High seas tactics...?
 

What is your approach to attack a ship or convoi in ruff seas?
I am talking about manual targeting and high realism.

I just wanna hear the different opinions/ways to do this.

I find it very hard to do for more than one reason.
Difficult to make a distanse to the target because it goes up and down in the waves.
Water that washes over the periscope and causes me to loose the lock-on-target.

I have given up and dont bother trying:damn: , i just follow under surface or at radar distance.

Any tips and tricks?

One time i got lucky with the bearing and target speed, and i fired 2 torpedos. When the torps are about to make impact the bow goes up and the torpedo missed, the other torpedo comes at the stern and when the bow goes back down the stern goes up and that one misses too. Both of them because they went too far under the ship hull.

I'll give a short answer for what I do in weather with winds 12 MPS or higher:

I track the convoy until dark and attack on the surface. I can typically get into 1000 yards on the surface in these weather conditions without being spotted (using RFB).

Sometimes I do that or I'll just stalk them until clear weather.

Plus shooting torpedo's in rough weather could be dangerous. I have heard of torpedos coming out of the water and having there gyros tumble and the start to make wild turns. (of course not modeled in the game)

My tip might not be of any use, since it depends on how you found the target. I presume contacts reported on the map. If you found it from a map-report and intercepted it you can use the time since the message, and a rough range/bearing-line to target on the map, to get a distance moved since then. That is often accurate enough to turn into a speed. If not, shadow him further (at safe distance) while you try to get on his beam. You'll have to insert the value manually in the TDC/positionkeeper.

Getting course isn't as easy when he's on your beam, unless he moved very far since the mapreport. I mean, draw a bearingline on the map from the map report to the line representing the visual sighting (as best range as you can determine/guess) and see which degrees fit best. Range does not have to be accurate, but would obviously work best. Your best position for getting his course is ofcourse right infront of him or right behind him.

This doesn't give you range. But if you have the above, and only one range/bearing the solution has all it needs.

To sum it up, try to use all the info the map can provide you. Even that which is not immediately appearant. Use the 'memory' it contains.

Wait for good weather. THe fish are too dodgey to waste in rough weather. I avoid attacking in anything over light chop and winds.

when i'm attacking in stormy weather i end around the convoy or ship and attack it submerged... generally the time of day dictates how close i can get to it or them before they spot me...so generally i just think what the japanese must see and i go on that....but i always attack submerged, because the TBT/UZO just moves too much to get any use, i have RFB on with 100% realism, so i don't have stabilise sights on. i'd much rather get like 3 readings from a swamped periscope than try to manage a stadimeter with the target going up and down out of my line of sight...just my personal opinion

Yes, very useful. I was thinking some of you too dont attack in ruff seas and just stalk the target and wait for weather improvment.
Thanks guys:)

You can use active sonar for ranging, and a bearing can be entered from sonar station as well. Pretty handy if you can't get a reading from the scope. ;)

Active sonar can be a bit dodgy with warships around however; they can pick up on the sound.

Most of the time I just tough it out. In 15 meter seas you can manage with snap caluclations. Often you can incrementaly decrease your depth in rough seas ,without being detected, just enough to make observations possible.

Another possibility is just stay under and do a sonar approach. I was surprized at how effective these can be once I worked up the nerve to try them. I save these for unescorted single ships mostly. It is possible with multiple contacts but much more of a hassel keeping straight just which echo is your pidgeon.BTW- If you have 1.5 the special ability of Perfect Pitch makes sonar attacks really a piece of cake...though it does feel like you are using a cheat.

Yet another possibility is to just do nothing. Cut speed to zero and ride out the storm without attempting intercepts. Unlike SHIII where storms could last for seemingly months those in SHIV seldom last more than a couple of days. When I'm feeling especially lazy I choose this option.:yep:

Torpedo attack without using periscope i find very hard, but i guess i just need som practice. Havent figured it out yet on how to do it.

Here's a video that shows sonar only targeting:

http://files.filefront.com/WernerSob.../fileinfo.html

Great video, have to watch it a couple more times... But one thing that wasnt mentioned. Would it not be this accurate if the sub is moving? I guess the best is if the sub is stationary...?

Well, it should be pretty accurate if you use the position keeper. Get all the data for a solution, activate the position keeper and quickly update the solution. But you're right; if the sub is moving, ranging accuracy will deteriote faster.