GWX 1st time

[grenadier98]

Hi there,


I started tp play SH3 again, now the first time with GWX Gold on 100% (map contacts are on). I started in 1940 with a IXB and I wonder which places are the best to search for enemy convoys, where the convoy don't alter their course to often. I tried to get to a convoy southwest of Ireland (where the grids AL and AM meet, there should be two convoy routes and a route for single ships) and plotted an interception course after I got the radio message for the convoy. But hours after I reached my interception point I got another radio message and the convoy was more than 100 km off to the west. I tried to intercept it again but when I finally reached it the weather was so bad that I abondoned the attack because I could not get good solutions without the escorts pursuing me.

I'd like to ask a few more questions:

Do you attack escorted convoys during storms or fog? I find this close to impossible.

Does this list of capital ships also work for GWX? http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=89910

I realised that GWX removed the renown for your assigned search grids, but the renown for the ships sunk is almost the same like in stock SH3 while the requirements for better subs, equipment and promotions for your crew are also almost the same, which makes it harde to get them. I think of altering the basic.cfg so that I will get some renown for my search grids as well. Any ideas if it will break the balancing?

I got the feeling that I should use a type IX instead of a type VII because it carries more torpedos, which will make it easier to get the magic number of 60000 tons per patrol. In the game it can also dive deeper than the type VII, which is I thin is not historically correct.


Any help is really appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

[Catfish]

I remember i attacked convoys in SH3 during a storm and at night, but with no TDC. Just put the torpedo settings to fast, impact detonator and straight ahead, and when a ship appeared out of waves and fog at 090 AOB, i would direct the torp heading short before the bow, usually at 500 to 300 meters, and it would always hit. Takes some practice :D

However you have to be very aware of the situation, because you can be mangled over anytime by other merchants coming out of the storm and water fog.

Also, in almost all SH versions from 2 to 5, the escorts obviously see you in the thickest of fog, and either run you over, or place their charges at the exactly right position.
Whoever has been in a real storm at sea, knows that this is plain ridiculous. Even when the DEs have radar, it did not work at distances below 1000 meters, then not all had it, then a lot of the radar equipment was just damaged or often had broken down, and it never was that exact. You are relatively secure surfaced, no one will see your boat in reality in a storm, at night, in fog, or in any unsighty situation.

In the sim.. when having exterior view to 'on', you see how unbelievably exact they know where you are. How comes they place their charges exactly at position and depth (!) of your boat's location? Only in a sim... this spoils the fun a bit.


Then SH V in 1940, thickest of fog, storm, waves. Suddenly two destoyers coming out of the fog directly at me, one ramming and the other placing depth charges right on my deck.
Another was that early order, where you were tasked to sink six or so troop ships in a row, to be promoted and get on with the game.
I remember i decided to have had it with SH5, when that happened.

[Jimbuna]

Try patrolling 150 km west of Gibraltar, a real bottleneck for traffic coming in and out of the Med as well as to and from the west coast of Africa and convoys to and from the Caribbean.

[Scorp10n]

Might be teaching you to suck eggs here but there is a map in the top left hand corner of the navigation screen which can be dragged down. This will tell you where all the heavy naval traffic and convoy routes are.

[grenadier98]

Might be teaching you to suck eggs here but there is a map in the top left hand corner of the navigation screen which can be dragged down. This will tell you where all the heavy naval traffic and convoy routes are.

Yes I know this chart, thats why I tried to position myself right there were I thought two convoy and a single ship route are close. But I had no luck there. Thanks anyway, I just found this chart recently a few days ago when starting GWX, so it's nice you mentioned it, because a few days earlier and wouldn't have known about it.

Try patrolling 150 km west of Gibraltar, a real bottleneck for traffic coming in and out of the Med as well as to and from the west coast of Africa and convoys to and from the Caribbean.

Thanks. It was a good hunting ground so far. I was afraid of British planes before, thats why I never went there. So far I haven't seen any.
In stock SH3 and LSH starting in 1939 I always lurked around a littel northwest od Ireland where all the Liverpool convoys go. But the sea becomes very shallow to the east.
Do you know a similar good spot in the middle of the Atlantic or near the American coast to intercept the convoys coming from Canada or the US?

[Scorp10n]

[QUOTE=grenadier98;2431393]Yes I know this chart, thats why I tried to position myself right there were I thought two convoy and a single ship route are close. But I had no luck there. Thanks anyway, I just found this chart recently a few days ago when starting GWX, so it's nice you mentioned it, because a few days earlier and wouldn't have known about it.


If you take a look at the bottom corner of the map it will show dates that the merchant shipping used the convoy routes. I'm not sure if they are correct or not but I can't see any point of them being there if they don't.