Some Damage Observations

[bill clarke]

I'm hoping to get some feed back on this from you guys.

In my current campain I was at the entrance to the harbour that leads to Tokyo. My radar picked up a large TF, BB's, CV's, Tankers, CA's and the usual DD's.

So I was in a position right ahead and dived deep and came up in the middle of the convoy, it was night wich was a great benefit.

I set my fish to fast and ran them at around twenty feet, two hits on a Kongo BB doomed her, she ground to a halt and capsized in around five minutes.

likewise two hits on a large carrier (I think was a shokaku) and she was gone in around a minute. Literally one minute she was there and I lined up a shot at a tanker, swung the scope back and she was gone.

The tanker proved to be the hardest to sink with three torps needed.

Was the factor here the depth of the torps ? I'm wondering if in the carrier's case I got the hits in the hangar area, and this caused massive flooding that overwhelmed her.

Since then I experimented with various depth settings, and found the deeper the setting the more destructuve they seem to be. The battle of the Phillipene Sea is one I've played numerous times and have been able to sink the carriers and BB's with two fish set at twenty plus feet.

[doulos05]

Maybe the tanker was empty, that way it had more buoyancy?

[Hylander_1314]

Can't remember what mods you use Bill, but if you are getting BBs with 2 torps, you're doin' great! I usually need to get 4 of them to hit as a minimum to get a BB to stop and then it takes forever for it to go down.

Carriers can, and I have had them go down with just 2 well placed hits. Heavy cruisers are iffy. I have had them go down with 2 fish, but have had them take up to 4 to flood enough to go down.

Tankers, I can get them to go down with 1 or 2 fish. I line them up directly on the forward, and aft masts, and usually, the fish that hits the forward area, creates a chain of explosions that will sometimes cause the ship to break in two amidships.

DDs can go down with 1 fish, but sometimes it takes 2 of them, if you get the jump on them, and they don't have time to swerve or use their warp spedd capabilities to avoid them.

But I use TMO, and FOTRS mainly as my mods of choice. I do have RFB, but don't use it as much, and I do have Webster's GFO mod, but haven't tried it yet.

[Sailor Steve]

Maybe the tanker was empty, that way it had more buoyancy?
I would think just the opposite. It's already designed to run filled with a liquid (oil) and making a big hole in the side just lets that liquid out and another (water) in. Water weighs more than oil per volume, so sooner or later it will sink, but it can take time.

But your idea makes sense too.

[twm47099]

In stock I've had one tanker float with bow up at 90 degrees. The map showed it as sunk, but after many game hours at high TC it was just a new marker buoy. After the destroyers cleared the area, I eventually put one more torp into it and it finally sunk.

Another stranger case was a Nippon Maru that sank level to the top of its funnel and then stopped. Only a short amount of the stack was above the waves. In this case the map did not show it as sunk, and the destroyer showed no inclination to leave. Again I waited for many hours game time, and finally put one more into it (just to eliminate the hazard to shipping), and then it blew up and sank. The report indicated I also sank a lifeboat. They must have been abandoning the ship through the stack?!?

Tom

[Sailor Steve]

If the map shows it as sunk, hit the 'K' key. This will bring up the list of ships you've sunk. If it's on there you're good to go. Personally I think your last torpedo was wasted.

[bill clarke]

Can't remember what mods you use Bill, but if you are getting BBs with 2 torps, you're doin' great! I usually need to get 4 of them to hit as a minimum to get a BB to stop and then it takes forever for it to go down.

Carriers can, and I have had them go down with just 2 well placed hits. Heavy cruisers are iffy. I have had them go down with 2 fish, but have had them take up to 4 to flood enough to go down.

Tankers, I can get them to go down with 1 or 2 fish. I line them up directly on the forward, and aft masts, and usually, the fish that hits the forward area, creates a chain of explosions that will sometimes cause the ship to break in two amidships.

DDs can go down with 1 fish, but sometimes it takes 2 of them, if you get the jump on them, and they don't have time to swerve or use their warp spedd capabilities to avoid them.

But I use TMO, and FOTRS mainly as my mods of choice. I do have RFB, but don't use it as much, and I do have Webster's GFO mod, but haven't tried it yet.

I run RSRD and NSM.

I have also had 3 fish to take down a CA, the first two stopped her dead and had her down by the bow. It took the third to finish her.

I hit a CVS and she went dead in the water after the first hit, screws stopped I thought great but then she came back to life and steamed off, though with a noticeble list.

[twm47099]

If the map shows it as sunk, hit the 'K' key. This will bring up the list of ships you've sunk. If it's on there you're good to go. Personally I think your last torpedo was wasted.

I checked my notes. For the tanker floating with its bow up at 90 degrees (and marked as sunk on the map) when the destroyer had left, I actually surfaced and used it for deck gun practice. I also wanted to see if the game would have the tanker fire back - it didn't.

The tanker floating level fully beneath the waves except for the top of its stack did not show up on the map as sunk or in the list of ships sunk. So I fired a stern tube at it at fairly long range. Since it was stationary I hit it and got the 'it's going down' message. I was still attacking a freighter and another Nippon Maru using the forward tubes as the convoy scattered, and was backing at full speed to avoid the tanker and let it get into a zero gyro position (hit it at less than 500 yards), so I took the stern shot while the forward positions were working out.

Tom

[Hylander_1314]

I run RSRD and NSM.

I have also had 3 fish to take down a CA, the first two stopped her dead and had her down by the bow. It took the third to finish her.

I hit a CVS and she went dead in the water after the first hit, screws stopped I thought great but then she came back to life and steamed off, though with a noticeble list.

From using the supermods, I have gotten used to using more torpedoes to get them to go down.

CVs thugh, still were of lighter construction than the battlewagons, so 2 torpedoes is not unrealistic to get one to go down. Especially if you hit ax gas stores. I hit one once with 2 outta 4 torpedoes fired, (2 duds) but the chain reaction of explosions was amazing. I think I hit the fuel stores, and set off a chain reaction of ammo exploding. Stopped dead in the water, and went down in 2 or 3 minutes.

Then I have had some ships that just refuse to sink, no matter how many torpedoes you fire at them.

[TorpX]

Was the factor here the depth of the torps ?
I've wondered about this as well. Deep detonations should be more destructive than those near the surface, since the latter would allow more of the energy to vent out into the air. That doesn't mean 15' depth is better than 10', though it might be. My understanding of BB's and CA's is that the armor belts did not go down too far below the waterline, so this is a factor.

I just usually try to get the torps to hit halfway between the waterline and the keel. What we set the torps depth to, and what they actually run at, are two different things. And I don't trust them to work very well.