how to sink ships fast...

[jas39]

where do you aim your torps? below the stacks? Below the turrets? in between the turrets? below the cargo areas? in the bow of the ship? aft? at 90* AOB? 0* AOB? magnetic? impact?

above keel? 1m below keel? 2 m below keel? 1 torpedo first, and then wait, or fire a salvo first, which i observed sometimes saves torpedoes in the long run?

what considerations do you take when aiming? calm weather? 15kt wind and heavy seas? difference between merchant and warship? how does that affect how you aim?

I am asking because I seem to be able to always sink a Revenge class BB with 2 torps under her forward turrets, however, with the Nelson, whose tonnage is only 8000t more, I have to use at least 6 torps under the same conditions, no matter where I aim. I did this last night in Lock Ewe, where both ships were staying. It was calm and I used magnetic, setting depth to 1.5m below keel...

Does anyone know where to aim most efficiently at a ship, using torpedoes?

[Grayson02sept1980]

right now I just try to hit it :lol:

with OLC and manual targetting I am often missing by 1-2° and the aiming a certain spot is tricky...

_But if I would have to aim for a certain spot it is either under teh chimney to hit the engine or under the cranes ... sees to be best...

for battleships I qould try to hit under the turrets... seems the ammo is there (this way I sunk the Nelson with one torp... hit it under teh fron turret... explosions and down she went)

but right now... anything farer than 1000m and I just lock the target and aim for midship

[Captain Nemo]

I'm no expert by any means but from recent experience, I would say for the larger merchants aim for the bow area and for the smaller merchants aim for the stern. Ninety percent of the time a bow shot will take down a large merchant, not necessarily instantaneously but they go down eventually. With small merchants/freighters a stern shot usually brings them to a stop and sometime you get a fireworks display and they go down immediately (usually when I hit a neutral:damn: ). In my opinion the smaller ships are more of a challenge to sink with one torp. I always use impact pistols and vary the depth setting depending on the conditions. On the occasions when I have come across warships such as the Nelson, I have managed to sink it with three torps aimed at the bow area. A Southampton Class cruiser on the other hand took two torps one in the bow and one in the stern.

Nemo

[papa_smurf]

Where ever possible I always aim just in-front of a ships bridge, and this usually makes a ship sink within a few minutes. I normally get best results with magnetic pistols set to 1.5m below a ships keel, though this works best is calm seas. Whenever the weather gets a bit rough (as a guide aboutr 7 m/s), I stick to impact.

[Brag]

A bow shot for merchies (in GWX). A touch in front of the stack in stock.

Nelson went down with one magnetic exploding under #3 turret.

[Grayson02sept1980]

about impacts.

I usually set the depth with 3m (lazy I know) but I would set it to 50% of the actual gauge of the ship making sure it is deep enough to cause good damage without bouncing of ... but from experience 3m are good :smug:

[danurve]

Trusting electrics to m/p is a judgement call depending on sea conditions.
There are enough variables (sea / eel types / settings) to make it about impossible to specify exact tactics for using fish.

[melnibonian]

Most of the attacks are based on experience and previous knowledge of the ships in question. Nevertheless here are my "tricks" ;)

Impact Pistols

Small Merchants (Passenger/Cargo. Small Freighters etc)
I set the running depth to 3m and aim just before the smoke stak. By hitting there you can either stop the ship from moving or explode the fuel bunker.

Small Tankers
Running depth set to 1m and aim a little bit ahead of the smoke stak (aft of the boat). If you hit the sweet spot you can blow up the fuel bunker and the whole ship in seconds.

Medium/Large Tankers
Running depth 1m aim just on the first mast (small bridge) from the bow. By hitting there the boat should sink in seconds.

Medium Cargo
Running depth 2.5m aim for the area between the last mast before the bridge and the smoke stak. It's a bit tricky but if you hit it properly you can break the ship in half.

Large Merchant
Running depth 1m and aim for the first mast from the bow. It should go down like a stone.

Empire Freighter
Running depth 1m and aim amidships. It takes a while but it will sink.

Destroyers
Whenever you hit them with a torpedo (running depth 1m) they should eventually go under

Battleships/Cruisers
Running depth 1m and aim for the gun turrets. The ammunition stored there should blow the ship up.

Magnetic pistols

Set the depth to 0.5-1m more than the draft of the boat, aim under the smoke stak or in the middle of the boat and fire. 9 times out of 10 you do break the back and she sinks.

Good Luck and Good Shooting :up:

[Chisum]

The absolute best solution is on the front of the ship(I don't know the name in english, in french "proue" or "étrave").
One torpedos = one ship because water enter quickly and the ship sunk very fast.
One meter is enought, set to impact.

Available for merchant ship. For war ship it's strongly different...

[Grayson02sept1980]

[..]
Magnetic pistols

Set the depth to 0.5-1m more than the draft of the boat, aim under the smoke stak or in the middle of the boat and fire. 9 times out of 10 you do break the back and she sinks.

Good Luck and Good Shooting :up:

really? I had only few times breaking ships in GWX with "keelbuster" torps and if it was due to explosions (tanker) or lucky shots.... :-?

[melnibonian]

[..]
Magnetic pistols

Set the depth to 0.5-1m more than the draft of the boat, aim under the smoke stak or in the middle of the boat and fire. 9 times out of 10 you do break the back and she sinks.

Good Luck and Good Shooting :up:

really? I had only few times breaking ships in GWX with "keelbuster" torps and if it was due to explosions (tanker) or lucky shots.... :-?
By saying "break the back" I meant sink and not break in half. Sorry for the confusion

[Keelbuster]

I haven't really had any dramatic 'keelbusting' since Vanilla. In GWX, the keel sometimes breaks and she splits in half, but it is somewhat subtle - the middle just sags and then she sinks. I remember that back in o'le Vanilla, when you sent a keelbuster under the center section of a medium-size ship, she would snap in half and the two ends would surge way up in the air- like this:

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/3848/sh3img15220061431sk9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Grayson02sept1980]

http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/alben/99/4919499/1280_3234336266326561.jpg
here in small:
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/alben/99/4919499/400_3234336266326561.jpg

the tanker was breaking in half with the second torp (impacts at 3m ) :arrgh!:

I had a real keel buster at a DD and occasional on med merchants but I would dare to say less than 4 times since I play with GWX ... and woohoo it is nice to see it now that it is so rare :yep:

[jas39]

thanks for the suggestions. how do you know where the compartments of a ship is-engine room, fuel bunker, etc? i know that the ammo is usually stored below the turrets...

[Sandman_28054]

Now I'm no authority by any means, I read and pick up tips here and there and find many of them very useful. But, I'm not quick in math so I just stick with the WO and let the computer do the rest.

It has been my experience that depending on where you pick up the green "Hot shot" button in the periscope, depends on where the torp hits.

for example: if a ship is traveling due east(heading 90) and your approaching from the northeast, sooner or later you going to have to turn to port (left) to shoot. You have a 10 degree window of opportunity. Usually from 15 degrees to 5 degrees or 345 to 355 degrees turning to starboard. Depending on when the triangle turns green, say truning to port at 15 degrees, chances are your going to hit the stearn of the ship. If you wait until it hits the 5 degree mark, your going to hit the bow. 10 degrees equals a hit a "mid-ships." Of course, range to target, bearing, speed, torpedo speed and type of target, merchant, tanker, troop trans, etc., all have to be considered. :hmm:

That is just my experience.

God Bless

Till all are one.

[Elmer Kosterman]

how do you know where the compartments of a ship is-engine room, fuel bunker, etc? i know that the ammo is usually stored below the turrets...

Search arond the forum for ship damage charts. These are schematics that show the vulnerable areas of ships: engine rooms, fuel bunkers, ammo bunkers, rudder and screws. I don't know if the charts are fully updated.

Engine rooms are usually right under the stacks or aft-most stack.

Fuel bunkers are usually immeadiately forward of the engine rooms (but sometimes aft).

As you say, ammo is stored below the turrets, but on a carrier, there are many, smaller turrets (aim for about one-fifth the ship's length in from bow or stern).

For completeness' sake, screws and rudders are, :roll: , in the rear.

[predavolk]

Not always ultra-fast, but I find that shooting for the bow, rather than trying to hit the "critical" spots in the middle, allows for a faster sinking. By flooding the bow you induce a negative angle on the boat, that combined with the forward momentum of the ship, drives it underwater faster than hits anywhere else. This is especially important, IMO, in GWX were flooding (rather than damage) is the primary mechanism of ship sinking. A hit in the middle floods, but does nothing to affect the angle of the ship. A hit in the rear causes a positive bow angle, which is unaffected by the forward momentum of the ship. But if you ever encounter a ship sailed in reverse, I'd then target the stern. :lol:

[Kptlt. Siegmann]

Not always ultra-fast, but I find that shooting for the bow, rather than trying to hit the "critical" spots in the middle, allows for a faster sinking. By flooding the bow you induce a negative angle on the boat, that combined with the forward momentum of the ship, drives it underwater faster than hits anywhere else. This is especially important, IMO, in GWX were flooding (rather than damage) is the primary mechanism of ship sinking. A hit in the middle floods, but does nothing to affect the angle of the ship. A hit in the rear causes a positive bow angle, which is unaffected by the forward momentum of the ship. But if you ever encounter a ship sailed in reverse, I'd then target the stern. :lol:
Pretty much exactly what I did to sink HMS Royal Oak, HMS Hood, HMS Indomitable, and HMS Resolution, back in the days of being in command of a Type II. 5 torpedoes doesn't leave you with a lot to spare to sink one of those, so I just let them sink themselves:up:

The hard part is getting the torpedo to hit that spot in front of the armor belt. All my shots on those four shipa were done from 800m or slightly less to insure any errors in calculations somewhere along the line wont have a drastic impact.

[Jimbuna]

There are damage zones/vulnerability charts based on stock/vanilla available from my FileFront account. GWX Download page)

[Sailor Steve]

The absolute best solution is on the front of the ship(I don't know the name in english, in french "proue" or "étrave").
"Proue" is actually translated almost directly into English as "Prow". More commonly used, as you see everywhere in this thread, is "bow". Bow actually can mean anywhere on the forward part of the ship, whereas prow usually refers to the forwardmost point, also called the "stem".

[Col. Caldwell]

:hmm: Interesting. So, if I were to get a torpedo hit to a passenger liner in the bow would it be enough to sink it? I'm guessing it won't be a one shot, one kill, but maybe punching enough holes in the bow will eventually make it sink under it's own momentum.

[Jimbuna]

:hmm: Interesting. So, if I were to get a torpedo hit to a passenger liner in the bow would it be enough to sink it? I'm guessing it won't be a one shot, one kill, but maybe punching enough holes in the bow will eventually make it sink under it's own momentum.

Possibly, but with no more certainty than hitting her amidships or astern (my preferred method).
At the very least you should bring her to an eventual halt.

[predavolk]

:hmm: Interesting. So, if I were to get a torpedo hit to a passenger liner in the bow would it be enough to sink it? I'm guessing it won't be a one shot, one kill, but maybe punching enough holes in the bow will eventually make it sink under it's own momentum.

Possibly, but with no more certainty than hitting her amidships or astern (my preferred method).
At the very least you should bring her to an eventual halt.

Jim has FAR more ingame experience then me, but I would disagree with him based on my limited experience (so take that for what it's worth). From a real-world, physics point of view, a bow hit should also be more lethal than a mid- or stern hit. Again, you're inducing a negative angle to the boat that combined with forward momentum, encourages more water to be taken on by driving the bow underwater. Hitting admiships doesn't change the angle of the boat in the water, so you don't get the benefit. Bowshots should, in theory, be especially effective in heavy seas where the negative angle is an even greater impediment.

In real life, with real physics, this should be true. In GWX too, considering the reduced chances of sinking a ship through outright damage/explosions in GWX. But again, jimbuna's got a lot more time under his belt than me, so maybe try it out and see for yourself. Personally, I've sunk a dozen large/medium merchants with a single bowshot (the other two dozen were sinking, but I helped with some deck fire;) ).

[Jimbuna]

:hmm: Interesting. So, if I were to get a torpedo hit to a passenger liner in the bow would it be enough to sink it? I'm guessing it won't be a one shot, one kill, but maybe punching enough holes in the bow will eventually make it sink under it's own momentum.

Possibly, but with no more certainty than hitting her amidships or astern (my preferred method).
At the very least you should bring her to an eventual halt.

Jim has FAR more ingame experience then me, but I would disagree with him based on my limited experience (so take that for what it's worth). From a real-world, physics point of view, a bow hit should also be more lethal than a mid- or stern hit. Again, you're inducing a negative angle to the boat that combined with forward momentum, encourages more water to be taken on by driving the bow underwater. Hitting admiships doesn't change the angle of the boat in the water, so you don't get the benefit. Bowshots should, in theory, be especially effective in heavy seas where the negative angle is an even greater impediment.

In real life, with real physics, this should be true. In GWX too, considering the reduced chances of sinking a ship through outright damage/explosions in GWX. But again, jimbuna's got a lot more time under his belt than me, so maybe try it out and see for yourself. Personally, I've sunk a dozen large/medium merchants with a single bowshot (the other two dozen were sinking, but I helped with some deck fire;) ).

Absolutely no problem mate......we are all here to air and voice our opinions :up:

Ships can sink either one of two ways.....flooding or reaching the total number of damage points attributed to said vessel.

Whether you hit stem or stern does not guarantee a sinking.

I have seen literally thousands of ships sail merrily on their way with submerged stem and or stern.

Thankfully the majority do eventually sink.

Sometimes, the flooding does not happen quick enough for a Kaleun to hang around for fear rhe stricken ship has summoned help.....and hence the need for a coup de grace or a few shells.

[Col. Caldwell]

I remember having to use 4 or 5 torpedoes to sink a passenger liner, one for each smoke stack to kill the engines. Has anyone successfully sank one with a single torpedo, either with a hit to the fuel tank or an under the keel shot? Seems nearly impossible to do that.

[Jimbuna]

On occasion :yep:

I'm sure others have also.

[Danelov]

A hit in the bow(or forecastle) part certainly had a lot more of posibilities of sink the ship, the AI is not so intelligent and after a torpedo hit in this session the machines continued the work to push the vessel ahead full power, helping the flooding process and of course at end, self-sinking the ship.
Same principe for the artillery, some good hits in the bow watertline near the anchor and you have a fast sinking target.Preferable avoid to destroy the machines room, as say before, the propullsion of the target help the sinking process.Hit in structures, funnels, bridge,crates, etc are maybe spectacular show, but can consum a enorme quantity of shells and at end ,maybe the target dont sink.
Avoid aiming the center part of the hull, many times the target resist and need maybe a second torpedo.Fire, maybe, is a parameter to be considered and revised in the damages profiles.A hit tanker ,ablaze and burning for hours and sometime days ,most of the time he sink at the end.

[Chisum]

The absolute best solution is on the front of the ship(I don't know the name in english, in french "proue" or "étrave").
"Proue" is actually translated almost directly into English as "Prow". More commonly used, as you see everywhere in this thread, is "bow". Bow actually can mean anywhere on the forward part of the ship, whereas prow usually refers to the forwardmost point, also called the "stem".

I was not sure for "bow".
Many thanks Steve.
;)

There is some pics to better explain.

Here I fired 2 torpedos T1, one on the bow and the other in the engines room.
Ship sunk quickly.

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/517/28179063sa8.th.jpg (http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?image=28179063sa8.jpg)

This ship sunked after 1 shot on the bow.

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/1863/18804071hw6.th.jpg (http://img168.imageshack.us/my.php?image=18804071hw6.jpg)

The 2 next representing one of my best shots.
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/4015/48172102jq8.th.jpg (http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=48172102jq8.jpg)

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/4382/67920760el1.th.jpg (http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=67920760el1.jpg)

But the ultimate best still this one. You need some luck to tuch it there !

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/5136/24715845rx6.th.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=24715845rx6.jpg)

To be completly honnest, I must say that I'm NOT in 100% realistic, only 74% and I don't use manual torpedo setup.
I don't know if it's possible to hit with this precision in 100%.

;)

[the.terrabyte.pirate]

Fantastic pictures. I've never seen the damage to torped ships before. I don't have the camera view activated.

If I'm running on impact, I aim at the front of the vessel between the stem and the first mast back. I'm not sure if the game is able to differentiate between the different flooding charecteristics of a hit to the bow vs a hit to the stern, so I kinda do it out of habit as it seems more reliable.

If I'm running magnetic, I'll usually aim under the smokestack, or just in front of it. It'll take a while to sink, but hopefully it'll flood the engine room so that it won't go far in the meantime.

The closes I've come to a cataclysmic keel buster was a coastal merchant with a magnetic eel directly under the smokestack. She took about 40 minutes to settle in the water before I got the "she's going down" message. I watched her sink for about 5 more minutes, and at the last minute there was a big bang, the ship split in half, and it vanished pretty quickly.

If you want to sink ships fast, use overkill. I use a single torp on vessels 0 - 3000 tonnes (but only if the deck gun is empty/can't be used), 2 torps in salvo for 3000 - 6000 tonnes, and 3 torps for anything bigger. If you want a ship to sink quicker, send more torps at it.

[Col. Caldwell]

I sank a T3 tanker in rough seas yesterday. No fog though, which is good. I fired two electrics, one for the bow and one for the fuel tank. The first shot hit the bow, didn't appear to sink much into the water though since the sea was rough. I couldn't really tell. I didn't want to wait for it to sink itself, so I sent a second electric towards the fuel tank. At this point, I thought that if this torp doesn't make a clean hit I'd have to fire a third. So, impact was made on the fuel tank. Some small explosions went off. It didn't break in half but it did go down in one piece. A shot to the bow and then a shot to the engine or fuel tank worked out nicely in this case. :up: I'll have to see if it'll work on other large merchants.