I guess you have been extremly unlucky with the convoy escorts.I play gwx3.0 with OLCgold and in '39 is quite easy to get close to convoys with decks awash, even i manage to get 2 attack for one night. I too have been "lucky" enough to get early in war to some quite good DD crews witch bombed me for more than hour.

I use simple tactic (mentioned above) just get ahead of convoy and creep forward and keep your course 90 degrees of theirs.If there arent side escorst or for some reason i see fit to use surface attack i dont hasitate(spl?) Since it gives you much more speed than underwater creeping and you dont have to worry about asdic(active sonar).However when i get close enough to attack i usualy get to PD for the actual attack.

I would also suggest you make ssure when you are depthcharged to have 20-30 meters clearens from then sea floor since DC explode when hit the sea floor and even if they miss you you can get hurt just by being close to the bottom.

what was your ordered speed? anything faster than ahead slow is a DD Dinner Bell

what was your ordered depth? The Deeper you go the better

were you rigged for silent running? this will stop all nonessential equipment on the boat making you silent or nearly silent

you should have absolutely no trouble evading DDs at 100+ meters in 1939 if you play your cards right

I would suggest reading the appendicies (sp?) in the GWX .pdf manual. There is a really informative section in there on how to conduct successful day and night time convoy attacks and how to evade escorts too. I would also suggest that you turn on "Map Updates" in the realism section if you haven't done this already. Having Map Updates on can really help you steer clear of escort vessels as it shows you their Asdic (sonar) ranges and arcs.

Yes GWX can be frustrating :damn: at first but I think that if you stick with it you will be glad that you did.

Good luck...:)

Hey, could someone tell me where these uber-destroyers are? They shure don't seem to be of the East coast of England. Intercepted a small convoy headed due south about 200km west of Hartlepool late 40. Went under with maybe 30m to the bottom head to head course. Took out the lead escort and fished to large merchants. Rudder slightly to port, not silent running, fished another frieghter, fished the escort comming in from the west at around 400m. Still loading tubes - #5 cripples the last escort, matched the convoys mean course - finish off the last escort. Surfaced and picked them off like a hungry wolf in a barn yard. Walked away with 57+, ditched the speed boat but took some light damage, pissin speed boat. 2 duds, that was irritating. Then I get transferred to Loreint. Great, I hate that port.

No be LESS agressive!:har:

If you find you are in a situation where you can't dive deep, (130m isn't really enough but as others have posted it is doable) You should really think twice about attacking. I have done many attacks in water less than that but usually end up on the bottom in a tube full of holes. I sometimes luck out and live to tell the tale.

that said it is possible but you probably need to take out some of the escorts first so instead of diving stay at PD and when the DD's take their attack runs wait until they are <800m away before firing. Make sure your torps are set to magnetic pistol at about 2m depth.

Your chances of survival are far lower doing this but at least you feel like you are doing something.:haha:

I guess the other thing is to make sure that you start off with all the help you can get turned on, save regularly so you can learn what the DD's are likely to do in certain situations. This is what i've done over several years of playing and yet I still get the odd surprise and learn something new.

Don't become so fixated on your target that you throw caution to the wind.

If you attack without a method of escape, nature will usually take its course.:ping:

AGREED!!!!

I play on 94% realism (only weapons officer) and I love playing with GWX makes it so much more in depth and don't have a hard time, May 1941 and haven't been sunk....couple close depth chargings but that's about it:DL and this is my 3rd campaign.

SH3 especially with GWX requires a lot of patience and planning to perform an attack especially on a convoy and if you haven't had much Sub sim experience take your time and you wil get it...

Yes especialy in 41 when I was spoiled by the easy pickings in 39-40.The last time i barely escaped with my life.All the tubes were destroyed , both diesel and electric enjines damaged.I think the escorts just resumed course after 1,5 hours of bombing, though their DC could have ran out aswell.

I had to float motionless for few more hourse around 220meters below surface before my electric engines were repaired.Not to mention the heavy flooding in the torp room that never actually stoped until i surfaced...

med
 

the mediteranean has good pickings, i am on i think a 75% dif (i'm not using manual, i have my wep officer, and i use free aim for screenshots), the water is usually around 200M so its safe for escape and also going to the bottom and repairing (always reminds me of das boot), and alots of task forces, i just got my second battleship. I started my career in 1940 on my ixb and haven't left since :)

The Med is great! It is filled with troop ships. In 10 patrols (1942-43) I sank 6 Aquitanias, and watched Lutwaffe sink the 7th. :arrgh!:
I only saw a few TFs.

It is hard. There are very few single merchants, they all sail escorted or in convoys. Usually I avoid convoys late in the war, but there's no such luxury in the Med.

something i have not found in this thread so far (possibly because I read too quickly) is another golden rule to add to all the wisdom which is being shared:

-don't use time compression

if they COULD detect you, using time compression will make it so that they WILL detect you. Try going through the whole attack in real time, it's more intense, more exciting and, well, it helps :)

happy hunting :salute:

200 meters, i stoped considering them safe after mid 40 in an unfortunate encounter with some naughty british sailors.

I am most confident when the bottom is some 20-30 meters below my crushdepth :)

You must be doing something wrong, I hunt Convoys well into 1943 with GWX3.0 100% realism. IXB/IXC can dive safely to 230 meters, you know. At that depth, you can easily evade DC's even if they know where you are. A few wiggles as the DC's exploding, and you will loss the DC within 10 passes.

I've never noticed that high TC makes you more detectable. It only gives you less time to react if you are detected.

My maximum TC when being hunted is increased with SH3Commander from default 8x to 32x, and I use it very often, during the approach and evasion. I never had any problems.