Newbie needs help in an unbelieveable situation.

[GuntherHerman]

Hey guys, just found these forums, in desprate need of help. I'm in an incredible pickle, here....

So, campaign patrol, early 1940. I've been traveling to my zone, merrily sinking ships along the way. I'm down to two torpedoes in my fore tube, 1 in my aft. I have "external reserves", more on those later. My deck gun is dry, with only Star Shell shots left.

Lo and behold, with 2 hours left in my patrol, I run into an unescorted C3 boat! Joy! Thing is, as I quickly find out, two torps aren't enough to sink this monster, it needs three. I have three, but one is in my aft tubles...sticky situation.

So, I decide to try something. I set myself up perpendicular to the C3's course at periscope depth, fully stopped. When the unsuspecting C3 passes close enough to get a decent (yellow triangle) lock, I quickly fire both fore tubes, and set flank speed to turn the boat around and shoot my aft torp as well.

Unfortunately, that's as hard as it sounds. By the time I'm turned around, both torps have hit and the C3 is dodging around like mad. Yeah, it's big and slow, but I'm still having problems, mainly because it's hard to get a good angle for my aft torp.

After a couple of reloads, when I was about to give up, I got lucky. My aft shot hit his engines, disabling him! Buuuuut...one of my fore shots managed to miss (either that, or this thing takes more torps than I thought...). So, it's sitting there, literally dead in the water...and I'm out of EVERYTHING. I tried firing star shells at it's waterline until I ran out of star shells. Then, I remembered those external reserves...

And therein lise my question. How the $^#$ do I load my external reserves?! Even though they pop up on my armament mangagement screen, all my tubes show as grey. I have both aft and fore tubes fully staffed. I've tried clicking and dragging these things to my tubes in just about every way I can think of, and still no luck. I checked the manual, and they never mentioned how to manually load these things.

It doesn't matter how long it takes to do, or even if it DOES take two more torps to sink this boat. I have all the time in the world....assuming he doesn't have backup in the way. :oops:

[Platapus]

First of all welcome aboard!

Secondl two torps can sink a C3 it just may take a long time.

There is something in putting two fish in the C3 and then waiting. Merchants don't heal themselves and sometimes it can take a long time for it to sink

During this waiting period pull out of sighting range and do your end run with plenty of time to set up. The C3 will probably stop ziging around and get back on a steady course. Or it will sink :)

As for the externals. Make sure you have sufficient people in the appropriate torpedo room.

Go to your weapons screen and drag the external torp to the reserve. not the torpedo tubes. Once it is moved to the reserve, your crew will load it in the tube. I have never been able to directly load a torpedo from external directly to the tubes.

Good luck and good hunting and don't be afraid to wait and gloat as your target slowly dies. :arrgh!:

[5string74]

...and (if this isn't obvious to you - sorry if it is) ya gotta be surfaced and not in Silent Running mode.

[GuntherHerman]

I seem to have finally figured it out. Dragging ther torpedo to the reserve bays WAS accomplishing something, but I didn't notice until I happened to mouse over the torp and see the transfer progress. :damn: So, I finally got a torp loaded, then sent it right into the on-so-vulnerable engins of that damn merchant. See him break up and hit the bottom of the ocean was quite satisfying. :D

Still, glad to have found this place!

Edit: Wow! THanks for the quick replies!

Platapus, I had the speed on 32x for a while, and I kept my eye on the ship. How long does it take for it to sink, sometimes? It was listing, but it stablised and just kept running...

5string, I did manage to remember that much, at least, but thanks for the help :)

[Platapus]

Depending on the mod and where you hit the ship it can take a few hours game time. I would imagine that if in the game it aint sunk in about 5 hours game time it aint sinkin.

Glad you were able to get you C3.

C3's are rare and with Kaluens like you they will be a little bit rarer. :up:

[Brag]

Welcome aboard, GuntherHerman. Glad you got uor problem solved. Keep on the hunt. :up:

[Sailor Steve]

Aye laddie, WELCOME ABOARD!:arrgh!:

[-SWCowboy.]

Welcome aboard, GuntherHerman, you'll never find a better online community than the Silent Hunter community - hope you enjoy your stay! :up::up:

[Graf Paper]

I second that, SWCowboy!

Be more aggressive, kaelun! :arrgh!:

[von hally]

I second that, SWCowboy!

Be more aggressive, kaelun! :arrgh!:

here here!!

[mcf1]

Welcome aboard kaleun and good hunting

[Letum]

Welcome Klauen! :up:

[Zajcev]

Hi

I'm a noob since I'm only playing my 1st campaign and finished 5 missions.

But I think every advice is good ;-)

I also noticed C3s are difficult to sink, therefore I use deck gun on those ;-)
Always use magnetic detonators, they seem to work much better than contact ones when dud torpedoes are enabled. Setting torpedoes to run ~1.3m beneath the keel seems to work well (when not in storm). I mostly use steam torpedoes from close distance.

I did some testing on a C2, and it seems the ship can survive 2 hits beneath the middle of keel. When it was hit once in the middle beneath keel and once in the fore section, it took some water, burnt but didn't sink. With one torpedo in the middle and 1 in aft, it sank. It seems you have to aim manually (disable automatic locking on target), and aim in the middle of aft section. 2 hits in that spot should sink everything. When you fire, do not target 2 different spots, always target the same spot.

Don't be affraid of airplane patrols, just buy a zwilling AA, set it to fire at close distance and automatic crew will shoot them down.
And those annoying speed boats - don't dive when you see them, just use your deck gun. Their machine guns don't seem to be able to damage the sub.

[mengle]

welcome aboard, und weiter so !!!