Night Surface Attack - Kretchmer Style
 

There has been lots of discussion in the past regarding problems relating to night surface attacks on convoys. Here is an example to show that it can be done with good results. I picked up a convoy heading towards the south western approaches at around 6 knots. The date is November 1939 so this is on my side as any warships won't have radar and the convoy is lightly escorted by one destroyer up front and the prize HMS Nelson slap bang in the middle. My objective is to sneak in amongst the merchants and get into a good firing position to launch an attack on the Nelson. The wind speed is 3m/s so the sea is quite calm, no moon and a clear sky. I didn't run with decks awash. Below is some screenshots that illustrate how I did it and views from the conning tower.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/475...2929181.th.jpg

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/267...3572764.th.jpg

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/682...3572771.th.jpg

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/504...3572784.th.jpg

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/504...3572784.th.jpg

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/986...3572712.th.jpg

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/465...3572721.th.jpg

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/480...3572741.th.jpg

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/948...3572753.th.jpg

As you can see I kept at right angles to the convoy and kept my speed down to 2 knots. In the end I managed to get off 3 torpedoes at the Nelson and one at a Whale Factory Ship. The Nelson went down about an hour after the attack.:D The Whale Factory Ship needed another torpedo in a subsequent attack.:up:

I must say that night attacks really get the adrenaline going and require nerves of steel. I just love this sim.

Nemo

Thanks for the tutorial, well done. I must be doing something wrong, because in 2 weeks of real time I have not had visibility like that at night once I am in contact with enemy units. I have been playing a lot in June-Aug 1940. The weather is perfect until I get about 3 grids away from my base. Then goes to 9mps wind, then 12, then goes to 15. After that it has only briefly gone to 6mps with rain and fog. Since I don't use nav maps. Except for one occasions since I have played this game modded, I only can visibly see the convoy from 900m. This was the first mission I ever played modded in Sept 0f 39.

So I don't know the make up of the convoy. I don't know its track or speed except from hydro contacts and a 5 hour radio report. Because of the visibility, my only real option is to get in front of the convoy and then slowly glide in at a 90 degree angle. Its been this bad for two weeks straight to the point I can't plan an attack.

I must have messed up my install somehow with regards to the weather. I am going back to the stock game. I remember there were missions where I could not see for more than 400m but there were also missions where it was clear the entire time. In my current set up. The wheather changes faster but once it goes to bad it has never come back to clear again and the winds average 9mps.

Yes the weather can be a hinderance in any attack situation. Since GWX included the weather mod (I can't recall the authors names) I find the weather varies considerably from good to bad, bad to good, bad to even worse and so on. Having said that, I think it was intended that the weather would change less during the winter months and more frequently during the summer months (or was it the other way round?). Even though I find the weather changeability improved with GWX there are occassions when it seems the rain just don't want to stop, but it does eventually, unlike stock SH3 when it could last for a whole patrol. BTW I use the 16km atmosphere mod that helps you see further.

Nemo

Congrats on a well executed attack.:salute:

I'm still adjusting to having 'map updates' off. It is quite different to plan things out just using your binoculars. You find yourself always looking over your shoulder for that escort your watch crew missed.....

Thank you. Turning off map updates does crank up the realism a bit more, but I notice that when you do that in the realism settings, the realism percentage doesn't go up so no renown benefit! Not sure why this is. At the moment I'm playing at 84% realism.

Nemo

You can adjust the realism settings in Main.cfg to give you any renown you want.

In "Iron Coffins" night surface attacks they got in close (almost point blank range) and shot at large,dark fat targets. 4000,5000 and 7000 ton estimates while dodgeing DE's.

I will be trying this. Sounds challengeing.

Just be aware the lookouts in the game tend to have better eyesight than normal humans!:D

I've never been able to get as close to enemy ships and remain undetected in the game as they did in real life.

Congratulations on your night surfaced attack CN:salute:I'm afraid I lose my bottle long before I get that close to a convoy,just can't seem to trust myself getting that close to DD's without the protection of some salt water above me:oops: Did manage it once but I miss timed one of my eel runs and found myself illuminated Like a football stadium centre spot by all the spot lights on the various ships:nope: Barely got out of that little scrape with any hull integrity left:doh:Not had the guts to do it again,so Bravo to you:yeah:

Sad but true. Kapt Z I hope that can be fixed.

There was a thread a few weeks back about this problem, and somebody posted changes to be made to address this. I use a slightly milder variation.

In SH3 Commander's cfg/Static settings.cfg file I have added the following lines:

[data\Cfg\Sim.cfg]
Visual|Fog factor=1.2 ;[>=0] ;was 1.0
Visual|Light factor=1.5 ;[>=0] ;was 1.0

This seems to give the desired effect of being able to get a bit closer at night or in fog, but not becoming invisible.

If you use SH3 Commander, it is easy to experiment with different values for these parameters to get the effect you want. Of course, you could edit data\Cfg\Sim.cfg directly.

I don't know. I seem to remember someone tweeting the values, but that kind of experimenting is above my pay scale.:salute:

The closest I've been to a escort while on the surface, at night(undetected) was around 2000 mtrs broadside 1800 mtrs bow/stern and not by choice!:o

As I'm always in foul weather, they call me "foul weather Otto" or just "Foul Otto" not sure if that is a reference to the weather of my temperment :doh:. I often surface near a convoy when the visibility is only 900 meters. This is when I am certain I am still outside the convoy. So I do get within close range in fog but its out of necessity and at the outer edge, since you can usually see 100m to 200m further on the surface than through the periscope in fog.

In low visibility if I am trying to get to the center of the convoy. I stay submerged because you have little time between sighting a ship on your 270 or 90 bearing to get more depth if you need to in order not to get rammed. I do keep an ear on my hydro but in the middle of a convoy you can have readings from your 50 to your 120. This can be an adrenaline rush too. Trouble is in fog you basically just have to take what is in front of you.

To get speed and course the easy way line up alongside with one of the rows (all smokestacks in line, but make sure it's not a diagonal of the convoy, as it easily confuses you) and turn parallel to them. So your new course must put them on 90/270 degrees bearing. When you have that course, adjust speed to keep them there until you have the speed settled. Once you know the speed an course they are making, sprint ahead and let them have it. :arrgh!:

how about map contact updates turned off and 100% realism?? I mean, is this an arcade game or a sim?? It seems like most people I talk to don't play within those parameters and it's pretty disappointing. I try to watch tutorials on this, and on that, and the first thing I notice is the submarine stealth bar and auto targeting :nope: I may not have extremely high tonnage scores, but the scores I do have are hard earned. One question I do have is why it takes so damn long to build up renown?? I mean, I came in from a patrol with like 10,000 tons under my belt, and only 300 renown for it??? :x I thought the renown was supposed to be more for harder realism settings. Oh well :zzz: I suppose I'll just stop griping and go back to my game.... Also, another question before I go.... I play with GWX3, and I just docked at the Bessel supply ship at Vigo, Spain, and now I can't save my games mid-patrol?? :hmmm: Any suggestions would be helpful... Thanks! :salute:
Commander, U-65