Tips for intercepting ships?

[Riversub]

Hi,

I'm 2 weeks into my fourth patrol and have seen no action and only a couple of ships so far. The contacts were greater than 25km away from my position and after setting what I thought was a reasonable intercept course, I arrived only to find nothing. Realism is set to 35% and I've burned 1/3 of my fuel already.

I've not received any contact reports from HQ and all they ever tell me is to "be more aggressive!" :-). Ha.

Any tips for intercepting more reliably? I've already completed my patrol mission and am hanging out in what I think are active shipping lanes.

I guess by February of '41 I expected a bit more action ;-).

I do use time compression a fair amount while stopping occasionally to check sonar. Could time compression be limiting my contact opportunities?

[3catcircus]

This thread (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=88961&highlight=intercept+course) is invaluable in figuring out how to intercept shipping.

[Kielhauler1961]

... Could time compression be limiting my contact opportunities?

Yes. Slow down TC to x1 frequently and listen...Swivel the boat to cover the 'dead arcs' ahead and astern and ramp up the ambient volume to catch those faint sounds. Potential targets are zipping past when you are at high TC. Establish a team of sonarmen and rotate them to keep them fresh (if using a fatigue model). Don't automatically prefer the Bootsmen over the ratings just because they are higher rank. IMO, some of the ratings are just as good or even better than the PO's but you need to find out who they are...

Likewise, make sure your radioman is rested and swap him out regularly - he is your source of radio contact reports/DF fixes. I have found that not all crewmen are the same. If your initial radioman seems a bit deaf, try someone else. A few promotions or awards once you have identified key personnel goes a long way.

KH

[Pisces]

Hi,

...
The contacts were greater than 25km away from my position and after setting what I thought was a reasonable intercept course, I arrived only to find nothing. Realism is set to 35% and I've burned 1/3 of my fuel already.
What do you mean with a "reasonable intercept course"? How did you set it up? It's hard to give pointers if we do not know what you did. Did you realise that the unit moves away from the icon after it appeared? There is a time marker shown when you hover/click on it.


I do use time compression a fair amount while stopping occasionally to check sonar. Could time compression be limiting my contact opportunities?
Timecompression works like the units make steps in longer strides through the world. So if you have really high time compression this may make them jump on you up close when you have your pants down, OR they simply leapfrog over your detection area while never telling they were near. (you may notice when there is a glitch in the matrix though) When you are trying to ambush traffic in a certain area I would certainly reduce your time compression.