Snake In The Grass (Scapa)

[Wonderbread]

Hola Amigos,

I'm relatively new to the game and I'm my 5th patrol (Feb 1940) using SHIII commander and Grey Wolves Mod at 57% difficulty...anyway, my assigned patrol area was very close to Scapa. I finished up my 24 hours and decided to go somewhat near the entrance of scapa and see if I could snag me something special before I head back to Kiel.

After laying submerged for a day or two I began to notice the patrol tendencies of the destroyers guarding the entrance so I decided to get bold and make a couple night surface runs when I knew the coast was clear....

...long story short I end up just outside the port, silent running and anxiously raised my periscope to see........a troop carrier and a destroyer. BOO! Not exactly what I was hoping to see after all the trouble.

So I decided to take up a spot near the shore and wait patiently for at least a cruiser to show up. I've been staying there for about 10 days now in silent running. I sit at periscope depth all day and replenish my oxygen at night.

I found somewhere online that says a cruiser will come on March 1st and that the Illustrious will come to dock on March 5th......its now March 11 and not a single ship has entered or left the harbor since Feb 27th.

Is that "Hunting Grounds" schedule that I found online not apply when you are using the greywolves or SHIII Commander mod?

If so, how long should I wait before I make my move....I mean, there cant be THAT many days without any action in Scapa....Patience is not my specialty, as you can probably tell. I need to take out a cruiser at least because I'm pretty sure that after I let the fish fly I probably wont make it out alive.

Thanks so much in advance for any replys!

[bigboywooly]

Hi and welcome to Subsim
That Hunting grounds schedule was written for the stock game so it has probably changed in GW
Sink the troop carrier and get out alive

[_Seth_]

Originally Posted by bigboywooly

Hi and welcome to Subsim
That Hunting grounds schedule was written for the stock game so it has probably changed in GW
Sink the troop carrier and get out alive

Good advice! BdU has spoken!

[bookworm_020]

Take down the troopship and get out of there!!! Be a coward, they live longer!!!

[Wonderbread]

Originally Posted by _Seth_

Good advice! BdU has spoken!

I was thinking that BdU would want me to be more...I dont know....Agressivo?

Its just that I went through so much trouble getting to where I'm at and I've already patiently waited for approx two weeks. A troop ship just doesnt seem worth the trouble....Troopship or Battleship, the response isnt gonna be pretty once that harbor lights up.

Something HAS to come to home to port....jeeez.

[_Seth_]

Originally Posted by Wonderbread

I was thinking that BdU would want me to be more...I dont know....Agressivo?

Its just that I went through so much trouble getting to where I'm at and I've already patiently waited for approx two weeks. A troop ship just doesnt seem worth the trouble....Troopship or Battleship, the response isnt gonna be pretty once that harbor lights up.

Something HAS to come to home to port....jeeez.

I was thinkin of BdU bigboywooly. Its a good advice to do a hit'n run on the troop carrier. Then you will live to fight another day, mate!

[mookiemookie]

I'll add my voice to the "sink the troop ship and hope you get out alive" chorus.

[MobyGrape]

Is it foggy, if not look around with the free camera, i know in gw1.1a theres stuff hiding in there ,,maybe thats been changed..Your tactics and patience are to be commended,,Press the attack..

[swuboo]

I just ran Scapa, myself. Realism of 94%, GWX.

Second patrol, October of 1939. Type VIIB boat out of Wilhemshaven.

Had a patrol zone right by the area, so I figured I'd at least poke my way in, see what happened, you know?

Came in from the west, submerged and silent. High seas and pouring rain. I kept expecting at any moment to hit a mine, or a net, but I never did. Never even saw one.

Saw a destroyer on patrol; it didn't see me. One torpedo, eight hundred yards. She went up like a box of rockets.

Around dawn, the weather cleared up and I got a good look at the slips. There was a troop transport and a medium merchant; one torpedo each. While I was taking them out, a destroyer decided to sink me; but as he was on the opposite side of a wall, he just kept shelling a building over and over. A little disappointing, actually.

I managed to submerge and pop him with a torpedo as I rounded the corner, but he spotted my scope and smashed my deck gun to flinders in the process.

As there were no ships around, I pulled in the scope and waited an hour for my eels to reload. I poked around in the harbor a bit more, and came upon an armed trawler guarding two tankers. Took down those three ships with my last four forward eels, and got the Hell out of Dodge.

All told, my Scapa Flow adventure netted me 27k tons, 3k of which were warships. It took all night, and I managed to get back to Wilhelmshaven with 7% hull left. (That was a bit of a shocker. Damn good thing I didn't have to crash dive, eh?)

Not worth it. Didn't so much as smell a capital ship, and nearly lost my boat for tonnage I could have racked up more safely and easily in the Irish Channel.

[Pants]

In open water...you always have a chance to get away, tight spots like scarpa you need different tactics than you use in open water.

[Wonderbread]

Well, in case y'all were interested in what happened:

I waited a few more days for a capital ship until I decided to take your advice...I commenced my attack just after midnight. From periscope depth I fired one torp at a medium tanker, one at a small tanker, one at the destroyer and one at the troop transport....

The two tankers went up in flames and the two torps I fired toward the Destroyer and troop transport just blew up half way there. Greedy as I am I stayed submerged as my crew feverishly loaded another fish...which I got off and hit the destroyer.

By that time there were 3 flower corvettes and some other destroyer immediately around my position. Needless to say, I ate a healthy serving of depth charges for breakfast.

All hands were lost.

[Grell]

Ah well, at least you went out in a blaze of glory.

Regards,

Grell

[codmander]

57% realism probly go in on the surface--

[bigboywooly]

:hmm:

If you guys get SH3Gen you can get intel on what ships may be in port on your patrol dates
Some nice surprises at times

[andy_311]

I just completed my first patrol GWX I thought about sneaking into scapa but changed my mind and went into LE instead and am glad I did 1 Battlecruiser and a Battleship sunk,continued on my way to my patrol grid BE61 and bumped into a convoy sank 2 tankers, 1 Battleship (H.M.S Rodney)and a couple of merchants 177k+ not a bad patrol I think.