Second patrol and I think I found the motherload... advice needed
 

Greetings. I need some tactical advice; I’m playing ver 1.4 with the RFB mod installed. I went through sub school and I’m in my first career. Its 23:45 hrs with rather clear skies, the date is Dec 10th 1941 and I’m on my second patrol in an S-18 off the Philippine coast. My base is out of Manila. On my way to the designated patrol area, as luck would have it, I have come upon a huge convoy of Jap warships and transports (about 8 contacts so far) heading west (I’m heading east) off to my left side. At least one of the warships looks like a cruiser of some type. I suspect this is a big part of the Jap invasion fleet for the Philippines.

It was late so I saved the game at that point and went to bed…

So there it is… the edge of the convoy is about 7500 years off to my left moving slow to medium speed. I’m on the surface for now in the saved game.

How do I approach and attack this convoy? About how close can I get to it on the surface before I should go to periscope depth?

I’m reading through the tutorials posted above but any advice from you skippers would be appreciated as well. I'm thinking; turn around and rush ahead of the convoy at flank speed just out of sight to get in front of it, submerge to periscope depth and wait for it to come to me... does that sound about right?

[Quote] " the edge of the convoy is about 7500 years off to my left "


Is your S Boat a time machine?:haha: Only kidding! How far ahead of the convoy are you? Determine their course and speed, and try to get ahead of them. May be tough in a S Boat, but you say they're going slow/medium so you may have a shot. Once you're far enough ahead, turn on a heading to intercept their track. The further ahead you are, the better. Also, even though the seas are smooth, you have darkness on your side. Stay surfaced if possible, as Japanese ASW was lacking especially early war. If you must submerge, do so at the latest possible time. Running submerged for too long, with a lot of escorts around is risky.

The convoy is directly to my left so I'm not ahead of it, I'm beside it, going the other direction.

And welcome back after 3 years of silent running. Wait till the convoy is on your 240 or 80 and come over 20 degrees gradually at flank speed to head the convoy path; be decks awash if within 5000 meters to enable a faster submerge time... otherwise you got em'...SINK EM ALL!:salute:

Is there a "decks awash" setting of do I have to set that manually?

I'm in a S-18.

You have to do decks awash manually. You'll only be able to sink one ship or disable two ships at best. Then you need to reload. With an S-boat, I normally just go after one good ship, then get out of there.

Ok I managed to get into position on the convoy but when I look through the attack periscope I don't get the red, yellow or green targeting triangle... I have the manual firing unchecked on game options. Is there something I need to turn on or off to get the auto aiming triangle in game?

I'm running version 1.4 with real fleet boat mod (for 1.4).

I'm within range of my torpedoes (1000 yards) and at almost 0 degree heading to target.

Is real fleet boat mod manual firing only?

Dunno about RFB, but in the stock game the L key is "LOCK", which centers the target and brings up the arrow. Again, never tried RFB, but in the stock game that invasion force is a bad one for a n00b - there are several of them around Luzon at the beginning of the war, and they wander all over the ocean like a bunch of drunken ducks who can't decide where they're going. Trying to line up on them is like trying to get milk from a male ostrich sometimes. I would head elsewhere and find a sane task force that doesn't skitter around like waterbugs.

As for the visual range, if you have map contact updates enabled you can click on a ship and see a circle around it, that's the average visual detection distance, about 5500 yards with normal visibility. Sometimes they'll see you further away, bad weather and/or night you can get closer.

I'm not sure about RFB being manual only. It's possible you didn't set the options correctly. To set options for your career, you must do so at the start of your career, in the office, by clicking on the radio to your left. The options presented in the normal game menu is only for single missions.

If you haven't seen the colored triangles yet, you'll probably have to learn manual targeting in a hurry. :03:

Hi Klank, as far as I know (just tried out RFB for one Mission) it is manual targeting only and overrides every change in gameplay settings at start.

One thing you may try is editing the file "GameplaySettings.cfg", on my machine stored at c:\Users\"Yourusername"\Documents\SH4\data\cfg\ .

Make a backup of this file, search for "ManualTargetingSystem=true" and change it to "ManualTargetingSystem=false". "true" means checkbox is checked, "false" is vice versa.

As always when fiddling around with editing files all actions taken are on your own risk :arrgh!:

Here is something that works for me. Since your heading in opposite directions turn to starboard and parallel the convoy course until you get far enough ahead of them to know their tract and then turn to face the on coming convoy trying to center yourself on that tract. Come to all stop and dive as deep as you can go, rig for silent running. If the sea state is rough you'll have a better time not being heard at shallower depths.

Listen for the convoy. Wait until the lead escort has past you and then come to periscope depth. By that time you should be in the leading edge to middle of the convoy. Fire at the nearest ships with everything you have and then simply sink down to your sitting depth, all silent, turn 90 degrees to port and escape.

Generic Mod Enabler - v2.6.0.157
1_TriggerMaru_Overhaul_2-5
1_TMO_25_small_patch
RSRDC_TMO_V502
RSRDC_V5xx_Patch1
Traveller Mod v2.6 TMO
#1 Real Environment mod install
Traveller Mod 2.6 Patch 1 - ISE v3 Patch
#4 Warships retextured
Traveller Mod 2.6 No Midway Transfer
Traveller Mod 2.6 No DC Camera Shake
Traveller Mod 2.6 Larger Search Patterns
Traveller Mod 2.6 Harder Enemy AI Escorts
Traveller Mod 2.6 Automatic Ship ID
Traveller Alternate Main Loading Screens
Convoy Routes TMO+RSRD
tambor198's TMO+RSRDC missions pack

I restarted a new career game (ver 1.4 with RFB for 1.4) and you have to change the settings in the office at the start of the game by clicking on the radio that's on the shelf. (As mentioned above)

I now get the torpedo solution triangles and all is well.

I ran into a task force, reported it and was ordered to engage it. In the fight I managed to sink two destroyers and whacked one of the heavy cruisers in the ass and sent it scurrying off burning with it's stern deck awash. I'd love to run it down put I only have two torpedoes left and I still have to raid shipping at my mission point. With this new damage system (that I like) I'm going to play it safe and save those two torps for my real mission. I really don't want to spend two days trying to shoot a huge merchant ship full of enough holes to sink it with my puny deck gun. With my luck there won't be a junk in site at the mission point.

It's a marathon, not a sprint...

Thanks for all your help.

I would've went for the CA, you had it damaged and it would give you more points.....in real life they would've expected you to finish off a capital ship. You won't if you don't complete a patrol as long as you sink ships.

Well I have a save from right after I hit the cruiser... so I could go back and try to run it down in another game session.

By the way, where are the saved game files stored at? I can't find them.