Being engaged by escorts...

[Janus]

Hi,
In my latest NYGM 3.0 patrol in December '43 I am engaged by a convoy escort for almost 4 hours game time now.
But for the last 2 hours game time or so the escort vessel has not depth charged me although it is still pinging me from time to time. I think it's not unlikely that the escort is out of depth charges.

How can I get rid of this bastard? I've been on silent running throughout the engagement and the convoy must even be out of my sonar range soon. I want to surface again and make contact with the convoy again but this escort is still lingering around :shifty:
Is this a feature of NYGM (escorts trying to keep me underwater until I run out of oxygen and have to surface?) or is it just a SHIII "feature" when the escort does not notice that it apperantly is out of depth charges?

What would you do in my situation to get rid of the escort?

[bigboywooly]

SH3 feature
They carry on as if they still have some
Well the obvious solution is to try lose him
Deep and silent with slow turns

But if you havent managed that in the last 2 hours
The other alternative is to go to PD and send him a torp
Not realistic but then neither is an escort still making runs with no DCs
When he would have had another escort take over and returned to convoy or just left himself

Your call

[nirwana]

He wont leave u alone until the convoy is at least 50 km away or another sub is spotted somewhere else. If ure lucky the convoy will be attacked by AI-subs in which case he runs away with top speed and u will get frequently the position of the convoy from BdU. If u somehow manage to take him out another escort will zigzagging for a couple of hrs 10-20km away from the tail of the convoy forcing u to outflank the convoy out of any sensor range at great distance. Sometimes it takes me upto 3 sh3 days to get back in a descend attack position.

[Kipparikalle]

Just get to the nearest (full speed, you can cheat using the freecam to see the DD coming, and evade in time), deepest spot in the sea. And go as deepest, and silent as possible. Over 150m spot would be preferred.

Works everytime

[Jimbuna]

Well if that works every time, I'm definitely doing something wrong :hmm:

<reminds oneself to set all escort crew values to 'noob'>

[Kipparikalle]

Well if that works every time, I'm definitely doing something wrong :hmm:

<reminds oneself to set all escort crew values to 'noob'>

I meant to say mostly, don't know how that slipped there.

Anyway, if that fails. Go pop a cap in its ass and call it a day

[Janus]

I've already been at 140m depth with engines OFF
for almost an hour I would say. But the escort still came back to ping me.
I'm afraid I just have to sit it out until the escort will regroup with it's convoy - whenever this will be...

[Reise]

Keep speed slow at 2kts
Stopped you will still be an asdic target and stopped one at that
2 kts and regular turn
Keep move away from convoy course

[Jimbuna]

Manually (from the speed guage and whilst in silent running mode) set your speed to 1 knot....that is as quiet as you can be whilst moving.

The other plus is that your battery lasts longer (longer than your oxygen level anyway) :lol:

[Brag]

Manually (from the speed guage and whilst in silent running mode) set your speed to 1 knot....that is as quiet as you can be whilst moving.

The other plus is that your battery lasts longer (longer than your oxygen level anyway) :lol:

Yup, speed one knot. rudder 5-10 degrees. You may change depth.

[Jimbuna]

Manually (from the speed guage and whilst in silent running mode) set your speed to 1 knot....that is as quiet as you can be whilst moving.

The other plus is that your battery lasts longer (longer than your oxygen level anyway) :lol:

Yup, speed one knot. rudder 5-10 degrees. You may change depth.

You may run, but you can't hide :lol:

[Janus]

I finally made it by moving away from the (estimated) convoy's course with 2 knots silent running at depth 160 meters.

Now I need to get into an attack position again.
It is damned hard to engage a late '43 convoy...

[Task Force]

What type of boat do you have?;)

[Janus]

What type of boat do you have?;)
Type VII C/41

[nirwana]

btw. NYGM convoy escorts have a bad habit to run towards the last contact of u for no friggin reason as long as its daytime to force u going submerged slowing u down hrs after the inital approach/attack. Its an indication that the convoy will adjust its course upto +-45 degree. Without any hydro/visual contact of the convoy and without using the free camera the chance is slim to keep in touch with the convoy.

[Kurt Lange]

I finally made it by moving away from the (estimated) convoy's course with 2 knots silent running at depth 160 meters.

Now I need to get into an attack position again.
It is damned hard to engage a late '43 convoy...


I have NYGM 3.0, attacking convoys in the Mediterranean in December 1943 in the 'Wolves At War III' campaign and am having no problems. Here are my tips:

Next time, try attacking from between 3500 and 4000 metres. Stay on silent running all the time, going very slow ahead and astern to maintain your distance until you have a good gyro angle.

Any escorts come close during that time, dip down to 20 metres till they have moved away, then return to periscope depth.

Once you have launched your torpedoes, turn away from the convoy, and dive using SLOW silent running...do NOT get twitchy and speed up. Do not stay at periscope depth to see if your torpedoes hit...you will know soon enough by sound.

By attacking from this distance, the escorts do not know where to start searching for you, and you will be amazed how quickly they give up and return to the convoy.

By the way, you say you were trying to escape that escort at a depth of 140 metres. You need to go much deeper than that. When I have been pinned down by them in the past, I have gone to a depth of 230 metres, silent running at 1 knot. Its risky as your hull may not hold up but thats what it took, especially during my trip past Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean.

[Janus]

I have NYGM 3.0, attacking convoys in the Mediterranean in December 1943 in the 'Wolves At War III' campaign and am having no problems. Here are my tips: I am playing W@W patrol at the moment, too :D

Yeah, well I've already happened to come into an attack position well ahead of the convoy again by coincidence (after I lost touch with the convoy I have searched for it east of my position for almost a whole day, but as it turned out the convoy continued on it's original NE course and made a new course to SE later which brought it direclty on an intercept course with me..).
Well to cut a long story short I miscalculated a bit and landed right on the course of the first column of the convoy - so basically I was right in the middle of the convoy. "Nevermind", I thought, "let's at least get the exact course of the convoy with 2 or 3 quick observations with the periscope from close range, then let it pass and race ahead of it again to get the ultimate position for an attack."
But of course one of the escorts discovered me again :roll:

I am not very confident that I can pull off an attack from 3000 to 4000 meters; my targeting skills are ridiculous. I cannot even get a decent distance value with the staidmeter from relatively close range (my graphics card is partly to blame for that, the ships' masts are quite blurry from mid to far ranges). The shaking (no stabilize view option) of the periscope does the rest to ruin my fire solutions.
That's why I still rely on the help of the Weapons Officer in most cases.

Any escorts come close during that time, dip down to 20 metres till they have moved away, then return to periscope depth.
How do you manage to change the depth with engines turned off? If you make 2 knots or something to change depth, doesn't it ruin your fire solution?

[nirwana]

The distance to target setting is almost waste of time. Per 1km the change is less then about 1 degree. An approximate guessing of the distance works for me quite sufficiant. U can check it by playing with the distance dial leaving everything else alone and watch the calculated results of the firesolution changing only slightly.

[Kurt Lange]

How do you manage to change the depth with engines turned off? If you make 2 knots or something to change depth, doesn't it ruin your fire solution?

My engines aren't stopped; they are always turning over at 1 knot ahead or dead slow astern. And you dip down until the escort has passed, then return to periscope depth to do the attack. Just make sure you are on silent running!!

NYGM 3.0 has specifically addressed the ease with which you can slip past escorts at periscope depth, so you really do need to go deeper till it has passed by. Only takes a few minutes. :)

[Janus]

The distance to target setting is almost waste of time. Per 1km the change is less then about 1 degree. An approximate guessing of the distance works for me quite sufficiant. U can check it by playing with the distance dial leaving everything else alone and watch the calculated results of the firesolution changing only slightly.
But I need the distance to get the target's course and after the the AOB.
I'm trying to make my fire solutions at a dead stop like this: http://www.paulwasserman.net/SHIII/

[nirwana]

Well i got the distance and its course already by monitoring the convoy for a couple of hrs. I draw generally lines in the map for all existing columns of the convoy so the distance in combination with the hydrolines is known to me for every member of the columns as long as they are not engaged in evasive maneuvers or changed course. If i stumbled into a convoy with optimal position by surprise i refrain myself from attacking it instantly. I will shadowing it until i get all infos to even be able to successfully attack it without using the scopes at all. The distances between those members in all 4 directions is well known and constant so if i can pin down the location of 1 or 2 i can calculate them for every member. As u know u can pause the game and make ure drawings in the map without time pressure.

Of cause this procedures requires a very low tc and many hrs of RL time but :arrgh!: busting a whole convoy in multiply attack-waves is one of the highlights of any sh3 smod for me. Thats one of the main reason i use a IXb/c which carries extra external eals though not even such a large stockpile is large enough to serve everyone in large convoys with 32-40 merchants which represents 80+% of my targets. :-?
:lost::lurk:

Such carefully prepared attacks made the grey wolves so effective in the early stage of WW2.