Late-war tactics
 

What do you do late war, in 44 and 45 in particular?
This is what I do.

Travel surfaced 12 hours through Biscay, submerge other 12 hours, even if I have a snorkel installed. This is so as to hopefully spot planes more quickly and to be able to fight back. A VIIC/3 or 4 can pack a punch, as can a IX/3. I'll sooner dive, however, but fighting and dying on the surface is certainly better than getting hit by a bomb with the snorkel up. When I'm outside of Biscay, I travel submerged all the time. 23 hours on batteries and 40 meters, 1 hour on snorkel recharging. I use mostly VIIC variants late-war.

In the late years survival is a bit difficult. I tend to use the snorkel quite a bit as it allows me to run undetected from the surface ships. In the Biscay I always stay submerged as the planes are a real hustle. In the late years I usually have a IX boat so I try to go as far away from the Franch and British coast as possible to maximise my chances of survival.

Run snorkel at night long enough to charge bats, shoot torpedo's at anything that happends to blunder accross my path, and start diving deep before they hit.

From the end of 1943 I give up my IX Sub and move to a VIIC/4, It's quicker diving times and heavier firepower for dealing with Aircraft is a must, it's also more nimble wich is great for a getaway form angry escorts.
I then hang on till I can get an XXI, if I survive!

"Pray" My IXD2 is not the fastest of boats but the torp loadout is worth it.

Load my patrol, get sunk, scream some bone chilling expletives, get a bottle from under the sink labelled "for 43-45 ONLY", sit back down and boot up Company of Heroes.

I usually just submerge while in port for two weeks. I then surface at that point like I just returned. Heck man, it is dangerous out there, stay home:up:

I simulate a very bad cold and a broken leg, make sure I´m send to hospital and enjoy Nurse Anne taking care of me.
:lol:

Stay in port.

:lol:

Never made it so far yet... Best career took me from Sept 39 to Nov 43...:cry:

I think the reason its so hard to find developed tactics for the late war is because in reality all the aces had been sunk or had been promoted to a desk job and all the noob captains were getting sunk after a few patrols.

Late war is really a hopeless situation. Without homing torpedoes and the snorkel it wouldn't even be possible to do anything.

I think that late war tactics are desperate and completely individual. Really late war survival came down to how smart and how realistic a captain you had. Anyone trying to coin tonnage would be dead before they knew it.

I think that surviving the war is a matter of extreme conservatism. Take the chances that appear. Fire from maximum distance and get as deep and as quiet as you can before the torpedoes hit. Submerge during the day with a snorkel and keep the flak crews manned at night while you're surfaced. I'd also suggest always having decks awash to seriously cut down diving time. Make sure you have at least one qualified repair officer and if you keep fatigue on be careful to not have your guys fatigued unneccesarily.

What about the use of snorkel? I have heard that it can be detected by radar....how do you know when and how to use it?

Modded :up: snorkelfix

SonarDC_20 Mod by Jungman
http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=40222

And the snorkel is a much better alternative to just being surfaced. Though when you have the snorkel up also have your attack scope up because that gives you a real time awareness of whats above so that if an aircraft passes by you can easily lower the snorkel.