Quote:
Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
It works most of the time. But then I've never played past 1940, so I I don't have a solution for massed attacks.
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You've never experienced the excitement of getting caught by 4 DD's in Gibraltor on your way transfer to La Spezia, all 4 of em bombaring you with active sonar
like anything in life it can be done; though getting rid of multiple (even just 2) DD's can take hours in real time. Time period from when you can transfer to Salamis and La Spezia closing is one of my favorites. You just are starting to get some improved equipment, at that time the Med is so full of convoy's, single ships, and best of all many many task forces.
If you get caught by multiple DD's, especially if they are using active sonar it becomes very important to be able to hear well. I've got a comfortable set of headphones I'll put on (you're gonna have em on for awhile, sometimes up to 8 hours if you follow through to the end). If you have decoys those can save your life, they do work really well. Best if you man the sonar yourself and listen to the boats yourself. Pretty much the only window of time you have to escape these deathtraps are during the depth charge explosions, so you need to make the most of each one. The moment you hear a charge dumped in the water count on how many get dropped. The moment you hear the first one detonate slam the engines to flank. I prefer to try and maneuver myself so I end up perpendicular with the DD and escpape via the blind sides (usually with 45 or 90 degree turns).
Keep moving at flank until you hear the second to last charge explode and kill the engines completely. Once your speed drops down set it back up to 1 knot and keep moving along. If you have decoys you can extend that period where you can continue moving at flank for up to a minute or two, shortly before the last charge is going to detonate deploys the decoys and keep on moving at flank. IME decoys will confuse all the escorts for anywhere from 30 seconds (if you have 4 or more) or up to 3 minutes if you only have 1 or 2. If the escorts have lost you they'll keep circling but you will finally be outside their radius of search. Be sure to crawl away at 1 knot perpendicular to the circle (geometricaly any position would be perpendicular to a circle, but in this case where you and the escort would form a straight line) be perpendicular to him at that point so you are moving the farthest away in the quickest (mathematical) manner.