BB or Merchants. Which to (try and) take?
 

I've found myself in an interesting situation, and am wondering what my real-life counterparts would have done.
I've taken my VIIB into the Irish Sea and intercepted a convoy just outside of Belfast. The convoy is headed into the port, so I haven't got much time to play with. Using my Cheatomatic magic eye(tm) I've found that the centrepiece of the convoy is a Revenge class battleship, usually an extremely tempting target. However, in this case, all the random convoy generator numbers must have fallen in my favour, as it is surrounded by a couple of large tankers, a whale ship and an ammunition ship!
My problem is this: In real life would my counterparts have weighed up the damage to the war effort that sinking the BB would do, versus the damage that the merchant's cargos would do once landed? Or would they just go for straight out tonnage glory, and take the merchants? Or would the glory of sinking such a BB be too much to resist?
As much as I would like to, I don't think I have the time to attack both sets of targets, so I have a difficult choice to make. Any hints?

My 2 pfennig worth ::grins::

I'd go for the merchants. The value they potentially carry with regards to the war effort is a lot more than the battleship. But I have to admit, that'd be a tough choice to make!

:|\\ Get more bucks for the bang. Go for the soft merchants. They don't take as many torpedoes to sink.

I would go for the battleship... it gives lots of renown and this might be the only time you will ever see one, merchants are everywhere.

I'd think about how close to the convoy you are,how many escorts there are, and how many torpedos it would take to sink each one. Trust me it will NOT be the only battleship you'll see out there.(I'll give you a hint, go to Narvik, Norway at the start of the invasion there and you will see a few.):yep:

What year is the invasion?

April 1940.

Thanks for the thoughts...

It's only November '39, so I've got plenty of time to get up to Norway, and I've been lucky enough in previous careers to have encountered BB's, so I'm leaning towards going for the merchants. I'm in a near ideal position, but the proximity of a number of escorts is starting to get me worried, so I might just try and put a torpedo in each of the 4 soft targets to slow them down (and hopefully sink one or two), use the reload time to evade (again, hopefully!) and come around for a second pass to finish them off. If I've got the time I'll get a shot off at the BB, and cross all my appendages that I get a magazine hit :D

Wish me luck, I'm going in!!

any dd's around? if no kill the cattleblip and gun down the tankers...

i say the BB, it's worth A LOT of iron, those ships were hard to build, and that's one less BB for the brits

i still cant tell why i haven't seen a BB yet....the best ive got is a large destroyer...

or you could shoot 2 at the bb, two at the choice tankers and save one in the aft for if you need it for A. another tanker or B. A mercy shot

No Contest . A real Kaleun would follow Bdu doctrine and orders. ;)

In reality, a sub captain would go for the merchants. I am assuming the battleships would travel at the center of the convoy and generally the most valuable ships were placed there. I read Convoy about HX-122 in 43, where the lower valued tramp-steamers and the like would be put on the outside. Therefore, it makes the probabilitylow that a torpedo would strike home on a target in the center of the convoy.

In GWX, 1939, ASW has not been fully developed in the Royal Navy yet, so you can get away with getting inside the convoy to loose off some shots at the battleship.
However, other posters are right, there are several opportunities to sink battleships, cruisers and troopships in Operation Weserabung, the German invasion of Norway.
Check out the GWX manual for Campaigns. The movements of task forces and groups will clue you in on where to intercept. This is very important as warships unencumbered by slow merchants are very fast - your window for a good intercept and a good shot are narrow. Good hunting :up:

The battleships are put there to protect the merchants from German surface raiders. So if you sink the battleship you are making life easier for the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, Bismarck, et al. :p We are all one big happy fleet.

It is really hard choice to make.On one hand you have tankers that are very valeuble (oh my that vodka distrupt my typing capability) with the fuel they carry.BUt on the other hand you have BB that take several years( or less it depends on the ship)to be build.

In moments like this i would like to see 2-3 more submarines and send the whole convoy to the bottom :) I would go for the tankers.No fuel, no BBs would patrol around Fatherland :hmm:

i would go 4 the BB with a magnetic Detonation but sitting on the out side of the convoy and then pick of the out side merchants:up:

'39 magnetic pistols arent the most relaible triger of choice.