Absolutely. I also hate surface attacks.

Use your hydrophones and get your boat into a favorable position ("Dead Stick Approach"), then pop them using the periscope.

Now, slipping out at periscope depth, that's a topic of discussion. The escorts do have a sonar "cone" underneath their ship, and if you ain't in that cone, you ain't gonna get pinged. Slipping out (from your attack position, otherwise known as escape and evasion) at periscope depth is definately a valid consideration in heavy weather.

I once almost got sunk by a troop transport in the fog. Found it by pure luck, coming fast at my left side. It almost rammed me, but I slipped away in front of him. Then I shot a torp backwards whilst it was shooting holes in my precious hull.
I even found it back in that fog, apparantly I had hit its engines and put him to a stop. One more fish finished him off...

I also prefer staying submerged. I just can't imagine attacking a convoy at surface at night. Don't those DD's see you? Sure, it's dark, but if you can see them...:shifty:

The allies developed radar a bit earlier too, so you often can't see them before they see you.

I avoid attacking in heavy fog. You can't see the escort until they are too close. Plus have nearly been rammed by cargo ships looming up out of the nothing while my deckcrew stare blindly at the steel wall passing down the side of my sub.

Keep contact via the Hydrophone and wait until improving conditions premit a better attack opportunity.....of course this takes a while with the way the weather is modelled in SH3. I find that things get bad fast when I get very close to a ship in fog....either I get detected (this should never happen as your #1 weapon is stealth....why comprise this and let the enemy sent patrols after you?)...or worst I end up ramming or getting ramed as the ship appears out of no where. For me, I try and think about how I would attack if i, no kidding, had my arsh on the line.

I had pretty much sworn off trying to attack in the "fog"/mist/storm conditions, after a few too-close brushes with death from ramming and radar-equipped escorts charging at me from 400m away. Therefore, when I got a report the other night of a large convoy heading straight for me in such storm conditions at night from only about 12,000m away, I quickly turned tail and tried to run off to a safe distance to shadow the convoy until the weather broke.

However, I kept getting radar warnings from my Metox and decided that I was unlikely to be able to escape the escorts on the surface, so I decided to submerge and try my first sound-guided underwater attack instead. I was carrying my first set of brand new FAT eels, so it seemed like a good time to give them a try. I managed to maneuver to what looked like it would have been a perfect firing position, only to discover after a few very confusing minutes at the hydrophone station that the convoy had just zigged (or maybe zagged), and I had to scramble to alter my approach and still get off a decent shot, without alerting the escorts to my presence.

Because of the danger of being rammed by the larger ships while at periscope depth, I settled down to 20m, which I had heard was the maximum depth for firing torpedoes. When everything sounded right in the hydrophones, I fired each of my two FATs, and then for good measure decided to go ahead and fire my other two forward torps (regular G7e's) as well. As I headed to the depths, I was rewarded with three beautiful explosions followed quickly by wounded ship noises and shouts from the crew. Since I had nothing better to do while my sub glided slowly downward and it wasn't going to affect my tactical situation, I popped up to external view to take a look around, and saw one troop transport sinking fairly quickly by the bow (it did a real "Titanic" number, standing on its bow with its stern straight up in the air and sliding vertically under the waves in short order - looked awesome!) and a Liberty ship listing heavily with her decks already awash (she took a little longer to go down, but finally took the plunge as well).

Since I don't seem to be able to get anywhere near this convoy I've been stalking for the last couple of days now in calm weather to get in a "normal" attack (the escorts have chased me down and away at least 3 or 4 times so far), I'm beginning to wish for another storm so I can try another one of these blind luck attacks again :lol:

I used to never do surface attacks under any condition. But once I had to start doing manual observations that unsteady and blurry periscope became much less attractive. The UZO has a steadying device to counter the roll of the boat. plus it's hard to do the 3:15 rule when you're stuck moving at slow speeds underwater. It's hard to maneuver with a convoy submerged. PLus I'm playing in 1940 so submerging isn't that much of an issue.

I'm sure though that by 43 I'll be finding my way through the periscope.

Thanks everyone for the helpful input. It's heartening to learn I'm not the only one who has had problems with this aspect of the game. As to some of the suggestions; I'm still too early in the war to be able to get active sonar or radar. I've used surface attacks quite a bit, especially my first couple of patrols, before i had completely mastered the interface and could effectively attack submerged, just using the UBoat as a surface topedo boat. I believe there is historic prededent for this, especially early in the war. In heavy fog I believe this is just not practical. However, I did have an inspired notion; Might these conditions be perfect for a harbor raid!