Shodowing Convoys, tips and tricks...

[Steel_Tomb]

I've noticed a lot of people manage to decimate convoys by attacking/shadowing/attacking again. How do you guys to this? As I struggle to get ahead of a convoy after I've finished my first attack. This happened lastnight, I hit a large convoy and sunk about 10k of shipping, but wanted to come in again because of the three big tankers/whaling ships in the middle but lost them as I couldn't keep up.

[klh]

My usual tactic is to move off their beam to about 10-15 km distance, then run parallel to them at flank speed until I'm well in front. I know I'm at the right distance when I get occasional "ship spotted" alerts from the watch crew, but it's nothing more than smoke on the horizon. Then I turn into their path and position myself for another attack.

I usually plot their course and speed and pick a location where I can attack in deep water and at an opportune time (such as dusk if they are coming from the west).

By the way, this tactic no longer works when the convoys travel with escort carriers.

[MarkShot]

Assuming playing without contact tails ...

After an attack your first priority needs to be to break contact. This basically means that they give up the search for you and it is clear to surface.

You then charge off in the last known direction of the convoy say for an hour or so. Either your deck watch spots them or if not, then you submerged to 25M, kill the motor, and see if you get a sound contact. It is not sufficient to simply depend on your sound man. Make sure you got the sound volume the sound room turned up (check on your own screws) and then have a listen yourself. You are doing this yourself to check if the convoy has changed course. Either you should have it on the same bearing or a new one.

Surface and charge off on the sound bearing. If you don't get a long distance viz, then repeat.

Sooner or later, you are going to run into the trailing ships in the convoy. Mark their position, kill the engine and they drift out of site and give them so lead time. Then, repeat.

After doing this a few times, you should have a good straight track for the convoy. If the convoy is turning, then keep this up until have a straight track.

Once you have a straight track that you are satisfied with, go laterally and race ahead (looking at relative speeds) and at what time you want to intercept. So, you race up the flank, but outside their spotting distance and come back into their path. Then, you wait for contact and begin your attack profile.

The above I got down real good, it is the attack profile which I am having problems with as I am new to this game.

Good luck.

[Steel_Tomb]

I only run at 80% realism, auto TDC and auto map updates on. I can do man TDC great in SHIV, but can't get around it on SHIII lol weird.
I'll try that tactic. Only thing is the convoy always changed course away so i had to catch up again, or the DD escorts would come my way to sniff out the loud props they're hearing.

[Brag]

My usual tactic is to move off their beam to about 10-15 km distance, then run parallel to them at flank speed until I'm well in front. I know I'm at the right distance when I get occasional "ship spotted" alerts from the watch crew, but it's nothing more than smoke on the horizon. Then I turn into their path and position myself for another attack.

I usually plot their course and speed and pick a location where I can attack in deep water and at an opportune time (such as dusk if they are coming from the west).

By the way, this tactic no longer works when the convoys travel with escort carriers.

All I can add to this: submerge periodically to confirm convoy location. Convoys do change course so you also have to adjust your ambush location if they do. This is particularly vital after a morning attack where your next attack will take place about 12 hours later.

[Maraz]

Usually after the first attack I have gone deep and silent, so I have been overtaken by the convoy, thigh often I still have sound contact.

When escort ships have left me, I surface the boat and go at mederate/high speed along the convoy's track.

Sooner or later my WO spots an enemy ship, I ask for distance and bearing. When at about 10.000 (depends on light, fog, etc) I turn a bit away from the convoy's route until I see the distance is constant. Meanwhile I am slowly regaining space on the convoy. When distance with the trailig escort decreases again, I again turn a bit away. When distance starts increasing, I turn a bit towards the convoy not to loose it.

Practically I am doing a semi-circle around the convoy. At some point I have the convoy at bearing 90 or 270, and I am again on the same path. This means I have catched the convoy. At this point I start overtaking the convoy and slowly turning towards it, checking that distance with nearest ship never goes smaller than the security range.

At some point I will be in front of the convoy, my route nearly perpendicular to the convoy's route, ready for submerging and starting a new attack.

A picture explains more than a hundred words...

http://www.webalice.it/antonio.maraziti/convoy.jpg

During the whole tima I am plotting the position of the onvoy on the map, in order to know well the relative position of my boat.

This can be easily done in happy times far away from air coverage.

Maraz

[Steel_Tomb]

Awesome, the pic explained it to me without having to read any of it lol. What about calculations of speed? How does one do that? I would know the speed of the convoy from the first attack so could calculate its position couldn't I? (I know its kinda basic maths, but I really REALLY suck at maths so throw me a bone:up:).

[Avatar]

Very nice end-around pic.

I dont do speed calculations in sh3, but the equation is speed=distance/time. To keep it simple, calculate using whole numbers, no fractions.

I would imagine that you use the chart to do this. Mark the contact, use the stop watch to ~5 seconds and mark it again. Then use the ruler to get distance.

But then again, I've been playing since Silent Service pt. 1 and I still feel overwhelmed with manual tdc. Subsim's are the key to understanding life itself.

[Paajtor]

To shadow, I use a very simple method: I match speed, and keep their smoke on the horizon at all times (playing with GWX 16k horizon).
If weather doesn't permit, then simply dive every now and then, to keep track with the hydrophone.

I guess it pretty much depends on the attack-conditions in the end...is it dark, stormy, foggy, rain?
If conditions are bad (=good for an attack), and you play it well, then there's no need for any shadowing afterwards...the bad weather means you can attack & escape, time after time again.
They get no peace, you won't let go.

But when I think back, I can see that most of my convoy-shadowing happens during calm seas, under bright conditions (even at night)...where you have to plan both attack and escape more carefully. :lol:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Usually after the first attack I have gone deep and silent, so I have been overtaken by the convoy, thigh often I still have sound contact.

When escort ships have left me, I surface the boat and go at mederate/high speed along the convoy's track.

Sooner or later my WO spots an enemy ship, I ask for distance and bearing. When at about 10.000 (depends on light, fog, etc) I turn a bit away from the convoy's route until I see the distance is constant. Meanwhile I am slowly regaining space on the convoy. When distance with the trailig escort decreases again, I again turn a bit away. When distance starts increasing, I turn a bit towards the convoy not to loose it.

Practically I am doing a semi-circle around the convoy. At some point I have the convoy at bearing 90 or 270, and I am again on the same path. This means I have catched the convoy. At this point I start overtaking the convoy and slowly turning towards it, checking that distance with nearest ship never goes smaller than the security range.

At some point I will be in front of the convoy, my route nearly perpendicular to the convoy's route, ready for submerging and starting a new attack.

A picture explains more than a hundred words...

http://www.webalice.it/antonio.maraziti/convoy.jpg

During the whole tima I am plotting the position of the onvoy on the map, in order to know well the relative position of my boat.

This can be easily done in happy times far away from air coverage.

Maraz

Very nice explanation,pic:up:

RDP

[Iron Budokan]

Good tips, even for us old "salts." Thanks, guys. :rock:

[johan_d]

at what distance do you follow? and how about the escorts when at flank speed?

[dcb]

at what distance do you follow? and how about the escorts when at flank speed?

I noticed that when I'm at flank speed, escorts tend to see me at much longer distance than even at full speed. This is why I'm using full speed, not flank, to get ahead of a convoy. And you really don't need flank. Full is still more than enough to get ahead of them, as they tend to go at slow (~5 knots) or medium (~8-9 kts) speed.
At full speed and average weather conditions (8-9 kts wind, light fog) they certainly don't see my sub at 8-9000 meters.

[Salvadoreno]

Ah Shadowing konvois are the most immersive and most fun experiences in this game. Great tips too! I definately gotta try some of these.

What i usually do after i attack a konvoi i run silent and deep and wait for the destroyers to get their vengance. If i survive i wait for maybe an hour or two gametime until i submerge. usually i am still in good view of the convoy. I then reload torps while running full speed in a pattern similar to the Picture shown in the posts above. I always keep the konvoi within visual distance, UNLESS there is too much fog and the most i can see is 8000m and below, ill just stay away from the konvoi with sporatic checks on the hydrophone to see if the konvoi is still going same distance.. THIS is all in 1939-early 1942. From then on when i sent contact reports or get close i get spotted or huff duffed by the escorts. From 1942-1944 i really havent played much since i always die or have to cancel patrols from damage. ugh!