Gaming the game - my raid on Gibraltar

[maillemaker]

So I was tasked to a grid point off the west coast of Africa. Shot all my torps on a convoy down there, so on my way back I stopped at a resupply ship in the Canary Islands and got a fresh load of fuel and eels.

I puttered around the mouth of the Med for a bit, and then decided, "What the heck, let's raid Gibraltar!"

It was actually fairly easy to get through the strait. I simply dove down to 250 meters and cruised along at 1 knot until my air was almost gone. Then I surfaced at night, only long enough to get fresh air, when I was sent down by the annoying machine gunning of a torpedo boat. I tried to fire up the flak gun to return fire but for some reason it would not let me move it, even though it was manned. Maybe it was because my decks were still awash, even though I was trying to fire the one on the conning tower, but who knows. I got my breath of air and down we went again.

Again, I crawled along at 1 knot , with ocassional bursts to flank to lose the destroyers (even if I didn't it seems they could not hurt me with their depth charges, but I wanted the time compression to go higher than 8X).

I made it into the port, and found 4 warships in the back of the harbor. I figured it would be good to take them out, then raid the merchants at liesure.

So I put one torp into each warship. Unfortunately only 2 of the torps hit, though I don't know how I could have missed the other 2 as they were not moving, though this happened 5 or 6 times in the harbor as I went on. Anyway the explosions brought on escorts, and I crawled all around the harbor.

This is where it got funny. The escorts would get "stuck" in the jetties and quays - you could see them going forward, backing up, going forward, backing up, trying to get out, but the AI was confused. So I merrily reloaded and fired at merchants until my torps were all gone. I also fired at the trapped escorts but again my torpedoes never hit, I don't know why.

Out of torpedoes and in need of air, I decided to cruise along the back of the harbor and surface in one of the quays where the gunfire could not reach me.

So I did. I drove my sub around back by the shore, and surfaced in the back of the harbor. Gunfire erupted from everywhere, but none of it could hit my sub as all the shells hit the dockside around me.

I set my men to re-loading our external torpedo loads and fixing the topside damage, but the intense gunfire brought my computer to its knees, and SH3 crashed to the OS. :(

Not very realistic, but it was fun to game the game anyway.

[Jimbuna]

That was your computers way of informing you that "YOU ARE DEAD" :arrgh!: :up:

[Canovaro]

Not very realistic, but it was fun to game the game anyway.

Nothing much to add really :p

[maillemaker]

Well, last night I finished my raid on Gibraltar.

I sailed in at periscope depth, went to the back of the harbor, and torpedoed all 4 warships there. One of them was some kind of cruiser or light battleship as it had four large turrets. Then I pulled back and sank a merchant and an armed trawler. About this time an Admiral V&W class came ripping back to the harbor from the open sea to lend a hand to the defense. Too bad for him I saw him coming. I sent a magnetic eel his way and it exploded under his screws, sending him to the bottom.

I then proceeded to the front of the harbor, to nail the two remaining merchant ships sitting at anchor. All of a sudden, another V&W is storming upon us. I loosed two eels at him but he dodged them both. After strafing us twice with depth charges, I finally made it to the peninsula side of the harbor. My intent was to slip into the back of the harbor where we could lie in wait and make repairs.

To my astonishment, the V&W charged us again, but, in turning to make another pass, grounded himself on the shore! I set my last torpedo at minimum depth and fired dead amidships. The eel streaked away, barely clearing the submarine net, and slammed home. The V&W "sank", though not far, of course, as she settled onto the sandbar she was stuck on and slowly burned, out of action.

I then slowly cruised into the back of the harbor at periscope depth, close to the docks to avoid the sub nets. I scraped the dock a couple of times, but eventually got into the back of the harbor where I surfaced, where I set my crew to repairing the boat and pulling down our eels from external stores.

The two remaining merchants immediately started banging at us with their guns, but to no avail - we were shielded by the buildings of the harbor. After an hour or so, I noticed that the shooting stopped! The merchies were out of ammo!

It was then that we sailed out of the back of the harbor, manned the guns, and blew those arrogant merchant ships out of the water. Then we headed for the deep water close at hand and made our escape.

I sank every ship in the harbor, save the one neutral. In the end, some 14 ships sunk amounting to over 60,000 tons.

[IrischKapitan]

Nice story :arrgh!:

Ive raided Gibralter a couple of times and theres usually a fat tanker and maybe a couple of other merchies and a destroyer a dock sometimes.
I like raiding gibralter because of the deep water pretty close to the port aiding escape , but watch out for mines though, that place is full of them............

I then slowly cruised into the back of the harbor at periscope depth, close to the docks to avoid the sub nets. I scraped the dock a couple of times, but eventually got into the back of the harbor where I surfaced, where I set my crew to repairing the boat and pulling down our eels from external stores.

Did the RAF not find you??? Like surfacing in a major port is surely gonna bring every RAF plane on to you............

[maillemaker]

I never saw a single plane, nor mine. I'm GWX, and it's 1941.