Destroyer Evasion in XXI

[trias10]

Hello, as my first post I'd just like to take a moment and say I'm a huge fan of this forum and really appreciate the helpful community!

I have been playing the career mode for a while now, steadily racking up renown to purchase an XXI. I have played a few of the standalone missions using the XXI to prepare myself, so I'm a bit familiar with how it runs.

Last night I played a mission where I found myself facing a very juicy convoy in the XXI. The escort consisted of a destroyer up front, battleship in the middle, and, while I didn't see it, what I think was an ASW trawler. Long story short, 6 eels later, I had taken out the battleship, 2 tankers, and a whale factory ship. All shots were fired from about 2000 metres on the starboard side of the convoy. I had ample room to dive deep and run once the last eel fired.

To my surprise, as soon as I was 90 metres deep and turning to port, my hydrophones picked up an incoming warship. Apparently I had been spotted. Whatever this ship was, it moved very, very fast, so I assumed it was a trawler. Anyway, I went into the standard textbook evasive actions: silent running at 1/3, soon as the DCs drop and explode, go to flank and turn and zigzag, drop a bold, go back to 1/3 when you hear the ping.

So DCs are going off all around, but none are touching me. Eventually, hydrophones show the warship is about 800 metres away, so I decide to try something different. I remember once reading somewhere (perhaps on this forum), that in an XXI, you have SPEED, so you should use it. So I set to flank speed, thinking, okay, I'll just out-run this sucker, or come up behind him. I kept getting farther and farther from his hydrophone contact line, so I figure I'm in the clear. I speed up time compression. Suddenly I'm taking damage! He's right back on top of me!

I try a few more experiments of setting flank speed and running away at 16 knots (underwater), but soon as that ping starts, he's on me again. Eventually, after 45 minutes, I'm able to shake him off, using the tried and true silent running 1/3 ahead to evade the ping.

I've searched and searched this forum for the original post but can't find it. Essentially, how does one properly use the XXI and its fantastic underwater speed to their advantage? Is GWX 3.0 just too good at ASW? I can easily hit 16 knots on flank, and zigzag all over the place. The DCs never hit me, but at the same time, I was never able to shake him. Only when I dropped to 4-6 knots and slowly crept away did he lose me. I stayed at 90-100 metres during the entire engagement.

Any general tips on the best way to effectively use the XXI in such situations?


Many thanks Kaleuns!

[Freiwillige]

Go deeper. 100 meters isn't nothing in the XXI and the deeper you are the harder you are to hear. I usually do 180 meters average in my type VII and the XXI should easily exceed that!

When you hear the destroyer charging in for a DC attack then go flank and jink when the ashcans start popping wait a few seconds then silent 1/3rd again. after a few times of that you should have made the distance good enough to make the difference and creep off.

[trias10]

Sounds like good advice, I will give it a go.

Unfortunately, during this one particular engagement, it was in shallower seas, and the floor of the ocean was at around 110, so I stayed in the 90-100 range.

[Brag]

1/3 speed is too noisy for silent running!

Destroyers will always outrun you (at 30 knots) The XXI can make tighter turns, that's it.

[riley555]

I agree with Brag. I've done two full careers now and i've always found (Particularly in the later stages of the war) that once the enemy pings you it's basically impossible to get away from them at 1/3 speed. You've gotta go down to 4 knots maximum (occasionally 5 knots tops) and then zig zag and drop bolds or whatever it is you wanna do. Well that's with the VII. But 1/3 speed is definitely to high. You wanna be at 1/4 or even 1/5.

[evan82]

When the destroyer is starting to search You [or start attack You], you should dive to 140 - 150m at 5-7 knots. If destroyer is very close and moving fast then You should set speed to max, hard turn left or right, and dive to 150 - 200m. Also You can dive under some ship. When You are at this dept [150 - 200m] try to move slow about 4 - 8 knots. When pig is start dropping bombs on you, simply move faster and escape from attack zone. When he loose You, then You should move slowly:yep:.

Also remeber to check [better on map] depth under Your keel.

[trias10]

Sorry, I misspoke (writing at the office).

When I said ahead 1/3 in my example, I actually meant ahead slow. The speed setting which maps to keyboard key "1".

[cawimmer430]

Don't forget to prepare your boat for SILENT RUNNING (press Z) and reduce speed to 1/5.


What I like to do is manually set the speed to 1-2 knots. However, once the enemy pings you I've found that no matter what you do, they'll always find you.

The only way I've found to escape this is to slip behind the destroyer where he cannot hear you due to his spinning blades (excessive loud noise) and then turn hard into the opposite direction he is turning into and creep away.

Eventually, you can loose him in this fashion. But as others have stated, depth is your best friend which means staying away from coastal areas.

[Brag]

Go silent running, speed less than 3 knots or 50 RPM. When destroyer almost on top of you--ahead flank and 5 degrees rudder. When depth charges finish exploding, back to silent running.