Ramming ships

[Dekessey]

Hi

I am a n00b on my 4th patrol in a Type II.
Spent my last 2 torpedoes on a C2, but didn't sink it.
The engine is dead and the stern is taking water.

I spent all my AA rounds on the ship (don't laugh, I was hoping to
start a fire or something, but all I got was a couple of fancy fireworks),
and now I am ramming the thing. I figure it's best to hit it on the damaged side.
I must have hit it 20 times until now.
Do you think I have any chance to sink it that way?
Any advice?:hmm:

http://www.webhome.look.ca/~lorek/SH3a.jpg
http://www.webhome.look.ca/~lorek/SH3b.jpg
http://www.webhome.look.ca/~lorek/SH3c.jpg

[BenG]

1st piece of advice - load your images a .jpegs not bitmaps.

As regards ramming - I don't really know. I've tred to avoid ramming as I think it's unrealistic. Although if you have any sucess let me know. (how many Hits/ramms etc..)

[Grey Legion]

Nice work on the screen shot..

I believe if you are using the newest update 1.4b, I am sure I read that ramming no longer does damage to ships. Once again I am just going by my foggy memory.

Best to let her go and fight another day

[STEED]

Type II Vs C2 in ramming good luck if you pull that one off. :huh:

[Kurushio]

OMG...he posted bitmaps as screenies. RIP 56kers. :rotfl:

By the way, I was in a similar situation once (Type 2 also)...I also used my AA and believe it or not, I actually got an explosion with a few rounds (out of about 600) but still not enough to sink the ship. It should've been counted as a kill in my opinion...it was a British-flagged ship and about 200 miles off the nearest safe haven, dead in the water. No way they could tow that back safely and could only be scuttled in my opinion....I hope SH4 takes this into account or at least gives some credit for ships damaged beyond repair.

p.s. Each screeny is 2.3 megs. :)

p.p.s As you're ramming the ship, I think I can see one of the sailors on the C2 laughing...

[Kurushio]

Just to put things into perspective:


This is a real life C2 (the Mormachawk):

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/406/mormachawk20us1945mooremccorma.jpg

and you want to ram it with this?http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/3152/1939194510291le.jpg

:lol:

[Keelbuster]

Nice Pic! The hull looks like a C2, but in the game i usually distinguish C2s from C3s at a distance by the forward masts - C2s have 3 full masts while C3s have 2 (like in the pic). Maybe a modelling mistake in the game.

As for ramming, I've never been able to sink a C2 via ramming. You just don't weigh enough. You can sink an armed trawler by ramming - one time I got lucky and rolled her over, and my boat went overtop and pushed her down! It was one of my earliest, and best moments in this game. I think it all depends on weight though.

You might have to leave that C2 behind.

Kb

[HunterICX]

Ramming an C2 with an II type boat.....:nope: I,m afraid it will only leave some scratches on the C2...

[Threadfin]

Might have better luck submerging below, then piercing the keel with your periscope. Have a look at what's in the holds while you're at it :)

[Kurushio]

Might have better luck submerging below, then piercing the keel with your periscope. Have a look at what's in the holds while you're at it :)

This is just fricking funny!:rotfl:Excellent....

[CWorth]

Its things like this that makes me pray that they get SH4 damage right.:nope:

You should not be able to ram any ship with a submarine and expect to come away unscathed and should expect to be damaged beyond repair and most cases destroyed outright.Short of maybe a wooden fishing boat.

[HunterICX]

:hmm: LoL, yep you're right....I got rammed by an DD a couple of times and it leaves me unscratched...now really....20 knots right on my tower must do some damages right...

or get bernhard on the look out next to an passenger linger and let him :damn: his head on the side of the boat...maybe that will make some damages

[Dekessey]

OOPS :lol:

Sorry about the bitmaps.... dunno, wasn't quite awake I guess
Fixed it now.

Well alright, thanks for the comments.
I agree that a sub wasn't meant to ram ships, and I should suffer some serious damage after all those hits, but... a cargo doesn't have a thick hull, and the sharp bow should bend metal.

Ever heard about the Empress of Ireland (http://www.pbs.org/lostliners/empress.html)?
A large liner was sunk in 15 minutes by being rammed by a smaller cargo.
Ramming can damage and sink ships.

[Sailor Steve]

I agree, if you ram a cargo ship you should put a very large hole in it, and it should sink.

Of course, you could break your pressure hull, or you could get stuck and go down with it, or you could slip right in so far you could shear off your deck gun, or even damage your conning tower, or...

[tbarak]

:nope: :nope: :nope: :nope:

Aye, aye, aye. First off, your boat is a fine instrument of warfare, not a smash up derby dinghy. And I'm sure there'lll be a few dock workers upset at your rash actions too - if you even made it home.

First off, in general, WWII era u-boats - especially their shells - were pretty fragile, and collisions were something most good skippers tried to avoid at all costs. Kurisho's little pictorial display I think makes the point in terms of how small u-boats were in comparison to their adversaries. If you are bobbing out in the middle of the mean Atlantic in January '40, one shouldn't be in a big hurry to nussle up to a 8000 ton steel whale.

LOL, actually the screenie of the collision is funny.:rotfl:"Look at these new heros, all full of wind and smoke." That IIB looks like the ant and the elephant, and the ant has rape on its mind.:arrgh!: Papa Dornitz won't give you a IX lest you forget not to crash the boats!!!

Your gunnery will improve as you gain experience, as well start promoting at least one crack gunner. Let 'em have a go on his own once and watch where he shoots. Ships have sweet spots, and in SH3, if you shoot at close range (real close like 300 metres) and focus your fire around engine rooms, you'll get a C3 and maybe a tanker with perhaps a quarter of your ammo.:ping:

[mheil]

I had a similar situation last nite - put 3 torps into a c-2 (spent a total of 5 - my FULL load out) and she still did not sink. Got on the flak gun and unloaded all my rounds (800 AP - forgot to/don't know how to load HE roads at patrol start) into it and she's still swimming! I blew up all the cargo on deck and shot up her hull at waterline. I did not target engine area as this is where I had already hit her with the other three torps. I'm under the impression that the flak does squat in RUB 1.4! I considered ramming based on posts I've seen here but itt was late, the wife was in bed . . .

[Keelbuster]

It's also annoying when you get rammed by a merchant or warship and it does little or no damage. I was just rammed square abeam by a large merchant with a low bow, travelling at about 6kts. He hit the deck first, then the conning tower, rolling me down to 25m and under him. NO DAMAGE TO MY BOAT. Kinda ridiculous.

Kb

[theluckyone17]

:hmm: LoL, yep you're right....I got rammed by an DD a couple of times and it leaves me unscratched... Must be nice. I've lost two careers (one under RuB, the other via NYGM 2) due to ramming by escorts (both DD's), mostly due to my own stupidity and eagerness. Not a good combination... "I can get one more fish off, really I can..." :damn:

[HunterICX]

:hmm: LoL, yep you're right....I got rammed by an DD a couple of times and it leaves me unscratched... Must be nice. I've lost two careers (one under RuB, the other via NYGM 2) due to ramming by escorts (both DD's), mostly due to my own stupidity and eagerness. Not a good combination... "I can get one more fish off, really I can..." :damn:

I got that thingy to....Comon!!! pull yourself together!...last Fish...FIRE!!!!...DAMN HE EVADE IT!!! Ow crap 50 meters...beter crash dive...errrr (ram event) BOINK!! after that DC's and ur an gonner....:damn:

[tbarak]

I think too it has a lot to do with experience playing the game. I mean, when you first start out and you see your first merchant, of course you rush in with guns blazing. No matter that its just a fishing ship or whether you actually hit anything, just shooting is cool. But of course after three or four missions with a pittance for tonnage and renown it becomes obvious that patience is the better part of valour.

I remember making my pact of only sinking tankers. Easy enough until I got into the water and saw my first lonely C3. It took a lot of discipline to watch it steam peacefully by. But of course in the end of the mission I docked with almost 175K in tonnage made up almost exclusively of tankers. Later in the war when the allies become more skilled at anti-submarine warfare, your patience will be tested to the limit. Take to heart the motto that a u-boat's greatest asset is stealth. Sure its fun ramming and shooting it out with destroyers, but I think as a successful Kaleun you have to be calculating and discerning at what you shoot at.

Anyway it's always nice to share people's first encounters and experience of the game. Always brings back nice memories. GL.

[Khayman]

tbarak, the B.D.U. would have your guts for garters if he knew you were letting cargo ships pass unmolested - even if you did manage to get a lot of tankers. "What you have got you have got".

I attacked a convoy and had to blow ballast after taking too much damage. Just as my boat reached the surface I was rammed by a Destroyer. We screeched past each other, hulls scraping and grinding for a moment. Then the Destroyer caught fire and blew up.

So Dekessey, perhaps you should try approaching the ship from the front or the rear and scrape your way along its hull. I should point out that I didn't survive this encounter though :D

[Dekessey]

tbarak, the B.D.U. would have your guts for garters if he knew you were letting cargo ships pass unmolested - even if you did manage to get a lot of tankers. "What you have got you have got".

I attacked a convoy and had to blow ballast after taking too much damage. Just as my boat reached the surface I was rammed by a Destroyer. We screeched past each other, hulls scraping and grinding for a moment. Then the Destroyer caught fire and blew up.

So Dekessey, perhaps you should try approaching the ship from the front or the rear and scrape your way along its hull. I should point out that I didn't survive this encounter though :D

Well after reading the comments I decided to let go. Ramming is obviously not a realistic tactic :doh: , like many other unrealistic behaviours in this game. It's a game after all.

Anyways, I managed to gain my missing reknown points on the next patrol to afford a type VII. Now I should have enough torpedoes and 88 rounds to finish my jobs! :cool:

[NEON DEON]

If you ram a ship and sink it, do you get credit for it?:hmm:

[Kurushio]

If you ram a ship and sink it, do you get credit for it?:hmm:

No, you get your very own mermaid...you can play with her and when you've finished, just eat her...she's half fish afterall :up:

[HunterICX]

:smug: about the mermaid...just let her rot...put something on her so her body stay's stiff and Tie her on ur Nose like old Pirate Ships! :arrgh!: then you got ur own ''Please MTV! Pimp My Submarine!''

[Kurushio]

:smug: about the mermaid...just let her rot...put something on her so her body stay's stiff and Tie her on ur Nose like old Pirate Ships! :arrgh!: then you got ur own ''Please MTV! Pimp My Submarine!''

Excellent... Surprised they never did it! :88)

[NIGHTFIGHTER]

Hi folks im a newby to the forum and saw this thread and thought id let you know what i had happen to me in one of the single missions, it was the one were you had to take out 2 english carriers, O.K thought me lets go for it, expending all my torpedos, sinking the Aux carrier and damageing the main carrier, i went full ahead and surfaced to use the deck gun. but as i broke surface a destroyer cut across my bow far to closs for me to take avoiding action, i ramed it at full speed, it driffted to my starboard turned over and sunk. i was so amazed i didn't notice the other 3 destroyers blowing the crap out of my sub....needless to say i didn't last long.:roll:

[NEON DEON]

If you ram a ship and sink it, do you get credit for it?:hmm:

No, you get your very own mermaid...you can play with her and when you've finished, just eat her...she's half fish afterall :up:


So, if I ate a whole Mermaid, would I be half a cannibal? :roll: :roll: :roll:

[Kurushio]

If you ram a ship and sink it, do you get credit for it?:hmm:
No, you get your very own mermaid...you can play with her and when you've finished, just eat her...she's half fish afterall :up:

So, if I ate a whole Mermaid, would I be half a cannibal? :roll: :roll: :roll:

Nope. You'd just be "special" for believing there are such things as mermaids. :p

[Hartmann]

I never ram ships, only one time that i found a corbette with a stern heavy flloding after a storm but without succes :nope: .

In my last patrol i had a C3 crippled and stopped with two torpedoes impacts, stern at a sea level , but it don´t sink, so i decided use the flak gun because i was out of 105 mm gun ammo.

First i fired and blow up all deck containers and stuff with the 20 mm AA gun, and after with the 37 mm heavy flak of my XIB boat.

it takes a lot of explosive shells in the hull and finally AP shells in the waterline, fortunately it sink after firing hundred of shells.

[Khayman]

Hi folks im a newby to the forum and saw this thread and thought id let you know what i had happen to me in one of the single missions

Welcome to the forum :D

Your experience sounds like mine. However I was surfacing as there were two ways for me to go, down to depths and a watery grave due to excess flooding, or blow ballast and take some of the sods with me. :arrgh!:

[NIGHTFIGHTER]

Yep Khayman, thats my feelings to NEVER SURRENDER !! and thanks for the welcome. I played Silen Hunter2 for some time, but Hunter3 is fantastic and im glad to have found a site with people with like wise feelings and who i have no dought will be more than willing to help with any problems....:D

[magicsub]

go to the side that is loww in the water, and then ram him(use a big sub with lots of wieght). he will be pushed down

[Brag]

Stuck has a bug where you can sink at least a DD by pocking your periscope into the hull. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[Uncle Goose]

even if you ram it you won't get credit for it, I sometimes ram those small wooden sailingboats and small fishingboats and it doesn't show up (if you gun them they show up).

[Hanomag]

LOL :rotfl:

I love the references to SH4.... that little glimmer of hope!

2 yrs later.... Did SH4 fix the ramming issue? Did team GWX allow for the "Steel Toed" Uboat?

Tune into the zombie thread and find out!!!

[harzfeld]

Are you using GWX2? Usually I don't use torpedoes on C2 cuz they don't give me enough tonnages for 2 or more torpedoes since they are harder to sink. But if I had to try use torpedoes, I would aim for bow near the tip of boat, like 1/3 from tip to bridge. I do that on C3, ore carrier, etc cuz water would rush more into their bow while they push themselves against the water as their bow weighting down, then their sterns start going up, showing their propellers and down she goes.

C2 in stock are easy to destroy using recognition manual within 1000m auto-aiming for engine or fuel depending on level of realism settings, you can find out what the depth of engine and fuel are in TDC where you can aim manually before changing back realism settings higher.

[Elmer Kosterman]

I've sunk a couple of badly damaged ships by ramming the bow or stern that's riding low in the water and riding up on her, pushing her down. Some people even punch 'dive' once they're on top.


One time, I was lining up for a stern shot on a pursuing destroyer. I looked at the torpedo computer for a second, looked back through the periscope, and :eek: --BOOM!!-- got rammed by the destroyer from behind, tower destroyed. Scared the hell out of me. As both periscopes were now out of action, I went to the hydrophone to find out what she was doing. Found her at about 290°, moving slowly. Lost contact a few seconds later. By the time I surfaced, the were only a few crates floating off to port.

[Blacklight]

You know... after looking at those pictures.. you DO have that nice cutter teeth on the front of the Uboat. So all you have to do is maneuver so that your bow is directly under the ship.. blow ballast and then go forward and reverse REALLY FAST !!! You'll slice that ship in half in no time at all !! :up:

One time, I was lining up for a stern shot on a pursuing destroyer. I looked at the torpedo computer for a second, looked back through the periscope, and :eek: --BOOM!!-- got rammed by the destroyer from behind, tower destroyed. Scared the hell out of me. As both periscopes were now out of action, I went to the hydrophone to find out what she was doing. Found her at about 290°, moving slowly. Lost contact a few seconds later. By the time I surfaced, the were only a few crates floating off to port.
http://subsim.com/radioroom/smartdark/user_offline.gif http://subsim.com/radioroom/smartdark/report.gif (http://subsim.com/radioroom/report.php?p=778710)

I was forced to surface once by a REALLY pesky Black Swan. I set up to duel with the deck gun to the death. When I placed my crew on the gun and switched to the gun view, I swivelled the gun around and saw only bow. It rammed into me and at the same time, it's canon gunner fired. There was a HUGE explosion that killed all my crew on the surface and damaged pretty much everything. Apparently, the ship must have been too close to the explosion and she exploded as well (Maybe it was some kind of British Kamakaze ship !?!). It sailed on past my bow going flank speed and within secconds, it was underwater. To this day I've never seen a ship sink that fast.:o

[JAKE]

Ask the skipper of the C2 to hang around while you nip back to port for some reloads.:lol:

[flag4]

if you need to ram

its time to go home,

unless, of course, you are trapped...


i dont think your crew would appreciate it...:down:

[roadhogg]

I normally shoot the nose off of C2's and C3's, takes about 30 rounds from the deck gun usually. Course you have to shoot the deck gun off the C2/3 first, or you'll incur hull damage due to their nasty habit of shooting back. For a Cargo with a front mounted deck gun, imagine a vertical line from the cargo's deck gun downward, and shoot forward of that. I'm playing SH3 with patch 1.4b (i think) and using a VIIB with the 8.8cm deck gun. No way i'd try ramming one though if i expected to finish my patrol :)
I've also been rammed by destroyers, while going backward at back emergency trying to blow them to bits before they get to me, and failing lol, and lost a few careers by not submerging quick enough. I've found that even at back emergency, once they get closer than about 900 metres it's too late if they're doing 35 knots straight at you.
Oh by the way, i'm at November 7th 1942 patrolling out of brest, and when i wandered round to merthyr docks i found a passenger liner in it :) and en route to AL14 i went via, erm, is it Eyre loch? the one below and to the left of Scapa flow, and found an Illustrious class carrier, a Bogue class carrier, and a fji light cruiser, plus a T3 tanker in there. Thought it was my birthday lol.
Happy hunting fellas :)