How much tonnage per patrol?

[Steiger]

Hi guys, I'm just wondering what kind of tonnage you get on an average patrol. I only ask because even though I swing 24 torpedoes per patrol, I usually kill only kill about 4 ships per patrol, with anything higher than 6 being reason to crack open a few beers to celebrate. I'm just idly curious as to the kinds of numbers everyone gets with their boats, on which mods.

I have USS Drum (Gato class), currently late 1943, TMO 1.9 + RSRD.

[RodBorza]

Steiger,

About the same. I always start at late 41', and counting all the duds, prematures and misses, it is something around four to six ships.
I usually, repeat, usually do not reload after a miss, only when I do something terribly dumb to let the target go away. But, if I fired from too far, if I misjudged speed or if the target got smart, I will miss it and then it I will move on.

Also, if you look at the mission patrol reports, you shouldn't be that far off from the historical average that they got during the war.

[Armistead]

4-8 ships playing TMO cams and contacts off, 90%. Stock is silly where you have a million tons by the end of the way.

[Keelbuster]

It's my first TMO campaign (first SH4 campaign overall); getting used to the US TDC situation. Right now I'm getting probably 2-3 ships on average per patrol (say 10k tonnage). I'm not playing DiD - next patrol.

[McHibbins]

Usually 4-6 ships per patrol, something between 15k or 30k tons with RFB+RSRD.
Trying UBM with OM now....

[sergei]

I usually start in either a Pigboat or a Porpoise.
That gives me either 12 or 16 torpedoes.
Given that, I'm happy to sink 3 ships.
Sinking 4 is a cause for much celebration :DL

The numbers go up a bit once I get more tubes and radar.

[Gibus]

Hello,
I am in my 100% first career, but since the 5th start.
I'm in the 7th patrol near Guadalcanal aboard USS Drum, since September 7, 1942.
Currently I am sitting on an endless supply of torpedoes at the base of Tulagi. I reloaded three times 24 torpedoes.
We are in November 1942 and I returned to Pearl with 454,663 tons (26 ships) sunk because I'm tired. :yawn:
Since the campaign began, I sank 1,300 ktons.

I play with TMO 1.7 + French History MOD. I never cheat. When the target is missed, too bad.

[Admiral8Q]

Stock is silly where you have a million tons by the end of the way.

Yes, that is true, I think I'll go download some mods. But I'm on the fence between TMO and RFB... Hmm...:hmmm:

[Immacolata]

Steiger,

About the same. I always start at late 41', and counting all the duds, prematures and misses, it is something around four to six ships.
I usually, repeat, usually do not reload after a miss, only when I do something terribly dumb to let the target go away. But, if I fired from too far, if I misjudged speed or if the target got smart, I will miss it and then it I will move on.

Also, if you look at the mission patrol reports, you shouldn't be that far off from the historical average that they got during the war.

I started doing that as well after I came back with too good a patrol. The solution creation used to be so stressful that I allowed myself this cheat. But after I started using the Solution Solver tool I find it is "fair" that I am allowed to miscalculate my solutions and miss.

You really feel the nag and the disappointment when your torps swim astern knowing that this target is going to zig zag away like mad now. No Second Shot.

It makes the game not more difficult, but it makes your personal tally somewhat less impressive.

Btw. I still do shoot fish in a barrel runs to enemy harbors under the cover of darkness. Sometimes it pays off with tonnage.

[Steiger]

Yes, that is true, I think I'll go download some mods. But I'm on the fence between TMO and RFB... Hmm...:hmmm:

Well you need to get off that fence! You're only punishing yourself.


I have USS Drum (Gato class), currently late 1943, TMO 1.9 + RSRD.

I'm in the 7th patrol near Guadalcanal aboard USS Drum

Hey, get off my boat you thief! :)

The solution creation used to be so stressful that I allowed myself this cheat. But after I started using the Solution Solver tool I find it is "fair" that I am allowed to miscalculate my solutions and miss.

And you don't consider the solution solver itself to be a cheat? I'm pretty sure real skippers didn't have a tool even close to the kind of power in that little program.

[ShadowWolf Kell]

In the past based in Pearl, probably 10-25k per patrol. Pickings always seemed slim.

With my current run, 30-50k per patrol POST radar. Before that it was a different story. Just traversing the Makassar Straight and Celebes area it's radar contact after radar contact. It's depressing going home because I'm often dry.

The beautiful part is that they tend to be singles, or occassionally two in close proximity with very little air cover. This is with TMO 1.9 + RSRDC. I've only actually run into 3 convoys total and I'm currently in Jan of '44.

I don't go close enough to the coasts to pick up fishing boats or sampans. My Saigon harbor raid doesn't count. That was just for grins. :DL

[Buddahaid]

Yes, that is true, I think I'll go download some mods. But I'm on the fence between TMO and RFB... Hmm...:hmmm:

Just pick one and play till you want a change. I moved from vanilla to TMO because I hated the Japanese airplane commuter traffic , moved to FOTRS untill it seemed to easy (and started getting tired of certain voices/sound effects), then to RFB/RSRDC for more historical behavior although my pigboat is way too stable in storms. :arrgh!:

[Gibus]

Hey, get off my boat you thief! :)


What's mine is mine, what's yours is ours. :haha:

[TH0R]

3-4 ships on average.

[Steiger]

What's mine is mine, what's yours is ours. :haha:

Hey, wait - aren't we married?

[Rockin Robbins]

One time just to illustrate how silly the 100,000 ton club was over at Ubi, I loaded up Neon Neon's gunboat sub and slightly subnuclear deck gun. I made a video of sinking 100,000 tons in 10 minutes (http://www.filefront.com/13692848/100000-tons-in-10-minutes9.wmv). This was an RFB submarine too, no invulnerability stuff, just slightly insane weaponry. Actually it was a lot of fun making the video! It was kinda the end of the 100k ton club though...

[Filson]

Wow. I thought I was doing sub par with 8-12 and 40-50k tons per patrol. I am running TMO 1.9 and RSRD at 100% realism. Early in the war I was getting about 2-4 ships and was lucky to ever break 15k tons. With a Balao and radar in 1943 I have been doing very well. The one thing I do that probably isn't realistic is make deck gun attacks on smaller or more flamable targets. I also figured out that the big anti-aircraft gun does a really good job on surface targets. I tend to take about 50% hull damage per patrol, so I am not sure this is a recommended tactic. But it does save torpedoes. My biggest problem is running low on fuel while still carrying topedoes.

Filson

[ShadowWolf Kell]

One time just to illustrate how silly the 100,000 ton club was over at Ubi, I loaded up Neon Neon's gunboat sub and slightly subnuclear deck gun. I made a video of sinking 100,000 tons in 10 minutes (http://www.filefront.com/13692848/100000-tons-in-10-minutes9.wmv). This was an RFB submarine too, no invulnerability stuff, just slightly insane weaponry. Actually it was a lot of fun making the video! It was kinda the end of the 100k ton club though...


I never understood the reasoning behind such a club since it implies that the realism of a particular sim is really out of whack.

Which kind of makes sense given that the alternative is hours, even days of boredom. Falcon 4.0 is one of the few to actually model the boredom aspect on long flights later in a campaign.

I remember one particular campaign where we'd pushed the Koreans all the way back to Punyang. One mission I had was to bomb the power plant within the city (I was a mud mover exclusively.) I loaded up my package with Paveways and took off from Osan AFB. Enroute, you could hardly tell there was a war going on until we hit the target zone and could see AA fire in the distance. Most of the flight I was fiddling with the radar tagging targets (I played full realism, no labels on) just to find something to shoot at.

Dropped the bombs, leveled the target and went home. Boredom is when you're orbiting your airfield with 20+ F-16s and A-10s ahead of you in the landing queue.

Even so, that's far more exciting than what a fleet or u-boat captain endured at sea for a month at a time.

[Steiger]

Dropped the bombs, leveled the target and went home.

A little something for you, friend. :salute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng3HPrea90k

[AVGWarhawk]

If I bag 2-3 per patrol I'm good!

[Immacolata]

And you don't consider the solution solver itself to be a cheat? I'm pretty sure real skippers didn't have a tool even close to the kind of power in that little program.

No, I do not consider using it a cheat. I'd be pretty much an idiot not to when I decide to calculate my solutions by myself. Before this I used a real world Solution Solver that I printed out and stapled together on top of an old wooden cigar box + a desk calculator.

It is really just a math ruler in a circle. No black magic involved or eXXXtreme Computation POWAH, just plain adding integers and subtracting them in a very simple equation. A real skipper would have someone do his calculations based on observations, possibly using a Solution Solver wheel even - now wouldnt he?

[ShadowWolf Kell]

A little something for you, friend. :salute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng3HPrea90k

Haha that was hilarious.

A lot can be said about dropping Mk84s in CCIP mode from 10,000 feet with flak erupting all around you lol. Keeps you on your toes.

[theluckyone17]

I just racked up ~26k tons in Dec' of '41, using RFB & RSRD, 100% realism. There's an invasion force just north of Manilla that I usually find on that first patrol. First four fish out of the tubes were all duds. I seem to remember getting one or two duds after that, but the rest of my loadout was enough to sink the three targets (large tanker, large freighter, large passenger ship). Dodged the deaf & dumb escorts by mainly staying at periscope depth and running silent.

Seein' as I've only been out for a couple days, I headed back to Manilla for a refuel & rearm, then back out on patrol... having that ~26k tons in the bank makes the rest of the patrol not quite so stressful.

The next couple patrols usually go pretty light for me... we'll see what happens in this career.

[ShadowWolf Kell]

:DLI just racked up ~26k tons in Dec' of '41, using RFB & RSRD, 100% realism. There's an invasion force just north of Manilla that I usually find on that first patrol. First four fish out of the tubes were all duds. I seem to remember getting one or two duds after that, but the rest of my loadout was enough to sink the three targets (large tanker, large freighter, large passenger ship). Dodged the deaf & dumb escorts by mainly staying at periscope depth and running silent.

Seein' as I've only been out for a couple days, I headed back to Manilla for a refuel & rearm, then back out on patrol... having that ~26k tons in the bank makes the rest of the patrol not quite so stressful.

The next couple patrols usually go pretty light for me... we'll see what happens in this career.

It appears in TMO as well. I think it's added by RSRDC. I just finished two early patrols with a Porpoise. Towards the end of my first patrol after being shifted to Java, I encountered 2 Kongos, 2 Mayas and assorted escorts steaming southward. I had to really push things to get ahead of them before dawn.

Didn't have a lot of torpedos left due to the very same convoy you mentioned. Nothing is quite as frustrating as setting up a good end around attack, then a good solution and watching duds and your quarry sail away. :wah:

On my third patrol I ran across 2 carriers apparently heading back towards Japan. I had a LOT more torpedos this time and my sub manuevered in such a way that I had the bow tubes on one carrier, and the stern tubes on the other. They didn't get to sail away. :DL

[theluckyone17]

Well, leave it at ~26k tons. Nobody said I have to return from patrol, right? :D :nope:

After rearming, I hit the recon point just southwest of Formosa. Watch spotted an aircraft. We crash dived. Around 100 feet, the DC's the aircraft dropped got us. Flooding in four compartments. Destroyed the pressure hull in the engine room. Trying an emergency surface did nothing, and the ocean floor was just too deep.

*sigh*.

[magic452]

You may have to change your name to the notsoluckyone17:haha:

Magic

[theluckyone17]

Heh. I have lots of luck, mostly bad. But when it's good... oh, it's good. :cool:

[daft]

With RFB 2.0 and RSRD installed, I'm happy with anything at all. I started a new career after getting U-Boat missions and my first patrol was a complete dry run. Not a single enemy ship sighted. My second one I managed to bag a 4800 ton freighter with 4 torps in bad weather. I was overjoyed. We were assigned a good area (South China Sea) so targets would probably have been easier to find if we had had the endurance to hang around a bit longer. I just need to find good shipping lanes and have enough fuel to be able to exploit the findings. As it is, I'm constantly keeping an eye on the fuel levels, but we're down to close to half just after arriving in the assigned area.

[Armistead]

You may have to change your name to the notsoluckyone17:haha:

Magic

A one legged dog named lucky...:har:

[Fishbreath]

I tend to hit about 15-30k tons per patrol, depending on the patrol area.