Task Forces: one-hit-chance only?
 

Hi,

It seems that with fast task forces - which usually seem to steam at 25+ knots - it is nigh-on impossible to intercept any of them.

So far I've chanced upon one task force with a Revenge-class BB and one with (I think) the Royal Ark, but I was never able to ambush them, much less chase them as they outrun me all the time.

Does anyone know of a good tactic / strategy to ambush / keep up with a task force, perhaps slowing them down in a way?

Chrs,
P

With the fast task forces you will need to be in an ambush position. For example if you hit a revenge travelling at 25 knots then it will drop to around 9kts and start zig zagging as will other large ships within the group.

There is no way to catch up with them if you are not in the correct position.

:hmm: Dumb luck I say.

you just have to be lucky that you find urself about a 5km range if they come to pass.

what you could do is firing up an Multi player game (LAN or Internet) start without any other and make an Generatic Mission by selecting Taskforce..make it Large , with escorts ofcourse...make the distance to taskforce medium (medium distance means that the Taskforce if bit further away before they pass you giving you the time to prepare yourself)

this is a good practice for urself so if you meet an Taskforce ingame you have a bigger chance to inflict some damages to it.

I did it once and I managed to sink 2 Dido light cruisers by launching up an Multi player game to practice...and I damaged the King George V but the escorts sunk me before I managed to sink her.

I sunk 3 Battleships in a taskforce just before the Straits of Gibraltor. I ran into them out at sea but I couldn't catch up to them. So, I figured they were heading to Gibraltor, so I full throttled the engines and made a Bee-line towards that area. I then patroled a narrow part of the Straits without really going in. Sure enough they come and sure Enough I sunk all three. As soon as I nailed the first one, they all dropped down to 9 knts and zig zagged. That made it easier to get the rest. One was a Revenge and the last two were Nelson's. Thanks to SH3 Commander, I sank THE Nelson. I poped the Revenge with one Electric Torp...after the steam that I had fired in the spread, detonated early. I had set it to 8.4 with magnetic pistol. I blew under the aft magazione and boiler room. Blew the stern right off.

I had waited about a 30 seconds after I had fired the first spread when I launched the second. All Steams running fast and impact pistols. They reached the first Nelson 7 seconds after the Electric struck the Revenge in front of it. I ended upp using 3 on both Nelsons to Capsize them to Davy Jones's Locker. Her escorts and surronding DD's never found me. It was at night and no moon. Perfect hunting conditions.

Only mod involved is the SH3 Commander. Can't run GW on my Laptop.

(ANYONE TOP THAT!)

P.S. I stumbled on to them by going to my patrol sector at the BE quadrant.:arrgh!::arrgh!::arrgh!:

:cool: Can't top it, but I can come close. I was patrolling in grid CG-something or other, near the mouth of the Strait of Gibraltar when I got notice that a warship had left England. Usually they are on a course to the Med, so I knew I'd be in prime position for an attack when they got to me in a few days. I have map contact updates turned on, so I saw when they had reached their due south course, skated on over to put myself right in their way and waited.

A-ha! Ship spotted. Went down, popped the scope up and what do I see? The Nelson class BB HMS Rodney (thanks, SH3 commander), and a Revenge. It was 9 AM, and I didn't want to push my luck and they were going so fast that I knew I only had time to position myself for one good shot, so I picked the bigger one.:arrgh!: I got in prime shooting position and put 3 torpedos into her port side as she passed. After marking her position on my nav map, and since I like to play pretty conservative, so I ducked out and ran before the destroyer escorts could get a bead on me. After running out 1000 meters or so, I popped the scope back up to survey the situation. The Revenge and destroyers had continued trucking on...I don't know if they even slowed down, and one of the destroyers was dumping DCs where I was 10 minutes ago. :cool:

But what's this? The Rodney....listing about 45 degrees and doing 2 knots?! Hot damn! Lets go finish that puppy. I quietly slipped back over to her, and put a perfectly lined up 90 degree, 4 meter deep coup de grace shot into her from about 700 meters away. CLUNK! Dud! :damn: I whipped around and used my bow tube this time, and luckily that did it. She capsized and went down, I slipped away untouched by the destroyer, and after that, it was a rousing evening with beers and the grammophone playing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" for the crew :up:

I stumbled across a Task Force once, patrolling in the CF region off Spain. Early morning, light fog, calm conditions - suddenly a DD came cruising towards me, intent on destroying me. (This was late 42 so I guess they had good radars).

I dived to periscope depth, and turned towards the DD, wanting to see what the DD was so eager to protect. Around 6 km away from me I saw a Illustrious Aircraft Carrier and two Nelsons, two light cruiser and around 9 DD's.

I fired off two T1's at the Carrier, with a very rough estimation of AoB and speed, and Lo and Behold, both fishies impacted. The Task Force then scurried of North, with the Illustrious listing heavily.

I managed to shake off the four DD's chasing me around, and took off in pursuit. After 12 hrs of pursuit, with DD's making frequent sorties at me whenever I got close to the TF, i managed to sink three of the DD's with acoustic torpedoes - at that point I guess the TF commander decided that he didnt want to risk any more ships. The TF and escorts sailed off at top speed, leaving the Carrier behind. Three! torpedoes later she sunk and I was mighty pleased with the kill.

So yeah, blind luck is needed to encounter and do damage to TF's :)

I came across a taskforce in the BF grid just outside of Lorient, I had just got out of lorient then get a message about a taskforce and notice its in the same area im in now! A carrier and 5 destroyers. I was in the right position just in front of it about 6000 yards, so just turn of the motor and laid in wait for it to get within range. Sunk it will 5 torps. Easiest taskforce sinking ever. Have attacked other taskforces in other careers some ive been lucky, where others all i could do is watch them limp past me doing 20knots or more and no chance of chasing them.

I prefer to take on a taskforce than a huge convoy anyday as the thrill is more intense.

The key to successful TF intercept IMO is to detect them early. If you don't know they are there until they're spotted it's often too late unless they happen to have a sharp angle.

However, detecting them on hydrophone will often allow you to determine their base course, and by making a high speed surface dash to get ahead on the base couse you can sometimes get in position, but due to TF speeds it's not easy.

Battleship TFs are always making 21 knots. Cruiser TFs go faster, 25-30 knots.

You need to edit your config files. Turn contact reports up to something more realistic, like 2000km. Then, one of two things. You'll get a report on it's position and heading, and you can plot some kind of intercept. Or you'll just blunder across them, normally, which leaves you no worse off than before you edited the config files.

After that, spread the love. Get up nice and close and give them both barrels -- fore and aft. Fire your slowest ones first, fastest ones last, so they'll have less time to react after the first hit.

Intercepting TF's is always difficult.

I was in the Irish Sea (I think- its the strait between England and Ireland) and had the bizarre fortune of having a large escort and a task force moving TOWARD each other in a very narrow part of the strait. It was so awesome, there was a literal TRAFFIC JAM OF SHIPS; many ships will stop completely to avoid being rammed; this makes them perfect targets. I sank a Dido, an escort (both with their pants down, waiting for other ships to pass) a T3 tanker and a C3 cargo ship. The cargo ship exploded with such force it set a nearby ship on fire (can't remember if that one sank). I got the hell out of dodge but unfortuately I got gangraped by aircraft at dusk while recharging my batteries, and sank before I could even order to dive :nope:

Obviously out for revenge :arrgh!:

Or you can be really naughty and edit the appropriate ini.file (or use sh3 inspector) to fine tune your Uboat to travel 5 time faster than they could historically.
I made myself a turbo charged IXC that could reach 70 knots surfaced... Just a bit of fun, but really but if you want to hunt for tasksforces its the only way to catch them.

Other wise you gotta do what the real kaluans did - hope you happen to get that 1 in million chance where a TF magically crosses your bow at 2000 meters... Thats the price of realism for you. :doh:

For me it was 3 million in and half chance just to bag all three, specialy sinking the Revenge with one Fish! The "Keel Splitter" lives up to her name.

(46% realism. My torpedo room are pumped up on steroides.)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...q=U-BOAT&hl=en

:o:hmm:

Amazing.

Here's another site I found with lots of pictures and artifacts relating to the Barham's sinking:

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/16107/

My best was a 3.4km shot that sunk the Illustious off Norway. I was not in a great position as the TF can cruising past at 25kt so I ran a flank to get as close as I could and then let loose with a salvo of 4 eels from about 3.4km out. All running slow set 3 set for impact at a depth of 7m and the first for magnetic firing at around 11m depth.

The first eel struck just under the smokestack and she started to slow down. The other 3 then hit one just forward of the supersrtucture and the others midships. As the 3rd impact hit when started going down so I must have hit her fuel bunkers!:arrgh!:

What was so satisfying was that the rest of the TF just kept on going so I didn't even hear a ping from the escorts!