Torpedo Depth in Relation to Draft

[NoGoodLandLubber]

Greetings all...

Here lately I've been actually planning my attacks rather than just "shoot and scoot". I'm looking up the ship in the handbook and see that it's draft is say, 9.5m. Should I be setting the running depth of my eels to that or should I round it up to like 10m?

In the past I've mostly been going for impact detonations so I've been leaving all my depth settings at the default, 5m.

If I'm using magnetic and impact detonation how far beneath the ship should it be if I want to hear the Earth shattering KABOOM!? :arrgh!:

[Osmium Steele]

For magnetics, I set the depth at 1m below the target's draft.

For impacts, I usually set depth at 1/2 the target's draft.

If the running depth is too deep, high sea states can cause the fish to miss under the hull.

I'm not sure how closely it is modelled in SHIII, but historically, high sea states could wreak havoc on torpedos set too deep or shallow.

Iirc, someone here once had a fish leap out of a wave and hit the target's superstructure. :har:

[NoGoodLandLubber]

Now THAT's something to get a screen capture of!! :haha:

[Sailor Steve]

I'm not sure how closely it is modelled in SHIII, but historically, high sea states could wreak havoc on torpedos set too deep or shallow.
Too shallow and they could broach, or break the surface, and go crazy.

Too deep and they would simply miss.

[NoGoodLandLubber]

I was in some shallow water not long ago and had an eel hit the hull and fall away as a dud; but then detonated when it hit the sea floor (5-10m below.

[Missing Name]

Shooting too shallow at an enemy sub may cause the torpedo to go OVER your target in heavy seas. That's quite frustrating...

[Jimbuna]

Impact setting...3/5 metres depending on how deep the draught is.

[BigRich]

If the sea is smooth then setting my torpedoes for around 1m under keel depth is usually okay. If it's heavy seas then I usually stick to contacts, unless my firing angle is too great when I will use magnetics but will set them 1m lower again as I have had a lot of torpedoes bounce off the underside of the ship in heavy seas.
I get the impression that a magnetic hit causes more damage than a contact one, but the longer distance you shoot it over, increases the chance of it prematuring. I once fired four magnetics at a Revenge battleship in heavy seas at long range, three of them prematured and the fourth ran under her without exploding!

[NoGoodLandLubber]

I fired four at a large merchant once in heavy seas...

two detonated prematurely, once passed under without detonating and the last one hit the hull without going off! That SUCKED!!!

:damn:

[Jimbuna]

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!! http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[NoGoodLandLubber]

I finally swam out to it myself and planted a Limpet mine onto the hull!

:sunny:

[desirableroasted]

Greetings all...

Here lately I've been actually planning my attacks rather than just "shoot and scoot". I'm looking up the ship in the handbook and see that it's draft is say, 9.5m. Should I be setting the running depth of my eels to that or should I round it up to like 10m?

In the past I've mostly been going for impact detonations so I've been leaving all my depth settings at the default, 5m.

If I'm using magnetic and impact detonation how far beneath the ship should it be if I want to hear the Earth shattering KABOOM!? :arrgh!:

Impact shots work best "straight on" against a flat surface. Horizontally, that means a 70 to 110 AOB is nice. Vertically, you want to hit the hull where it is perpendicular to the surface of the water, or only just beginning to curve to the keel.

For most merchants under, say, 4K tons, you probably want 2-3 m depth. Bigger merchants can take a deeper depth, with 3-5 being the sweet spot. There are a few exceptions -- the little Passenger/Cargo has a really deep draft, for example. Also, where you hit is important -- under a forward crane seems to work best in rough seas, while under the rear crane or the engines work best in calm water.

With warships, check your ID manual closely for how the hull curves. Even big ones allow only shallow impact shots.

Magnetic shots work best when they pass as closely under the hull as possible. 1 meter under seems to be the conventional wisdom, but in perfectly calm seas, I go with a half meter. In rough seas, stay with 1 meter, but accept you will have misses due to the ship's pitching -- the torp may hit and bounce, or pass too far below. Adding to your depth does NOT change the success rate, so don't try to game it.

As for the AOB for magnetics, we are having a bit of discussion about that these days, with some studies saying AOB doesn't much matter. Conventional wisdom says the longer the torpedo is under the hull, the better.

[sharkbit]

I finally swam out to it myself and planted a Limpet mine onto the hull!

:sunny:

LOL :haha:

[reignofdeath]

I've read somewhere in one of the extensive manuals, (And with great success against merchants, on warships due to exactly what DesirableRoasted said, I usually set it to run on impact as shallow as possible) that the general rule of thumb, is 2/3 of the total draft. So if you have a ship with a draft of 9 meters, setting the torpedo depth to 6 meters is what you want in terms of where the hit will end up. Hasn't failed me so far.


I do have a question about magnetics though, I always thought that in rough weather, they had the chance of early detonation because of the waves (Popping out of one and through another or something like that) Well I had a ship with a 10 m draft in slightly rough weather and I fired a magnetic any ways at 11 meters and both prematured. So do the waves cause a magnetic interference or what???

[Missing Name]

I finally swam out to it myself and planted a Limpet mine onto the hull!

:sunny:

I used Bernard as a torpedo. His head's so thick, he went straight through and just swam back.

[Jimbuna]

I finally swam out to it myself and planted a Limpet mine onto the hull!

:sunny:

It can be a lot easier if you ride out to it :DL

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/9527/sh32009031515263735.jpg (http://img38.imageshack.us/i/sh32009031515263735.jpg/)

[desirableroasted]

I do have a question about magnetics though, I always thought that in rough weather, they had the chance of early detonation because of the waves (Popping out of one and through another or something like that) Well I had a ship with a 10 m draft in slightly rough weather and I fired a magnetic any ways at 11 meters and both prematured. So do the waves cause a magnetic interference or what???

The game "rolls dice" when you fire a magnetic & whether it goes off prematurely apparently has nothing to do with what happens during its run. For example, it might broach the surface several times and still hit, or it might run true and blow up early.

Whether the game rolls dice once or several times during the run, I don't know (or want to know). In my experience, they seem to be more unreliable over longer runs.

[sub2]

Well there is a 'not so perfect' situation with the game where on one scenario I hit the ship with 4 torpedoes at more or less the same spot at a depth of 10 meters (draft being 9.5m) right under the hull and split the ship in two and she went under in 30 seconds. Reloading the game (Naval academy-Torpedoes) i did exactly the same thing, everything the same, 4 detonations at exactly the same spot and....NADA! Ship just listing slightly to port and sinking VERY slowly. Chaos theory I suppose.:-?

[Mouftic]

I just use impact now.

Magnetic either miss under, detonate early or hit and take hours to sink.

With an impact setting you know whats happening within 10 minutes after the hit most of the time.

Hint: when attacking tankers, 1 meter setting in between islands or on the lowest part of the ship gives you an instant kill.:03:

[desirableroasted]

Magnetic either miss under, detonate early or hit and take hours to sink.

With an impact setting you know whats happening within 10 minutes after the hit most of the time.



A huge and inaccurate generalization, though perhaps that has been your experience to date.

Yes, in many situations (pitching seas, rough seas at distance, sharp AOBs), impacts are a better bet. They give you almost certain, though not always fatal, damage.

Drawbacks: you need to be at a sharp AOB angle, which severely limits your tactical options. You often have to hit the merchant again, which often sucks new players into choosing the "salvo" option from the start, which is a waste of torpedoes.

A magnetic, put under a hull at a long angle, at the proper depth, is glorious to behold. You can crack large merchants in half with one, send Hood or Nelson to the bottom with two -- in under a minute. They open up 360 degrees of tactical space, letting you fire now, rather than waiting for 90AOB while escorts swirl about.

Those advantages outweigh the reliability problems.

Remember: You have five tools in the box in the early war: deck gun, T1 impact, T1 magnetic/impact, TII impact, TII magnetic/impact. Each one of them is "best" in certain situations. To write any of them off means you come home short on tonnage.

[Mouftic]

A huge and inaccurate generalization, though perhaps that has been your experience to date.

Yeah, it's been my experience so far. I sunk Nelson with 2 impacts 3 meters below water line, 1 foward and 1 aft.

Tankers as a general rule (for me at least) sink almost immediately after a 1m impact torpedo well placed.

Escorts and most military vessels, same thing, 1m impact.
I sink Bogue with 1 impact most of the time (I actually find them too easy to sink)

The tough ones I find are large merchants (cargo, whale factory....), one fish almost never (takes a long time) but after 2 they go down.

I have been frustrated too many times by magnetics to use them anymore.
It took the German 3 years to fix the problem.

I agree with you that you need a good AOB to get the hit, but i'm getting rather good now at setting up inside a convoy.
Depending of the contacts, I usually get 2 to 3 kills forward and 1 or rarely 2 aft on my first run, then reload and do the same on the second run with maybe more kills because the large vessels are sunk on the first run.

After 1943, you get the nice torpedoes (Acoustics) with magnetic fixed, but I still use impact.

I'm a stuburn Commander...:arrgh!:

Actually some real German Commanders swore only by impacts after the Norway invasion where they got robbed of so many kills.

[Hondo314]

1 meter under keel is a good rule of thumb to balance risk of bouncing off curved part of hull while being close enough to do damage. I think you can go up to 2 m below keel in rough weather and still do damage. It will be up to you to decide on impact vs. magnetic in a storm.