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Originally Posted by Ducimus
I honestly don't know how many DC's tin cans carry by default,but im pretty sure its way, and well beyond what was historically accurate. TM does not touch this. I left this alone for one reason, its my beleif that a destroyer should *ALWAYS* be capable of sinking you regardless if your submerged or surfaced.
In my mind, If he runs out of depth charges, he ceases to be a threat to be scared of, and becomes an annoyance. My main issue with using the historical amount stored in a DD, is that the AI will run out of DC's too fast, and make himself a non threat too quickly.
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'Fraid I'll have to disagree with you on this one Ducimus. DDs, DEs, SubChasers and other ASW ships had definate limits on the number of DCs they could carry, and the number of passes they could make. Just as we are limited to 24 torpedoes (Gato + class), the Japs should be limited to their historic loadout too.
DCs should also be limited to their 'set' depth. The Japs were real good at setting their DCs shallow, and I really object to getting hit with a DC at 400' depth. I don't even think a DC could be set for that extreme depth. Their ASW techniques were'nt the best either as they would tend to drop their DCs where they thought the sub 'should' be if they didn't have a good contact.
However, if they had a good ping on you but were out of DCs, there's nothing in the book telling them they had to break contact. They could (and did) hang around and maintain contact until help arrived. The DD USS Buckley rammed and sank a U-Boat early in the war. I don't remember why the U-Boat was on the surface. The Japs have rammed me a couple of times, so they're still dangerous even when out of Depth Charges.
Refs: 'The Enemy Below' : U-Boat captain states how many DCs/passes that class of DD has according to his ID Book (SH4 game ID Book does not state armament)
'Silent Running' by James Calvert discusses Japanese ASW and habit of dropping their DCs where they thought the sub was, while he slunk away deep and silent.
'The Cain Mutiny' shows no room on the fantail for DCs on a MineSweeper amonst all the minesweeping gear. Were the Japs using MineSweepers as big SubChasers? I hate MineSweepers!