Merchants who think they are Destroyers

[PukingDog]

The strangest thing happened on my current patrol. I am in May 1942, running 1.4b patch, no mods. I received a message that a Task Force was heading my direction, and to my suprise they were moving slow! I had not been lucky enough to see any task forces yet, the closest being 5000 meters perpendicular to one task force as they steamed away at 25 knots! Anyways, I plotted the course, got ahead and proceeded at slow speed surface in the path of the task force. I was relentlessly hounded by aircraft the whole tie, well in the middle of the Atlantic, so I figured I might be encountering a carrier. I even went into the TDC and preset some torps for the various carriers in case I was forced to do a snap shot. About 48 hours later (game time), I encountered a convoy moving from direction of task force. I reported the contact, and the message sent to BDu, instead of the usual "Convoy Sighted" said "Task Force Sighted". It was all merchants, however, there was one V&W destroyer in the convoy formation. THe usual escorts were on the fringe of the convoy. I let loose my forward torps and took out a Troop ship and T-3. Thats when it got wierd. I dove, and suddenly all the merchants were circling and even doing runs like they were setting up for a depth charge attack. With all the confusion above, it was fairly easy to sneak out from the attack zone, and let loose another volley at several ships that had come to a dead stop to avoid collisions. Anyone else see anything like this on your patrols?

[hakkikt]

No... sounds like they were trying to trick you.
Did they throw cargo overboard to make it sound like depth charges? ;)

[FAdmiral]

I bet the Troop Ship was the convoy leader and when it sank,
it threw the rest into confusion. It may have been labeled as
a TF if there was a cruiser in the rear. Seen it happen that
way before...


JIM

[DirtyHarry3033]

Saw something not quite like that, but also really strange last night.

Encountered a large convoy on a base course of 90, with about 5 or 6 escorts. None of the merchants zig-zagging. I was in the middle of the convoy and undetected.

BUT... at the tail end of the convoy was one T3 who was zigging as much as 80 degrees port and starboard of the base course.

Really strange thing was how freakin' FAST he was changing course! Like a destroyer is how fast he was maneuvering...

Anyway, I got a firing solution on a different T3 and took him down with 1 eel in the fuel bunker.

Then got a fair 90 deg solution on the "crazy" T3 and put one in his fuel bunker from about 800 yds. He immediately sped up from 7 to 10 kts, so I fired a homing torp and got a hit on his screws. Dam if he didn't go to 12 kts!!!

I think that T3 thought he was a battleship...

[Beery]

Knowing how AI works, I'd say it sounds like you encountered a ship whose minimum cruising speed was somehow set higher than the convoy speed. This would force it to zig-zag just to remain in its correct position.

[DirtyHarry3033]

Knowing how AI works, I'd say it sounds like you encountered a ship whose minimum cruising speed was somehow set higher than the convoy speed. This would force it to zig-zag just to remain in its correct position.

Hmm, makes sense. For a while I was thinking I'd had a few too many beers ;)

[Wolf52]

Hmm, makes sense. For a while I was thinking I'd had a few too many beers ;)

What about that captain? Id say he probably had more than you did. :D

[Rhodes]

I don't recall if it was in that convoy,but one time I did received a radio message saying "Task Force Report". Since it was my first I decided to attack. When I got visual confirmation, I was a convoy,with the normal escorts.
After my first attack's, I sliped in to convoy, it was easy because they were heading directly in my way. All the merchant began in circles and doing strait runs. My first U-boat suffer much at the hands of a C2 that collide with us. That's why I and my crew get a new boat after we got home...

[andy_311]

I haven't encountered a TF in 1.4 that comprised of merchants since V1.0.When I do encounter a TF which is not very often they are either too far away or going too fast to intercept them.
The only TFs I got a chance to go for are the ones that are heading for me,and then they are mainly HK groups Ive only encountered a carrier group or BB group about 4 or 5 times in the open sea and now am on my 3rd career.