This has to be the best analogy Ive ever heard. hahaha :har::har::har:

I guess I'm doing it wrong. I use "Ahead Standard," which usually works out to 10 knots, less in rough seas.

Keep in mind that so far, I've only done patrols with Type IIs. It doesn't have much range until the IID upgrade. But you only get 5 torps anyway, so running out of fuel shouldn't really happen.

Even so, I managed to do it once, by profligate use of flank speed. I ran dry of fuel oil just close enough to home port to make the rest of the trip on the batteries.

Once I've used all torpedoes, I go home at Full or Flank, so that I can get back in the fight as quickly as possible. Of course I turn it down to 1/3 or even Slow in the harbor area, so I won't run into anything.

That's what I've been doing too...cruising at Standard with occasional jumps to light speed...usually involving hiking my skirt above my head like a little girl! :har:

I always wonder why people use high speeds (my temptation is to go slower, but that's just as inefficient). And shoot at destroyers (the two seem to go hand in hand).

Your job is to sink as much merchant tonnage as possible with the ammunition you are given. So it should be a given you do that as efficiently as possible. Don't waste torpedoes and shells on warships. And realize 8 knots = more fuel on station = more time to carefully shoot torpedoes and gun ammunition + ready fuel to go home/to a resupply boat.

Burning up fuel racing around is like shooting torpedoes into the ocean, or using the deck gun for fireworks. And sinking a destroyer when you could be sinking a merchant carrying critical parts for 100 new destroyers is ego.

But that's just me.

Depends on patrol zone
 

If you're going to AN11 there's no harm IMO cruising at full and standard -- other than the obvious decrease in stealth. Your NO will report your max range at current speed. Do you really need 12k range to go to AN11 and back? No, you don't. You'll even have enough fuel to prowl the shipping lanes west of Ireland after remaining on station.

Yes, in a Type II your limiting factor is torpedoes. So I try to find targets quickly, sink them, and then get back to base as soon as possible.

Going at Ahead 1/3 is not a part of that plan.

But if you sink that one vessel that contained Johnnie Walker, maybe you'd have saved more than a dozen other subs to destroy more merchants. :hmmm:

But if you sink that one merchant that contains several thousand bottles of Johnnie Walker, you'll be fishing crates of Scotch out of the water and the crew will make you a "Bestest Kommandant EVR!!1!" medal out of some scraps of tin they found in the engine room. :yeah:

The renown point incentives don't bear this out
 

120 for DD, 60-70 for coastal/small merchant. In any case, I think it makes a great deal of sense to target convoy escorts early on in the war, particularly in clear (i.e., deck gun) weather and if you're only looking at a DD and an armed trawler or torp boat.

Started new thread on this war ship vs merchant topic, as it deserves it's own IMO. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...36#post1578536