Harbour raiding and the Yamamoto

[muddysquid]

In SH3 I liked hitting Scapa Flow. Any good ports to raid in SH4? Also, where/when can I find the Yamato?

[Hylander_1314]

Kinda depends on what mods you are using.

Are you playing the stock gane, or do you use one of the supermods, and or the RSRD add-on?

Personally, because of patrol orders, I have only seen the Yamato 2 times, and one of those times, I puy 6 torpedoes into it, and it didn't even slow it down.

The other time I saw it, it was going so fast in the TF that I had no way of intercepting it. Such is the fortunes of war!

[donna52522]

If your using RSRDC you have a good chance of finding the Y in Truk...Without RSRDC Truk doesn't really exist in game.

With Stock or Stock W/RSRDC it should only take 6 Mk14's to sink it, with a Supermod it takes about 10 Mk14's or 5-6 Mk16's. I wouldn't even try sinking it with Mk18's.

To find them on the move there's always 2 Yamato's in the Center force during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. With RSRDC near the end of the war it's constantly coming out of the Bungo Straight. :arrgh!:

[MKalafatas]

Harbor-raiding is exciting and challenging. I enjoyed it until someone here pointed out that it just wasn't done. It was more difficult in the war than it is in the game, even though it's definitely not "easy" in the game. So, I avoid it now in the interest of "immersion", and stick to more realistic missions.

[Hylander_1314]

Harbor-raiding is exciting and challenging. I enjoyed it until someone here pointed out that it just wasn't done. It was more difficult in the war than it is in the game, even though it's definitely not "easy" in the game. So, I avoid it now in the interest of "immersion", and stick to more realistic missions.

That too. And with using TMO, the last harbor raid I did, I got stuck in the anti-sub net at Rabaul, and couldn't get out of it. The dds heard me going full reverse, and soon my Gato boat was part of the harbor floor, with everything wrecked. Really could have used an Abandon Ship order that time!

So since then, I don't mess with harbors, and pay close attention to IJN minefields! I think it was around Tokyo, off the coast, I got too close in, and looked through the periscope as it was coming up, and what was off the port bow? A darn submerged magnetic mine! Glad i was wearin' my brown trousers!

We barely sqeaked outta there. mines above, on the level, and below. Talk about a nail biter getting through that maze.

[donna52522]

Harbor raiding can become boring and old news after you hit the same harbor over and over, but for a new player it can be very entertaining, and that's what sims/games are meant to be.

I respect the choice of people who like to immerse themselves into sim/games, but for me it's about entertainment not a lifestyle. I don't always play historically because history is history, I may have tried to raid a harbor if I was in WWII and had the means to do so.

I don't see SH4 as reliving history, and I don't want to sail it just as it was in history because obviously that's already been done, but more as changing it in a way that I could, although the SH4 doesn't allow you to really change anything.

[Hylander_1314]

Harbor raiding can become boring and old news after you hit the same harbor over and over, but for a new player it can be very entertaining, and that's what sims/games are meant to be.

I respect the choice of people who like to immerse themselves into sim/games, but for me it's about entertainment not a lifestyle. I don't always play historically because history is history, I may have tried to raid a harbor if I was in WWII and had the means to do so.

I don't see SH4 as reliving history, and I don't want to sail it just as it was in history because obviously that's already been done, but more as changing it in a way that I could, although the SH4 doesn't allow you to really change anything.

Absolutely! With using some of the supermods though, harbor raiding can be downright dangerous, and sometimes suicidal because of the tweaked AI, surface ships and planes.

I don't follow it 100% either, since I wasn't there to know what it was like in reality. It just depends on what version you play, and difficulty settings. With RFB, TMO, and FOTRS, I am bit apprehensive to venture into landlocked ports where getting in and out of them quickly is near next to impossible.

[Daniel Prates]

I like harbour raiding. There is a challenge there, different from open seas combat.

[donna52522]

I like raiding Sasebo, unfortunately I only find a few merchants in there each time. It should have more Naval units for the harbor it was/is.

Playing TMO2.5/RSRDC.....90% (I'll always have the free cam) and using map contacts.

[Soviet Creeper]

*Was raiding Truk during August to bag that Yamato*

*Becomes day as I start shooting my Mark 10s (derp)*

*planes relentlessly bomb my S 18 until its nothing but a pulp*


That was quite fun. And no, the yamato did not react to 4 Mark 10s whatsoever. Lol.

[CptLoonee]

I know this is really just self-congratulatory, but as a pretty new Captain, this was big for me!

In my full real setting TMO2.1 RSRD campaign, on Oct 25th, 1944 in the USS Balao, I ran into Admiral Kurita's Center Fleet coming through the San Bernardino Strait. Luckily, I caught them on radar soon enough to get a modified 45 degree angle O'kane shot on the passing fleet that was steaming along at 28 knots.

I guess the flanking destroyers were going too fast for their sonars to be working efficiently, because they steamed right past, with one cruising right over my head! I held my breath as I watched destroyers, heavy cruisers and battleships cruise by. It was hard to check my fire with these juicy targets lined up, but MY target was at the back of the column.

Finally, bringing up the rear, the HUUUUGE form of the Yamato (or Musashi) slid closer to my crosshairs.

Unleashing a salvo of six MK 14 fish at this behemoth with the O'Kane approach allowing me to space them evenly from bow to stern, I immediately crash dived to nearly 600 feet, dodging ash cans from at least 4-5 destroyers for a harrowing period of time.

When my sonar showed the sound contacts moving away quickly again, I tentatively rose to periscope depth, where what did I find directly in front of me, but a stationary, badly listing, burning, but still active Yamato-class battleship.

Amazingly, the center fleet went on without it. Apparently they had a rendezvous with Taffy-3 to the south to make :DL

It was so very satisfying to line up a can't miss shot and fire two more torpedoes into the enemy's flagship.

Even with 8 torps in her, it took a terribly long time for the beast to finally capsize. But when she did, she slipped below the waves almost serenely.

With no ability to catch the fleeing center fleet, I moved north along the coast in search of remnants of Ozawa's northern force, which I was unable to locate.

Certainly the benefit of hindsight allowed me some seriously unrealistic advantages, but it sure was fun to take out this monster and evade the entire fleet.

This is my best kill to date and I wish I had frapsed it! I will have to go back to a saved game before the attack and relive it over and over.

What is your best/most fun kill/patrol?

[CptLoonee]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I decided to go through the San Bernardino Strait, taking the long way back to Australia, and as I neared Borneo, I got a fast-moving warship radar contact.

Luckily, again I was ahead of the ship or ships.

I soon found it was a two ship convoy. When the lead ship came into view, I saw it was a heavy cruiser, but when the second ship came into view, I was shocked to find that it was a fleet carrier!

It was a night time approach and there were no destroyers in sight, so I positioned myself in front of the track at a 90 degree angle for a standard O'Kane approach.

When the Cruiser's bow touched the crosshairs, I fired one torp, and fired two more at midships and stern.

I then quickly recalculated an angle for the trailing carrier, and fired three more torps all amidships.

It was timed almost perfectly, as the carrier was slightly closer to me which caused the two ships to both get hit by three torpedoes at almost exactly the same time.

The cruiser listed badly and tried to maneuver while it burned, but the carrier went up with one of the most spectacular explosions I have seen in this game, with burning zeros cartwheeling off the deck as the conflagration grew.

Within minutes, both ships were heading for the bottom, and I headed home with no fish left but a huuuuge haul!

[magic452]

Good going there mate, sounds like you had a fun time. :yeah::yeah:

Magic

[stanger]

Truk in TMO25 without RSRD is ridiculously easy, with half Japanese fleet "parked" there. OK, maybe not half, but 2 BBs, a career and couple of heavy cruisers, destroyers and quite a lot merchants - easy pray, no defenses. Just go at night - a lot of aircraft during day time. And dont do it every patrol, gets boring quickly :)
Or dont do it at all - there is possibility you will loose some respect you have for the game :O:

[Hylander_1314]

This little mod I think can be added to TMO to make Truk a little more interesting.

Truk Corals Harbours Cities Locations

http://www.silenthuntermods.com/forum/index.php?topic=57.0

[WernherVonTrapp]

I used to raid harbors all the time. It does seem much easier than I imagine it would've been in real life. I don't raid them as often as I used to because it's starting to become "old hat" with me. Still, it can be challenging in it's own right nevertheless. I've raided Rabaul too many times to recall, but I've never seen a warship bigger than a DD docked at it's harbor. Historically, it should have a much larger selection of warships. I raided Truk once and found no less than 4BBs plus the Yamato, 2 CVs, numerous Cruisers and too many merchants to remember.
At Okinawa, I've raided Naha and Itoman, both are usually filled with merchants and usually some tankers. I've raided ports at the top of the Bungo Strait or along the Japanese coastline, Guam, Saipan, Formosa, Iwo Jima and even Wake Island over the past couple of years (TMO + RSRDC).

Now, I usually only raid them if I can't find any merchants to sink. As my gaming progresses, I become more acclimated to the shipping routes or naval battles and my port raiding becomes a secondary concern. Still, it has made for some interesting encounters.:03:

[torpedobait]

This little mod I think can be added to TMO to make Truk a little more interesting.

Truk Corals Harbours Cities Locations

http://www.silenthuntermods.com/forum/index.php?topic=57.0


That link didn't work for me. Do you have another? Thanks!

[torpedobait]

January 15-16 at the mouth of Bungo Suido received a strong radar return. Turned out to be Yamato, an Agano light cruiser, and 2 destroyer escorts. I tracked them heading southwesterly at about 18 knots. Before I could race to get ahead of them, the two escorts charged me. I sank one outright as he made a run at a decoy (see, I did learn a lesson about decoys after a bad encounter with Pete), and eventually got the other when he slowed to listen for me. Yamato still showed up on radar so I surfaced and raced after her. Got into position and at 800 yards let go all six bow tubes - 5 hits, 1 dud. Barely slowed her. Fired remaiing 2 stern tubes (all are Mark IVs) at Agano and missed. Dove deep and let Yamato manouver away. Allowing her to move out of visual range, I then surfaced and reloaded bow tubes with last six remaining MK IVs, still running south at all-ahead flank to keep Yamato in radar range. She turned directly south and held course, making only 14 knots now. So I was able to intercept her again. Fired all six tubes at about 750 yards. Six hits, but first four killed her (total of nine hits). Regrettably Agano got away, but it was still a thrill to intercept Yamato. I believe she was on her suicide run to Okinawa but have not tried to verify the dates. What great fun!

[WernherVonTrapp]

January is too early for operation Ten-Go, the Yamato suicide mission to Okinawa. Okinawa was invaded on April Fools Day (1st) 1945.

[Daniel Prates]

I used to raid harbors all the time. It does seem much easier than I imagine it would've been in real life. I don't raid them as often as I used to because it's starting to become "old hat" with me. Still, it can be challenging in it's own right nevertheless. I've raided Rabaul too many times to recall, but I've never seen a warship bigger than a DD docked at it's harbor. Historically, it should have a much larger selection of warships. I raided Truk once and found no less than 4BBs plus the Yamato, 2 CVs, numerous Cruisers and too many merchants to remember.
At Okinawa, I've raided Naha and Itoman, both are usually filled with merchants and usually some tankers. I've raided ports at the top of the Bungo Strait or along the Japanese coastline, Guam, Saipan, Formosa, Iwo Jima and even Wake Island over the past couple of years (TMO + RSRDC).

Now, I usually only raid them if I can't find any merchants to sink. As my gaming progresses, I become more acclimated to the shipping routes or naval battles and my port raiding becomes a secondary concern. Still, it has made for some interesting encounters.:03:

That is all true in my opinion.

What I like in harbor raiding is to attack the DD (or DDs) that usually are there scaning the outlet. They do predictable circles, but are by no means easy do hit, and if you miss, you are as sure as dead. It is fun to calculate slowly an attac, hour after hour, predict that one perfect attack and then do it and hope it works. Its so different from open-seas engagements.

[donna52522]

The Y and CL are constantly coming out of the Bungo heading down the coast of Kyushu in late war...more so after it's mid-April 45 suicide run. 5 or 6 Mk16's that are available then will take it down.

I always seem to catch it at night with moderate to heavy seas and fire 6 forward tubes from about 6,000 or 7,000 yards. But like anything, once you know where it is and you catch it so many times it becomes routine to the point of boring.

http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j408/donna577/SH4Img2011-08-03_225455_622.jpg

[MarkCt]

Back when I first loaded 1.5 with no mods, I torpedoed a BB. It stopped and listed heavily to one side. All the DD,s left so I went around to the high side and having no more torpedoes, surfaced just enough to start shooting it with my deck gun. It was kind of funny as I was right next to it but the guns could not angle down to hit me. My deck gun did absolutely nothing to it.

[donna52522]

Back when I first loaded 1.5 with no mods, I torpedoed a BB. It stopped and listed heavily to one side. All the DD,s left so I went around to the high side and having no more torpedoes, surfaced just enough to start shooting it with my deck gun. It was kind of funny as I was right next to it but the guns could not angle down to hit me. My deck gun did absolutely nothing to it.

I did the exact same thing, used every shell to no avail.

Another time I got a BB dead in the water, the TF pulled away then returned. As about 10 DD's kept me far away, an undamaged BB pulled up in front of the dead in water one, nose to tail....then they slowly went into Manila Bay....I didn't see a tow line but it must have been towed in.

[Hylander_1314]

That link didn't work for me. Do you have another? Thanks!

That is the only one I know of. The zipfile here at Subsim is an empty file.