Where to patrol late 41 to early 42

[Reece]

Hi, I have had 3 patrols from around sept 41 through Feb 42 patrolling in these areas: AM43, BE39, BF15 and adjacent grids, with no convoys and only a few ships, the last patrol I had only 1 ship reported in a week, about 20 dives or so to check Hydraphone for ships but nothing!:-?
Anyone have any ideas of where to look, this would be a nice idea for a chart to be made of the areas to patrol for a given date.:yep:
Thanks.

[Sailor Steve]

Open up the SH3 Mission Editor. Load the Campaigns/RND file. It contains the details of every single convoy in the game. This one is GWX 2.1:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/Image1-2.jpg

I looks daunting at first, but you can zoom into any item you want.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a325/SailorSteve/Image2-1.jpg

Clicking on the item will highlight the entire route, so you can see where each one goes.

[Reece]

:eek: Do you realize how long it would take to find out which of those would apply for a particular date!!:dead: I did actually look there but surely there's an easier way, I'm using SH3 Commander that gives an area to patrol but often or not it's totally void of traffic!

[Sailor Steve]

Well, there's these guys:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=116182

They've had this sticky at the top of this forum for more than a year.

[rifleman13]

Late 1941 to Early '42, eh? :hmm:

Try the US East Coast! :know:

As Sailor Steve illustrated, it will get very heavy traffic there, and virtually no resistance, well at least when they get smart! :shifty:

After all, our Japanese allies opened an opportunity for us! :arrgh!:

[Revere]

@Reece,

There is a date filter in the editor. The time filter start and time filter end.
1941/2 - 1941/2 will show the convoys running for February of 1941.

[rifleman13]

There's that and the history books.:know:

GWX is intended to be realistic, right? :yep:

So that timeframe can be consistent with the Second Happy Time and Operation Drumbeat! :arrgh!:

[Brag]

Caribbean is good in 42
Florida Straits.

In 41 it is fun to follow a Freetown convoy.:D

[VonDos]

Try "mittelmeer", mediterranean sea;
small convoys everywhere, and a lot of task force "italian VS british"

[predavolk]

The Americas/Caribbean. Check out this thread (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=137746)for details.

[Subwolf]

In late -41 it was hard to find convoys because the enemy would know your position if you used the radio. I think it's because they cracked the Enigma for a while until the Germans could change the codes. If this is simulated in GWX then you got the reason.

In -42 the place is US east coast in a XI, and in -43 you should change to a VIIC/41 and hunt single targets. Do not attack convoys, unless you really wanna die for Der Führer ;)

[Reece]

@ Sailor Steve, thanks for the link, had forgotten about that, downloading map now!:yep:
@ Revere, There is a date filter in the editor. Could you elaborate on "editor" please?:D
@ All others, yes it seems the East coast of America is the place to go, was avoiding this due to TC & Fuel reasons, the last time I went there I had to go at the slowest speed & took about 3/4 hour RT to get there, lovely weather all the way, when I finally arrived I had a week of heavy rain & fog!!:lol:

[Sailor Steve]

SH3 Mission Editor. It's inside the main SH3 folder, though I use it enough to have an icon on the Desktop. As Revere said, there is a date filter. I didn't think of it because I've never used it.

Or is that the other way around?

[Reece]

I'll give it a go, the Spinnennetz map is very limited & just shows the traffic from a small area, Germany, America etc is not even shown.:-?

Edit: Still too much, the best I can see is to concentrate on the routes, pity you cant view the map over a wider area! in the Spinnennetz map, could someone point out what the colors represent?

[rifleman13]

yes it seems the East coast of America is the place to go, was avoiding this due to TC & Fuel reasons, the last time I went there I had to go at the slowest speed & took about 3/4 hour RT to get there, lovely weather all the way, when I finally arrived I had a week of heavy rain & fog!!:lol:
It's hurricane season... :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[Adriatico]

In late -41 it was hard to find convoys because the enemy would know your position if you used the radio. I think it's because they cracked the Enigma for a while until the Germans could change the codes. If this is simulated in GWX then you got the reason.

In -42 the place is US east coast in a XI, and in -43 you should change to a VIIC/41 and hunt single targets. Do not attack convoys, unless you really wanna die for Der Führer ;)
Does it meen if my U-boat "keeps the mouth shut" that my position is unknown ?
Wolves ?
:hmm:

[KeptinCranky]

Well, IRL the uboats made regular reports to BDU, which didn't help their cause much later on, because radio chatter did get them detected. But the rules called for it...

In game I don't know, I have been attacked by escorts while shadowing a convoy and immediately after sending in the radio report, but this hasn't occured consistently enough to say that it's a bad idea...

I tend to not send in reports in SH3 because there isn't much point to it, there are ussually no friendly ships or planes near enough to assist, which would be the point of sending them.

The exceptions are the Med and Black Sea, where, if you send in contact reports, you might get credit stealing Italian or German planes to "help out" :D

It's fun to watch a bunch of stukas go nuts on a convoy though... and on one ocassion I was saved by a Stuka blowing up the Black Swan that was harassing me

[Sailor Steve]

@ Reece: One more thing you might try is SH3Gen. It generates a report on what's in different places at any given time by looking in your actual game files when you ask it to, and has sliders that can be set all the way from telling you nothing to telling you everything. I keep mine set fairly low and only use it at the beginning of a patrol, to represent opening the safe and reading my orders, but you can use it any time you like. A great tool.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=88438

[Reece]

Trying to find an explanation of what it does is a pain! also seems I have to download:
TatikGIS viewer (have to register to get it) and latest version of Sh3Gen Tracking Room? :-?
I only have .NET 2, but it needs 1.1!:-?
I think I'll let this go!:doh:
But thanks anyway Sailor Steve.
(https://shop.tatukgis.com/Downloads/DownloadList.aspx#App)

[BasilY]

If you like battleships, try CO56, south of Crete. Feb 26th, 1942, I just have an encounter with a huge task force of 1 KG5, 2 Nelson's, and too many Dido's to count (accompany by only 4 destroyers). Among the 3 torps intented for the KG5, 2 missed, 1 went under her keel but fail to detenate. Catch the Nelson with an impact shot between the 1st and 2nd turret, but she barely slow down.

All in all pretty disappointing. Left the fight with 3 destroyers sunk, 2 external torps left, and one busted attack parascope.

The task force steam at 15 knots heading from Malta to Port Said, Hope you have better luck.

[Reece]

Yeh, was probably a fluke that you were at the right position at the right time, what is needed is a list of hot grid points for each month & year.:yep: From 39 to end 41 plenty of targets but after that it's almost dead, maybe realistic but not much fun, I tried the Spinnennetz green map position of Grid DH18, but almost dead, 1 ship in 1 week, a ship and convoy report shown on map but out of range, now I'm getting low on fuel!:roll:
Might have to make some adjustments to the rnd mis file I think!:-?

[BasilY]

Yeh, was probably a fluke that you were at the right position at the right time,

Actually, I saw this battleship squadron (KG5+Nelson) in two consecutive patrols in the same area. I wouldn't be surprise to see it again this patrol. I failed to sink the big boys during he two previous encounters. Now I have a plan, hope to see them again pretty soon, be crossing my fingers.

[Reece]

Yeh most are going at warp speed!!:lol: I have managed to sink a few carriers in task force but usually there out of range, very rare to get them crossing your path!:roll:
I might give SH3Gen a go.:yep:

[Sandman_28054]

It is just my experince, but I have found that Grid BC93 is a good place to "park."

Convoy's leaving Halifax (?) usually are "spawned" every 3-4 days.

[Hanomag]

Herr Kaluen,

Why certainly... torpedo alley!! :up:

Some have already mentioned.. but I reiterate!

GOOD HUNTING!! :arrgh!:

[Reece]

I might give it a try, just spent 3 weeks south of England (BF12 to 16) date Jan 42, only 1 ship reported, & came across 2 DD's & 2 fishing boats!!:down:

[Jimbuna]

Approx 150km west of Gib.....fill ya boots http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[Reece]

Might have to try that too Jim, thanks, I must admit that due to modding I don't often get this far, have only ever gone to mid 43 certainly without this problem, but most likely prior to GWX.:yep:

[rifleman13]

Approx 150km west of Gib.....fill ya boots http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif Coincidentally, I'm within 400 km SW of Spain... :|\\ :arrgh!:

[Cezbor]

Waters around Reyjkjavik (Island):hmm: and port itself. Good hunting grounds are about 300 km west and 400-500 km south-west. Hot area. Lots of convoys going to and from Halifax and US. east coast, and from Reyjkjavik to England. Map grids AD 85 f.e., AK.:ping: