This is why I like Sub Sims
 

Decided to give SH4 another chance so I started up a new career.

SH4+RFB 80% realism

As always SH4 is an excellent simulation of US WWII submarine operations – long periods of nothing happening.

Pick up a small convoy. I don't do so well against convoys as I suck at evading the escorts (I really need to work on that)

The only reason I decided to attack this convoy is that I was already in the optimum intercept position. All I had to do is wait for the convoy to come to me.

Oh well, 19 December, 1941 is as good a day as any other to die. The good thing about dying in late 41 is that you don't feel so bad about starting a new career over.

I start scouting the convoy and discover that there is good news and bad news

Good news is that there are four destroyers escorting one merchant ship.
Bad news is that there are four destroyers escorting one merchant ship.

Running silent running and 5 second periscope observations show me that I have a passenger type ship with two smoke stacks.

Flip quickly through the Id book. Gotta be a Hori Maru class Large Old Passenger Carrier 9,000 tons. Not bad

Set up a quick 90, launch all six at a range of just under 1,000 yards. Get three explosions which aint too shabby for 1941 Mk 14's. Considering that I think one of them missed, that was a fantastic dud rate. :DL

Go very deep “we build them good in America, eh Charlie?” and survive a pretty long depth charge attack (2-3 hours). Had to do some fancy evading (which I am good at) as well as balancing my damage control.

Finally the last destroyer gets tired and fades in to the distance....or so I thought.

Periscope depth to see what happened to my Hori Maru. And what to my wandering eyes do appear but the visions of not a Hori Maru, but a Conte Verde class European Liner 19,000 tons! Oh my! :o

I had misidentified the ship. In my haste I hurried to the more “normal” sized ships as I NEVER seem to find the big boys.

I also find the last destroyer about 1,000 yards away. I really need to talk to that new kid on sonar. :nope:

I only have a matter of seconds before things get a bit sporty.

Conte Verde is stopped and listing hard to starboard. Through exceptional ship handling (aka dumb luck) I am on the port side. Maybe I can help the Conte Verde with their counter flooding with the two torpedoes I have managed to reload.

My fingers fly trying to set up the TDC for this shot. I can just feel the first gun salvo from the destroyer coming. Range set. Speed zero. AOB (just to be safe) set. Torpedoes Los! Uh I mean Fire 1 and 2.

Down scope and lets pull the plug. Hey! I don't remember hearing the torpedo launch and my clock does not have the run timer? Must be a bug in the game. I scroll back through the message box and see, clear as day a message about not being able to launch fore torpedoes when my butt is facing the ship. :damn:

Note to self: Slow down!
Note to self: Make sure you know your head from your butt when setting up torpedo shots. :88)

Back to Periscope depth. I know by this time the destroyer is right above me but damn it, I want that shot.

Lock on target, same set up, launch two stern fish (always want to keep some in case I need them for the destroyers.

Back down to hide.

Two hits, one dud (again not bad for the MK 14 POS)

Destroyer calls friends back and this time they are sincere.

“Here is where it gets psychological, Gentlemen”

Six hours of depth charges (2030-02xx). Lots of damage, lots of evading. Barely able to keep a depth far too deep to be safe.

Destroyer crews get hungry for breakfast and leave. I wait until CO2 forces me to the surface (0330).

We survived!

19,000 tons
8 Torpedoes 4 explosions
4 destroyers
8+ hours of depth charges

That's what makes subsims so great. :arrgh!:

Glad you're enjoying the 'second chance'. I keep waffling, because I love both. Because of Commnander and GWX I keep going back to SH3, but because of the SH3's ever-longer loading times I keep going back to SH4, including the Atlantic version with OM.

Of course I also keep not having a real career in either one, so don't listen to me.:rotfl:

If Ubi were committed to supporting both games to be the best they can be, we'd be switching back and forth too much to get tired of either one. But like you say, it's close to that now! Gotta love it!http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...nbowbanana.gif

I tend to give SH4 a "second" and last chance about every four months or so.

I will play SH4 for about a month and then slink back home to SH3. But I will be back... always will.

I just find manual targeting so much harder in SH4 than in SH3. I think it has more to do with the GUI. It just seems slower in SH4 to me.

I really got to get my act together and start practicing convoy tactics. I never really catch them at the right time and I always find fuel to be too precious to burn in long interceptions (given that for me, convoys always tend to turn up when I already finished several assignments and I'm just considering going back to Pearl due to fuel shortage).

Nice read by the way and grats on the nice hit.:yeah:

Escorts can be sneaky.
It is their job to protect ships and blast you out of the water.
Just because escorts are surface ships and not subs does not mean they cannot try to 'go silent' and listen for their prey.
Heck, be wary of suddenly hearing a lone merchant shortly after escorts have apparently left... keen ears can reveal treachery afloat on the surface.

Patience is a virtue, especially when hunting in a sub.
Haste and greed can be deadly when in a sub.
I sometimes prefer to avoid such attacks. The skipper needs to remember that making sure his crew gets home alive is as important as sinking enemy ships.
Need sub to sink lots of ships, not a single sunk ship and a dead hero and the US down a sub.

In such situations, if attacking again just increases the risk of being found again, I will choose to mark the crippled ship(s) on map with a several hundred yard diameter circle around them, and go deep and try to sneak away.
After some fresh air, a little recharging and all tubes reloaded, I will sneak back to finish the job, fresh for a fight, hoping the target is still there.
If not, oh well. If so, time for more fireworks.

He who runs away lives to hunt another day. :arrgh!:

I have messed up with torpedoes myself, it is annoying, often initiating a facepalm maneuver, but it happens.


I have been very tempted to go back to SH3 myself... never had corrupt save troubles with it... IMO it actually has a better interface and feel than SH4 (better/more defined controls and options, such as checking for weather, navigation options, having a separate 'fire at will' and 'hold fire' for Deck/AA guns, options and the 'fire at long range' setting...)
*evil eyes SH4 case*

RR.. where on earth do you find these things :D

:up:

I fished that guy out of the water after torpedoing a banana boat.http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...nana_sad-1.gif

Those emoticons do have a certain appeal.