Hunting Merchants

[Falkirion]

Running RFB & RSRD and currently on my quietest patrol ever. No contacts beyond the friendlies leaving Pearl and Midway. Should be on the outskirts of a lightly used shipping corridor.

I believe its December 26th 1941, and I haven't had any action since I arrived in Japanese waters, no aircraft, no boats nothing. Someone point me in the right direction?

[Seminole]

I don't use those mods so I can't say with 100% certainity but I suspect if you head for the approaches to Tokyo Bay you will find shippng heading in from and out to all directions. Seems only logical.


First though, I would stay within 50 miles of that marker (2-3 days unmodded version - modded???) to collect your renown for mission accomplishment-unless the mods you are using have done away with the renown system. Again, I'm not in a position to say for sure.

[chief.kaiser]

yea there is a shipping lane that goes through the top left part of your circle, concentrate in that area. If you still dont find anything move on after youve patrolled for the alloted time. I like the shipping lane in the china sea, i got a lot of single merchants around there

[SteamWake]

Couldent help but notice you had the patrol mission (star with flag) and a range circle about it.

This type of mission you approach the star and you should get a contact about prosecuting enemy shipping (star turns grey).

At that point you can go anywhere on the map, yes literally anywhere. You do NOT have to stay within any range of the star. When you meet your tonnage quota the mission will be complete.

So If I had that mission I would sail to the star then head west and north of Manya there and start patrolling along the western sides of those islands.

Good luck.

[Falkirion]

Well my orders are to remain within 150 miles of that center point for I think 72 hours, RSRD gives you a bit more details than stock. But if IJN units are detected outside the 150 mile circle I'm free to pursue at my discretion. I think I'll go poke around off Manya.

Oh the patrol orders only yellow because I just reloaded my save to get an idea on what I was doing wrong, was trying to get to bed at the time. Thanks for the responses, I'm having myself some tasty merchants for dinner tonight!

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Falkirion

Well my orders are to remain within 150 miles of that center point for I think 72 hours, RSRD gives you a bit more details !

Well then just consider that a 'suggestion'. Its color text from rsrd.

[Falkirion]

Yeah Steamwake I'll be taking your advice and start hunting near Manya, hopefully at least get a fishing boat. Hopefully something bigger though.

[Arclight]

After you complete the objective, you could head over to Formosa and Luzon Straights. Always good pickings there. There's a "channel" running along the west coast of Formosa, with the south entrance only ~10m wide (between Formosa and a small island). All kinds of traffic going through there.

[DanFraser]

Task forces and convoys go along this line, a LOT!

[Falkirion]

Dan you're a life saver thanks! I was poking around off the south western tip of Manya and still no contacts. Now I'll steam north ASAP and hopefully pick up something. Its 41' so I'm not expecting much action. Hopefully things get a bit more fun in 42 and 43. I dont plan on leaving my boat for as long as I can.

[Task Force]

Try the mouth of Tokyo bay. I use the same mod configureation you do with the with PE4 and the uniform mod. Also the louzon strights.

[thumper]

Try your luck around AMORI on the north end of honshu island..Its a natural gateway to the sea of japan, lots of targets from small freighters to large oilers..The passage bottlenecks at the entrance to the sea of japan..Just hang out in that area and they will come right to you..Good hunting area..

[C DuDe]

You know,

I might go to Amori myself... I never ever seen a big oil tanker in this game (besides the recon book of course).

[Falkirion]

You'd think that after 3 days trawling a shipping lane I'd at least hear something but no. Nothing on hydrophones, nothing on binoculars, the few contacts I had was when I stuck my head up near Manya for a look at the port.

For anyone who knows what Japanese shipping in '41 was like can you answer my question as to where the fudge are they?

[DanFraser]

Japanese convoys and task forces are like busses, you wait weeks for one, then 7 come along at once. Patience my friend, it's damn worth it! That's a favourite place for me to go looking for task forces as you can see by a thread I've posted in this subsection...