Convoy Intercept help
 

Is there a quick and easy way to work out a convoy intercept?
my current guesstimation technique leaves me way off course on most occasions.
I've seen the tutorial in Guides & Training but it seems kinda time consuming and a little complicated for a quick solution ( for me anyway!)
What system do you guys usually use?

Happy Hunting. :salute:

I draw a line from the convoy in the direction it's heading. I then figure out how far it will go at its current speed in how many hours. I then figure out how long it will take me to get ahead of it and lie in wait.

Depending on which supermod you're using you may be missing due to the simple fact that the convoy zig-zags, changing course from time to time for that very reason. They don't want to make it easy for you to catch them.

There's more than one method
 

As Sailor Steve has said, if you are using one of the supermods, you can expect that any radio report you get on a convoy may be telling you only one leg of their zig-zag course, and not at all reporting their base course, which is the actual direction they are heading. As far as the stock game goes, I always found the little course estimate tails on the contact markers to be quite accurate, though often the outfit in question may change course and leave me with empty sea to look at. My approach was much simpler than the one described in the tutorial. I would draw an 8 mile diameter circle around the location of the contact report, extend a course line for x number of miles, depending on their course, speed and distance from my boat. Then I drew another 8 mile circle, lined from the edge of one to the other to make a corridor on the map. Once I reached a point well ahead of the target, I ploted a zig-zag search pattern back up the corridor in the direction I expected the target to approach. Much of the time I would find them.

I am currently running the TMO mod, playing the basic career. Intercepting convoys and TF's is much less a sure thing, in part because the course estimates in the radio reports for such outfits is all you get, the little course estimate tails are not shown on your nav map. In dealing with these I find the postion of the outfit reported, and take a look for what possible destination they may be heading for, given their general direction and what may be in rough line with it. Sometimes this seems to lead to an obvious destination, like Tokyo Bay. Other times, there's nothing much at all, as far as a destination goes along the probable track of the reported outfit. The other issue that comes into play in TMO is the actual speed of the convoy/TF. Some convoys are all freighters/tankers, making perhaps 5-8 knots. Others are fast transport convoys, running at 15-18 knots. Then there are the TF's running at 20 kts or perhaps as fast as 33 kts, if you see one of the Tokyo Express TF's in the Solomons. In any case, I draw out a line for my best guesstimate of their course, then a few circles representing the distance they will cover at the reported speed, perhaps a few more if I missed the exact moment of the report to show how far they have gone in the meantime, and check first to see if I can get close enough to have a chance at them. Then its a matter of running fast enough to reach their possible location at an appropriate point in time. Sometimes I make an intercept, sometimes I don't. I'm happy to say that I have made quite a few, and been able to bag some targets at the end of the chase. Also, there are times when such outfits will just happed to cross your course, and then its a matter of making good decisions on how you are going to run the approach in order to get to a firing position.

By the way, I've posted a couple of stories in the "Stories and Patrol Logs" thread about chance encounters I've had in TMO. In one I mention the "O'Kane Solution." This is really a constant bearing solution for targeting with your torpedos and is a very helpful thing to have in your bag of skipper's tricks. Visit the "Tips and Tricks" thread and read through the tutorial Rockin Robbins wrote on this. You will find it very useful indeed, I think.

Thanks for the quick response guys.
I'm running TMO, I was doing more or less what you suggested Sailor Steve but it didnt occur to me that they would possibly be zigzagging, heck I would under the circumstances! :o

Redmane I'll try your suggestions, and will certainly take a look at the posts you mentioned, thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed explanation. :up::salute:

YW
 

You're welcome, glad to help.:salute:

TMO zigs most groups every 10nm's.

I currently in a Uboat. Type XXI. South East of the Torres Pass. I use the search planes a lot wih the uboats. you have so use them. I wish they were there on the United States side.

I had a plane spot a task force way to my south east. I moved down south easterly to intercept. I had marked to positions from the planes observations and drew a line up toward the north west. Feeling that they were heading tho the pass and not to Port Moresby I put myself west of the tract I drew for them and headed towards them.

7 hours later I came across 2 Battleships, 2 Heavy Cruisers, 2 Light Cruisers, a CLAA and numerous escorts of varying types. I had positioned myself ahead and slightly north of their current tract. The lead Destroyer passed me at 900 yards without a peep and I put 6 acoustic homing torpedoes in the North Carolina sinking her within 10 minutes. As I reloaded I fired and put 5 torpedoes in the Pennsylvania bringing her to a halt dead in the water listing about 40 degrees to port and being submerged about a 1/3 of her stern. A 6th torpedo missed and struck a Heavy Cruisers midsection in a huge explosion crippling her instantly and she sank soon after.

I moved off south after a moderate DC attack putting myself at 260 meters I moved away. I moved off sufficiently enough to rise to periscope depth and finding the Crippled Battleship 8000 yards north I fire my last three torpedoes. Two missed and 1 struck a Light Cruiser which had stopped close to the Battleship. The Cruiser sank. The BB was dead in the water and I had no more torpedoes to fire. I moved off and waited for sunrise and for the escorts to leave. My plan was to move in close enough to target the BB and radio it in in hopes that air support would come and finish her off.

My plan failed however as ALL of the remaining Cruisers and escorts remained by the BB moving to circle her as to pick off any torpedo advances. I was spotted since I had to get in closer for a visual targeting to radio in and was chased and sunk:oops:. I felt the loss of the Uboat and her crew were worth the loss of the Battleships, and Cruisers I had torpedoed and that risk for a radio report was worth the sacrifice.:wah:


:hmph: