Stern shot.
 

Here's a tactic I thought of.

With one torpedo left you are presented with a juicy target that most likely won't go down with a single hit. To make things worse, it has a deck gun covering the rear quarter.

Step 1 - Observe and plot
Step 2 - Move to target course and make adjustments until you are in a head on collision with the target.
Step 3 - Confirm this every few minutes by raising the periscope for brief moments and making necessary adjustments.
Step 4 - Order flank speed just before you cross, and periscope depth as soon as you can clear his screws.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...161548_226.jpg

Step 6 - Take the shot : 180AOB down bearing 180, range 400 and whatever speed you have found from your plot. Kinda like the ''Fast 90'' targeting that's a shot that is always the same to set up. Choose the impact detonator and set a running depth of about 4m.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...161738_645.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...161752_921.jpg

Step 7 - Wait until they stop. Turn the boat around to be out of their gun's range. With this empire freighter, it was right in front of him. Man your own gun and finish him. I was busy taking the shots so I don't have pictures of the last part of the engagement.

So essentially you hit his screws, he can't move, and you swing around to slap him in the face.

Peace :arrgh!:

Put one in his bow and he'll go down like a rock.


But your tactic is fine also. :yep:

I would set the eel for a magnetic pistol. This sort of hit would split the keel and take it out of action.

I can understand your tactic of stopping the screws at best, and then swinging around to the merchies blind-gun side. Thanks for the tactical screen shots. :up:

Magnetic works but you have to be lucky with how you set the depth. It has to be very close to the ship's keel or the fish will explode farther than the screws, somewhere between the stern and the engines. That'll flood it's back end but sometimes won't stop them. It's definitely not the best way to engage a target so if you have two or more shots, take them from the side.

The reason I did this is that it results in dead screws, every time. :arrgh!:

Using impacts with this tactic would probably resulted with a lot of duds.

It is a good tactic, especialy if you are not sure target will sink with one eel.

You can only do the mag shot in calm weather, otherwise you will see that torp blow up short of the target.

I have done the cripple with torp / sink with deck gun method many times. It gets harder as the war goes on and merchants turn into gunships. You can also take out a lone gun station if your aim is good enough.

Lowly troll popping in to ask if anyone has tried this from the front? I.e., pass underneath from stern to bow, and then launch a torpedo at the target's bow. Generally one eel to the front seems to be enough to flood the ship and sink it.

Welcome aboard pinguin!

I guess it could be done against a slow ship, but anything that does more than 7 knots and your own boat will be straining to keep up. But really there isn't a necessity to pass underneath the target... You can position yourself straight in it's path if you want to hit him from 0 AOB but then if you want to put it in his bow, you might as well aim from abeam.

True... But all sorts of stuff happens during an approach... Like an inept helmsman forgetting to stop his turn, or someone accidentally shooting the periscope up too high, or the psychic captain aboard the nearby destroyer recieving a premonition... :p

Thanks! I've been lurking around the Radioroom ever since I got SH3 this summer, and so far it's answered many of the questions I've had. It's almost as if the people here could read my mind, and were asking my questions for me... :hmm: Anyways, I decided that I might as well join up, now that I can.

In real life what is the maximum speed at which a sub can release a torpedo? Submerged, can it open its doors and release one at flank speed? How about on the surface? In a stern shot, does the targets wake have any effect on the torpedo?

This looks like such a risky attack method!
You're likely to get run over, get you periscope shot out of the water from close distance, missing dud torpedos, etc.

no external cams and using manual targetting, so I would much rather setup a 90 Aob shot,

Well most questions that are asked here are repeat time and again:roll: Welcome aboard anyway!:up:

I hate armed merchants. I will use this tactic for awhile to see how it works.