Save That Uboat!
 

In my recent patrols after Oct, 1941 nearly every convoy I attack is either already being attacked by uboats or is attacked while I am approaching. I keep setting flank speed and start firing at the frigates and destroyers, but each time they manage to sink the uboat just before I get there.

I am amazed at how often I am running into those darn uboats! They really are everywhere. I'd love to save one from destruction, but they seem to always be literally surrounded by escorts all firing away at it as they circle around. They sure don't last long like that.

Does anyone know if there is some sort of trigger or other cause in GWX3 that would cause this most improbable behavior? Surely I can't be arriving at each convoy at just the moment the uboat is about to sink.

Maybe it's the game's way of guilting you back into the U-boat branch. :88)

Those U-Boots can't submerge, they only use their gun as far as i know. This is probably why they were made more durable than your boat. :)

That's correct matey http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...ies/pirate.gif

Ah, I always wondered when I found a British Sub that it would never pull the cork. Now I know :know:

The subs I attack know how to dive. They just don't know how to surface again.:D

What about all these chance opportunities I'm having to join a uboat attack on the convoy? The uboat is actually doing considerable damage before I can get in firing range.

Priceless! I love attacking enemy subs, have the spysat mod enabled, can find them easily. It's fun to return the favor for all the times the Tommies have sunk my uboats.

My gunnery crew on Bismarck is so lousy, they wind up hitting the surfaced uboats already attacking - and I get 'credit' for 'sinking' them.

Thankfully my career isn't cut short by my crew's ineptness. Usually I take over the gunnery for targets in close proximity to friendly uboats.

It's interesting to watch AI uboats attack, they'll blast away with their deck+flak guns, get hit in return taking serious damage, the escorts won't ram them, etc.

You guys are playing the warship mod right? I've never seen a U-Boat attacking a convoy - it would be neat if some genius out their could figure out how to do wolfpacks though - oh well, SH5 I guess...

Yea, we are talking about WSM. I have however seen uboats attacking convoys while I was doing so in a uboat. GWX does offer AI uboats attacking on the surface on occasion. They don't typically last long though.

The last convoy I attacked had two merchants in it that were on fire by the time I got to them. There were also only two escorts. The weather was perfectly clear, so I ruled out a storm as the source of the damage.

I went ahead with my standard attack, picking out the larger targets and making sure I put and end to the merchants that had already been hit by something else, and sinking the two escorts once they got too close for comfort.

After emptying my torpedo reserves and waiting for the convoy to get out of gun range, I surfaced. Guess what was crusiing the waves, waiting? Hey, it's a Type VIIC.

Was this the source of the damage to the two flaming merchants, or perhaps the reason that the convoy only had two escorts?

If so, it sure made my job a lot easier...I had a field day at periscope depth once the two destroyers were out of the way.

I did it! I saved the uboat!
 

Well, I finally pulled it off. Just outside of Londonderry I found a large convoy surrounded by five Flowers and a Hunt I. They were trying very hard to sink a VII, but I got there just in time to make all those corvettes into pretty mushrooms of glowing bliss.

After sinking the entire convoy, including all escorts, I called the captain of the uboat up to the carrier deck for a drink. Then I drilled him for five hours on what submersible means. I hope he got the message.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/4606/saveduboat.jpg