Rocky huh? Let me try that one out:
That's not a rabbit, Bullwinkle! Yeah, works pretty good!:rotfl:
Escorts are nasty to shoot at. If you're doing the down the throat or up the poop chute attack they're so small! And a spread is three probable misses instead of one. Then, the noses of DDs are overly armored in SH4 so you might not stop them even if you hit. Shooting at those guys is something you do as a last resort.
If you can catch one stopped, then it is no longer last resort, but as kapitan says, they'll follow the trail, so dive immediately when you shoot. Go deep! Don't hang around to look at the pretty explosion, you'll still hear the boom if you hit and you'll still get credit if you're submerged. Take a course away from the torpedo's course too!
It's all a risk/benefits thing. If you can hit one, the others will be less aggressive for awhile, letting you escape. If you have brain-dead escorts up there to begin with, there's less gain. If they're smart there's more risk but more payoff too.
There are no clear answers, maybe just personal preferences. I usually choose to retain the initiative as long as possible. When forced to go deep, I'm looking for an opportunity to return to periscope depth to regain the initiative. When I'm at periscope depth I'm looking for a free shot to take out a pursuer, then to escape, do a new end-around and attack the convoy from the other side. The escorts will stick around your last reported position maybe long enough to let you hit paydirt!
Deeper means one foot before your sub gets crushed like a cockroach.
I exaggerate, but you get the idea. I take my Balao below 500' lots of times. Gives you more time to maneuver out of the way of falling depth charges.