I haven't checked in for awhile, and it's because my campaign may well be dead. The computer I usually play on (at work) won't power on any more. The boss has simply handed me one of the other computers to work with.
My last great exploit was taking on a convoy. I was finally getting the hang of it–how to squirt around the edges and how to sink ships. My tactic is to target the biggest ship and to salvo it with 2 steamers at about 0.5º spread. It's not the one-torpedo-one-ship motto I had previously adhered to, but when you sink a 10,000 ton merchant with 2 torpedoes you feel that you're doing well.
At any rate, I got triple unlucky. Normally I was undetected, but I surfaced at what I thought was a safe distance only to find that the weather had changed. At 11,500 two frigates spotted me and opened fire. Rather than outdistancing them on the surface, I crash dived and at 40m turned 30º to port and switched to silent running. The bottom was only about 90m. You would figure at that distance the time it takes them to go 11.5 km would have me safely out of detection range, but one of them got in a lucky ping and both of them started following me. A few minutes later two more joined the hunt and I was in serious problems. I almost evaded them twice by going to full speed in a straight line for about 30 seconds (while getting pinged) and then turning 40º to port and going silent. They lost track of me twice and I was able to get my TC up to 64 to head off, but when they fanned out they found me again... twice.
The third time they got in a lucky depth charge and destroyed 3 out of 4 of my front torpedoes.
Fortunately I figured out that you can pull the torpedoes back out and load them in other tubes. I finally slipped away and surfaced some 12 km from the three escorts who had given up and were heading back to the convoy at medium. The fourth was the lead escort and had long since returned to his position at the front of the convoy. At 18 knots I roared around the escorts and headed back towards the vulnerable convoy at full speed. I got back to where I figured it should be, but I couldn't find it. I went to periscope depth and manned the hydrophone myself. I thought I heard something at bearing 320º and so I surfaced and headed that way at full speed. Another 20 km found me at periscope depth again listening. I went another 6º port and roared out on the surface at 18 knots.
Then I hit paydirt. Ship spotted and I was on the starboard flank of the almost unprotected convoy. Throwing caution to the wind I set a waypoint that would take me through the middle of the convoy and manned the deck gun. At medium range my gunner opened fire, and I swear it was like WW3 on the deck. Every ship in the convoy opened up on me plus the lead frigate, but with my bow on I presented a difficult target. I fired until I was out of shells and then crash dived headed straight for the tail of the convoy.
I got pinged immediately, but I slipped away by going ahead full in the direction of the convoy and then turning 40º port and going silent. It was none too soon as my hydrophone officer informed me that the three trailing escorts were coming up fast on the convoy. I got some really cool screenshots, but they may never be seen unless the other computer starts working again. About 10 minutes after I slipped away from the escorts, I got the "She's going down!" text and a 10,000+ cargo ship showed up on my captain's log. Deck guns work.
I've installed the game again on the new computer, and I'm restarting from 1939. Wish me luck.