Merchant AI?
 

So here is a day of many questions, is it me or in GWX is the merchant AI to smart, I almost can never pull off an Otto Kretschmer even when there is no moon, and running very slow on the surface.

Are you running perpendicular to your target, so lookouts can't see a large sillehouette?

Sometimes I get away with it and other times I don't.

There are quite a few parameters the game engine takes into consideration such as sea state, distance, weather conditions, light, skill level of merchant, etc.

When stalking a convoy I usually submerge and then let them run over me. This means I can hit between 4 and 6 ships and escape underneath, surface and picking off any damaged ships.
Even early in the war, I would not enter a convoy on the surface , every searchlight and gun would be aimed my way,

I tend to run surface attacks at night if the conditions are right. We're talking no moon, 90 degree approach to target and decks awash. I've yet to have been seen using these techniques.

Then again its early days when I play so merchant skill levels aren't exactly high.

And there was this one time when I had HMS Rodney broadside me when I tried this tactic after disabling her, I might've hit her and got her listing, but I sure as heck didn't disable the guns. Silly me. Was a big rollercoaster to get away from her with my boat going up and down while the crew desperately did damage control. (Escaped though, 22% hull integrity after that encounter)

It can be done, but as others have mentioned it depends on a bunch of factors like year, visibility, sea-state, experience of merchant/escort crew, your own position and speed.... and luck.

Remember too that the size of the convoys and distances between ships within them were MUCH larger in reality than in the game. I have more success on the surface picking at the ships at the edges of the convoy than actually trying to get in among them like Kretschmer did.

I also limit my short term goals. If I can get in and out clean and leave two ships burning and sinking I consider myself very lucky. Get out of range, wait for the convoy/escorts to calm down while you reload and then when everyone is back in position go in again. If done right you can repeat this all night until you are out of torpedoes, the sun comes up or you are forced to dive and evade.

In the early part of the war it can be done, see an old post of mine giving an example, http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...highlight=nemo .

My advice is also to use a mod that removes the search lights from merchants, which is more realistic as from what I've read, merchants didn't use them. Why would they illuminate themselves making them easier targets for prowling u-boats? Perhaps others have a view on this.

Nemo