Clayp, if you counted the number of ships and convoy contacts lost by real skippers before radar trying to outguess where the enemy was going, you'd find you're in very good company.
If you totaled the number of aborted attacks by real skippers because of bad weather, loss of visual and sonar contact at the last moment, or bad guessing as to the convoys base course, you'd again be in some really good company.
What made the sub aces wasn't infallibility, it was persistance in being willing to shake off a bad situation and go into the next one with a positive outlook about their chances in the new engagement.
So keep your chin up, there's always a new chance to do well looming over the horizon.
And we're rootin for ya all the way!
As for us SH4 players. here's an example that shows a bad day can happen to anyone.
I picked up a task force and was in a great position. THe task force was only doing 14 knots, so I took my boat in an end run at flank as I was drooling at the chance at a battleship or a couple of cruisers.
Stoopid me, I forgot to check the local sunrise time. I wsa just about in position where I could dive and make a submerged approach when I was silhouetted by the sunrise only 5000 yds from the convoy. Even with a crash dive I was holed by a couple of destroyer rounds and had some critical damage to deal with. Thankfully the TF escort only dropped a few DC's and left as the hull was damaged and she probably couldn't have taken much more.
So for an all night run, I got zip, didn't even get a torpedo off, and now had a damaged boat that could only make 14 knots top speed instead of 20.
This is the same boat that later jumped a convoy of 6 freighters and 2 escorts and made 2 seperate attack runs. Of course because I use the RFB mod I had 3 hits for damage to the freighters, 4 duds, 4 under runners/ gyro failures and 3 prematures. No sinkings
Not exactly what I would call a stellar performance. At the end of the patrol I'd exhausted all my fish and scored one sampan and one small composite freighter that I had to finish off with the deck gun because only one torpedo hit and exploded and I was out of fish.
Yet, this is the same person on another patrol that snuck into the middle of a TF and sank one BB, one CA and damaged another CA.
So having a bad experience doesn't mean you're a bad player, it means you had a bad day. Keep playing, and on the bad days, go have a beer and a pizza.