Aaaarrrggh!

[Nerazzurri]

This is really annoying me now. I've been having problems approaching convoys, all my fault I imagine. I have had some successes but more by fortune than design. Always getting detected, so today I've re-read tutorials/how to's and try again with new confidence.

BUT when running silent/2 knots at depth the boat sinks so that should mean I need to run faster? Of course, if I run at 3 knots at faster to stop the sinking I'm not silent anymore. Thought the sinking maybe had something to do with the depth or at a long shot being below my maximum depth, but I get the same effect at 150 metres.

Someone help me please :damn: :damn:

[johan_d]

Just saw Das Boot directors cut, and indeed if one compares GWX with the movie, we either are to easy detected, and we use to much evasive actions.

In the movie they could get reasonable close, and didnt need much evasive actions after the detection.

It feels like GWX (1 and 2) are a bit too sensitive.

I approached a trawler, and the uboat went to red, but looking with the camera FROM the target I couldnt visual find my uboat. But they (target) started to zig-zag.
Must be something in the English tea.

[joea]

RTFM, this has been asked many times....you can get close...early war IF you use the correct tactics.

[johan_d]

In the name of the Fuhrer, please elaborate a bit then, tell us your expiriences and tactics!

[Nerazzurri]

RTFM, this has been asked many times....you can get close...early war IF you use the correct tactics.



In hindsight, as well as mentioning re-reading the tutorials/how to's, I should have been more explicit and included the ASW section of TFM that you would like me to R :sunny:

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Just saw Das Boot directors cut, and indeed if one compares GWX with the movie, we either are to easy detected, and we use to much evasive actions.

In the movie they could get reasonable close, and didnt need much evasive actions after the detection.

It feels like GWX (1 and 2) are a bit too sensitive.

I approached a trawler, and the uboat went to red, but looking with the camera FROM the target I couldnt visual find my uboat. But they (target) started to zig-zag.
Must be something in the English tea.

Although Das Boot was a very good movie... it is not what we use as a point of measure to determine how to mod GWX.

For that we refer to history books, official documentation, and reputable first-hand accounts. We do the best we can to reproduce history within the confines of the SH3 platform.

Read the GWX manual and view the bibliography there to see what I mean.

In the beginning of the war, things are much easier for the player in GWX, just as it was in real life. Late in the war, things are very deadly indeed.

Remember this basic thought and you will understand GWX more deeply as you go...

...In WWII, 40,000 U-boatmen went to sea.... 30,000 never came home.

Also, read this post here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=727039&postcount=1

[Brag]

Depending on weather, I approach a convoy at PD or slightly deeper. Speed, 1 tp 2 knots. Keep the scope down 'til ready to shoot. Also make sure you're on silent running mode.

This is not a sight seeing tour. Once your scope is up, it will soon be spotted and reported to escorts, who will converge on you like flies. So you only have a few seconds to fire your torpedoes and get the hell away from datum and go deep.

[Nerazzurri]

Brag, I threw the GWX manual away and read up on the Hoochie Woochie and came home with 58,000 tons - as per your report thread :up:

[JAKE]

Stalk the convoy till night then hope for bad weather then storm right into the middle take your shots then storm back out.lol... It as worked a few times for me but it as failed a few times too.:huh:

[danurve]

I cringe thinking about bad weather attacks but like an ex-wife that refuses to die it's something you deal with. Having said that if mid - `41 is still considered early war I use weather to my advantage in 1.03 and have slammed several convoys, and escaped unscathed while black swans search about.
Using the best boat for the job, a VIIB btw. :up:

One absolute difference GWX has over other mods I have noticed is the enemy detection. Even trying to sneak up on a single merchant in calmer sea's is more of a challenge but not undoable. If someone plays the game right from GWX without trying a carrer in stock or another mod first I think they experience some frustration in playing a slower paced PC game. Just an observation, and according to my ex, I've been wrong before.
TII's are still your friend on I/P.

[Cohaagen]

Surface attacks at night pre-'41 definitely possible - and repeat attacks even when ships are in zig-zag. Depending on wave height you can get pretty close. I'm fairly sure I've been about 1k or so from ships and not been detected (good visibility). I'd even say that, early war, the surface by night is by far the best place to be. I don't do submerged day attacks if at all possible.

[Nerazzurri]

Stalk the convoy till night then hope for bad weather then storm right into the middle take your shots then storm back out.lol... It as worked a few times for me but it as failed a few times too.:huh:

Well Jake, I think I'll wait until you've got it perfected, then you can tell me how to do it :hmm: LOL

[Wilcke]

As the Kapt. well stated you can't win this one. Yes, you can finish patrols with tonnage....but eventually...they will get you...historically correct. I have yet to make it to '44, in any encarnation.

On the other hand you can run SH4 concurrently and there you can win, win, win! Its nice to have both, good contrast.

Tactically there is a stickied link somewhere up here with a lot of tactical knowledge. I do not think anyone of us has the key to "it", you just read a lot, try different things and eventually it kind of comes together. But just when you think you have it....."they" come and nail you.

I am truly hooked!

[difool2]

The Das Boot example is a bad one, because there Prochnow charged in a full speed on the surface at night, and was detected.

[Sailor Steve]

You might also note that for the sake of drama, Herr Kaleun doesn't start screaming for speed, course and depth changes until after the depth charges are already exploding, and that for the sake of excitement every single one of the DCs in the movie is close enough to kill the boat instantly.:dead:

[Nerazzurri]

As the Kapt. well stated you can't win this one. Yes, you can finish patrols with tonnage....but eventually...they will get you...historically correct. I have yet to make it to '44, in any encarnation.

On the other hand you can run SH4 concurrently and there you can win, win, win! Its nice to have both, good contrast.

Tactically there is a stickied link somewhere up here with a lot of tactical knowledge. I do not think anyone of us has the key to "it", you just read a lot, try different things and eventually it kind of comes together. But just when you think you have it....."they" come and nail you.

I am truly hooked!

Although being quite new to SH3 I can easily believe it's difficult to get by maybe even 1941! You can rack up tonnage and maybe even bag the odd capital ship, but it's just a matter of time when the payback comes.

My plan, at the moment, is to play one DiD career (as many times as I need to) whilst playing one career where I reload saves after getting killed. Reason? I'm hoping that always testing myself against the enemy forces that get the better of me I'll be able to overcome them when I get to that stage in my DiD career next time round. Makes sense to me anyway. :doh:

[JAKE]

Often after 1941 if I get detected by one or more escorts when in or near a convoy I can often guarantee that the enemy will get the better of me and be depth charged to destruction. Then later in the war when the escorts are equipped with hedgehog ASW I avoid a convoy like the plauge and search for lone merchants if i plan on surviving, but if i start a carear in '39 without reloading a saved game once ive beeen killed i've never made it passed late '43. Maybye there should be a option to surface then scuttle your boat and then a part when you sit out the rest of the war in a POW camp.lol thats where i'd spend a lot of time lol....On second thoughts that would be crap

[Bridger]

Sorry folks im a newbie, but what is a DID career?

[Torplexed]

Sorry folks im a newbie, but what is a DID career?
DID=Dead is dead. You don't reload the last save in your career before you got sunk and try again.:cool:

[KeptinCranky]

Dead is Dead, no reloading earlier saves once some Tommie or Yank puts a couple of holes in your boat and it ends up imploding on the way to the deep....:cry:

It's the only way to play the campagin IMO, that way you really regret stupid mistakes :up:

[Bridger]

Many thanks, well DID for me then, ive just completed naval academy and about to embark on my first DID GWX career, should i learn my trade on a type II or jump straight into a VII?, which year and flotilla?, decisions decisions................

[KeptinCranky]

Mmm, that's a toughy, what boat did you complete the academy with?

my choice would be a IXb :up:

[Nerazzurri]

Many thanks, well DID for me then, ive just completed naval academy and about to embark on my first DID GWX career, should i learn my trade on a type II or jump straight into a VII?, which year and flotilla?, decisions decisions................

Bridger, like you I thought - learn the ropes in a II but, with hindsight, it was fairly pointless. If I was you I'd just go for a VII. If you like you could try a little harbour raiding in a IIjust to put you off doing it in your career; that was one lesson I got from my Type II - stay out of harbours! (and of course, Der Kanal and shallow water)

[Bridger]

Good advice , i plan to stay away from Der Kanal, shallow water, harbours, gibraltar, task groups, i aim to get 48 good men back to their frauleins beds.

Ive decided on a 2nd flotilla type VIIB, U-30 is my boat, im just sorting out my crew.

[KeptinCranky]

Good going, :up: except that shallow water bit, that early in the war, you can relatively safely hunt in fairly shallow water and there's rich pickings *cough*AM36*cough* but then, I'm a bit of a lunatic where that's concerned

just remember that the Hydrophone is THE definitive gadget for the sneaky Kaleun :D

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

I'm not really an expert on attcking convoys but heres what I did the last time I found a convoy. It was in grid AM51 I found an eastbound convoy, its destination was possably Liverpool. I was approching from the South, at periscope depth and running at flank speed. The convoy had only three escorts two destoryers at the front and back. The third was a battleship in the center of the convoy. Some people might say that its a bad idea to run at flank speed is a bad idea, but in this case it was a good idea, hears why. Was that at around 15,000 meters away from the convoy the destoyer at the end of the convoy turned towards me, then I went to silent running and to a depth 50 meters and was turning towards the convoy. At one point I managed to get inside the convoy and used a tanker as a hat. I went under the tanker then up to periscope depth and fired all the forward tubes at the battleship, then dove to one hundered meters and ziz-zaged out of the convoy without any damage to the sub itself from depth charges. They got close but not close enough.

[Gezoes]

Dito :yep:

I sneaked into an october 1939 convoy at the West Approaches. 2kts, silent running. I got in there, sinking a grain freighter, a medium cargo and crippling an auxiliary cruiser.

My VIIB was then hunted by a Polish DD. One close call though. He did sneak up on me, I thought he was further away, but he missed me and lost track.