are sonar coverage angles modeled in game? :hmmm:

Agree with Highbury for the most part. After 'delivering the fish' I go silent, go deep and creep away. No noise, no flank speed, drama queen, twisting and turning, throwing decoys or any of that.

I don't want to advertise, I want to sneak away. Stealth is your friend. :|\\

I think Armistead meant "After I 'hit'..."

I do it right after I shoot, not hit. Course I use a variant of OKane Vector shooting style. Course as I say that, I do stay silent until the last shot, Turn hard and fire the sterns as I'm leaving. Just make sure your not in the sonar cone. If not, then I will wait until hits. If you wait too long, you can't escape, so you want to flank out. They don't have enough time to react done correctly. Works like a charm. My setups I come from a weak side. Always let the lead dd pass so I'm not in his cone, shoot and usually long gone why they're searching my rear. TMO1.7 RSRD 100% no contacts or cams.

I understood what you were saying. What I meant was, if you go to flank after firing (before they hit) then alot of the time the DDs come right for you because they hear you go to flank (with hydrophones, not sonar). Why would you want to do the noisiest thing you can do underwater when you still want them to keep sailing straight for your torpedoes? Silent Hunter... I have gone 3 - 4 patrols without an escort ever knowing where I was because I don't use flank near them unless in an emergency.. I thought that was the point.

Ive been having a hard time with DD's lately. It seems like no matter how close I get, just tried firing from inside of 400 yards set to fast, the DD scoots out of the torpedoes path just in the nick of time.

Ive tried fanning out a couple of torps in a spread anticipating their 'scoot' but even then they usually dodge em all.

Then they become a major pest chasing me off.

Yea I know I should leave the DD's alone and go after the merchants but the though of a half dozen merchants left alone without their escort is pretty tempting.

Couldn't agree more, SW. Given the opportunity (like being night time and only 2 escorts) I'll go for the DD's too. The real nice opportunity is when the dummies actually STOP to listen!
Last night I tried taking out a DD that was 90 AOB with the O'Kane method and I was 2000 yards away... Couldn't hit him with one. Replayed the scenario close to a dozen times and each time he'd evade me. (which is odd, because it was so dark and rough I couldn't see him even from that distance).
Once he even detected me moving 1/3 running at periscope depth, and began to turn in towards me... riiiight. I actually got lucky firing 3 torps (spread by a degree) by striking him dead centre on his bow as he made his run at me! Sank him with one!

re
 

I have used the method of Tommy Dykers , who commanded the USS Jack on many patrols for a while now and it works.I learned this from the book Silent Running by Admiral James Calvert who was a young Ensign under Dykers.

Dykers would go deep and quiet and give it full right rudder, so he was making a constant slow turn...so they didnt have a strait running target, it threw their sonar off a bit.

I decided to try this out in SH 4 and it works.Of course my modification is to stick to running ahead flank when i hear escort over me and the splashs from the charges hitting the water, give her a good 35 second run at flank and rudder amidships....the noise from the escort running fast to get away from the charges masks your sound.After the speed burst, i go to all stop and full rudder opposite of what rudder was before the speed burst.So if was at right full rudder before went amidships for the "burst", i go to full left rudder and them back to starboard.This really works, it throws even the best escort off.

I play TMO and the escorts are the toughest in SH 4 and it works.Even worked on old Bungo Pete in shallows of Bungo Strait.Also worked for me in the Gulf of Thailand when bottom was 210 feet and I was 200 feet with 6 escorts after me...lots of charges and noise, minor damage from a lucky charge, I made it out though.Of course it was late war and decoys helped but works fine without decoys.

Anyway thats how i evade depth charges.No matter what you do, sometimes they just get lucky though.The key is if they have you and are on top of you dropping, to go ahead flank and get out from under them.Also, switch the knot-o-meter instead of telegraph, run a half a knot by clicking half way between the one and zero...keeps you well below 50 RPM(look at the RPM gauges by the helmsman in conning tower) if you are deeper, 1 knot(just below 50 RPM) is safe, calm seas or shallows...half a knot works, can tell a difference.

It's that damned icon on top of the water over your boat that gives your position away. Sometimes I wonder if the Japanese can see it!

Really, go as deep as possible, turn often, when you lose them sneak away.

I've started using the destroyers' blind spot to my advantage lately. Once they have made a dc run, i'm on their 180, and they have trouble hearing me. I punch the throttle, to get as much distance between me and them. once i think i'm getting close to their detection cone, i drop back to 1 or 2 knts. It's been working really well.

Were is this thermal layer ?
 

BEN LOOKING FOR IT IN SH 3 > HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE IN THAT COLD OR IS IT HOT PLACE ? :wah::timeout:

Thermal layer is about 170 feet in SH4... if you turn off the Time Compression and dive you'll hear your Diving Officer tell you when you've reached it. There's also thermal layers deeper too.

Hey, and that tactic with the circular (full rudder) path really works? I can't imagine it would...after all, here's the problems I see:

1/ you never leave the scene of the crime this way...there's more chance that even if you lose them for a spell, they'll likely find you again due to the proximity.

2/ DD's don't leave either....at least not before you have to surface for air or your batteries finally run out.

The protocol is to NOT deviate from a straight escape... unless you need to lose them again and are in the patch of a direct DC run. Once you manoeuver your sub into an escape bearing, go deep, go silent. Best escape bearing is the one that exits at 180 to the DD (and keeps you as small a target as possible in his active sonar).

Other comments on the circular / full rudder escape route?