Aiming below waterline...viable tactic?
 

I noticed that when I use the deck gun and aim lower than the waterline of the enemy ship, I still see the flash and hear the explosion of the resulting hit even though the projectile has to travel the last few yards under water.

So, should I always make sure I hit them right on the waterline or can I go for the "below waterline" approach as well? The shells seem to puncture the hull just as fine, just want to know which approach is the more...ammo efficient method.

Yes as long as your round makes contact with the vessal below the water line it will flood. The lower you go the more it should flood!:up:

Its a tactic I use...the only one!

Thanks. I was assuming that becasue of the fact that the round gets in contact with the water it will slow down considerably, resulting in a much weaker penetration.

I'll keep hitting the red paint. :)

If you are shooting HE, then penetration is not an issue, as these shells explode on contact. With AP, you should theoretically notice less penetration.

For HE, I would think that water is actually a more powerfull medium to transport the explosive force.

True that. I'm using TMO and for some reason my early deck guns only have HE ammo. I would assume that water pressure can be more devastating that air pressure.

This a concept in which depth charges come into play... :know:

Water can transfer energy more efficiently than air... :arrgh!:

Thanks for the confirmation guys. I'm not entirely sure if this is really simulated in the game, but still nice to pretend that it is. :)

I always assumed it was a richochet and hit near the surface, i.e., on or just under the waterline. No idea what the game is really doing, other than there is certain damage.

I'm sure there must be a line you can't cross as to how much below you can still hit the boat. I find my best success comes from firing a wee bit below the waterline. If I don't see a flash, I assume I'm too low. Ideally, I like to see a splash, followed by a flash. That confirms to me that I'm indeed hitting the boat, at or just below the waterline.

Rounds pass a certain distance through the water in game.

How in the world do you guys actually manage to shoot "just below the waterline," or shoot anywhere with any vertical precision? People talk about it, so it must be possible, but I can't manage to figure it out.

My question put another way: When looking through the deck gun sight, how do I know whether my shot will go high, low, or whatever? The target seems to be vertically locked in the view.

Follow-up: up to what range can we consider the gun to be shooting at a flat trajectory?

Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to aim higher/lower-right/left..if you add the shift key in addition to the arrows, it accellerates the movement.

Yes, but as I said, to what degree? That's why I like to see "splash-flash" to confirm a hit, ecspecially from long ranges, otherwise you may be wasting shells.

My method is that if the merchant is armed, I use torps to aviod any kind of damage to my boat (even AA guns can damage the hull), but if it's unarmed, I surface and shell the living hell out of them. And since they have no means to defend themselves, I can go as close to them as I please and at point-blank range I don't need to zoom and my shells pretty much land where I aim.

If you zoom in while manning the deck gun you'll notice an elevation scale on the left that shows range to the target. Have your deck officer call out range to the target and then subtract 200 yards or so and set your elevation accortingly. The sight picture does not move when you adjust the elevation, but you should notice the shells splashing just inside the target and see the impact flash. Just make sure the gun barrel is steady and level when you shoot.

BTW, I have no idea if the shells actually travel underwater, it might be as simple as the max ramage radius.

The damage radii of the varius shells are fairly large. Meters in some cases. So 5m short, and you might still do damage, even without moving through water.