I think the only real thing you can do is be patient, that is the secret, when you see an opening then go for it.

Putting the boat low in the water helps too, but really the only thing for it, is patience. You just have to take it steady and don't rush.

hehe, I quit for 40 days, then trying to take this convoy I have started up again. Never ever had any trouble with a convoy like this one. Oh, I am at periscope depth.

I've been letting the Clemson go past. It has only a draft of 2.8 m so I been using magnetic at 3.3 m, (? 5 m)

Rob, you're right, clemson very shallow draft , was going by memory there, obviously faulty :oops:

what year is this?

as for a good attack... I think you're in the wrong position, that convoy is going to plow right over you, you should ideally be outside it. on the side with the single flower, I don't think there's enough time to get back in position though.

If you do manage to reposition I'd sit between the northen flower and the c2, but in front of them. you can still take out the leading C2 and T2 and maybe escape on the surface.
if not I'd attack submerged in this case. but if that clemson is sweeping in front he might just be pinging and find you at pd.

odd though that all the escorts come after you, I'd expect the two flankers on the other side to just keep doing their thing...:hmm: that still means 2 escorts on top of you the flower and the clemson, the point of taking out the clemson is that a VIIc sub can outrun a flower (barely) at least you can go just as fast and maintain distance, which in this case could be a lifesaver.
especially if that flower is the only one to react, you might be dodging shells for a while, but flowers only have a puny popgun and at long range in the dark that's survivable, if you keep running away from the convoy for say 20 minutes you only have 1 flower to contend with, which should be doable, you can then crashdive and go silent, the other escorts are then so far away that they don't come to help the poor flower, which should be killable with a stern-shot or one of the torpedoes you reloaded while hightailing it outta there for 20 minutes.

If however that V&W DD also comes for you, even though it does have to go through the convoy which should slow it down enough for it to loose you, you're screwed, crashdive, go below 200 meters and make like a hole in the water.:-?

hope that helps

It is Sept 1940, and yes you are correct, the convoy plows right over/ around me. Is there a passive device that the DD are using now that have an affect on the torpedoes that cause them to miss the DD?:hmm:

You mentioned in another post to fire the T1's at medium speed, do you mean at the Clemson?

If I find I cannot reposition myself, and have to stay where pictured, I'll have to take out the Clemson, preferably with a stern torpedo as it goes by because it's going to be a real pest if I don't.

I always set my mag torps 1m below the keel Rob
Less chance of a downward movement in the ship as it rides waves and the torp bouncing off the rounded bottom of the hull

Hi BW, Okay for the Clemson 2.8 draft, set it at 3.8 then. Will give it a try.

Rob

:D<lecture mode>:know:

No, NEVER fire T1s at escorts unless heavy fog and heavy seas, otherwise they spot them and instantaneously go to 30 knots and dodge, even at night.

The T1s should be used on merchants and on medium for 3 reasons:

a: they take longer so more time for you to escape

b: they run longer, have longer range, this means that even if you miss your intended target it carries on into the convoy. it's happened to me a few times that I accidentally hit a ship way on the other side, which is good because it gets me tonnage and makes the escorts look for you in the wrong place

c: if you make the long range shots with t1s at medium and the shorter shots with T2s the timing is better, more chance of simultaneous impact which not only looks cool but makes sure the merchies don't start zigzagging

as for passive devices well..eyeball mk.I for spotting the bubble trail and hydrophones, IRL they can hear torpedos, just like you can they make a very distinctive noise, I don't think that's moddeled in SH3 though because t2s if correctly fired always hit, they may not detonate because of bad magnetic detonators or sharply angled impact but the escort doesn't react to the CLONK of a dud eel hitting it.

as to positioning, if you can't relocate: submerge, go silent and turn 90 degrees on the convoys course. then stop and wait and blow up the first non-neutral to cross your bow. try to have one row of ships sail right behind you, like 100 meters or so this gives you more time to calculate and plan your shots from the forward tubes. don't use the stern tubes, they probably won't hit so it's wasteful.
after firing your forward eels at 1 or 2 ships, go to 4 knots set rudder 10 degrees away from lead escort and dive, when at 70 meters go silent and go as deep as you dare.

If that clemson somehow finds you while you're at a dead stop and submerged (and this might happen, although in 1940 the odds are still good that he won't) usually it finds you when it gets real real close or is pinging, don't hesitate and crashdive, live to fight another day and when diving head into the convoy, they make noise and hamper the escorts movement. go silent when you hit 70 meters or so, set rudder 10 degrees away from the escort but stay underneath the convoy. go at least 150 meters down but 200 is better an undamaged VIIc should be able to go at least 210 meters without imploding. I've done that regularly in the Med in 42 where you absolutely have to to get away.

the downside of taking out the clemson is that you probably won't be able to attack merchants afterwards because they will start zigzagging and at least 2 other escorts will come to get you. what you could do is evade those (eventually) and then overtake the convoy again. since it's now short a lead escort is should be a cakewalk to ambush them from right in front of them by getting in front, lying in wait submerged and taking out whatever juicy target takes your fancy.

that's planning ahead, if there's enough night left when the escorts stop hunting you for an end-around and second attack that may be your best option. although not very realistic, they wouldn't have done that in ww2

</lecture mode>:D
good hunting :up:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...nny/convoy.jpg

This here picture should prove beyond all shadow of doubt just how close you can get to the convoy at night if you are careful and don't run round like a crazy person on the surface.

As you can see, not a great deal of distance between me and the ships.

Though this surface attack was not flawless far from it. I made a silly mistake, I attacked two ships in the line closest to me and got machine gunned by the destroyer, I dived with Hull at 83% so really, surface attacks are really cool, but... they can get your ass riddled like swiss cheese.

I have always used G7a on as I never use anything but T1s and I wait until the DD or DE is within 500 yrds and fire bow shot and I always get them, well, 99 % of the time because they cannot move out of the way fast enough when the T1 is fired fast and magnetic.

I used T1s right to the end of the war with my other sub VIIB with no problems.

as for passive devices well..eyeball mk.I for spotting the bubble trail and hydrophones, IRL they can hear torpedos, just like you can they make a very distinctive noise, I don't think that's moddeled in SH3 though because t2s if correctly fired always hit, they may not detonate because of bad magnetic detonators or sharply angled impact but the escort doesn't react to the CLONK of a dud eel hitting it.

as to positioning, if you can't relocate: submerge, go silent and turn 90 degrees on the convoys course. then stop and wait and blow up the first non-neutral to cross your bow. try to have one row of ships sail right behind you, like 100 meters or so this gives you more time to calculate and plan your shots from the forward tubes. don't use the stern tubes, they probably won't hit so it's wasteful.
after firing your forward eels at 1 or 2 ships, go to 4 knots set rudder 10 degrees away from lead escort and dive, when at 70 meters go silent and go as deep as you dare.

If that clemson somehow finds you while you're at a dead stop and submerged (and this might happen, although in 1940 the odds are still good that he won't) usually it finds you when it gets real real close or is pinging, don't hesitate and crashdive, live to fight another day and when diving head into the convoy, they make noise and hamper the escorts movement. go silent when you hit 70 meters or so, set rudder 10 degrees away from the escort but stay underneath the convoy. go at least 150 meters down but 200 is better an undamaged VIIc should be able to go at least 210 meters without imploding. I've done that regularly in the Med in 42 where you absolutely have to to get away.

the downside of taking out the clemson is that you probably won't be able to attack merchants afterwards because they will start zigzagging and at least 2 other escorts will come to get you. what you could do is evade those (eventually) and then overtake the convoy again. since it's now short a lead escort is should be a cakewalk to ambush them from right in front of them by getting in front, lying in wait submerged and taking out whatever juicy target takes your fancy.

that's planning ahead, if there's enough night left when the escorts stop hunting you for an end-around and second attack that may be your best option. although not very realistic, they wouldn't have done that in ww2

</lecture mode>:D
good hunting :up:[/quote] Okie dokie

This was my first attempt at attacking the convoy and I had to take out the Clemson. Following are 3 snaps I took in order. 1) fire tube 5 at Clemson, 2) Impact with Clemson then indicator shows a C2 behind it at over 1,000 m and 3) Clemson sinking.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8002/snap0318ii9.jpg

Fire five at Clemson

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7918/snap0319et0.jpg

Clemson hit, shows C2 behind it

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4343/snap0317fe7.jpg

Clemson sinking!

But then I had to crash dive.

Rob

Correct me if ia am wrong, aint Putting your boat low in the water makes your watchcrew close the hatches and move in? So practically it will be a submerged postion no matter how your coning tower is surfaced?

or am i wrong?

BTW, if i set the range of a torpedo to say, 1200m and DD is 700m away (Set to magnetic) will it run deep when near to DD at 700m or will it do it in 1200m (and hit DD and bounce off on the way)?

Tried a surface shadow intercept. The flank frigate came take a look and flashed his lights. It came closer and closer and i dodn't know if he spotted me or not. Suddely I realized it was getting too close and before I knew it I was being rammed. :huh:

Got out undamaged after being depthcharged for an hour.

No more decks awash for me :nope:

Well actually, running decks awash can be done two ways, depending on your depth; one is what you mention above and the other is slightly shallower and have your gun crew on deck. It all depends on the depth you select.

I don't know what you mean when you say you set the running distance (range). Each specific torpedo has it's own running distance. i.e.: T1 fast 5,000m; medium 7,500 m and slow 12,500 m; T2 7,500 max. So, you torpedo will run that distance unless something gets in it's way, like a ship, or you have a dud.

hmm if you set the eel deep enough say 9 meters magnetic the dd won't trigger it so it goes on to maybe hit something else.

back in the stock SH3 days I put my uboat right underneath a small merchant, matched its course and then went to periscope depth with it about 20 meters in front of my boat. then fired a steamer straight ahead set to 12 meters it passed underneath the small merchant without detonating because it wasn't armed and too deep to trigger the magnetic pistol so it blew a hole right in the engine of the T3 in front of that merchant, I never raised my scope above the water for that attack just raised it a little to see if I was still on the same course

Admittedly that was a silly thing to do, especially without external view. I did sink the T3 but it turned out to be neutral :oops:

Well I just finished my attack on the convoy, but I had to cut it short after sinking 3 ships including the Clemson, as the other escorts were buzzing around me like bees in a hive.

Rob

[quote=Penelope_Grey]Love it!

Night attacks are very well possible in GWX and they are great! I conducted three of them during the last week. One included an escape over the surface after the torps had been fired and that was one of the most spectacular attacks I ever did. A Fregat fired some shells short and tried to follow me but it was too far away and I outrunned it. In the mean time I observed one of the victims, a tanker. Which started to burn more and more fiercely to become one blazing inferno in my UZO before it when down.

I got a night attack on the surface ready to go. I saved the game with my boat in prime attack position all I gotta do is creep closer into firing range, then head away to reload then come back.

Fingers crossed though it works out. Sometimes it doesn't.

Does anybody have any tips for escaping on the surface without getting caught?

Hi Peneolpe_Grey

Wishing you luck in your attack.

I have an IXB, pure black, so maybe I might be able to make a surface night attack. Will have to wait and see.

When you are on the surface, doesn't the escorts hear your motor noise?

Rob

What works for me is trying to keep the pursuer at 180 and then gradually turning left or right to get some sideway separation. Whenever they fire off starshells I manouver to get it between me and the pursuer as it seems the lights makes it difficult for them to see in the darkness on the other side (as it would in real life). If a starshell explodes above my boat I use FLAK to shoot it down. Once they start up with searchlights and they are not actually training them on me I move sharply left or right for a few second before pointing my stern at them again, all to keep the DDs guessing as to what direction I'm travelling. Given enough of a headstart this usually allows me to escape.