patrol techniques
 

Just curious as to what others are doing, specifically when it comes to submerging to look for contacts. I'm running Wolves of Steel and typically run at time compression of +64 untill I see a brief stop on my clock. I'll then submerge and locate, then chase the contact. Not a bad method for casual play but I've noticed that you can burn a lot of fuel between contacts.
Are you submerging on a regular schedule to search?
Was there a historical pattern that U-boat captains used or did they simply cruise on the surface until they spotted a contact?

Check out some techniques that will allow you to use your hydrophone so you cant hunt without wasting fuel .. I recomend Stoiams Tutorilas or the bersters Post on the how toos

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=181538

what happens if u run out of fuel?

Duh
 

You die at sea!

I tend to do a hydro sweep every 2 hrs on the odd hour (1, 3, 5pm etc.) This is because on the even hours is when your navigator does his fixes and if submerged can only do a DR fix instead of celestial.

Adrian

AFAIK, the successful ones made regular dives for hydrophone search. Since hydrophone range is about 20 km, and at cruise (Standard) a Typ VII makes about 18 kph, a dive every 2 hours gives pretty good coverage. With SH5's automation capability, it's easy to set up "standing orders" to do a check dive every 2 hours without having to micromanage everything.

Important to note
 

The map ruler measures in kilometers while the speed of the sub is in knots. For tracking the enemy and calculating distances, 1 km is approx 1/2 nautical mile.

So if the enemy course track is measured by ruler to be 150 km South of you, it is 75 nautical miles. At a speed of 10 you would be there in 7.5 hours.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm submerging every three hours now and the number of contacts has increased a "ton", Unfortunately the last contact had machine guns and shot the h#** out of me so it's an RTB and lesson learned but the next patrol s/b more productive, provided I concentrate on submerged attacks.