the thrill of the hunt

[Kimmers]

hey guys, im getting along great in my career, but i kinda wanna experience the thrill of sinking a capital ship, or any large battleship for that matter. even a light cruiser will do, im tired of staring at them in the museum :P

any ideas on how to track them down, and are their movements relative to their actual movements during the war?

[ppk]

If you play GWX, look into the manual for a list of historical operations that have been scripted in. Then it's only a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes the game will also spawn capital ships in the middle of convoys, but to my knowledge it's totally random and there isn't anything you can do to encourage that (so hunt convoys and keep your fingers crossed...). And if it's still early in the war you can raid ports. Scapa and Gibraltar pretty much always have juicy targets. Keep an eye out for mines, subnets, and plan your escape carefully though. Last but not least you can also try to go after task forces. They're generally faster than your boat at flank so take care to position yourself right into their path or you'll miss your chance... And as I've just learned, not all task forces are created equal; you might find torpedo boats instead of capital ships :rotfl2:

[Ping Panther]

Try one of the many single missions.

The "Bismark" mission is nothing but capital ships that are initially "distracted" in your favor. There are many other missions that will bring some big ships your way right from the start.

[Weiss Pinguin]

The single mission 'Barham', I believe, puts you right in front of a 3-ship task force. And if you're in grid CO51 in November '41, you can catch that same task force :arrgh!:

[ppk]

'Early Christmas' is my favorite single mission. You get a fleet carrier, a battleship, and some cruisers all heading straight at you :arrgh!:

I'd be curious to find a fleet carrier in the campaign though. Never seen one.

[Wreford-Brown]

Try the Western side of the Straights of Gibraltar about 5km North of the Southern shore. There's a number of task forces that run at high speed through the Straights including carriers and battleships.

Tomake sure you don'tmiss it, draw a 19km radius circle and that gives you your hydrophone detection zone. Ensure the circle touches the Northern and Southern shores and you'll pick up everything that comes through the Straights and can pick your targets.

Or... learn how to use the Mission Editor.

[Kimmers]

Or... learn how to use the Mission Editor.

was actually looking to score some campaign tonnage, was inspired when i sunk this large ocean liner. But i definitely will give the other ideas a go, esp gibraltar. Im assigned to that area all the time :up:

[Weiss Pinguin]

Ooh yeah, Gibraltar is great. If you don't pick up any task forces there are plenty of convoys.

[cawimmer430]

In my current career I've been very lucky in terms of capital ships.

In early 1940 I came across the Nelson and a Revenge Class Battleship north of Scapa Flow in my VIIC. Sunk the Nelson, the Revenge Class Battleship and two destroyer escorts and got away.

In early 1944 near the entrance to Gibraltar I came across a Bogue Escort Carrier and five destroyer escorts - sunk them all thanks to the Falke / Zaunkonig I torpedoes (they make life so simple!).

A few months later, off the coast of Ireland I encountered a lone passenger vessel at night steaming at 29 knots through the waves. I wasn't sure if this was a legitimate target but it was armed so I figured what the heck, sink it. Three torpedoes sent her to the bottom. Then in the same mission I encountered another Bogue Escort Carrier and four destroyer escorts north of Scapa Flow. Managed to sink the carrier and two of the escorts and got away.

I've been very lucky so far. :yeah: