English Channel

[trenken]

Is it tough getting through that right under Dover? I have to head past that in the BFs for my next patrol and wonder if I should go through there or go all the way up and around, which I would rather not do.

I don't want to try and fight my way through there. Just sneak through silent below the surface at maybe 1/3 speed. Sound like that could work?

[Torplexed]

Do the standard run on the surface at night and run submerged by day. Make sure to hug the French coastline as tightly as possible through the narrowest part of the Channel. Try to avoid the place once French Atlantic ports become available.

[trenken]

I'm heading in now. I have 5 warships on me. I'm worried about running on the surface.

[Torplexed]

I've gotten through safely at night on the surface in the narrowest part near Dover. But not without a few alarms. Unfortunately the Channel is a bit too long to do completely underwater.

[trenken]

Why cant you do the whole thing underwater? Still learning about the game. This is patrol 5 for me.

[Torplexed]

Because the English Channel isn't just that narrow part near Dover. It's several hundred miles long....

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/2/2d/300px-English_Channel.jpg

With air patrols and destroyers here and there. You're really not completely safe until you hit the wider Atlantic.

[trenken]

Yeah I know but like I said, why can't you do the whole thing underwater to be extra safe if you wanted to?

[Torplexed]

Assuming your air doesn't give out...your batteries proably will.

[trenken]

Well i'm playing on 0% realism for now just to get the hang of things. I'll crank that up at some point.

[Torplexed]

Well...if you're at 0% realism...go for it! You have the 1940s equivalent of a untouchable nuclear powered sub. :rock:

[lafeeverted]

Ahhhh..the blissful ease of 0%. A big, bad, mean and unfair world awaits you as you up the ante :yep:

[Tikigod]

where are the least amount of mines in the channel? I am in later 1939 early 1940 and there are mines all over the channel....took me a couple of nights to clear it.....had to run alot in real time with ob scope underwater just to manuever around them.

[JonZ]

I can say however that sailing in 1943 and beyond at 100% might result your own tonnage wins from the opponents view :o

[Sailor Steve]

TikiGod, no real U-boat captain would ever dare the channel. Well, a couple tried the west side during D-Day, and they died. My own play includes very dim water so it's impossible to see things like mines and depth charges. Realistically going around was the only option, and by mid-1941 a lot of that was mined too.

[trenken]

I haven't seen any mines yet. Maybe thats because of my realism setting?

I'm not quite ready to get too realistic with this game yet. I'm still learning the basics. But I love it and fully plan to step things up when i'm ready.

[Kaleun]

hi,

I wouldn't try it judging on what happened in real life you will probably get "canned" (pun intended!!!!) - just check the map link below and see how many U-boat were sunk! maybe the channel should be avoided!

http://www.uboat.net/maps/channel.htm

Kaleun

[Kilamon]

with 0% realism, you should hunt there! Rack up some medals!

[trenken]

^ Yeah it's a good place for that.

[Cdre Gibs]

I have never had any dramas running the Channel, I'm at 100% and I still run the channel and raid ports just to keep the english swine alert ! Be it on the way out or on the way in. More so if its been a rather dull patrol. Besides it does the crew good, stops em slacking off ! :lol:

[Sailor Steve]

Being at 100% isn't what makes it tough; it's using one of the mods that puts all the mines and patrols in the Channel. 100% in the stock game is easy.

[Cdre Gibs]

Well RUB is flawed, IUB has RUB, so I use my own plus HT (HT has mines, lest ways I have found mines in the channel). As you may recall a certain Long Range Gunnery shoot plus a few other bit an bobs floating around here are mine (like the DG/AA fix an so forth) so believe me, its no push over. No1 so far has survied an online game with my settings. Silly buggers always do something stupid like surfacing because the contact range is set to long - Wrong Move !! :lol:


Softly softly is the way to do it, take your time and its no biggy.

[Tikigod]

Well RUB is flawed, IUB has RUB, so I use my own plus HT (HT has mines, lest ways I have found mines in the channel). As you may recall a certain Long Range Gunnery shoot plus a few other bit an bobs floating around here are mine (like the DG/AA fix an so forth) so believe me, its no push over. No1 so far has survied an online game with my settings. Silly buggers always do something stupid like surfacing because the contact range is set to long - Wrong Move !! :lol:


Softly softly is the way to do it, take your time and its no biggy.

Why is RUB flawed? what makes IUB better?

[jasondef]

Trenken, for the life of me, I never know when you're serious or foolin'! :rotfl:

[Cdre Gibs]

Why is RUB flawed? what makes IUB better?

I'm not gonna argue the toss here nor write a 6 page assay stating my reasons as to why I think RUB is flawed. If I think RUB is flawed why would I think IUB is any better? It has RUB in it! By that very fact IUB would be no better, think about it.

The only main stream mod I use is HT mod.

I dont use SH3 Commander nor even the mod enabler program.

[kapitanfred]

Yep, just watch out for those mines. Night time is the best but gets pretty hard as the months go by.

[Karl-Heinz Jaeger]

I have found that there are just too many patrols and aircraft going through the channel. It's very hard to get through unscathed. I'm now in mid '41 with my campaign so I'm making port in Lorient, so I don't have that trouble anymore but when I used to leave from Wilhelmshaven I would always head around Scapa flow and down the west coast of Ireland to my patrol area. There was almost always a couple of lone C2's or Large Cargo's to sink on the way, and the way my campaign went I could almost bet on the weather being nasty in the area to hide me from air reconnaisance. If I had the choice I would head around the northern tip of Scotland every time, it's not worth risking the channel.

:ping: :arrgh!: :ping:

[Uber Gruber]

To the original poster....

Play on what ever realism setting you like whilst you get the hang of the game. Once you start feel comfortable, crank up the realism. You should aim to complete all the training missions on the highest realism possible. This is not so we can slap you on the back and say "Welcome to the gang, buddy!". Its simply because you will enjoy the game a hell of a lot more!

Well, thats my humble oppinion.

Cheers...

[NeonSamurai]

Me i use a compilation of many mods which i then tailored to my own uses. I pretty much hand customized every single file just about.

One thing you should be aware of with using rub is there are mines all over the place, piles of them in the channel, mostly in the area of the narrowest point. a wall of them between england and i think iceland. in the channel, all along the north east coast of england (and fairly far out) the channel between england and ireland, and also in most major ports (also subnets).

I ended up striping out all the mines not tied to a port because frankly i think suddenly going boom and sinking is not very fun (nothing is more anoying then coming back from a 100k ton patrol in your viib and suddenly going boom in the middle of nowhere). Plus alot of these mines crossed major shipping areas for enemy and neutral shipping.

With the stock campaign you dont have to worry about mines or subnets. There are none.

As for RuB and other mods and if they are realistic or not. Well let me just say this, the mods represent what the authors think is realistic, of course most of them have never served on a sub of any kind, and none of them have ever served on a ww2 uboat. Many (my self included) will dissagree with some of the changes and belive them inaccurate (personaly i think rub goes overboard on some of the changes). As for who is right, well who knows, none of us are exactly an authority on life aboard a uboat (and i dont care how much you read on the subject, you wernt there, you dont know. Written material is never even close to 100% accurate or true. Especialy if dealing with memory.). Ultimatly it comes down to what you yourself think is true, and also enjoyable to play. Which is why i custom modified my own game to bring it closer to what i think it was like (which is definatly wrong in a couple of areas at least im sure) ;)

[Der Teddy Bar]

I ended up striping out all the mines not tied to a port because frankly i think suddenly going boom and sinking is not very fun (nothing is more anoying then coming back from a 100k ton patrol in your viib and suddenly going boom in the middle of nowhere). Plus alot of these mines crossed major shipping areas for enemy and neutral shipping.

I respect your right to play as you wish, with as much realism, or with as little.

ALL the RUB mines are historically correct for location, implementation date, depth and size. Have the WWII maps to prove it.

The mines are NOT in the middle of nowhere. If they cross shipping lanes, well, thats the way it was. For example, the East coast of England the wall of mines has deep channels for the shipping.

While it might be annoying to suddenly go boom, well, maybe you should just avoid the area? After all, that IS the purpose of minefields :rotfl:

Again, this is not about how you play, I respect your right to play as you wish, with as much realism, or with as little. :up: