Tactics, tips and tricks.

[jimmyjam25]

Was wondering if anyone else has developed their own tactics to deal with destroyers or anything else for that matter? When dealing with destroyers I approach them head on and wait till they are within 600 metres. Then I fire a torpedo at shallow depth (say 1.5 metres) and crash dive straight away so I go beneath them. Then straight up to periscope depth again. I then work out which way they are turning after my torpedo impact (if it does hit...) and turn the opposite. When she is lined up with my aft tube i let her have it for the second time. Has worked well for me several times when I have been detected ... Anyone else got any cool tips or tricks?

[Captain Nemo]

Dive deep 160 metres + and keep quiet 2 knots or less works for me. I don't take on escorts unless absolutely necessary or if they present me with an unmissable shot i.e. sailing in a straight line right past my tubes.

Nemo

[RConch]

Dive deep 160 metres + and keep quiet 2 knots or less works for me. I don't take on escorts unless absolutely necessary or if they present me with an unmissable shot i.e. sailing in a straight line right past my tubes.

Nemo

Just the way I look at the problem.:yep:

[Sailor Steve]

I only dive to 70 meters. Even at the faster late-war sink rate it still takes a depth charge 30 seconds to reach that depth. Stay at slow speed and silent running until I can hear the propellors through the hull. At that point the escort is too close to hear me, and committed to his attack run. I then go to flank speed, turn toward him and dive another twenty meters. In the stock game they magically know everything, but with any of the supermods it works like it should. Once the charges are exploding I go back to silent speed and straighten out in whatever direction I'm facing at the moment.

[Captain Nemo]

I only dive to 70 meters. Even at the faster late-war sink rate it still takes a depth charge 30 seconds to reach that depth. Stay at slow speed and silent running until I can hear the propellors through the hull. At that point the escort is too close to hear me, and committed to his attack run. I then go to flank speed, turn toward him and dive another twenty meters. In the stock game they magically know everything, but with any of the supermods it works like it should. Once the charges are exploding I go back to silent speed and straighten out in whatever direction I'm facing at the moment.

An interesting tactic. I tend to wait until the pinging of the attacking escorts asdic stops before hitting flank speed and diving deeper. I must admit I feel much safer at 160+ metres.

Nemo

[jimmyjam25]

I only dive to 70 meters. Even at the faster late-war sink rate it still takes a depth charge 30 seconds to reach that depth. Stay at slow speed and silent running until I can hear the propellors through the hull. At that point the escort is too close to hear me, and committed to his attack run. I then go to flank speed, turn toward him and dive another twenty meters. In the stock game they magically know everything, but with any of the supermods it works like it should. Once the charges are exploding I go back to silent speed and straighten out in whatever direction I'm facing at the moment.

I like it! Will have to try it sometime...

[jimmyjam25]

Dive deep 160 metres + and keep quiet 2 knots or less works for me. I don't take on escorts unless absolutely necessary or if they present me with an unmissable shot i.e. sailing in a straight line right past my tubes.

Nemo

This is normally what I do but sometimes I like to take one out.

[Olsin]

The minimal tonnage got from sinking a destroyer simply isn't worth it in my books. I'd rather save my eels for some juicy merchants.

Also attacking destroyers after 41 is a fools game..you might get away with it once, maybe even twice but sooner rather than later they'll get you.

Besides, later in the war destroyers are seldom alone and doing a smart move to get out of one destroyers sights usually ends up with you giving your position away to another.

So, for me i leave destroyers alone and if i'm attacking a convoy i'll fire the bow torps (and occasionally aft torps if i've managed to get in amongst the ships) at selected targets then immediately set depth for 160m, 5 degree turn into the convoy and speed at 2 knots running silent and wait for the impending hammering of depth charges.......from 42 onwards though most shots at convoy ships will be from 3 to 4 kilometers range simply because of the amount of escorts they usually have and i'll go slow back at the same time i'm dropping down to a comfortable depth. This method quite often fools the escorts and they won't even latch onto me although misses at range accounts for lesser tonnage. Once you've got the convoys heading you can always back away and set yourself up for another attack some hours later.

[flag4]

I only dive to 70 meters. Even at the faster late-war sink rate it still takes a depth charge 30 seconds to reach that depth. Stay at slow speed and silent running until I can hear the propellors through the hull. At that point the escort is too close to hear me, and committed to his attack run. I then go to flank speed, turn toward him and dive another twenty meters. In the stock game they magically know everything, but with any of the supermods it works like it should. Once the charges are exploding I go back to silent speed and straighten out in whatever direction I'm facing at the moment.

i like this approach - cheers:yep:

[SubConscious]

I like to surface on the lee side of a large merchant, thumb my nose at the escort, maybe fire the deck gun a few times into the merchant for good measure, then run like hell. 8^ )

This is ridiculously unrealistic, but it's also great fun to get directly underneath a large cargo/tanker and just try to keep pace with them. If there is only one escort, I try to keep the merchant between myself and the escort.

Early in the war I like to target escorts, particularly if there are only one or two of them guarding a worthwhile convoy.

I'm just getting back into GWX3 after a several year hiatus from gaming. I had forgotten just how fun it is. Many thanks for keeping the files available!

[les green01]

usual i let them see me going in one direction go deep silent and go the other way usual they are looking at the direction where they last seen me headed,sometimes i do get the urge to watch them drop dc's where they think i am at

[Hangman]

I have discovered, at least from 39' through most of 40', if you put an eel into a merchant being escorted, you can dive under the merchant without much hassle at all.
A fine example; I was watching patiently to a small convoy moving across my path from port to starboard. I was idling along at 1 knot, aligning an eel to hit the 9k merchant some 800 meters away, and another to hit the far column. Two escorts, one aft of the convoy some 4500 meters out, the other taking the lead. The sun had a pleasant 20 degree angle from the horizon and the seas were relatively calm, perhaps a 2. I set the first eel to run slow and about 2.5 meters deep. The latest intel reported the eels running 6+ meters deeper than they were set so I was playing it. The second eel was to run faster, thus clearing the first merchant before the strike hit.
The fish left the tubes with a whoosh of air and the boat bobbed a bit from the sudden weight loss. We sat quietly watching the escorts for possible detection but they were oblivious to our presence. Well, ... until the pair of incredible explosions that were less than 10 seconds apart that is. Talk about timing, it was fenominal.
At any rate, the rear escort came charging in my direction so I dropped the scope, ordered 30 meter depth and 20 degrees to starboard, ahead slow. We were now roughly 700 meters from the merchant I just hit. He was laboring hard to keep the ship moving and by the time the escort arrived at where the fish had come from and started their search, I was just about to go under the first merchant and crawl toward the second who was hit. The escorts continued searching on the merchants starboard side as that is where the fish had come from. I meandered over to the port side of the two merchants who were now dead in the water, aligned my boat, cleared the other two tubes, watched them hit, and then headed in the direction the convoy came from, into the setting sun.

There were plenty of DC's, but not a one came close so I was in no hurry to get anywhere fast.
By the time the escorts gave up on me, the convoy was long gone. I couldn't even pick them up on the hydrophones. The sun had set and tubes were reloaded with fresh eels eager to go out and play.

If I'm close enough (500 to 900 meters) I almost always go under the ships I have torpedoed. Lots of times they are going too fast and I don't get to hit them again immediately, but the wounded ships will always wait for me.
If I'm too far out (1200 to 1800 meters) when I hit the merchants, I immediately head in the direction the convoy came from, quickly opening the distance between us. The farther away the convoy gets, the less time the escorts have to search for you. And of course I employ what was mentioned earlier, go deep, listen intently, gun it when you must.

I know they won't drop DC's close to the convoy ships, so if you have a wounded merchant crawling along at 3-4 knots, even though you are not running silent, you can sit at 25-30 meters deep and keep the merchant above you (I lift my scope just enough to see under the water and look for the bottom of the wounded merchant). After dark or when the escorts are a decent distance from me, I turn 180 degrees, go deep and leave them all behind.