Cruise Report from Rabaul--June 1942
 

Good morning Admiral. I hope you'll enjoy my cruise report from that not shiny or new anymore USS Swordfish. I trust you'll be pleased you trusted me with a new boat. My crew and I thank you for taking a chance on us:

Why, yes, sir! 13 misses and only 7 hits isn't such a good record. My stern crew needs to improve a bunch, but we brought home the bacon nevertheless, 27928 tons.

Got the last one with a deck gun while it was guarded by a gunboat. It was jack-in-the-box time on that one sir. Three separate engagements to sink her. My crew was cool and calculated under very stressful circumstances.

Yes, sir, I am running a slightly outdated copy of TMO. You see I'm always at sea when the updates come out and...... Shut up, sir? Yes sir. Load it up sir? You mean the update, sir? Yes sir! No trip to the Royal Hawaiian this time sir? Get gone on a new patrol? Don't screw it up this time, sir?

Yes sir! We be gone! Have a good day sir!:salute:

Nice shootin Capt:salute: can i just ask what range you are fireing your deck gun from? If i get as close as 6000 yds to a DD or a merchant shells are abound all over the place my deck gun is near enough obsolete (forts)

In my game it's June 1942, so when I enountered a merchie it only had a machine gun. Then it was position myself just outside effective machine gun range and let my gun crew go to town. I had a Japanese gunboat in the area and he came to the aid of that freighter twice, chasing me off. I waited half an hour, closed on the merchie within 1500 yards when at least 3000 yards from the gunboat and popped up to try again. I was out of torpedoes and really wanted that guy, right outside Rabaul harbor.

I couldn't hit squat from my rear torpedo tubes and a newbie crew. That part was embarrassing!

We have a great sticky here that might help you, it's called Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks. Have a look!

:har: :haha:

Sorry RR, couldn't resist it!

:D

.

You know, I forgot how difficult it can be with a rookie crew, nobody above seaman first class in the after torpedo room. But I missed some shots from the forward torpedo room too!

Was shooting at a lurking DD, sitting silent at night with his motors off. I noted his position, came up from deep and looked with the periscope and sure, there he was, thinking he'd catch me. I closed to 500 yards, shot three and he made like a dragster, not starting his motors until the torpedoes were halfway there and still was able to scoot out of the way. I didn't think that was possible or I would have shot more than a 100% spread.

What you forget when it's been awhile since you've played!

Still, a cruise with 6 merchies on the ocean floor and over 27k tons is no failure. Rabaul surely was a happy hunting grounds. Would have been much tougher toward the end of the war when the Japanese get much better with their escorts. The game models that well.

Note the mods list. I've just loaded up TMO 2.2 and RSRD 5 for the first time and going back out in a couple of minutes.

How do you like the report from SH4 Report 3.1 beta, by Kim Ronhof? There is a later version but for some reason he wouldn't give me permission to post it here. So I don't use it and haven't posted the new version. 3.1 beta is in the Subsim Downloads section. Works great.

Just loaded up TMO2.2 and RSRD v5 and cruised from Brisbane (!) to just south of Rabaul and have a few observations.

First, the game loaded a lot quicker than it did with TMO 1.7 plus four levels of 1.8 patches, plus RSRD. I'm running the latest version of RSRD now too.

The maps are all changed to a semi-topo map with a lot more place names on it and more ocean depth data than is authentic. It sure looks pretty and contains a lot more info but I have several levels more info than the real submariners had. I'll take it anyway. Looks great.

And I had a bit of a glitch when 1.5 Crew Message Box 1.1 did not position the crew message box at the bottom of the screen as I expected. In fact, it positioned the crew message box off screen and I could not retrieve it. Small problem. I unloaded the mod (only moves the crew message box so I don't have to anyway). Don't know if that worked yet, but there's no way it couldn't!

My first little bit of culture shock came when I initiated my normal anti-plane procedure. On radar contact, I plot my normal ice cream plot using the plane's initial position as the point of the cone, draw the ice cream as a 5 mile circle around my boat (that's the max plane detection disance) and two lines from the plane's initial position to both edges of the ice cream. If the plane enters the cone, I know it will get under 5 miles away. So I know I have to dive to avoid detection. Explanations and screenies upon request.

Well, I don't know if it is Ducimus up to his well-known nefarious ways, or Lurker's mischief, but these planes can visually sight me from outside of 5 miles now! I had a plane that was going to pass about 5.2 miles away sight me when he was somewhere around 5.4 miles away. He turned toward and I pulled the plug. Whew!

Setting the depth for 120' I stabbed the stopwatch as I passed periscope depth, and when it indicated 5 minutes I hit the surface button because he's got to be gone. I hit the surface and there he was! Planes no longer keep going if they have sighted you. He was less than a mile from me, so I went to periscope depth and shot up the radar antenna (that's a LOT nicer than the bad old days of going to radar depth to do that. You never know when 10' separates life from death. The plane loitered for a couple more passes and finally left.

This is a whole new behavior for anti-sub planes and really a welcome change, especially for June 1942! The planes are acting intelligently and dangerously, probably thanks to me publishing the details of my standard plane avoidance tactics....:cry: Don't know whether Duci or Lurker is responsible for this, but good move! I sure am glad that a wet sub dives a lot more quickly than one that has been surfaced for awhile.

Enough time wasted, I'm back at it! See you!:salute:

The new planes are pure evil Ducimus. I've had them see me as far out as 6 miles. :damn: Looks like you need a bigger Ice Cream Cone.

Magic

A two scoop cone with sprinkles. Maybe chocolate-dipped for camoflauge.

More stuff from TMO2.2/RSRD 5 to report.

Had some night time playtime on the Philippine/Rabaul shipping route. I noticed two new things. First of all, the stars twinkle. Actually, they DON'T twinkle, they flash like marker lights out there! That is awful. No, THAT IS AWFUL!!!! I don't know if you've been at sea at night but the sky is very different from what you think it is living in populated areas.

First all, twinkling is not flashing off and on, it is the image of the star moving around quickly in a random pattern within a small quarter degree (or so) area, while it simultaneously whips in and out of focus several times per second, due to the lensing action of bubbles of warm air rising through the colder ambient air. The going in and out of focus makes the brightness appear to change quickly: bright, dim, bright, dim in a very quick and irregular pattern. They do not go out as I was disgusted to see here.

Also, the twinkling happens over land only! If you're out to see the stars are completely motionless and do not twinkle. It's as if an artist painted them up there and you can see triple the number of stars you ever thought existed. Even if you're an amateur astronomer, as I am, and get to see the truly dark sky at sea on a moonless night, you see so many stars so clearly that it takes half an hour of intense study just to recognize easy constellations. That effect can't be done in SH4.

But the hokey flashing gots to go! It's just terrible.

The other thing I noticed was that I was out on a moonless night. But there was a bright reflection of the moon on the ocean's surface. I've never seen that in SH4 on a moonless night. That was even worse than the stars, and I wonder if a target could have seen me if I were in the glare of that bright streak from nowhere. I'm going to check that out. But it shouldn't be there at all. Guess I should repost the problems in the TMO thread in case Ducimus is checking it out.

I don't care if Zeros didn't carry bombs. I never look at the planes unless I use the external camera in a moment of boredom. They could be paper airplanes for all I care. But I have to look at the night sky and water every time I play. Yuk.

Had some sonar glitches too. The first is a stock issue of the sonar detecting targets in Rabaul harbor area when there is land between you and the target. I could ping them and get a straight line range too! Great sonar! Not so realistic though.

But the worst part was that for days after I sunk the Funky Maru I continued to find him on sonar with manual sweeps. No sonar spikes were plotted though and I couldn't ping him no matter how close I was to the position. Drove me crazy for awhile until I figured out what I was finding. I triangulated it......

Yeah, I know, unload RSRD and then bellyache about stuff...

The Good Stuff!

Turned off the phonograph and listened to Ahab, Call of the Wretched Sea whilst hunting. Magnificent! But perhaps an acquired taste.

The airplane that spotted me from 5.4 miles was a fluke. I tried other airplanes (lots of chances near Rabaul!:D) and they were safe out to 5 miles. When I was decks awash one passed inside of 4 miles without spotting me at 10 knots. Speed is important in being spotted. 15 knots will get you spotted when 10 knots won't. I only changed my procedure by coming to periscope depth, shooting up the radar antenna, then surfacing. It hasn't found anything since that first plane, which definitely spotted me. The planes are great!

So on that clear moonless night with the stars flashing brightly and the moon reflection glaring to the west of me I found a target on radar and decided to try a night surface attack from under 1000 yards. Got lots of screenshots for a later Bag of Tricks post, so I won't post them here.

First of all, it was DARK! I couldn't visually see the Funky Maru (900' long) until it was about 2000 yards out and then only by TBT on radar bearing. That was absolutely GREAT! What an improvement over stock.

I set up for a Dick O'Kane and worked up a tools tutorial for that attack. When he got to 2000 yards, I flooded down to 32', decks awash. I shot from the TBT and hit two to put him on the bottom with one defective torpedo. Surface attack was just incredible and TMO gets an A+!

So it's http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...mileys/him.gifGo to the Bag of Tricks thread. Go DIRECTLY to the Bag of Tricks thread. Do not pass Rabaul. Do not collect medals.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...eys/giggle.gif

Okay, had a meeting with all my torpedomen, no other officers present. Said, "Men, we had a bad time last patrol, only 7 hits out of the whole load. Our tonnage was really good because those 7 sunk 6 ships. We have to do better this time. I'm going to be first to step up to the plate and take responsibility for the misses. I shot too soon, and on some dubious numbers. You guys don't develop the numbers.

It'll be different this time. I have full confidence in you. Aft torpedo room, you don't have a man who has ever hit a target with a torpedo before. We're going to change that score this time out. I promise you guys that all the first opportunities we get will go to the after torpedo room and you guys are going to get some kills! We'll shoot aft torpedoes until we don't have any left before we shoot from the bow. I want you guys to set the bar high for the experienced crew up front. Are you with me?"

"Forward crew, you bat cleanup this cruise. You're the best there is. I can't tell you where we're going until we're out to sea but I can tell you we're going where the action is after your performance last cruise. You're going to have a tough time beating the after crew. They're hungrier than you are! So I'm giving you time to cool your jets and get hungry! Are you hungry!"

There was very little structural damage to the forward torpedo room from the ensuing tumult. I think our crews were in the right frame of mind.

Sure enough, we were assigned the Philippeans - Rabaul shipping lanes. Gave us a chance to sashay right by our happy hunting grounds at Rabaul and dare somebody to come out and play. Didn't happen. So we took position. Because of circumstance I was unable to keep my promise and was forced to shoot the first ship with the forward crew, 3 hits for 3 shots and bagged a Zinbu Maro for 5,352 tons.

Then I turned it over to the after torpedo crew, who proceeded to clear the ocean surface of every Japanese ship we saw.

So forward torpedo room, 3 shots, 3 hits for 5,253 tons. Then the after torpedo room score for this cruise. 9 torpedoes fired, 8 hits, 1 dud, which hit, by the way. A total of two nice size freighters, a light cruiser from just west of Truk lagoon, and a great down the throat shot to down a Momi patrol boat for their last torpedo! 15,837 tons for the after torpedo room alone! The forward guys have their work cut out for them. The newbies are heroes, and rookies no more!

The cruise is already a success and we're packing 8 more torpedoes for the forward crew to salvage their pride with. They have 5,253 tons already so they have a chance. I don't know if I want them to win or lose the tonnage contest. I'm kinda pulling for the stern crew with fewer torpedoes and less experience, but I'm not going to cut 'em any slack. I'll set up each shot just as carefully as before. The stern crew has earned their tons. Now it's time for the bow crew to follow suit and make us proud!

Just finished the cruise, bow crew had a field day and we took some damage but had to let the deck gun bag the last one. Freighters equipped with machine guns only. Still not good for human flesh. Here's the report. I'm too tired to evaluate it, I'll do that after I recharge my batteries.