found a convoy. need some tips for attacking in bad weather

[midnightrider1818]

ok mates. I am onto a convoy. they are right on top of me right now. about 2600 km away. I saved my game cause I don't have time right now to attack and wanted to get some tips. I am in very bad weather. they are about 2600 km away and I cant even see them yet. I was thinking about following them and hoping weather would get better but I decided to go ahead and attack cause they are heading for shallow water and I do not want to lose them. what are your guys suggestions for this attack

[raymond6751]

Congratulations on finding a convoy! Now you don't want to fire too soon and waste the chance. My problem has been wrong positioning and long range fire.

You don't have speed, so if they are coming right for you...great. Try to sail so that will not change.

This requires knowing their course and steering so as to stay as much in front as possible.

Once you fire, get down fast and turn along the course of the convoy. Once you have depth, slow and easy. Don't use silent mode right away; as there are no torpedoes reloaded when running silent. You can speed down to about 50 meters, since the fish are out and you must be gone. The sound of your engines will be combined with the rough sea and the torpedoes in the water.

Don't stay to watch if you hit the targets! They will get you if any escorts are present.

You haven't mentioned your settings/desire regarding manual fire/TDC yet.

You haven't mentioned if it is night or day.

My advice...get close and attempt possible overlapping targets. That is, if you miss the main target, your fish still has another target beyond. Don't waste too many shots per target. I'd say single or double shots. You can cripple them and still sink them afterwards.

Good luck.

[Lanzfeld]

2600 KM :hmmm: Hmmmm....me thinks you need to get a bit closer.:har:

[vanjast]

Manualy set your TDC for a 90 degree shot, set Uzo to 80 degrees
Run on the surface, and side up to the convoy on a parallel course.

You'll see the ships long before they'll see you.. pick a target, and place it at about 600m (or closest range without being spotted), now running on a parallel course put the target on your 80 degree Uzo line of fire.
Match the ship speed, and enter this into the TDC.... fire when ready.

Once you've fired, move out away from the convoy at full tilt.. coming in again in about 30 minutes... repeat the procedure.

Keep your eyes peeled.. escorts have a nasty habit of appearing out of nowhere
:D

[Zosimus]

Assuming that you are on the surface and they cannot see you, you are either in good shape or completely hopeless shape.

The first step is to determine the convoy's course and speed. If you already know that, or if you do not have manual targetting on, skip down.

If you got the notification of the convoy from a radio contact that should have the speed. Failing that, you will need to monitor the convoy from visual range for at least 1m37s and 3m14s is better. The distance any ship travels during the 3.14 can be multiplied by 10 to give you its speed in knots. The 1m37s will need to be multiplied by 20. Assuming you have map contact on (who doesn't?) you can simply watch the ships on the F5 screen, mark their location, wait for a few minutes, mark their new location and then measure. By drawing a line between the two points you can see the course and calculate the speed.

Once you have the course and speed you can plan an attack. Generally speaking you will want to find the biggest ship and hit it with a 2-torpedo salvo. Firing one torpedo at multiple ships usually results in two small ships, one sunk and the other limping along. You won't be able to finish it off with the deck gun, so I recommend just hitting the biggest thing with 2 torpedoes.

Set the torpedoes for salvo, 1º spread (unless you are very close) and 90º AOB with the speed and everything set as you normally would. If you are using automatic targetting you can skip this part. You should set the depth to about 5 meters.

Once you have your target lined up and take the shot start diving immediately. Run silent. Do not turn to the left or to the right. Turning slows you down and makes you dive more slowly. Going deep is far more important than changing course. Do not change course until you are at least 70 meters under.

From there you can continue to stalk the convoy. Turn to parallel the convoy's course and you can do a little line drawing to find out the best way to follow. The procedure is as follows:

Draw a line from your boat in the direction that the convoy is traveling. Next measure along that line in accordance with the convoy's speed. Let's say the convoy's heading is 40º and it's moving at 8 knots. You can measure 0.8 along your line, or 8, or any convenient multiple of the convoy's speed.

Once that's done, draw a line at 90º going through the point you measured. In our example this will be 130º. Once that's done, use your compass to draw a circle from your starting point based on the velocity your boat can maintain on the surface. For example if your boat can make 11 knots surfaced, choose 1.1 or 11 or whatever multiple matches up with the method you used to draw the convoy's velocity. From there you can draw a line through your starting point and the intersection of the compass circle with the line. That will give you a new course that will permit you to move a safe distance away from the convoy while not falling behind it.

The problem is the weather. You didn't say exactly what the weather was like. If you have high winds, it's possible that your boat may be unable to keep up with the convoy on the surface. That's what I meant when I started by saying that you might be in completely hopeless shape.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[reignofdeath]

ok mates. I am onto a convoy. they are right on top of me right now. about 2600 km away. I saved my game cause I don't have time right now to attack and wanted to get some tips. I am in very bad weather. they are about 2600 km away and I cant even see them yet. I was thinking about following them and hoping weather would get better but I decided to go ahead and attack cause they are heading for shallow water and I do not want to lose them. what are your guys suggestions for this attack

Welcome and congrats :arrgh!:

Before anything else, it must be stressed. Be Patient. Be Patient. Be Patient. Triple Check Your Firing Solution. And Be Patient.

Don't get tooo greedy, a convoy is the opportunity to get a few good ships then bugger out of there. Get a solution, line up and take one ship down (I use 2 torpedoes for best results). Get ahead of them, set up, and do it again.

For a distance for the convoy it depends, I typically use anywhere from 1Km to fire to 2Km. Seeing as how you are in awful weather, get as close as you can to where you can see them on your map, and plot their course. You do this with the 3:15 rule, mark one ships position, then start the stopwatch, at 3:15 mark it again. No need to multiply, whatever the distance is, say 800 meters, that means they are going 8 Knots.

Now since you have 2 marks, you should have a decent course, draw a line from one mark and PAST the other like you normally would, be as accurate as possible. Now race ahead, and fine a spot 90*s directly off the side of that course. Since you are in bad weather, I would say be about 600-1KM out from the convoy, the OUTSIDE of it, not an inner ship. And then lie in wait, I would go either decks awash or Periscope depth if its in broad daylight. Now you know the ships speed, what your AOB is (90* on the right) the distance to impact (600-1KM, whatever you chose) and the bearing of your impact (Straight ahead) put it into the TDC and get your Gyro angle. Take it off manual and move your scope, the gyro angle should move, when it is on 0 you should be good. Then fire away when the ship hits it where you want it to in your crosshair... and dont forget to pre flood your tubes.


Anyways, tips for your situation;

Bad weather,
-Do 90 degree shots because of;
-Impact detonators, in crappy weather with the waves going up and down, the chances of you scoring a hit with a magnetic detonator are slim.


Convoys;
-Do Fast 90s because;
- The nice thing about a Fast 90 attack is that range doesn't matter, so you can set up for a ship on the outside of a convoy, and get your gyro angle set, but if at the last minute you decide the one inside the convoy is juicer, then wait for him to cross, as soon as he does, pull the trigger. As long as course or speed hasn't changed, and youre not trying a magnetic shot (his keel depth may change depending on if its a different ship) you should hit him.
-Due to that, you can also fire 2 torps on an inside target, and 2 on an outside and as long as they are in the same column (relative to you) the torpedoes should impact at the same time. Its a two for one deal. Why not take it? (Word of warning, if you are using the a torpedo (The steam ones) they could have their bubbles spotted and flip the convoy out making all torps miss. I prefer to attack the outside ships this way. They dont cross infront of any ships so less chance to be warned of torps in the area.
-If you have the time, I would slowly pick at them. The BEST piece of advice I had ever gotten with convoys was that lone ships are a meal, a convoy is a Thanksgiving feast. You take what you want, then leave and come back a bit later and pick away at it until you have nothing left to pick with.
-Piggybacking on that, DONT get greedy, decide early what 1 or 2 ships to hit, usually in the same row so you can fire all your torps and get out. After firing, if you are on the surface, go full ahead to the front of where the convoy will be. If there are escorts, as soon as the convoy is hit, they will come knocking. I suggest youre gone by the time they get there. If you arent on the surface, then go full ahead and turn away from the convoy then do kind of a loop toward their course heading and surface when youre away from escorts, then dash to the front and set up for another 90.

The biggest key with convoys is patience. You have to be able to wait out whatever condition keeps you from getting what you WANT. Be it the weather, or escorts, daylight, or planes. Remember, this is a whole buffet, you get to pick and choose, so be choosey.

Casey

[maillemaker]

I assume you are actually within 2600 meters, not kilometers.

In very bad weather with low visibility, you can try charging in from the side on the surface. But if this is 1941 or later, you run the risk of merchant gunfire at the least.

The biggest problem with high speed low-vis attacks is it is easy to shoot from within torpedo arming distance, in which case your torpedoes will not arm and will just bounce off your targets.

Steve

[lecrop]

... I am in very bad weather...

I don't know what mods are you using, but if V16B1 is one of them you have to give a careful look at the depth setting of your torpedoes.