a 50/50 shot because your bored. you never know whats going to come and present itself to you later in the week..
as it was i had a great time :) first ever sighting of a carrier in the campaign and 3 come along at once.
if only i had been more sparing with my fishies, i could have really upset them.
it may not be exciting for ppl who bump into these task forces all the time, but its the first one ive intercepted, the previous ones that were of note were when i was playing on auto aim. so werent as satisfying.
only one thing thats bugging me at the moment, you know the back breaking trick in SHIII where you could fire under the hull of a ship and the prox charge would blow the torp ? does that even work here, at any year ?
one thing i liked about that engagement is the fact that i just had to decide to give up. wasnt worth another day of none stop attacks by aircraft on the off chance id get another go with those last 4 fish, pitty it doesnt seem to work like that online, where it seems every mission is a massacre for the surface vessells.
except i got bored. as you do repeating the same thing over and over ( perhaps because i didnt radio in a report when it said the mission was complete ? )
anyways, first order of buisness, check out some ports in IJN hands.
same old, destroyers and fishing boats. not worth the risk in shallow waters.
so i head north, the traffic here is insane. i pass 3 convoys, none excite me much so i ignore them, and keep going north, there are some 20 something contacts in this area all the time.
finally i pick up a convoy in a nice deep area of the sea ( or is it ocean) poor convoy tonnage wise, only one thing worth a shot. so i fire 4 at him. well i guess i got the speed wrong, all 4 missed.
some time later i do get an impact so come back up to periscope depth and see a boat on the horizon burning, nose under water, engine chewing air. of course it wont sink, and doesnt. i decide to give up and leave.
next day, finally something worth a shot. euro liner, 4 escorts, nice depth beneath me.
i fire 4, 1 dud, but all 4 hit. 18K to my name. not bad for 8 torps ( inlcuding the 4 wasted in the night before)
ok so much for that idea, 4 days on station, nothing else turns up. so i leave. and start making my way to my destination. when i get surprised by some aircraft, worse still i get hit by them too.
i dive under and set about controlling the damage, repairs take some time, but i get them done, a quick look about with the observation scope and i come back up, to get rid of the water i took on board.
obviously seconds later more aircraft were sighted.
never mind i want to test my performance now ive been damaged, so i crash dive, then decide to test max depth, oddly i can make it safely down to crush depth.
good news for once, im pretty much 100% operational then. i surface, finish of repairing the engines and batteries.
4 hours or so of diving and surfacing i finally give up and decide to stay under, there is a carpet of aircraft out there. and at the same time as im going under i get a contact report, heading directly at me is a massive task force ( never intercepted one this size before)
ok damage controll teams in place i take them of battle stations, on theyre heading they will be with me in a few hours. my guys can get a rest.
i raise the scope and keep watching the horizon for a long time. untill finally the first destroyer comes into view. 10 minutes later i almost pass out with joy.
never seen a carrier before and here are 3 of them in a row, 2 battleships, 2 seaplane tenders, cruisers, destroyers, troop ships. you name it, as far as the eye can see. as it is i possitioned my self wrongly and thought, caution to the wind!
im not missing this opertunity. i order ahead flank and bring my nose to bear, almost ready to cry :) as the first, and second carrier tear past me at speed.
and finally i get the nose around again, i guess speed, hammer in range and angle on bow asap. and fire 4.
all 4 hit and a cheer goes up then i make a mistake, i calculate again and fire the last 2. before theyre out the tubes the carrier almost rolls over 100% and i miss with the last 2 anyway.
ok max depth and get out of dodge, i turn south and sneak away, now these guys are moving, so if i stay down i lose them the next 20 or so hours, are none stop action, tearing along at full speed on the surface, diving to avoid planes, dodging destroyers sent to investigate the one time i didnt dive quick enough.
now in darkness i finally get back in there, infront of them, i lie deep and wait, then get a nasty shock. remember those 4 torps i wasted on the convoy and the 2 i missed when i fired on the already sunk carrier, well now i have 2 tubes left in the front :doh:
i could have cried right then :) as it was i turned my tail to the convoy, plotted theyre course, and got quite lucky, it brough the carriers withint 900 feet of me, i got the speed way of again, but managed to nail the second carrier with my 4 rear tubes.
i took a pot shot at a kongo passing to my front must have got the speed wrong yet again, and the torps took of miles infront of it. thats it, 4 fish left and they ain loaded. no way am i going to get another shot at these guys.
i dive and leave the area, and im now heading back to my original mission, i wont be sinking much else thats for sure.
and to think i wasted 8 torps in total. and as a result let a carrier, and a few battleships get away from me.
my previous patrols all ended with between 28/52 K very few misses that could be avoided ( premature detination, or evading by the target)
now i get the biggest gift a sub commander could ever hope for, and i cant hit a thing hehe
i do have over 80K for this patrol though, revenge for the hornet i would say !
just goes to show, never bother taking a 50/50 shot because your bored. you never know whats going to come and present itself to you later in the week..
as it was i had a great time :) first ever sighting of a carrier in the campaign and 3 come along at once.
if only i had been more sparing with my fishies, i could have really upset them.
it may not be exciting for ppl who bump into these task forces all the time, but its the first one ive intercepted, the previous ones that were of note were when i was playing on auto aim. so werent as satisfying.
only one thing thats bugging me at the moment, you know the back breaking trick in SHIII where you could fire under the hull of a ship and the prox charge would blow the torp ? does that even work here, at any year ?
one thing i liked about that engagement is the fact that i just had to decide to give up. wasnt worth another day of none stop attacks by aircraft on the off chance id get another go with those last 4 fish, pitty it doesnt seem to work like that online, where it seems every mission is a massacre for the surface vessells.