New career

[Renesisfury82]

Hi, I just rolled a new career out of Manila in December 41. Any suggestions for hunting areas around the Phillipines? I know all about the maps of task forces, and the invasion forces to the north of Luzon.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Forgive me for my confusion mate but, there seems to be a bit of an oxymoron in your request.:06:

[Renesisfury82]

Well for my first patrol they wanted me to patrol the San Bernadino strait, I was hoping that was a decent area.

[Sandman_28054]

There is a bay just above the Manila bay outlet.

If you go there, for the next month Dec.-Jan there is where the Manila invasion force will be coming.

Good Luck and Good Hunting.

[Hylander_1314]

Yeah, sit at the mouth of Linguyan Gulf on the west side of Luzon, just to the right of center, and starting on Dec. 10th, you will get all the ships you want to shoot at. They are fast moving TFs, and will run anywhere from 13 to 18kts so if you sit below the surface from sunrise on, and check the hydrophones every hour during the daylight hours, you can usually pick them up quick enough and get into a position to fire on them. They usually come in on heading between 154 degrees, to 171 degrees depending on which side they favor.

Sank a Mogami Cruiser, 2 Fubuki DDs, and 3 small Troopships in about 2 to 3 hours time. Ducking the escorts was the tough part, but staying in the confines of the confusion of the ships trying to manuever after the intial suprize was the key. The DDs had a difficult time keeping a bead on us as we zig zagged under the slower turning vessels.

Escaping was the easy part since we went as deep as we dared to take the Saury, and reduced speed to 1kt, and just inched our way out, unless they happen to drop ashcans on top of us, and a sudden burst of speed and slow change in direction did the trick.

[Armistead]

Depends if your playing RSRD mod or just stock traffic. They're are 5 major invasion forces in RSRD hitting the Philippines. The one at the San Bern the invasion force comes from Palau and stations just north of the San Bern. Has a few Chistose plane carriers that make good targets and many merchants.

[Renesisfury82]

Yeah I chose to camp the bay north of Manila, it's December 10th, and the planes are starting to show up. Is there a chance of hitting the tf's in the bay and then going after the San Bernadino TF with a stop to grab more fish in Manila?

[Hylander_1314]

Depends on how long it takes you traverse the open waters, and with enemy planes showing up regularly during daylight hours, that may be a tall order to fill.

[Renesisfury82]

Is there a concrete start date of the traffic in RSRD? I have been sitting there from the 9th of December to the 12th so far, and the only thing I have spotted is 1 Betty. I keep ducking under to listen to the hydrophone, and nothing.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Is there a concrete start date of the traffic in RSRD? I have been sitting there from the 9th of December to the 12th so far, and the only thing I have spotted is 1 Betty. I keep ducking under to listen to the hydrophone, and nothing.If you're talking about the Lingayen Gulf invasion fleet, I had trouble locating that TF too. Don't know why or how I missed it, but it was a no-show for me. In my S-Boat, I sat (pretty much) about center, just inside the mouth of the gulf. I even saved and tried a game restart, made some minor adjustments to my position but, nothing doing. Since I'm not a big fan of restarts for the sake of intercepting a TF or convoy, I just continued on my patrol.

[Renesisfury82]

From what people have said, i thought it would be easy to stumble onto it.

[WernherVonTrapp]

From what people have said, i thought it would be easy to stumble onto it.:03: Nothing is easy if you have to stumble into it.:D

[Renesisfury82]

:03: Nothing is easy if you have to stumble into it.:D

True, but the gulf is not large, from a center spot you should be able to hear anything coming in.

[TorpX]

From what people have said, i thought it would be easy to stumble onto it.

The Lingayen Gulf invasion did not occur until late Dec., if I'm not mistaken. You should get a radio message after it occurs.

I don't know about general traffic though. I started a career, and put to sea Dec. 2, 1941. I didn't see any ships, of any nationality for weeks. Seemed kind of strange. Maybe it was just a fluke.

[Renesisfury82]

Not according to the task force map.

[TorpX]

What task force map?

[Renesisfury82]

What task force map?

Hmm, there is a little blurb of text that might say Dec 22. The whole thing is terribly hard to read.

[TorpX]

I'm not sure what map you're using, but I checked my patrol log and I got the radio message about the landing Dec. 22. Anyway, I can't help very much with the TF stuff, since I prefer to wander around and bump into weak and vulnerable targets. :DL

[I'm goin' down]

He once told me that you can intercept the pearl harbor invasion fleet if you are on your toes and get to the Bungo Straights before they return to their home port! (I believe him!!)

[WernherVonTrapp]

True, but the gulf is not large, from a center spot you should be able to hear anything coming in.That was just meant to be a joke, mate.:03:
I didn't expect a reply.

[Renesisfury82]

Oddly enough I did find a convoy area that bay area, 1 light cruiser, a couple modern tankers and a troopship. The odd thing was that there must be 15 escorts to a convoy of 8.