There are many factors involved as there usually is in every decision....remaining torpedos, how close I am to ending a patrol and going home, can I surface and take out a small ship with guns alone, etc, how much gun ammo is left, etc etc.
I've found I can use the deck gun with HE rounds on small and medium tankers and often set them afire with 5-10 hits. Once they start burning it's easy enough to follow them until they burn and sink. It seems to me the tankers are assigned a much higher gun damage factor than other ships by the AI which would make sense.
Every time I learn an absolute about what does what in this game, I find an exception within hours....that IMHO is what makes it a great game.
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