How do i get past Escort ships when they ping everywhere?
 

I'm having trouble, i'm a noob, yeah. only at 23% difficulty.:yeah:
It was my first time seeing a task force with a big ship in it (2 BB's and a CV).
I tried to get close but ping ping ping! i've been spotted.:ping:

How do i get past this?:hmmm:

If i go deep then i can't shoot torpedo's and if i periscope depth in the middle they ping me there too.:88)

Well... Dive deep, make a move to get inside close range in the convoy. Pop a few shots off... Then dive deep, and run like hell. Try to move around the escorts, the escorts have a blind spot behind them.

ensure that you run in silent from about 3km away, and stay at periscope depth. that is if you want to get close.

because its a task force you might have to take a long shot.

normally when several destroyers are "on" me i go deep and silent, as deep as you are willing to go. i get to below 220m and "creep" away to fight another day:DL

You don't say what year you're starting on, which will make a big difference.

In 39/40 I've never had a problem getting within range of targets and their escorts; the fun and games have always been after I've hit something and aroused the interest of the destroyers.

At night I can usually manage to approach quite close running on the surface (with decks awash if you're running GWX). For the sneakier method or in daytime try running at periscope depth, silent running at 3 or 4 knots. Don't keep your periscope above water more than you need to, as that is a big giveaway. With a task force you're better taking your shot from much greater range than you would against a merchant convoy.

Later in the war escorts will be much more vigilant and radar is your greatest enemy imo.

That's my couple of pence from one comparative noob to another, though i'm sure some of the diehards will be able to give you better advice.

You are not trying to chase and hunt down a task force, do you?

I just calculate its route then set an ambush, wait silently for them to pass by the front of my tubes. If I miscalculate or fail to arrive in advance or they change route then give up, there're lots of Hoods to sink.:D

Thx for the replies, i'll give all these options a go.
And for the year i'm on, is 1941.

Lucky you! I have never seen anything that big sailing around!

Ambushes for TF's are the best way to get them. I find in 1940 I can easily slip inside a convoy/tf perimeter, get my torps off and evade.

Its when I get greedy with unescorted ships I get in trouble. I was dodging a DD last night in 60m of water. Not fun, but I escaped after blowing his arse off.

Another thing to remember is: just beacouse they are pinging you dosen't mean they know where you are; hell even if they are droping depth charges it still dosen't mean they know where you are, though that is a good indication. I have been "attacked" for about an hour and was never in any danger of geting hit beacouse the escorts were attacking empty water about 1km from my position untill they ran out of ammo and got bord. The stealth meter is a little decieving to, just beacouse that bugger is red dosen't mean that they have found you it only means they will find you with greater ease.

At 23% realism you probly have free use of the camera controls exploit that to your full advantage. If you hit the "." key it will give you a external camera view that is locked on your boat and at parascope depth you can rotate the camera so you can see the ships up top and if they are coming to kill you. You can also use that meathod when deeper and trying to dodge depth charge attacks durring the day, at night it gets hard to see them. Useing that one game feature I was able to learn how best to avoid attacks and I highly recomend it to people strugleing with the same problems, and once you get the hang of it you can turn it off.

Plus as others have pointed out geting out ahead of yoru target far enuf that you can get into attack position and leting them come to you while you just sit there is a far easyer way of geting close enuf to a target that is gaurded. As they say, "Low and underhanded meathods might not look good but no one will remember how awsome your failed head long attack looked."

Happy hunting.

just beacouse they are pinging you dosen't mean they know where you are they have not found you:O: there are only searching the area.
Run silent run deep at 2 kts.:D Then slip away.

Attacking task forces (groups of warships including a small escort carrier) is a dangerous errand, because these are groups of ships sent out specifically to hunt down and kill u-boats. Once you awaken them, you are going to have them taking turns making depth-charge runs at you and you are toast.

The way to approach any convoy, task force or otherwise, is to first locate it. You will almost always see them before they see you. If you are given intelligence on the map where they are, even better.

First thing to do is use the marker tool to mark an X on the map where they currently are. Set your submarine to a parallel course to the convoy, and wait a bit. Then set a new X on the map where the are now. Now use the line drawing tool to draw a line that goes through the two X's and extends out in front of the convoy. This give you their predicted path.

Now set waypoints to do an "end-around" maneuver well away from the side of the convoy to avoid detection, and then dog-leg back in front of them bringing your u-boat 90 degrees across their course way out in front of them.

The idea is to arrive there well before they do. Drive at flank speed. When you arrive, go to periscope depth and SET FOR SILENT RUNNING. Make sure all your torpedoes are set for correct depth and fusing. By default, I set all my fish at 2.5 foot depth and impact fuses.

Now sit and wait for the convoy to arrive. You should be able to follow them on sonar, and even refine their course.

Once they get close, pop up your scope and hit "L" to lock as many ships as you can see. Here's a cheat: Pressing L while the scope is aimed at a ship will lock it up even if you can't see it.

Go back to the map. You can now see the ships you locked up on the map (they will fade away soon though so work fast). Zoom up on the ships and now you can draw a line that exactly matches their course (unless they are zig-zagging, which they should not be if they have not spotted you).

You can also at this point draw multiple lines representing each column of ships in the convoy.

If you have electric torpedoes (and who would use air ones?) you need to be within about 3km of the convoy, closer is better. Often I like to position my sub just inside the first column of ships - they always put little guys on the outside of the convoy anyway and you don't want them blocking your shots to the fatties on the inside!

Line up your shots and shoot! If you find that you have to make a high-angle shot for some reason (like you can't risk waiting for it to come 90 degrees) then identify the ship in the ship identification manual, then set torpedoes to magnetic fuse and about .5 m deeper than the depth of the target ship, and fire magnetically. Torpedoes that hit ships at high angles of attack do not go off.

After the fireworks go off, you can try to evade the escorts by diving deep. With an undamaged sub you can go to 200m or so. Watch the map, and try to keep your stern pointed at the destroyers so as to minimize your profile. Drive flank speed to get to depth, drop a noise maker, and then go to 1 knot speed and go silent running. Sometimes you get away, sometimes you don't. I figure about a 30% success rate early in the war, and it gets worse once the allies bring hedgehogs to the fight.

I find the best bet is to reserve your stern tubes for escorts and stay at periscope depth. Run at flank speed and let the nearest escort chase you. Point your stern DIRECTLY at them, identify the escort to get it's keep depth, and then fire a magnetic torpedo from your stern tube right at the escort at 500m range. Have your second stern tube (if you have one) ready to fire at the same settings if the first fish misses. Never fire at less than 200m range as the torpedo will not be armed. One torpedo hit will kill all escorts.

If you are not trying to hide, get your crew busy reloading torpedoes so you can shoot more escorts as they come in. With any luck, you can kill ALL the escorts and then you can have leisurely fun picking off the rest of the merchant ships.

If the merchants have guns forget about trying to surface and use your deck gun - they will cut you to pieces.

Steve

Getting pinged the first few times spooked me good. Especially as the time between pings gets shorter and shorter. I've learned to head for the sea floor (in shallow water) as quickly as possible, cut engines and drift along.

Wow, thanks again, but i couldn't try any of these new helpful methods because i haven't found any taskforces again. :cry:
But now i know what to do! :yeah:

Going to set off right now to see if i can.

Hiding after the fireworks go off is quite late. Depending on the torpedo speed and distance to target this can take multiple minutes. Why not start getting the hell out as soon as you fired your last torpedo. Remember you are quite slow when you are submerged and at silent running mode. Use that time (and seperation to destroyers) to leave the area with moderate speed.

Indeed, point your tail to the nearest enemy that is pinging if you are trying to move away. Point your bow to it if you want to close to it. Never allow a ping to bounce on you from side-on. That gives the best (from the destroyers point-of-view) reflection area.

You have to have 2 P's to stand some chance.
Patience & Persistence.

Toss in some luck, and add a bunch of sim. EXPERIENCE. There you go!
I still get a rush from a good DC thrashing every once in a while. It's when you manage to break out from it and have another try, that this sim. really shows its stuff. Good Hunting guys!

PP