Mines in GWX
 

I read in the GWX manual that mines are not supported in the SHIII engine, but I had a rather interesting experience. Surface attacked a convoy for as long as I could tonight, before being driven under by destroyers. After a relentless shellacking, the pursuing escorts stopped dropping depth charges on me. I stayed deep in silent run, about 1 knot, and kept my rudder at 5 degrees (Due credit goes to the member on this forum that posted that! That tactic saved my skinny, grey, cold steel butt!!!!) and took a peak through the obs-scope, when I noticed something funny.... If those weren't depth charges being dropped in the water (depth charges being canister shaped) what were they? They were round and spiny, and black. They looked an awful lot like mines, but if they aren't supported by the game engine, how can that be?

Mines are supported. Just not player placed mines.

Few things could have happened:

You attacked a convoy in a minefield. Make sure to take a shortcut through the channel for the trifecta.

Late in the war, they could have been hedgehogs.

The graphic file was corrupted, showing the mine graphic when it was a dc.

Okay. That helps. Thank you for the quick reply. (Perhaps it would help if I actually read-read the manual instead of scan-read the thing. Lol)

Sorry to go off topic, but that bit about the 5 degrees caught my attention. I am hopeless at destroyer and depth charge evasion so would like to learn more.

I have scanned the site for evasion tactics but if anyone has links I would very much appreciate them.

A player called Snestorm used those tactics. He used to write patrol reports in "Tell us what you are upto in your current campaign" thread. Maybe there is more info in his reports that you could find useful. Snestorm had modded his game so that all the escorts he faced were elite from the beginning of the war. He had also modded his convoys so that there were more escorts than usual. Still he survived until late 1944 if I remember correctly.

Some hints of what I try to do depending on the circumstances:

1. Try to stay at periscope depth, then you can occasionally take a glimpse with the periscope and see what the escorts are doing
2. Go slow and quiet - 0.7 - 1 knots - 50 - 75 RPM if you need to.
3. Go deep if you need to
4. Keep your bow or stern towards the escort that is doing the listening - the listener is the screw sound that is slow
5. You only need to run from the depth charges if they drop them on you. You'll know they are dropping the dc's on you if the dc dropping splashes heard on the hydrophone go over you - for example the first splashes are heard relative bearing 180 and the next pair goes to 270 and the next ones are heard at 0 degrees. This means you have to use the hydrophone yourself and be quick at it.

And the most important advice: fight from long range and avoid getting dc's dropped on you. Getting dc's dropped on you is a mistake by you - the range of G7e is 5000 meters and G7a goes 12 kilometers. Shoot from 4000 meters and there is a chance they won't find you at all. And even if they find you, you have a much better chance of keeping situational awareness. In the middle of a convoy there is a lot of noise everywhere around you. Four kilometers from the convoy all the sounds are initially on one side of you, which makes figuring out what is happening a lot easier. At first it might be wise to play with less than 100 % difficulty and see what the escorts are doing in the outside view. That is of course cheating, but on the other hand real life Kaleuns would have practiced against German destroyers and talked with their colleagues about evasion practices.

Keep in mind though that I have only survived to late 1943 in my game. I don't know if my advice helps or is correct even earlier. I don't think I have ever been bombarded with a hedgehog, for example. You have to keep thinking and learning as you play. One makes mistakes and if we are lucky the boat doesn't sink from the consequences. After the mistake it's a question of thinking what went wrong and what would I do differently next time.

Thankyou for the quick response sublynx. Much appreciated.

Love this game and this forum.

I gotta get new glasses. I just sank a neutral freighter.