Hi there. After a very long break I started to play SH4 again. I've used TMO before, but this is the first time with TMO + RSRD for me. I play at almost 100% difficulty, just like in the past and started in 1941 based at Manila. I ony use the free camera for cinematic reasons to watch the ships sinking.
RSRD seems much harder than I remember my last games with only TMO before my break. My first attempt was not really succesful, because almost everytime when I fired my torpedos, the enemy ships started evasive actions and I'm pretty sure, that they were not aware of me before I fired. I know that the US-torpedos have a steam/gas propulsion and that there is a chance that enemies can see their trail, but it shouldn't be everytime and not so fast and probably not in the darkest night and these were all merchant vessels. It seemed really strange.
Because it went horribly wrong, I started again. This time I was more lucky with my patrol. I sank a Takao heavy cruiser with three torpedos during a night attack. Then I found another enemy task force and managed to position myself so well that I was able to torpedo a Kongo BB. I think my torpedo attack was almost perfect but it must have seen my torpedos and accelerated quickly avoiding three out of the four. I can live with that. It's a war ship, it can run fast, it has better acceleration than merchants and it was during daylight. After this I found a convoy with 12 merchants escorted by 6(!) war ships. Escorts and real DDs. So one escort for every two merchants. I have never before run in such a heavy escort. In my first attempt I attacked two Nagara Maru, each with two torpedos. All of the hit, all exploded, but one ship survived. I escaped ran ahead of the convoy and attacked hours later again. The escorts found me and I had to abandon the attack. Same as before, but this time the escorts were posiotend in a better way - at least for me and I managed to sink two Nagara Marus, each with to torpedos. I left the area an went for my second mission objective and after a searching for some time in the area a Japanese sub came in my direction which I sunk. Then I was ordered back to base.
I sank 5 ships for a total tonnage of 39105 tons, including the biggest CA in the Imperial Navy, received 1690 renown and was awarded just a lousy Commendation Medal. The TMO manual rates this as an excellent result, so I was expecting much more... What the hell do they expect me to do for a Bronce Star Silver Star, Navy Cross?
So in RSRD the enmies seem to much more capable of defensive actions, they often appear as they have a six sense of being attacked and recognicing torpedos and the have much much more escorts and no small convois or single ships. The US navy seems really stingy with rewards. On the other hand I didn't have a single dud, at least ot those 12 torpedos that hit ther target. Four missed - three on the BB and one on the sub.
I'm interested in the opinion of mor experinced players - what do you think? And I hope my english is not to bad for you native speakers
