To leave or stay?

[RConch]

I am curious how you folks approach a patrol?
Do you go to your assigned patrol grid or do you just head out to good hunting areas?
Also if you go to your grid how long do you stay?

My approach is to always try to get to the grid and stay the 24 hours. Then it becomes a guessing game whether to stay or move?
Right now I am a DH 54 in late December 1940, there is good traffic, except most ships are neutrals. I have sunk 3 enemy ships and passed on atleast a dozen neutrals in approx one month here. I have 8 eels left and approximately 60% fuel. The weather is very variable from storms to clear and calm.
It is about 6+ days between passing enemy ships.
Would you stay here longer or move?

[Herr-Berbunch]

I am curious how you folks approach a patrol?
Do you go to your assigned patrol grid or do you just head out to good hunting areas?
Also if you go to your grid how long do you stay?

My approach is to always try to get to the grid and stay the 24 hours. Then it becomes a guessing game whether to stay or move?
Right now I am a DH 54 in late December 1940, there is good traffic, except most ships are neutrals. I have sunk 3 enemy ships and passed on atleast a dozen neutrals in approx one month here. I have 8 eels left and approximately 60% fuel. The weather is very variable from storms to clear and calm.
It is about 6+ days between passing enemy ships.
Would you stay here longer or move?

I'd head a little North until you are adjacent with entrance to the Med, keep away from it and just patrol West/East, lots of juicy shipping around here :yeah:

[Herr-Berbunch]

Back to your original question though, I do usually head straight to patrol area and do my 24hrs before heading wherever my whim takes me, usually where there is a narrowing of waterways like Gib, English Channel, North of Ireland (not Northern Ireland). Always about 100 - 200 km away from them.

I'm about to be more adventurous and head around Norway with my latest career.

[raymond6751]

Most of us play for realism, which would indicate that we follow orders.

I usually get to the assigned location and place a circle around my area or mark the map with X 's to help me stay in there. Then I patrol the area within carefully.

My idea is that whoever created the missions had planned to have something sail through the assigned areas during the patrol. They are usually a repeated group that respawns or follows set waypoints.

[Sailor Steve]

The '24 hours' is a holdover from when the game was originally intended to have scripted missions.

I stay at my assigned grid for at least two weeks. After that I roll a die. If it's a '1' I go to an adjacent grid. If not I stay where I am. After another week I'll move it it comes up '2'. BdU sent me there for a reason.

[Herr-Berbunch]

The '24 hours' is a holdover from when the game was originally intended to have scripted missions.

I stay at my assigned grid for at least two weeks. After that I roll a die. If it's a '1' I go to an adjacent grid. If not I stay where I am. After another week I'll move it it comes up '2'. BdU sent me there for a reason.

BdU can be wrong - D-day landings, once torpedoes expended use your U-boat?:wah:

[sharkbit]

I play good soldier and follow orders-go to my patrol grid and patrol for 24 hours. On the way to my area, I'll go after reported convoys/contacts if I can easily intercept.

After my 24 hours is up I'll freelance a little bit and within reason-I'm not going to sail to the other side of the Atlantic to a favorite hunting ground.

If I'm close to an area where some historical event is going to take place(Invasion of Norway, D-day, etc.) I may position myself to take advantage of it on the assumption Bdu ordered me there.

I'm going to try out Sailor Steve's idea of rolling a die to introduce some randomness on whether I stay in an area or not. I don't need or necessarily want 60000 ton patrols every time by going to a favorite hunting ground every patrol. Plus, I'm in late 1943 with a couple of careers and I'm pretty happy with a few ships sunk and getting home with my hide intact. :sunny:

:)

[Herr-Berbunch]

I don't need or necessarily want 60000 ton patrols every time

I do, but it never happens :wah:

I'm damned if I can hit the tugs that sit motionless next to the light-ships!

[mookiemookie]

BdU can be wrong - D-day landings, once torpedoes expended use your U-boat?:wah:

It's not your place as a Commander to question BDU's orders. :D

[Herr-Berbunch]

It's not your place as a Commander to question BDU's orders. :D

That's it, I'm going mercenary - eels for hire, who's the highest bidder? :03:

Onkel Karl started off with his men near the fronts, then as the war went on retreated further away thus removing himself from the stresses and strains of his men and away from the effects of his decisions - much like western forces' drone operators deciding or not to release a weapon 7000 miles away. Typical manager:har:

[Pisces]

I do, but it never happens :wah:

I'm damned if I can hit the tugs that sit motionless next to the light-ships!The tugs were placed there so you'd notice the lightships. I know, it's ironical. The light-ships are part of the land-layer of the campaign and the crew ignores it. But they do notice the tugs that are part of some other layer.

As most other do, I go for the 24 hour period and then wander of to chokepoints in the vicinity. Responding to map contacts if I can reach them in time.

[frau kaleun]

I go to my assigned grid and at the very least complete the 24 hour patrol there. I added the renown for doing that back into my game, in large part because it rewards me for resisting the temptation to ignore my "orders" and just go where I think the hunting will be good.

After I've completed the patrol assignment, it's kind of a toss-up as to what I'll do next. Generally I will stay in that area, but expand my patrol area into adjacent grids, unless I get reports of enemy activity that I have some chance of intercepting in which case I'll go where the expected action is.

If I don't get any reports that direct me towards potential action, I'll try to work my way through the grids adjacent to my original assigned area in such a way that I'm moving towards a known shipping lane if at all possible.

IIRC once I've had some success and sent in a patrol report, the reply I get says something about continuing to patrol "at [my] discretion" as long as the fuel and weapons hold out. So I tend to take that as the freedom to go where I please, within reason - if I was sent to patrol the upper Western Approaches, for instance, I'll probably continue patrolling the known shipping lanes west of Ireland rather than setting course for Gibraltar.

[STEED]

I go where there are ships to hunt, no time for farting around. :arrgh!:

[FIREWALL]

I found a solution that works for me after I do my 24 hr grid patrol.

[Gerald]

so after my 24 hours I'll take me for what is offered..

[desirableroasted]

1) I go to my assigned grid, though I plan my route to give me the best chances of encountering shipping along the way.

2). Once on station, I stay a week or more. Like others, I figure BdU sent me there for a reason.

3) After the week is up, I flip a coin. Heads means head for home, though, again, not necessarily the direct route. Tails means sticking around if the hunting has been good, or doing some freelancing at my discretion. Perhaps a little time outside Gibraltar, or tanker alley, or down to the Canaries for a reload of eels and shells.

I like to think this keeps things realistic. With the range you have in a VIIB in GWX, you can, frankly, sink 100K tons, then go over to New York and catch a show AND be back in W.Haven with a quarter tank.

[Jimbuna]

Assigned grid for a week, if pickings are scant I head off to known convoy routes (fuel levels permitting).