TWOs - Dover/Calais and the Channel?
 

I'm just on the way home to Wilhelmhaven after a sucessful mission south of Ireland. On the way out I took the laborious hump over the Orkneys and Western Scotland.

In SHIII I used to go through the Dover/Calais mouth to the Channel, which was laborious but once you were through it saved fuel and long hours in transit.

How is this with TWOs before I attempt it?

I posted elsewhere that I keep getting the bug whereby you get a couple of destroyers searching for you at a set distance and they just hang there. If you try to sneak off they follow you but keep the same distance. I now realize the trick is to reload the game and they'll go, but it's a real immersion killer and I hate feeling like I'm cheating.

Any way to avoid this scenario?

Vecko would know more about the dangers of the Channel, or you could peek into campaign layers in mission editor, but on the other side - finding out for yourself is half the fun, isn't it? Historically, you are advised not to try. Definitely check out your minefield chart before attempting anything reckless, but remember - those are only the minefields Germans already know about :D

As for destroyers, no way to fix the bug but you really don't have to feel you're cheating - if destroyer has genuine contact with you and not just keeping around due to bug, saving and reloading shouldn't make it go away.

I have passed many times, it only takes patience and silence.

The best for Channel is to pray that you have a very bad weather with fog. In this case you are save to be discovered from planes and you can pass a lage disstance surfaced. :D

Thanks for the tips. Well I did it. It takes a lot of patience but if you time it right and get to the Dover/Calais bit at night, figure out where the destroyers are heading through the hydrophone and move at flank speed until you encounter one and dive immediately, it's do able. Ah well, I'm looking forward to being reassigned to France after June!

To my knowledge, don't expect the Channel to be a walk in the park, mines, shallow water, continuous patrols. You wish to have a really bad weather there, or a modded deck gun :D


XS

I learned my lesson with counting on bad weather. I was sneaking through that channel between W Scotland and the Hebrides. The gaming gods gave me heavy seas and a pea souper of a fog. I made the mistake of running TC, heard an almighty crash, went to the bridge and there in my face was the bow of a warship. Rammed. I won’t be doing it again unless I’m on the bridge in real time.

Mines... Where ?

That's not only for the Channel: if you use high TC, nearby enemies will always 'magically' detect you and come straight over you if you are submerged. On the surface you can use higher TC if your sub doesn't run too fast, but again if sonars detect you at high TC, you can as well use fireworks to signal your position...
That's a trait of all SH games, even in SH1.



XS

If I'm not mistaken, TWoS contains charts to show you the mine placements. You get them from the NavMap (don't forget that the small window featuring additional maps and tools is scrollable). Of course that shows only an approximation of the mine placements, don't expect them to be 100% accurate. Then, TWoS has added a LOT of mines (and defensive canons) in port entries to make it more difficult to sneak into ports.

Yes I’m very wary of TC in such situations. It’s gaming the game unfortunately but I’ve got an instinct now for when you can up it - generally if they’re over 20 Kms and I keep it on TC1 within about 6 kms. I don’t exceed 64X if they’re on the hydrophone.