[BillCar]

Actually, you can win surface battles against escorts with HE shells in GWX 3.0.

I don't know how, but I did it just last night. In calm seas and broad daylight, I sank two Black Swans and one Flower corvette in under two minutes with the deck gun, while attacking a convoy. I posted about it in the "Tell us what you are up to in your current campaign" thread.

Guess I'm just lucky. The only reason I was on the surface was because of an error in blowing ballast that could not be fixed, so I figured I was as good as dead and might as well shoot back – not only did I survive the artillery engagement, I subsequently sank a merchant ship in that convoy with my stern tube.

I took two hits – one from the flower and one from the second Black Swan. The first Black Swan apparently never even had a chance against my furious 88mm, poor guy.