100k patrol for Dummies
 

2 days ago i started a my first patrol ever with a IXB. Ever since i play SH3 i've never upgraded to a IXer because i like to drive a sports car not a SUV.;)

Anyways i got out of Wilhelmshaven, sank an empire freighter (a beautiful ship) north of scapa on my way to the irish sea and promptly got a contact report about a big convoy going SE.

The first ship in this convoy that my men spotted was not a merchant but a battleship, the HMS Nelson. I prepared me and my crew for a lot of escort vessels and shadowed the convoy, waiting for dusk.

At night i slipped right into the convoy and sent a 3 eels salvo into her port side. 36k with one strike. Awaiting the immediate response of some A&B or Black Swans i did quick periscope search before i wanted to get some depth under my keel.

I found no escorts.
I searched again.
No escorts.
I checked the hydrophone contacts.
No warship contacts.
I listened for myself on the hydrophone.
No fast moving propeller sounds.


I cleared the convoy and surfaced. THERE WERE ABSOLUTELY NO ESCORTS!
25 targets, about 10 of them big or middle tankers and i had 18 torpedoes left.
It was March 1940, so none of those ships was armed, the sea was calm and i still had all of my deck gun ammo.


It felt like cheating and opening a christmas present at the same time.

I got 9 with torpedoes and 3 with the deck gun, giving me about 125k after this slaughter.

As i am playing GWX 2.0 the question is, did i got lucky or is this some kind of bug?

You got lucky, in the beginning of the war big convoys were protected by a battleship to prevent raiders to wipe them out. The british didn't have so much destroyers as later in the war (as a matter of fact, churchill lended 50 obsolete destroyers from the US for escort duty before the US was even in official war with the Axis).

Put it down to beginners luck/good fortune :lol:

No fair! I'm on my 8th patrol already and never found a single convoy...
Sure, got a task force and sunk the Nelson (who didn't?), but never a convoy... never:nope:

I didn't :cry:

Thts luck for you, finding a convoy like that. All the convoys I find are always escorted by at least 4 naval vessels.

The convoy system was still a mess in 1940 with few convoy's with escorts on there middle part of there journey and none going in and out of the med. Granted not knowing what the GWX boffings were up to you may have got very lucky or plain luck depending on your view point.

Sorry mate:cry: Keep looking for her:up:

Ive caught a convoy with only one destroyer escorting before, one magnetic fish under the keel and the entire convoy was mine! Didn't break 100k though because they were mostly bloody tramp steamers etc only one or two tankers.

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...052.36_609.jpg

Don't you just hate it when they do that?

Cheeky blighters!

Steel Tomb, damn you are one hell of a creature.Think of what the sailors on the destroyer`s bridge felt in the moment shown on the pic :arrgh!:

Think what the crew of the merchants would have thought at that moment as well!:arrgh!:

100,000tons huh. Just curious but what were your Realism settings at ?

Don't mean to rain on your parade matey but someone else is going to ask if i didn't.

I have done something very similar, but with one exception...my convoy had not one, but two escorts with them, and they depth charged the crap out of me....in fact, they still are!

I just ran into my 3rd large convoy of GWX 2 (March 1940).. currently on patrol 6, just north of the denmark straight. Had to dispatch of 4 DDs and a Armed trawler before sinking 2 large merchants and an ore ship. Decided against sailing south any further due to air cover and left the other small merchants/ships continue on their way. There were 3 convoys reported in my area when i entered this location but this was the largest so i elected to try this one. So far on this patrol i've sunk 10 ships (55k Ton) with my IXB and have 8 torps remaining. Realism is at 72%, but i took a beating and my hull integrity is at 30%, so i may RTB sooner than i planned.

Tool.