Just Brilliant !
 

1939, Scapa Flow,

Got into the bay and lo and behold, an aux cruiser, HMS Revenge and HMS Hood all anchored up.

Aimed at Hood, set depth at 1 meter under the keel.
Launched 4 bow torpedos... waited....
then the dreaded sounds seconds apart *clonk* *clonk* *clonk* *clonk*
4 duds!!!

Retreated through the passage to reload, got back the next night and...
Again, 4 frickin duds...

Reloaded the game when I was still outside Scapa Flow, got in, this time aimed straight at the destroyers next to the passage, to see if the torpedos would go off this time.

No, they didn't. I was carrying with me 8 duds. Clonk, clank, clink and bleepin clonk again.

Now I am more than just slightly pissed off at this. When exactly does the game determine if a torp is a dud? Mid mission? At the loading of the mission? After the previous mission? When selecting torpedos while in the office?

How far back to I have to revert?

A torpedo doesn't explode at less than 300 meters of your sub ...

250 meters, but you never fire at less than 300 as Fahnenbohn stated. Dude, sorry to hear that. It is very tedious getting in there! That's some experience.

The 300 meter safety distance was well and truly exceeded. Them being moored I fired at 5000m in hope the distance would throw off the hunting destroyers.

So in this case, this is the angle between torpedoes and hull which was too small. Or the torpedoes couldn't go further than 5000 m (as the electric ones).

Or, your torpedoes have been sabotaged !

:arrgh!:

That was the time of topedo crisis, its just what it really was like. If you don't like it, check your mods.

The highlighted bit. This. At least for 2 of the torpedos. 2 were electric, 2 were regular issue going slow. I must have forgotten a lot since I last played SH3 coz for some reason I thought the electric had a much greater range... Go me, huh? That would still give me 4 duds for the regular ones but 4 is much closer to what I would think possible. 28.6% as opposed to 57%.

The angle shouldn't matter as they were set to magnetic but fumo may be onto something too although I thought the torpedo crisis reached its peak around 41-42 when it was mostly solved. I am known to be wrong on many occations though so it could very well be that as well.

It may have been the previous mission that had me in a wishful state, with only 1 dud among the 14 G7a.

Ok so it's not distance, and the torps are set right.

What was the weather like? Any waves? Setting the torps too shallow even in light waves can cause failure.

There are torpedo nets in Scapa Flow!

I think distance, at least for the electric ones, could very well explain it. As for the other 2 (or rather 4 with the reload), well it isn't too unheard of, just rotten luck. It was that all 8 would be duds that had me fuming. Funny enough, the one aft torpedo I used to get a clear entry to S.F. worked wonderfully, no dud there. Electric, that one.

The weather was brilliant, calm sea, clear view of all ships at more than 13 km. I didn't know about the nets though! Thanks tons. That complicates things even further!

Of well, I think right now I can let this rest for the time being. Distance exceeding the range of the electric eel, 4 duds in total, nets, bad German design, it adds up to something plausible.

Just for fun, try approaching the ships underwater, and as you get closer, raise your scope just enough to see the nets. I have hit them on my first few raids and caused a bit of good damage doing it. They are pretty much underwater walls.

Yes :/\\!!:damn:

Surely there must be something in the international laws on warfare against nets. Nets are for fishing haddock, cod, foodstuff, not submarines. I'm certain Wilhelmshaven fisheries and mine deployment are great providers of fresh food.

On mines: It is fortunate that my captain Von Due has a large family, or else I would run out of Von Dues to play. One of the more clumsy of the lot managed, on his first patrol to get on the wrong side of the buoys leaving Wilhelmshaven. There was a loud noise and my lookouts were in terrible shape if they weren't dead. Engines and pretty much everything else was toast. I need to talk with mine laying operations about that.

The other Von Dues in the family don't talk about their goofy cousin a lot...

Actually, it turned out brilliant. 1 meter depth setting did it!

Hood, 1 Revenge, 1 Aux Cruiser at the bottom of the bay (or rather, not really, as the cruiser sat there happily on the bottom all hull sticking out except it had a good hole in the side). Shallow water indeed. Wish I could have seen Hood go down, she took 2 torpedos and one of them must have hit the magazine or something. She blew up like she was proud of it.

Trying to get into Loch Ewe now but salty me crackers that one is more heavily guarded than S.F.

EDIT
Around midnight. Weather is clear with moderate wind. Made it into Loch Ewe and there are 2 (correction, 3) biggies including a carrier south of the docks but their positions make long range shots impossible if I need to go shallow on the torpedos... This is turning into a real challenge. So far they are too far away to make out which ships they are but they are big, I can tell.

EDIT
I need to think about this. 4 capitol ships, the carrier is an Illustrious, Hood apparently came back to life and there are 2 other I haven't identified yet. And the British Destroyer Society is having a congregation here as well. As for the carrier, I did think the air coverage up here was a bit heavy for 1939 keeping me busy diving from north of Scotland all the way till Loch Ewe. The carrier would explain that.

EDIT
Ok, got there with 7 torpedos. 1 was all Rodney took to her magazine, then I spent a precious torp on a V&W hoping that will take care of the pinging when I approach the others. Only 5 eels left so they better count. Luckily the other biggie is Rodney's sister (someone has a warped sense of humour naming a lady Rodney, or Nelson) so I know where the magazine is on that. Only problem is there is a massive harbour blocking a long range shot and there are an armada of moored destroyers guarding the rest. Now with the V&W gone, I might get a clean shot on Hood (again) and watch what the escort is going to do about it. With luck they will do nothing. Or I could trundle off heading for home, 150,000++ tons logged. Not bad for a patrol.

EDIT
Hood is a Monty Python sketch. 'Tis just a fleshwound. Managed to sink her a second time on the same patrol. A direct hit in the magazine. 2 more to go and 4 torpedos left. Nelson and Illustrious but they are not going to be easy. Need to get up real close and that's where 5 destroyers are waiting. I need heavy fog.

Rodney and Hood II and a bunch of upset destroyers. The 2 remaining, Illustrious and Nelson are proving to be quite the tough nut to crack.



Sunrise not too far away, time to dive and see what the next night will bring.

Very nice pics ! :yeah:

But ... don't you fear that a destroyer will see you with its searchlights ???!! :o