Destroyers-Run or hide? What do YOU do?
 

Personaly being a big coward i evade at al costs and only attack when i feel there is no option, but what do you do? and what are your tactics?

Well, lets see. Depends on the year you are in. I used to try and get in attack position submerged if it was a lone DD. Now Im in June 1942 and those damn Tommies got radar now. Found that out the hard way :ping: So now I dive and evade.

Last patrol I caught a fat convoy in AM51. Bad weather and heavy fog. Long storey short I only managed to sink a coastal and a C2 before limping back home to port with a barely seaworthy boat and 8 fish left. Those damn DDs zeroed me everytime I broke the surface. Guess Ill need to rethink my tactics now. :hmm:

It was fun tho :up: First time I been Beat up that bad. :doh:

Im not particular, Ill just as soon put a torpedo in a DD or DE just as soon as a C2.

The only time ill evade, is:
1.) they're an armed trawller - that just aint worth a torpedo.
2.) THey've detected me.

It is July 1941 in my campaign, and I have sunk maybe 2 destroyers, I don't usually go after destroyers, but those practically offered themselves to be shot.

If I see a destroyer I just change my course, not trying to attack.

Oh ill change course, assuming its a plausable shot.

Nothing quite as spectacular as hitting a destroyer in the magazine when hes crusing along at 25 knots.

My boat is in 1944, and I finally got the snorkel, and it rocks. On the most guarded parts of the sea, I order the snorkel up and cruise under water for a good long voyage. When I get a contact report I just cruise into possession, cut the engines, stop just about everything, and fire a torp around about 1500-2000 meters and get a 75% of a hit.

When I have allot of renown to spend, I buy a couple of the homing torps and try one of my most dangerous tactics. When I get a contact of a single warship, and is going faster than 25knots, I go under and order flank speed to make as much noise as possible to grab their attention. If that doesn't work, I surface my boat (if the destroyer is around 4000 meters away) to get their radar against me. When I notice changes on their course, I go back to periscope depth and cut all the noise. Now this applies to both of my dangerous situations. I then go on a 0 degrees bearing and wait till the destroyer is about 4000 meters away, coming straight at me before it starts its evasive maneuvers, and fire the homing torp. I order a 180 degree turn to be ready to fire the other rear homing torp. Usually there's a hit when the destroyer gets around 2000 meters away from me, and disables it. Then I use a "dumb" torpedo and sink it, making a huge explosion.

Usually you're suppposed to avoid destroyers simply because (from a U-boats perspective) they aren't worth the effort given your primary objective; to sink enemy shipping and starve out Britain. Destroyers are numerous and losing a single destroyer to the Allies isn't a big hit, however the torpedoes which you expend in the act of destroying said destroyer (which can be many if you aren't practiced or lucky) would be much better spent nailing big fat merchants. That and the fact that a merchant isn't likely to sink you whereas losing a single U-boat, to Bdu, is a terrible loss.

Also more destroyers is even a better thing if you think about it, and provided you can evade them whilst destroying merchant cargoes. See Destroyers are huge fuel hogs and if you can take out alot of oil tankers, in conjunction with other U-boats, the shortened supply of oil, ever drained by the high demands of destoyers on the high seas, would eventually cripple Britain's ability to field its defensive weapons and would shut down industry and so on.

However if you're a hot shot that likes to brag to your Kaleun buddies go right ahead.

As for tactics that can vary. Some people have very realistic appraoches whereas others exploit certain quirks in the game engine. For evasion that depends on the year. But obviously th easiest way to evade is to avoid. And that isn't hard if you pay attention.

I will attack destroyers if there's a high likelyhood of hitting it.
They almost always sink after just 1 torp, and it's much more satisfiying sinking 'real' combatants than merchants :arrgh!:
In most of my careers I have an average of 1 in 3 ships sunk being some sort of warship.

I will almost always take on a lone DD but never bother with them if they are in a TF or Convoy.

It depends on the circonstances ...

Sometimes it is easy , sometimes it is foolish .

Cheers .

Torpedoing a DD isnt about the tonnage.

Its about the satisfaction to be gain by sending a wouldbe tormentor to the bottom. Who's hunting who? :smug:

Aye, sometimes it's just that: payback time. Usually though I'll evade, not pushing my luck and wasting torps but on occasion, if I just want to sink something, anything, I'll give it a shot.

Most times I'll always evade, unless i got no choice. Early war yrs i'll take them on.

lol :rotfl:

before 1.3 patch i could attack every dumb DD, now after the patch they aren't so dumb anymore, so all i do is hide and run.

When attacking a convoy, and depending on a.) the amount of torpedos I have and b.) the collection of high tonnage the convoy consists of, I will sometimes try and sink the escorts if there aren't too many (early years).

It's worth the risk if I can finish the escorts off and get myself a T2 and/or T3 and depending on weather finish all the heavy runners with my deck gun.

Oh ja, I'm playing with 50% realism - so it works at this level :roll: