What rules you have in SHIII?

[Dowly]

What personal rules you use when playing SHIII?

My rules:

1. DiD (Dead is Dead)

2. If 15m/s winds have been for 5 days or more, I roll a dice. With 1, 3 and 5 nothing happens. With 2, 4 and 6 I lose 10% of my food supplies. (I use 12 weeks food supply)

3. Hydrophone operations daily

4. Calculate my travelled distance per 24h daily and mark it to my KTB

5. Deck gun only to be used for small ships (Fishing trawlers and so on).

6. If using snorkel on hostile waters, periscope is raised to spot attacking aircrafts.

7. NO attacks on enemy aircrafts, only when there is no other choice.

8. If I´ve already sunk a capital ship, let´s say the King George, I wont sunk another one in the current campaign.


That´s all I can think of now. There might be some more, but I cant remember them. :)

[SmokinTep]

Try and bring the boat and crew back in one piece........ :up:

[Boris]

What personal rules you use when playing SHIII?

My rules:

1. DiD (Dead is Dead)

2. If 15m/s winds have been for 5 days or more, I roll a dice. With 1, 3 and 5 nothing happens. With 2, 4 and 6 I lose 10% of my food supplies. (I use 12 weeks food supply)

3. Hydrophone operations daily

4. Calculate my travelled distance per 24h daily and mark it to my KTB

5. Deck gun only to be used for small ships (Fishing trawlers and so on).

6. If using snorkel on hostile waters, periscope is raised to spot attacking aircrafts.

7. NO attacks on enemy aircrafts, only when there is no other choice.

8. If I´ve already sunk a capital ship, let´s say the King George, I wont sunk another one in the current campaign.


That´s all I can think of now. There might be some more, but I cant remember them. :)

Aint no way I'll ever have the discipline to do this kinda stuff... only one capitial ship!!?!?! If I spot one it would be a sin not to kill it... thats my rule!

[Dowly]

If I encounter another class capital ship, I´ll be sure to sink it. As long as it´s not another King George.

[kiwi_2005]

Getting back alive! :)

Watching that fuel on long trips.

When to rough take her down rest the crew and rely on sonar.

I have a habit of taking on merchants with the deckgun zigzaging to avoid there deckgun - reason? I love it! :-j But more discipline is needed here.

Always returning to base. It aint the end of a patrol unless you park ya beast in that bomb shelter

[Keelbuster]

After late 41 I run at PD during the day. That is, unless I'm _sure_ i'm in an area that is miraculously free of air cover.

Kb

[Dimitrius07]

everything like Dowly wrote plus

i Dont atack passenger liner - troop transport and hospital ship i just can't :hmm: :zzz:

[kiwi_2005]

Dimitrius07 wrote
[quote]i Dont atack passenger liner - troop transport and hospital ship i just can't[quote]

I can understand you not wanting to sink a hospital ship, but a troop ship should be sunk without mercy :rock:

:-j

[STEED]

Listen to a great German piece of music when using the deck gun. :)

[CWorth]

I cant say I have any set of rules that I follow.I just try and do things the way they would have been done on a real Uboat.

Only real rule I have is that Passenger Liners and Hospital Ships are off limits and not to be touched as that was the way it was for the real Uboat captains during the war.

[STEED]

Play It's A Long Way To Tipperary after a good patrol. :)

[DeepSix]

I thought I played it fair, but you guys are way more dedicated than I am. *Sigh* Someday I'll play with rules, too. Lots of noble aspirations I see here. :)

[Threadfin]

I play DiD, let the crew shoot the gun, always return to base (career ends if I can't make it back due to fuel or damage), dive on all air contacts. If I intend to transfer I sail to the base I will transfer to (but not close enough to get Dock at: option) I play with MCU enabled, all other settings checked (manual targeting, no externals, etc).

Passenger liners were not off limits to uboats

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/643.html

http://uboat.net/special/biggest.htm

[bsalyers]

Mine:

(1) Dead is Inconvenient.

(2) Stop playing to eat and bathe every 24 hours whether I need to or not.

(3) No rap music on the gramaphone.

(4) Absolutely no SHIII until all my other work is done!
- wait... no; I don't do that one.

[DeepSix]

:rotfl: You mean you don't go "rollin' in yo Type VII"?

[AlanSmithee]

I play DiD, though I make exceptions for when the game "cheats" - for example, when I collide with a ship or get unrealistically jumped by a ship or aircraft due to high TC.

I never use the deck gun in stormy conditions. I also never reload external torpedoes when the weather is bad enough that waves are washing over the deck.

My one random rule: I don't sink trawlers and fishing boats. I feel bad for those guys.

[bsalyers]

You mean you don't go "rollin' in yo Type VII"?

No, Dog - Kapitan don't roll dat way.
;)

[tycho102]

I don't engage airplanes, let the crew take a bath every three or four days (surface and kill engines for a couple hours) if conditions permit, and make sweeps with the periscope for aircraft. I don't reload external torpedoes unless the seas are very calm, and I'm completely stopped.

However, I have modified the "neutral" ships to give me normal reknown. If the ship is traveling in an escorted convoy, it's fair game, regardless of it's cargo or nationality.

[JSalinger]

Well, when I do finally get my copy (grr...I ordered it three weeks ago!), everything is fair game, including hospital ships (only if I feel like it...Onkel Karl might realize the political implications lol).

I'm just going to be a cruel Kaleun towards the Allies. :hulk:

[Salvadoreno]

Though i dont use food supplies and all that. I do have a view realistic rules.

1. Dead is Dead
2. Hydrophone Checks
3. If no contacts for a few days, gramophone goes on
4. My latest knew rule is i actually traverese the Bay of Biscay in 1943-1945 with no TC, and i am on lookout.
5. I caclulate speed, direction of a boat, and usually spend 1-2 hours just getting in a good firing position
6. Convoys get at least 3-4 contact reports to simulate huff duff then attack.
7. aircraft=dive

[CWorth]

I play DiD, let the crew shoot the gun, always return to base (career ends if I can't make it back due to fuel or damage), dive on all air contacts. If I intend to transfer I sail to the base I will transfer to (but not close enough to get Dock at: option) I play with MCU enabled, all other settings checked (manual targeting, no externals, etc).

Passenger liners were not off limits to uboats

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/643.html

http://uboat.net/special/biggest.htm


Hitlers own Directive #5 specifically states...And this is a direct quote from the document..Take note of highlighted area.

"Trade War will in general be waged in accordance with Prize Law with the following exceptions:

Merchant ships and troopships definitely established as being hostile may be attacked without warning.

This also applies to ships sailing without lights in waters round England.

Merchantmen which use their radio transmitters after being stopped will be fired upon.

Attacks on passenger ships, or large ships which obviously carry considerable numbers of passengers in addition to cargo, are forbidden."

[DeepSix]

I play DiD, though I make exceptions for when the game "cheats" - for example, when I collide with a ship or get unrealistically jumped by a ship or aircraft due to high TC.

I never use the deck gun in stormy conditions. I also never reload external torpedoes when the weather is bad enough that waves are washing over the deck.

My one random rule: I don't sink trawlers and fishing boats. I feel bad for those guys.

I guess I have rules after all.

- No reloading external torpedoes if the weather's too rough for the deck gun. Also, I stop engines when I move them.

- Deck gun is for coup de grace and for "I fart in your general direction because all my torpedoes were duds" engagements.

- Dead is Dead except for TC collisions (especially in rain and fog when you're dead before you even know what killed you :hulk: ).

- Liners are ok after U.S. joins the war (after all, they were used as troop ships. I just hope I don't deep six the one my grandfather shipped out on.

- No hospital ships.

- No trawlers or fishermen for me, either. I feel bad for 'em, too. Add to that list small coastal vessels (which are what, exactly?).

- Tugs and aircraft... it depends.

- Random hydrophone checks - not regularly because it's a pain to move Adolph back to the bridge every time I surface. I mean that dude's just not pulling his weight. It's tough to avoid a "cheat" with the hydrophone because whenever I'm cruising along under TC, the frame rate starts to hiccup if there's a convoy nearby. I confess, I usually give in. No, no, it's not taking advantage - my kaleun just has a sixth sense....

- And of course my favorite: no rap music (although it's tempting sometimes ;) ).

[Threadfin]

Hitlers own Directive #5 specifically states...And this is a direct quote from the document..Take note of highlighted area.

"Trade War will in general be waged in accordance with Prize Law with the following exceptions:

Merchant ships and troopships definitely established as being hostile may be attacked without warning.

This also applies to ships sailing without lights in waters round England.

Merchantmen which use their radio transmitters after being stopped will be fired upon.

Attacks on passenger ships, or large ships which obviously carry considerable numbers of passengers in addition to cargo, are forbidden."

Very good, and true, you know your stuff. Directive 5 was from September, 1939, and this policy was rescinded by November of 1940. So I'll grant you are correct for that one year period, but I read your previous statement as off limits alltogether, which simply isn't correct. Unrestricted submarine warfare was in effect from fall of 1940 onwards.

In the political arena, u-boats were required to operate under the pre-war maritime Prize Rules, the international agreements which governed the conduct of war at sea. Merchant ships had to be stopped and searched before they could be sunk - but only after the crew had been safely evacuated on lifeboats. The u-boat commanders viewed this as an unnecessary threat to the attacking boats and were eager to move toward unrestricted submarine warfare. By September 23rd, u-boats were allowed to sink immediately any merchant using its radio after being stopped by a u-boat. October 2nd saw the lifting of restrictions of attacking darkened ships off the British and French coasts. By October 17, u-boats were allowed to attack all hostile ships and by November 17, to attack all ships including passenger liners. The only restriction governing u-boats was that they were not allowed to attack neutral vessels.

http://www.uboataces.com/boa-opening.shtml

[CCIP]

-DiD

-Always travel on lower TC in high air-threat areas; dive and submerge in these whenever possible

-Dive and travel mostly underwater during storms, use only 'slow ahead' during stormy weather

-Use Schnorchel on 'slow ahead' only

-"Move" between compartments by mouse clicks (in my 'prime' WaW careers, change stations by moving through the boat with the Shift+F2 camera only)

-Never fight aircraft "to kill", only when cornered

-Attack targets at night and on surface whenever possible (I do allow use of WO targeting for high-speed night attacks)
-Only manual targeting through periscopes (no WO help there)

-Reloading external torpedoes only in calm weather and with engines off

-Never hunt for escorts or patrolling warships

-And, perhaps the funkiest rule of all - I make many decisions and add unpredictable variation to my game by tossing coins to determine certain circumstances and courses of action (e.g., changing patrol area, taking a riskier or a safer course, delaying WO's target calculations etc.)

Great times :up:

[Heibges]

1. Per the Uboat Commanders Handbook, regular hydrophone checks only at dawn and dusk.

2. Per the Uboat Commanders Handbook, fire 2,3, or 4 torpedoes at all targets.

3. Per Uboat Commanders Handbook,use Ahead Slow as default patrolling speed.

4. Per Uboat Commanders Handbook, use one of 3 prescibed methods for conducting a gunnery raid. Maximum range for deckgun is 1100m.

5. Dead is Dead.

6. Move external torps to inside ship only in calm weather.

7. Submerge to reload all topedo tubes in rough weather.

8. Stay submerged in Heavy Fog.

9. Break off contact and re-establish after every attack. No hiding under convoy to reload torpedoes.

10. Try to get within 1000m for all torpedo shots.

11. Never attack convoy escorts even if attacked. Evasion only.

12. 56 Days Maximum at sea for Type VII. 63 Days total for Type IX, accept for long range IXD Patrols which may last for 135 or more days.

13. No sinking of hospital ships.

[Nedlam]

Some of my rules:

1. No TC above 128 (and my crew fatigues at that TC)

2. I do not transfer external torpedoes unless the winds are at 6 m/s or less. I also only use my schnorkel in these conditions.

3. Speaking of schnorkels 1/3 speed is the fastest I travel with it extended while I'm sumberged and in "hostile" waters which is pretty much everywhere about the time they come out. I keep my Obs. scope up while the schnorkel is up.

4. Hydrophone checks every four hours.

5. When I am submerged and I have my periscope up (either one) I only travel at slow speed (3 kts)

6. In severe weather I try to stay submerged as much as possible. and I have to research this but I read that attacking in severe weather (heavy seas) was damn near impossible. I might have to make a rule up about that.

and after reading this thread I have a few more new rules. :D

I have a question. First, my definition of a hydrophone check is to dive to 30 meters stop for awhile, run for a short time submerged, go to periscope depth and check before you surface again. Then surface. The whole process usually takes me 1/2 hour (game time). My question is: Is that what a hydrophone check is? Because as Heibges quotes from a Uboat commanders handbook:

"Per the Uboat Commanders Handbook, regular hydrophone checks only at dawn and dusk."

What did they do for the rest of the day? Just run on the surface looking for ships?

[mike_espo]

Mine: :smug:

1. Crash dive when aircraft spotted.
2. Run snorkel at 8kn max.
3. TC max and Crew fatique at 512x
4. 4 hour watches for bridge and 6 for others.
5. G7a only contact pistol
6. If I have to use G7e, set magnetic pistol for draft of ship
7. Always signal "Onkel Karl" when I contact a Steamer.
8. Don't fire on Neutrals. ( My career is in 1940)

Thats it :D

[zombiewolf]

(3) No rap music on the gramaphone.


Thats the only rule I have .

For the rest of my life also.

(3) No rap music on the gramaphone.




(3) No rap music on the gramaphone.

:rock:

[Ducimus]

1. DiD (see sig)

2. I never travel above "ahead slow" unless im trying to intercept a contact. Since i do primarly long range patrols, Fuel is too precious to waste.


3. When leaving bay of biscay, and while around the operating area, i am submerged by day, and only surface between 0:00 and 0100 local time and submerge at 0500 to 0600 local time. (at 1/4 battery, and 50% O2, i have to surface :D )

4. Snorkel to recharge batteries or to ventilate the boat, and never above "ahead slow" see pt 2 and 3.

5. Two fish per target, excepting coastals or other small mechants which only require 1 torpedo. If the target requires more then 2 torpedo's and is unprotected, the deckgun shall be employed.

6. Torpedo expenditure priority (or, which ones i like to get rid of first)
aft external -> Fore external -> Aft internal -> Forward Internal.
Bow tubes are only used first if there is more then 1 target.

7. Man flak guns only when aircraft is detected at short range and am unable to dive in time.

8. I do not operate in shallow water.

9. Occasional hydrophone checks, Soundman doesnt report everything thats audible.

[Dutch]

1. Don't waste the trops.....

2. First Priority Reach Destination

3. Second Priority Convoys

4. Third Priority Lone Merchants, takes Frist Priority if within Range while onroute to Destination

5. Conserve Fuel

6. Never save during a attack run, be it single or convoy, that way I can't miss and reload to get a different shot, if I miss I miss.

7. Rely on crew unless under the most life threatining situations. Exceptions for Sonar, which is to be manned by myself in order to locate shipping.

8. No stupid manuvers, surfacing to attack destroyers.

9. Use DG only after mortally wounding a ship.

10. While DCs go off I have apx. 20 secs to run on Std speed before they can propurly detect me (not documented or implimented, just my thing. Usually works pretty well.)

11.After locating convoy, attack and pursue untill most merchants are sank, or you can no longer carryout an attack ie no trops or battle wary/damage.

12. Upon locating Convoy situate for the center of the convoy 1st pri Hvy Cargo 2nd Med-small 3rd Escorts.

13. Don't waste trops on Escorts save element of surprise for the merchants

14. try to have 2 firing solution for two ships (1 for each) and fire for maximum effect.

15. Neve put yourself or your men in a helpless situation, does not entail not taking risk.

16. Come back home in one piece.

[svenks]

I have only a few:
DiD - except for my current career, which I from the beginning decided I would use a 'honing of skills' career. And since you need more skills later in the war, I decided to 'strech' my career. Haven't needed it yet, but once I was very close... The skill-honing also includes re-doing an attack, if I'm not satisfied with the results.
No torpedo loading in bad weather = unable to man guns. Max value set to 8. This I stick to, even if it hurts! And I think the 'Engine stop' is worth adopting - I just hadn't though of that.
Always check the scope before surfacing (as if I had a chance to spot an aircraft :roll: )
Always return to port - and the sweet nurses :)
And I do try to reach my patrol area - but if my course takes me north of Ireland and I stumble on some convoy, well... :arrgh!:


BRGDS
Sven

[SubSerpent]

1 shot, 1 kill










unless it doesn't sink


then 2 shots


in case of highly unrealistic GW damage modelling


perhaps 3 to 5000 shots!! :nope:

[Dowly]

1 shot, 1 kill


unless it doesn't sink


then 2 shots


in case of highly unrealistic GW damage modelling


perhaps 3 to 5000 shots!! :nope:

Dont spread this all over the board. People just think that GW is all crap and wont even try it. I have had not a single problem in GW. The torpedoed ships sink or if not sink, they fall out of the convoy.

[Khayman]

1. Don't snort, you're virtually deaf and blind. Install Jungman's SensorPak mod instead. I've survived 1944 and am just starting 1945 and I've never used the Snorkel. My radar warning detectors have always given me plenty of time to dive and evade.

2. Don't crash dive in shallow water

3. In later years, about 1942-43 onwards I think, never approach an unarmed merchant while surfaced in broad daylight to use the deck gun. Before you get close enough they'll have called out about sixty million aircraft and your life will suddenly become difficult.

[STEED]

I only have one real rule survival.

[Skubber]

(2) Stop playing to eat and bathe every 24 hours whether I need to or not.



:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Surprising how important this one can be. And you have to reduce that to every 12 hours if you are married.

[Heibges]

Submarine Commanders Handbook

28). The possibility of using the hydrophone to help in detecting surface ships, should, however, be restricted to those cases in which the submarine is unavoidably compelled to stay below the surface. The hydrophone must not lead to inactivity (passivity) underwater, which would be wrong; it is an auxiliary instrument and no more, and can never be a substitute for ocular perception and surface viewing. As soon as visibility allows, the place of the submarine is on the surface. Otherwise valuable opportunities of attack are lost.

The problem with every subsim dating back to Silent Service, is that in a gamey sense hydrophones are as effective, if not more effective than surface search radar. I have found it is impossible to get realistic results, by using hydrophones in more than the prescribed manner. I just find it too easy to find targets that way. My way, on 1/3 of my patrols, I don't see anything.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Hmm...I never thought about it, but I guess that I do have rules.

I like to conserve torpedoes, if at all possible, so I use the deck gun if I have a chance, first. That came orignally from my not really using torps effectively, but now that I can, it remains. After all, it would be annoying to come across the Rodney or Illustrious and not have the torps to kill either.

I know it's not realistic, but I do like to use the "disembodied" eye/camera, because that just makes the game more fun. And if I happen to have unusually detailed information from that not otherwise knowable, I'll just put it down to my skipper having some incredible 6th sense abilities.

I won't do the "dead is dead" thing, as I fully expect my guys starting in '39 to actually NOT make it to the end of the war, alive. The question is: how many times will they get killed? (Btw, I notice that most of the u-boat aces had their careers over by '41, possibly '42. I guess the game doesn't model being promoted to a shore posting)

I still need to get the gramophone feature to work. I may make a point to only get recordings that would have been availabe at the time, e.g., Caruso or whatever. Yet I'll still probably have Cream blasting, and imagine a British hydrophone operator on board a DD asking himself: "WTF is that?!?!?!" [<---uuuuuuh, why is the acronym signifying "wave to friends" missing? Rhetorical question, actually, but it seems silly to have a filter for that]

I never thought about the fuel/food thing. It would seem bizarre to be able to return to Brest/La Rochelle/Kiel from the Grand Banks w/a 1% fuel reserve. Wouldn't the game just kill you, then? I don't actually know, as I haven't finished my first patrols, yet. I don't know how much food u-boats would carry, though I suspect they could probably replenish supplies somewhat by fishing and perhaps a jerry-rigged cistern (I just noticed a theoretical pun, there).

[Dowly]

Heh, stupid me. Why I haven´t though about that fishing thing before! :damn:

Addition to my food rule:
If the seas have been calm for 5 days and there has been no aircraft attacks in 2 days, I roll dice.

1, 3, 5 = 5% to food supplies
2, 4, 6 = 10% to food supplies

Oh and as I´ve been reading your rules, I now realise how many rules I infact use! :o

[GOZO]

Skubber said:

Surprising how important this one can be. And you have to reduce that to every 12 hours if you are married.
_________________



oooh! That´s the problem :hmm: Does it include shaving as well? Getting too hard into a carachter can give unwanted results. :o

Will try it next patrol :up:

Cheers ;)

Per