GC1CEO
09-02-07, 03:08 PM
I had an interesting first patrol, for once I think I am keeping my first patrol and moving on with my career (I have reset careers after first patrol about 20 something times now). I hate that the default speed engaged when you plot a course is not a realistic cruising speed for the Type IIA (it goes up to 9ish when cruising is more like 7-8), thankfully I didn't run out of fuel by overlooking that little fact this time.
This was also my first try at using MoBo, try as I might I simply can't plot accurately enough on the in-game map (I also can't draw a free hand circle). After a few intercept calculations I couldn't quite make (would be nice to be able to have a filter on the radio when it comes to radio contacts, I.E only ones relatively near me, no warships, certain speeds, etc).
Passing AN47 I headed to the nearest harbor in the hopes of getting better traffic there, I got far more then I bargained for. I attempted to get ahead of a medium speed merchant, I sorta knew its speed and AoB so I made a guess at its distance from the hydrophone tutorials and fired one up its direction. Since it was out of visual range I dont know what happened but it was lost from hydrophone about the time my stop watch was marked for the torpedo to hit, but nothing on the books about it. Whatever happened, it sure pissed off the local RAF because I had a small fleet of fighter-bombers trying woofully to hit me on the surface throughout the rest of the next day. I kept myself on the surface in the hopes maybe my flak gunner would score a few kills but he wouldn't hit the right side of a barndoor and already I took a few points of hull damage (only bout 5 percent, not much). After crawling forward at periscope depth, I ran into a bunch of warships and I went down to about 70 meters, eventually running into a merchant in between the warships.
The procedure that seemed to work for me, I could get in pretty close during night-time. I had to surface because I can't get exact bearing and range without my WO at this point, I took measurements over the course of 5 minutes and inputted them into MoBo. I couldn't get into the greatest position, so it was gonna be a shot from 3500 meters at 41 degrees Starboard AoB so I decided to fire off a salvo (I was gonna sink -something- this patrol!). To my surprise, one of the two torps hit and hit prefectly on time. It was only a coastal merchant but it was a victory for me nonetheless. I started heading back to AN47 and had another day of dodging warships and airplanes, with no problems, until I found another merchant. This time it was a daytime shot and was actually at 91 degrees starboard AoB and at only 2500 meters but somehow I missed (my guesses being the speed was lower then I had set it to, or I should have gotten a final range to target).
By this point I was outta torpedoes so I crawled back home (only doing 5 knots cause I wouldn't even risk running outta fuel).
The entire patrol was 20+ days just for a coastal merchant but it was interesting nonetheless and showed me I have been getting ever so slightly better with 100% percent realism.
This was also my first try at using MoBo, try as I might I simply can't plot accurately enough on the in-game map (I also can't draw a free hand circle). After a few intercept calculations I couldn't quite make (would be nice to be able to have a filter on the radio when it comes to radio contacts, I.E only ones relatively near me, no warships, certain speeds, etc).
Passing AN47 I headed to the nearest harbor in the hopes of getting better traffic there, I got far more then I bargained for. I attempted to get ahead of a medium speed merchant, I sorta knew its speed and AoB so I made a guess at its distance from the hydrophone tutorials and fired one up its direction. Since it was out of visual range I dont know what happened but it was lost from hydrophone about the time my stop watch was marked for the torpedo to hit, but nothing on the books about it. Whatever happened, it sure pissed off the local RAF because I had a small fleet of fighter-bombers trying woofully to hit me on the surface throughout the rest of the next day. I kept myself on the surface in the hopes maybe my flak gunner would score a few kills but he wouldn't hit the right side of a barndoor and already I took a few points of hull damage (only bout 5 percent, not much). After crawling forward at periscope depth, I ran into a bunch of warships and I went down to about 70 meters, eventually running into a merchant in between the warships.
The procedure that seemed to work for me, I could get in pretty close during night-time. I had to surface because I can't get exact bearing and range without my WO at this point, I took measurements over the course of 5 minutes and inputted them into MoBo. I couldn't get into the greatest position, so it was gonna be a shot from 3500 meters at 41 degrees Starboard AoB so I decided to fire off a salvo (I was gonna sink -something- this patrol!). To my surprise, one of the two torps hit and hit prefectly on time. It was only a coastal merchant but it was a victory for me nonetheless. I started heading back to AN47 and had another day of dodging warships and airplanes, with no problems, until I found another merchant. This time it was a daytime shot and was actually at 91 degrees starboard AoB and at only 2500 meters but somehow I missed (my guesses being the speed was lower then I had set it to, or I should have gotten a final range to target).
By this point I was outta torpedoes so I crawled back home (only doing 5 knots cause I wouldn't even risk running outta fuel).
The entire patrol was 20+ days just for a coastal merchant but it was interesting nonetheless and showed me I have been getting ever so slightly better with 100% percent realism.