Airplane overkill?
 

Ok, some time ago i wanted more aggresive gameplay etc, now in 43 it's hardcore or rather HARDCORE. I'm crawling home between Rockall Bank and England, trying to fix my conn tower after one more precise bomb from hundreds dropped. With longer repair mod I needed about 1,5 hrs to fix most important things. Now surfaced 20th time? and still didn't fixed all. Looking at the map I'm in the same place. Planes come every 5 minutes? If there is a window of 20 minutes we wonder did the war just ended or what?

I understand that planes were subs greatest enemy but sorry, ~30 min underwater to loose the heist, 5 mins surface for a quick breath and fixing conn, crash dive on radar signals... Day and night! Now I've counted 6 signals, already was doing flank before dive, finally decided to crash. External cam... 2 Catalinas, 4 (FOUR) Liberators, they dropped their cargo behind my bow as it was still shallow. Didn't have time to count, it was like 40 bombs in half a minute?????? This is crazy! It looks like Tommies have millions of planes, full of bombs, searching every centimeter of Atlantic non stop. It's not the thrill if this time Tommies will be faster. No, I simply can't surface because I already know there is a plane waiting... I can go for the whole day underwater, zig-zag, either way just after surface in 80% there will be a plane. Add to this no alert when using the scope, just TC drops to x1...

In this area I was sunk 5 times now? Still crawling. I accept my errors and eat those bombs but crew shouts too late, no info through the scope, or they surface just under a plane just like that and stay quiet until we're under attack. I'm getting sick and tired of this.

:damn: :damn: :damn:

I've not experienced this kind of air attack as i've yet to make it to '43.
All I can really say is that you've been REALLY unlucky.

You using the Grey Wolves expansion? A while back when I played SH3 I had the same problem, air attacks every 5 minutes until it got to the point my gaming time was all spent diving and surfacing over and over. Ended up downloading a mod to lessen air power to playable (imo) levels. Sorry I can't remember the name or location, but sure it's out there.

Playing GWX now but still early years so not sure if it's going to happen again and/or if the mod I mentioned is included.

T.

Sure it's gwx. It started in 42 with my campaign from Bergen but looked like after leaving the Fjord, forces were waiting for me as intel did well. Airplanes + small killer group. After 300km away it was calm and very reasonable. Plane out of nowhere from time to time, my pants full. But now it's unplayable... i'll try messing with Airstrike.cfg

Spoiler Warning!

In SH3, enemy units that encounter you "report" your last encountered position to the game engine... and any forces local to the area are vectored to it... both air and surface.

(The same thing would happen in real life! Once they found a U-boat, ALL available means to destroy it were brought to bear and U-boat hunts might last for days or even weeks.)

Solution: Stay submerged for a couple of hours or longer as you continue your course. The enemy will search for you at your last known location and the surrounding area. If you are again immediately on the surface... vectored enemies are far more likely to find you... especially aircraft.

In short... be sneakier. Afterwards you should be able to stay on the surface a bit longer before you are found. Also remember that the enemy concentration is denser closer to allied holdings.

Being on the surface during the day is also more risky. The enemy units will be able to see you more easily and will not have to rely on radar as much to find you.

Darkness is one of your few friends.

Keep the big picture in mind and try to think what you would do to find and kill U-boats if you were an allied commander. Its hard to do that when you are in the thick of it... but doing so will put you one step ahead.

I am... I can stay submerged during the whole day, go slowly till my batteries empty, no sonar contacts for the whole time, change course, surface during the dark night and... hello, wanna eat a bomb? I stopped going all day submerged cause I didn't have time to recharge, compress air etc, missed contact reports. I keep radio silence. Trust me I do what I should, I've learned my lessons. There are rare and short moments I can proceed normally.

DD have a very small capability of radar detection but planes... I can dive just after a warning and very often they drop bombs very precisely into my position... good that I have 70m of water till than.

Well, based on a great deal of research and testing regarding the aircraft capabilities and coverage as implemented in GWX... I disagree with your assessment and have answered your question as best as I can.

Overall test reports mostly indicate the contrary... as does my own testing experience at low TC.

Best of luck to you.

Get a schnorkel as soon as you can. It is difficult to last long in 43 or later without one.

i would encourage you to check out this thread...

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=118568

according to the documentary, air attacks were constant. The allies learned very quickly that if you sent aircraft over the sea to patrol grid squares their radar would almost always find a target -and as the war progressed the radar would be able to pinpoint something the size of a periscope sticking out of the water too! sending and receiving radio messages also helped the allies pinpoint the location of the boat so the aircraft would be able to narrow their search grid down to an area the size of a large city... once they narrowed the search - radar took care of the rest.

After early to mid 1943 you should feel as if the entire world is bearing down on you... you should feel helpless... useless... on the run. You should feel like the war is already lost and its all you can do to sink a single ship out on patrol. You should feel like you are always having to look over your shoulder... GWX captures this perfectly IMHO

Ok I can feel it :|\\

I've read a book of Herbert Werner who made it through the whole war and he didn't mention constant airstrike. It was very hard for sure, he made a lot effort to find a Schnorchel for his boat, they lived in constant fear but in GWX this is insane. Exactly the whole world is looking for me... Currently testing new ideas after another perfect bombing... it makes no sense to start over a new campaign as this is patrol 2... but 10k on my account ;)

PS Were Tommies flying in groups like in GWX or rather single planes? Haven't done much research on that topic, in "10 years 20 days" also it wasn't mentioned, maybe I didn't get that far and now don't have that much time...

Thx everyone for enlightning! If it's supposed to be that way, let it be...

Just a tidbit... I read "Iron Coffins" by Herbert Werner (twice too! Good book!)

I seem to recall him crashdiving rather often due to spotting aircraft... and he was one of the lucky very few who survived to the end... Most did not.

Infact, one of Mr. Werner's U-boats was damaged by an aircraft-dropped mine just beyond the pens while he was watching. (He was not on board at the time but did observe it.)

Regarding group attacks in GWX... wherever we find that a situation has you being attacked by a wad of planes... we adjust it. Should usually be single aircraft... sometimes two but rarely so.

(Not trying to be argumentative or to pick on you.)

i can tell you for sure it is very RARE for any airborne combat element to fly solo... they are almost always in groups of 2 or more.

what would be more likely to happein is they would fly as a pair to the search area and then "Split" to cover 2 different segments of the search area - if one finds something the other is only a couple of minutes flight away.

I think what Kapt. Lehmann is trying to say about his "Spoiler" is that it will be more true to real life. in the following way i assume...

... in reality, an air patrol sights and attacks a submarine. the air patrol radios in a "hot contact" to nearby friendly aircraft and ships. The aircraft know and the ships know that the sub can only travel at a slow pace underwater, and that he will have to surface for air within about 24 hours. the new search area is now increadibly focused. Other aircraft join the search, other surface ships join the fight. By now it is only a matter of time before the u-boat must surface once more to recharge air and batteries, and it is again that they find you. each time their search area grows smaller and smaller.

this style of ASW leaves you with only two real options - surface and surrender... or die. escpae is possible... but highly HIGHLY unlikely.

more U-boats than i care to think about met their end this way.

Couldn't remember english title, need to read it one more time.

As to group attacks, in 42 from Bergen most of the time it was a single AC, fighters were in pairs. When surprised by a single AC, flak fire usualy destroyed it (especially with C/3) or prevented from accurate drop. But now very rarely I see one AC, most of the time 2 catalinas, 2 sunderlands, 4 liberators, 4 mosquitos (double hull)?

Just for the GWX record ;)

Yap, having just finished reading the book I agree that herr Werner seemed to have a hard time with many crash dives because of aircrafts from ‘43 and onwards. And he did not get a boat equipped with a schnorkel until the allied had almost overrun Brest and he had to flee for Norway.

This after his previous boat U-415 had struck the mine in the harbour. Rather interesting occasion since his new inexperienced chief took the boat out for sea trials by order from the flotilla's Chief Engineer, while Werner himself had overslept. And if I remember correctly the mine exploded because of the chief used the diesels instead of the e-maschinen and by doing so had activated the mine's acoustical detonation device.
Must also recommend this very good book, and fascinating life story for those of you who haven't read it already! .)

While playing DiD I have not yet seen the hard times of 1943 in GWX, but if I survive that long I guess I'll have to wear out the C-button to survive.:arrgh!: