Queens of the sea

[davidaspy]

Well, Ive just finished a full campaign and have yet to see (let alone shot at) a battleship. Im starting a new campaign and just wondering are there places and times where they are guarenteed.

Id really like t sink one. :P

[tennozan]

Keep a sharp lookout - I had played several careers (all ending with my demise) when my current career (still ongoing in patrol 17 now) yielded a nice surprise:

I was cruising towards the USA for an Operation Drumbeat visit when several destroyers raced out of the darkness - I barely had time to dive. They went right over me without detecting me. My soundman picked up massive warship noises to the north and closing fast. In a quick moment they were there - two Nelson class battleships and several various escorts / cruisers. I chose to ignore the escorts to my aft and made a hard turn to port towards the oncoming vessels. I picked out the shape of the lead battleship which was coming into range fast. After ordering Fred, my weapons officer, not to miss - I fired a salvo of G7e's set to 5.5 meters and impact fuse. Distance was aproximately 800 meters. The battleship suddenly began a turn towards me (don't know how she could have seen my electrics at night) but it was too late anyway - two eels impacted her bow, then one under her foward turrent and one amidships. I noticed secondary explosions as I lowered the scope and began a hard turn to starboard. My thought was to let loose my two aft tubes at her but she must have succumbed to my first salvo as she slid beneath the waves. The escorts must have been enraged because they went ballistic with ASDIC and cutting circles everywhere. But I ran deep and silent to the northeast for several hours until they had long faded away.

They
are out there - I hope you get a crack at them too. That was a great patrol - got a Knight's Cross w. oak leaves when I stepped ashore too. ;)

[timetraveller]

Well, Ive just finished a full campaign and have yet to see (let alone shot at) a battleship. Im starting a new campaign and just wondering are there places and times where they are guarenteed.

Id really like t sink one. :P

Here's some practice for you.

Sink the Battleship (the King GeorgeV)
www.delraydepot.com/tt/Sink_the_Battleship.zip

Download and unzip. Save the "Sink the Battleship" folder (it has 2 files in it) to your SH3 \SingleMissions folder.

It's a simple mission. No renown, no completion, no anything. Just you (in a VII-C) in the Bay of Biscay against the King GeorgeV. You are at 10 meters depth, headed course 270. The King GeorgeV is 5,000 meters in front of you. His course is due North.

Good luck.

TT

[BettingUrlife]

A Nelson can often be found in Loch Ewe. When it is there it sits over on the far left of the harbour (actually far from the dock). In my experience I have found it quite hard to spot. In the few times I've hit it, it has done some remarkable things. Once it turned its guns over to my area, and fired everything it had for about 2 minutes, then went back to sleep. Another time, I hit it with two fish, had its stern dragging in the water, but it immediately built up steam and moved itself over to the dock area, I followed it over and put another 4 fish in it.

In Oct 1942 (sorry I can't remember the exact date) I saw a huge taskforce (4 battleships) and many destroyers proceeding south in BE38. I have only seen this once, I haven't been able to be in that area again since then to check it.

Someone also has a website that has some taskforces on it and their routes. Maybe some one else could provide a link to it if they know of it.

[nelson]

I found an Illustrious Aircraft Carrier at dock in Gibraltar harbour, she's protected from some angles by a subnet but you can sneak round the side of it to the left. It's very shallow so no diving, just periscope depth, I fired all four tubes and got out of there at flank speed as soon as the fish were away. There are at least 6 destroyers baby-sitting her but I was lucky enough to get out of the harbour before they noticed me and gave chase. The carrier and aircraft went up in flames and she settled on the shallow bottom. It got VERY hairy after that as I still only had about 40 metres draft and I was being chased by very irate destroyers, escorts and PTs. I managed eventually to evade them by snaking my way north-west and on upwards towards Brest. My boat was severely damaged and I was forced to surface for repairs........bad idea, I was jumped on by two more destroyers, dived and managed to evade their attentions too eventually. Phew!!! Surfaced, made what repairs I could and started the long limp home. After a few hours had gone by and I thought I was in the clear a PBY came from nowhere and blew me out of the water. :damn: :damn: :damn:
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/2936/illustrious5hv.jpg

[Highbury]

This is taken from another website, I copied and pasted to a txt file for myself and have unfortunately forgotten where I got it, so I am not trying to take any credit for compiling this, just forgot where credit should go...



Entry Exit Ship Location
19390915 19391010 Auxiliary Cruiser Scapa Flow
19391004 19391014 BB Revenge Scapa Flow
19391101 19400105 BB Nelson Loch Ewe
19391105 19391205 BB Revenge Loch Ewe
19400301 19400501 Auxiliary Cruiser Scapa Flow
19400307 19400425 CV Illustrious Scapa Flow
19400401 19400601 Auxiliary Cruiser Scapa Flow
19400517 19450101 CL Fiji Light Cruiser Loch Ewe
19400524 19400630 CL Dido Light Cruiser Scapa Flow
19401211 19401231 BB King George V Scapa Flow
19410201 19410217 Auxiliary Cruiser Scapa Flow
19410210 19410320 Auxiliary Cruiser Scapa Flow
19410315 19450430 CL Fiji Light Cruiser Scapa Flow
19420203 19420228 BB King George V Scapa Flow
19420215 19430903 CV Illustrious Loch Ewe
19420215 19430903 Passenger Liner Bristol
19420915 19430903 CVE Bogue Escort Loch Ewe
19430903 19440630 CVE Bogue Escort Norfolk


Where can I find task forces?
They spawn in various places throughout the war, travel along a moderately randomized course, then disappear at some preset endpoint. There are only three core task force groups in the entire game that actually have any desirable capital ships. The rest all contain light cruisers. One choke point for two of the three task forces with battleships is west of Gibraltar, so that’s generally the best place to be. Be warned as air coverage of that area increases throughout the war. (OpenOffice mostly yielded to me and produced a somewhat useable export.)

Battleships (BB)

TF Entry Exit Capital Escorts Insertion Extraction Choke Grids
39_01 19390801 19411220 1 – 3 4 – 8 Firth of Forth Loch Ewe AM36
39_02 19390808 19411220 1 – 3 4 – 8 Scapa Flow Alexandria CG95, CN37
39_03 19390815 19411220 1 – 3 6 – 11 Gibraltar Loch Ewe CG95, AM36

Carriers (CV)

TF Entry Exit Capital Escorts Insertion Extraction Choke Grids
39_03 19390815 19411220 1 – 3 6 – 11 Gibraltar Loch Ewe CG95, AM36

Escort Carriers (CVE)*

TF Entry Exit Capital Escorts Insertion Extraction Choke Grids
Many 1942 1945 1 3 – 5 Atlantic Atlantic AM,AL,BE,BF,CG

Light Cruisers (CL)

TF Entry Exit Capital Escorts Insertion Extraction Choke Grids
39_04 19390820 19411220 2 – 4 3 – 6 Alexandria Gibraltar CN37
39_05 19390825 19411220 1 – 3 3 – 6 Liverpool Firth of Forth BF33
39_06 19390806 19411220 1 – 3 3 – 6 Firth of Forth AM69 BF33
39_07 19390818 19411220 1 – 3 3 – 6 AM69 Capetown
39_08 19390822 19411220 1 – 3 3 – 6 Australia Capetown
39_11 19390801 19411220 1 – 3 0 Capetown Gibraltar CG95
39_12 19390807 19411220 1 – 3 0 Loch Ewe AM36 AM36
39_13 19390814 19411220 1 – 3 0 AN17 Scapa Flow
39_14 19390817 19411220 1 – 3 0 Freetown Capetown
39_15 19390821 19411220 1 – 3 0 AM69 AM61
39_16 19390824 19411220 1 – 3 0 Australia Arabia
39_18 19390827 19411220 1 – 3 0 Capetown Australia
39_19 19390807 19411220 1 – 3 0 AM38 AM38 AM36

Notes
* Hunter Killer Groups
* The same TFs exist after 1941, with identical routes, but different TF IDs, so Exit=May1945.

[Etienne]

I ran into a signle line of three BB (Two Nelson and a King George V, I think) with a few DDs with them. Very lax escort, but since it was my first DD sighting EVER in SHIII, I kinda panicked, fired from very very far, and only got a dud hit.

[Kalach]

I haven't come across any BB's yet either. In all my time on the Atlantic the best I've done is; 5 liners, 4 cruisers and 3-4 bogue escort carriers.

I'll have to choose a VII or IX next time and visit Gibralter more :hmm:

[Spaxspore]

Well, Ive just finished a full campaign and have yet to see (let alone shot at) a battleship. Im starting a new campaign and just wondering are there places and times where they are guarenteed.

Id really like t sink one. :P

Ive had the exact same problem/issue

I played from 1939-Mid 1944, and i havnt seen 1 BB.

Am starting up a new campaign (finally) and am goin to use a Type II as long as i can.

Am used to play w/ a VII and IX, this sucker turns on a dime.