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View Full Version : My latest GWX career and some questions


Fenris_Wolf
09-02-07, 07:48 AM
I've experienced some tough times before with GWX, enjoying them greatly at the start but not able to persevere through the war too far with much tonnage. My current career, as Kaleun U. Gantner is proving to be very enjoyable and I would like to personally thank the fine people who have produced GWX and, for me, it's new life to a game with great potential that I had left to collect dust in a drawer. Also, all the people who have written the various guides on tactics, thank you, I learnt a great deal. :up:

I'm not sure, I'm not very experienced but I'm confidently making my contribution to the war in the mediterranean, 1942. My biggest concern is the conservation of the number of eels I carry, only targetting the fattest of the flock, but I think I'll keep my VIIC if its luck holds like it has. My second ship that I upgraded to with 3000 reknown. It has an exhaust driven supercharger for it's engines and a rotatable hydrophone mounted on the forward deck as it's only upgrades. Not that there are many significant upgrades available right now and I already did fine with a vanilla VIIB in this theatre. I'm playing with 72% realism with, I have to admit, the noise meter on and no dud torps. This has dramatically made it easier for me, a nub. :ping:

I'm on my third patrol now operating from Salamis, with both last two patrols netting 63,000 and 69,000 gross registered tons respectively. At the end of the second patrol I intercepted a british task force NE of Tabruk heading ESE at about 17 kts. I arrived early and positioned myself perpendicular to their course. The nearest BB, KGV got hit through it's screen of escort at a distance of more than 5 km with two of my eels in and around it's engine room and got severely crippled. The next 24 hours were spent in an effort to bust her keel open in two places, one under the bridge and again under the engine rooms (the initial two were set to impact at 3.5m depth, and the final three were spread under it at 11m magnetic pistol) with extra reserve torpedos and send her to ol' Davey Jones waiting eagerly down below. :rock:

On the start of this patrol I intercepted a single column convoy more to the western side of the african coast line. I got spotted by what looked like a Bathurst class vessel which opened fire and we dived and maneuvered quickly. The DD, charging straight to my last known position, was greeted by a single, shrieking eel that slipped under it's keel before it could do anything and that was all the clown was worth. After that I disengaged because the only freighter in the column was not worth it, and found another small convoy, single column again, at dusk. For the first time ever I engaged two ships, the lead escort, a black swan, and a large merchant just behind it with a salvo of two torpedos, one for each. I figured the two ships were about 10 degrees apart, centre to centre, from each other. Having no experience of such shots at all, but hey it's just a game. I fired and hit the black swan, then I realized that I wasn't perpendicular to their course so the 10 degree difference was not really going to have remained constant. But all in all, I think I'm doing pretty well till now but I have some questions. :hmm:

(1) How do you execute a salvo shot on more than one target? Do you use both attack and observation periscopes, the fixed scopes on the bridge, or, how? :)

(2) How do you identify target and execute a submerged torpedo attack in a pitch black night? Is there a night vision option anywhere that I have managed to completely overlook so far?

(3) What's the most efficient way to sink a BB?

(4) Is there a difference in firepower between the various torpedoes available as the game advances? My favorite right now is the oldest, gas operated model, due to it's much greater range.

(5) The sub's engine upgrades - I have the 1500 reknown one right now. I don't seem to remember seeing much difference in speed having tried both and currently my surfaced speed at ahead 1/3 is inbetween 10 and 11 knots. Is the maximum speed that a VIIC (or VIIB) can attain? I'm not planning to upgrade to a IX anytime soon because it's already hard hiding my flanks when trying to evade DD's and I doubt the IX is more maneuverable. Your thoughts? :88)

Penelope_Grey
09-02-07, 08:08 AM
1) unsure

2) with great difficulty, there is no night vision option just like the old days, no, you just have to squint or take your best guess especially if using manual torpedoing.

3) I think, personally speaking the most efficient way is to shoot 4 torpedoes into it.
The first torpedo aim for the forward magazine of the battleship which is located roughly under the forward turret, set the torpedo to run about half way between the waterline and the keel for impact settings.

the other 3 torpedoes shoot in a salvo quickly after the first torpedo to pulverise as many compartments as you can to create optimal flooding situations and the darn thing should sink like a brick.

4) Not that I am aware of, I am fairly certain that all torpedo warhead yields are the same.

5) With the GWX in so far as upgrading the engine is concerned, the team pretty much null and voided this a bit, in stock game a MAN VIIC could do 20 knots on a calm sea flat out, the best possible they could do was 18 at most that was the sheer death of it. All U-boats when built had supercharging to get as much speed out of the diesels as possible.

GWX models it in such a way, I believe if I am remembering right from what Kpt. Lehmann said... is that tehy powered down the non-upgraded engine slightly only very very slightly, and the upgrades they decreased the significance of, so that the U-boats would not go excessively faster than their historical top speeds. If that makes any sense.

So when you upgrade to a MAN engine, you are in fact just upgrading the U-boat to its historic top speed, which on a VIIC is about 18 knots going flank. But in reality, the differences in GWX are now very very slight.

Fenris_Wolf
09-02-07, 08:35 AM
Let me explain that salvo shot a little further. The two ships in that convoy column were moving at the same speed in the column. I took a reading with the attack periscope and got a difference of ~10 degrees between the centres of the two ships. Then I setup the shot in the TDC with a 10 degrees spread and a gyroangle reading of 0 and waited with the column approaching into my sight from port. I waited until the leading target passed the point where the gyroangle read 0 and upto when it was about to hit 5 degrees. That's when I fired the salvo. It only hit the lead target because of an error.

The only error in that whole setup, I think, was that I was not positioned perpendicular to their course line. Also it was hard to not screw up the shot, having to move the periscope back and forth to confirm angles and then bring it back to 0 and also rely on a bit of luck and inaccuracy due to the twitch play. What I needed was a second observation instrument so I don't have to move the attack periscope back and forth. Maybe someone has a more refined procedure for this? :/\\x:

bigboywooly
09-02-07, 08:52 AM
While waiting for the ships to close I prepare 2 salvos

Tubes 1 and 4 and tubes 2 and 3

Usually tubes 1 and 4 have slow electrics in so I set them up for the first target
Set tubes 2 and 3 up with fast speed steamers for second target

When first target reaches my mark I loose the first salvo
Switch scope to second target and switch TDC to second salvo altering course if neds be

Loose second salvo

Both should reach the ships roughly the same time

There is no way I know off to use two different optics for 2 different targets and get TDC to recognise that

desirableroasted
09-02-07, 04:25 PM
GWX models it in such a way, I believe if I am remembering right from what Kpt. Lehmann said... is that tehy powered down the non-upgraded engine slightly only very very slightly, and the upgrades they decreased the significance of, so that the U-boats would not go excessively faster than their historical top speeds. If that makes any sense.

So when you upgrade to a MAN engine, you are in fact just upgrading the U-boat to its historic top speed, which on a VIIC is about 18 knots going flank. But in reality, the differences in GWX are now very very slight.

Whoa...that would have been good to know about two patrols ago. :huh:

siber
09-03-07, 02:35 AM
I took a reading with the attack periscope and got a difference of ~10 degrees between the centres of the two ships. Then I setup the shot in the TDC with a 10 degrees spread and a gyroangle reading of 0 and waited with the column approaching into my sight from port.
Note that when ships are in colunm, if you're observing them at an angle of, say, 45 degrees to port and the angular difference between ships is 10 deg, once the ships are ahead of you, the angular difference between them will have increased, possibly up to 90 degrees or more. Be mindful of this - could it have been your problem?

Knowing convoys, the only way ships following one another will be seperated by 10 degrees when ahead of you is if you're a long long way away.