GWX3.0 Gold anomaly? Small merchant took 3 torps and all AP gun ammo to sink. WTF?

[tiger_tim_34]

Has anyone else encountered these virtually unsinkable little blighters? I know that some ships stuffed their holds full of wood to help keep them afloat, but really...

Your thoughts please, kaleuns.

Running SH3Commander 3.1 and most of the GWX3.0 included mods.

[Reece]

Not wood, cork!! What type of ship exactly, any screenie?

[melnibonian]

My experience is that small ships usually sink with a single torpedo, although in some cases they tend to take a bit too long to go under. A few things you have to remember with respect to the torpedo hits are:

1. The angle at which to torpedo hits the target is important. If the angle is around 90 degrees you will manage to have the optimal explosion shock wave transfered to the target.

2. Where the target is hit is important. A hit very close to the bow usually is not too damaging as there are no vital compartments there. Hit a ship in the engine room or the fule bunker and you will do massive damage.

3. The running depth of the torpedo is vital. it's totally different to hit a target just bellow the water line in comparison with a hit deep down the hull.

[nikbear]

I bet its one of them damn Passenger/cargo buggers delivering they're usual consighment of corks and ping-pong balls again:rotfl:

[irish1958]

Originally Posted by nikbear

I bet its one of them damn Passenger/cargo buggers delivering they're usual consighment of corks and ping-pong balls again:rotfl:

What did England do with all those ping-pong balls? I know Scotland put the corks to good use.

[Captain Nemo]

Originally Posted by melnibonian

2. Where the target is hit is important. A hit very close to the bow usually is not too damaging as there are no vital compartments there. Hit a ship in the engine room or the fule bunker and you will do massive damage.

Strange as I find hitting a ship in the bow area to be quite effective. Only this morning I sent a large merchant to the bottom with a single torpedo set to impact and a running depth of 4 metres which hit in the bow area.

To answer the original question, I find smaller ships can be more resilient and as another poster commented, passenger cargo ships are hard to sink with one torpedo, you need at least two hits on these ships in my experience. As for small merchants and tramp steamers a single hit in the bow normally dispatches them. If I hit these ships around the centre I find they stay afloat a good percentage of the time and need a further torpedo to finish them off.

Nemo

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by Captain Nemo

Strange as I find hitting a ship in the bow area to be quite effective. Only this morning I sent a large merchant to the bottom with a single torpedo set to impact and a running depth of 4 metres which hit in the bow area.

Let me guess. Did you hit it just around the first mast? This is where the fuel is located. Large Merchants do blow up with a single hit just under the first mast due to this.

[tiger_tim_34]

Oh yes, corks of course. Thanks Reece.

I don't consider small ships worth a torp, unless I'm trying to take out a destroyer screen. But many thanks for your targeting area tips.

A few nights ago I had encouraging success when shooting a medium-sized merchant near the stern, which caused an explosion after just 250 rounds. However, I've just encountered another one of these seemingly indestructible smaller cargo ships and have emptied most of my AP rounds into the side of its stern, just below the waterline, with no effect.

What am I doing wrong? Do rounds that hit the water very near the hull fail to cause damage? Should I aim for underneath the funnel? Do fires on deck cause any damage whatsover?

And does ramming cause damage? I reduced a medium-sized cargo to limping across the Channel with its bow dipping *under* water, yet it would not sink. In my frustration (and out of ammo) I rammed the side of its stern at full speed but failed to inflict any discernable damage either on the cargo ship or, weirdly, my U-Boat.

As ever, my thanks again for your thoughts. God I love this sim.

[BulSoldier]

I never ram targets cause it is more probable your boot going to sink rather damaging the hull of the ship.

Furthermore i dont find hard to destroy tramp steamers or small passenger/cargo ships hard to sink with a single torpedo, though usualy they take quite a while to sink.

However if you encounter single ship (unarmed ofcourse) i would advice to gun them down with the deck gun rather wasting a torp.20-30 round around the waterline are usualy enough.
For bigger targets (if they are in convoy and above 5-6000 tons) i use 2 torps, this is usualy enough.As mentioned in preveous posts deph of the torp is esential. I prefer aiming from 4-7 meters running depth of the all because if they run too deep they could hit the curved part of the hull and it gets frustrating not to blow

I hope i was useful.

[Murr44]

I sank a Greek small merchant yesterday with 1 torpedo. It was unarmed & appeared to be sailing alone so I had intended to destroy it with the deck gun. However when I got to about 1500m not 1 but 2 destroyers suddenly showed up & started nosing around! I very quickly submerged & reduced speed to slow to avoid detection. Keeping an eye for our univited guests (the 2 escorts) I waited for the small merchant to settle down (reduce her speed and stop zig-zagging) and launched a T1 set to 8m from about 1600m. The T1 detonated just ahead of her bow & blew a big hole in it. We went down to 102m and went silent. After about 15 minutes (real time) the merchant went down and we slipped away undetected.

According to the GWX manual you should try for waterline & hull hits with the deck gun. They've (the GWX team) reduced the amount of damage that deck hits do.

[tiger_tim_34]

Yes, ramming that ship wasn't a brilliant idea. I had drunk a few emergency rations of whisky by then.

Perhaps I need to wait longer to see if my AP rounds have done the job? So long as there isn't a freak GWX3.0 unsinkable tramp steamer anomaly that you've all been finding, then I'll continue my deck gun attacks with renewed confidence.

Clearly, I just need to be (altogether now) more aggressive.

[BulSoldier]

Well something that just hapened.

I was on patrol traveling to north atlantik and i was about to pass to west of england between the orkeneys and i dont remember the name but betwenn scapa flow and the other base on the northern islands of britain.
I got contact of slowmoving merchant and it turn out to be passanger/cargo around 2000 tons.Given the place in witch engagement was going to take place (so close to the bases) i (it was around 21 when i made visual contact) first tought of a silently torpedoing the ship and leaving but then the greed for not wasting Aals came.And given that it was deadcalm water i poped up 1,5 kilometers from the ship and shelled it.It took around 30 rounds and few minutes to sink.
With that hapening i continued my patrol and Oh surprise just few minutes after the sinking of the merchant a destroyer straith ahead at distance around 8-9 kilometers.Long story short - 1 hour of dodging depthcharging attacks i finally screwed and a DC hit pretty hard the forward torpedo area.
(something you should now is that sea floor was 79 meters so i didnt go below 65 because DC could miss me and explode on bottom)
Heavy flooding occured after the explosion of the DC and all tubes were destroyed.By the time the crew stoped the flooding there was so much water that the sub probably was 30 degrees pointing at the bottom and sinking.I could support it by using slow backwards but i have to stop machines in order not to surface.And so after another 10 min the destroeyer finaly hit me with dc and blew me to pieces :|

Imagine, and it was still '39

[Jimbuna]

Sounds like you'd be more suited to the infantry

With any unit,
Pounding on the same spot gains you nothing.
Once a damage zone is destroyed?
It will aquire no more damage.
Which means the total unit will suffer no more damage.
Spread your shots!

I hit fore and aft when Deck Gunning.
That way I'm assured that damages are taken.

Nothing is unsinkable in GWX if you take this approach.

[tiger_tim_34]

A-ha, many thanks Privateer. That is exactly what I needed to know.

Now if I can just find a few more British merchants in 1939 rather than all these Norskis...