Now you see me, Now your dead

[CaptainMattJ.]

ok, im doing a WONDERFUL campaign so far. ive tackled and beat the coastal mission and am just a few thousand tons away from completing the 100k south western approaches and ill tell you why.

i pick the 100k tons and get the mission to intercept and important convoy headed for england. so i arrive and patrol around for a while, before suddenly, i get this report of a convoy heading my way. so i plot a course to where i think theyre going to be, and....success.

i get multiple sound contacts to the southwest. so i plot another course and to intercept, and i come in at top speed. turns out there was 12 of em, without escorts, ANd it was trans-atlantic, which proved one guy .who said all trans atlantic convoys were escorted. wrong. i pick my first target, line up the shot and I strike gold. the ships health was decimated, although it wasnt sunk.....yet. so by the time the convoys search lights probe around i fire another one into the bow of another merchant. half health.....not too bad.

i keep firing torpedo after torpedo. two missed, one missed the target but ending hitting another, and 1 was shot too close and bounced of the hull cause its warhead didnt prime.

so, im out of torps and over half the convoy has at least 1 torp in her. 3 sank on their own. so i decide to finish them off with a deck gun. i targeted all the damaged ones, and ended their suffering.

there was, by then only 4 healthy ships left. i sank one, and the ones who were left were in a little group trying to get away. i still had 1 torp in bow and stern external reserves, so i load those and damage one of them. the other one, which got the stern torpedo, got hit in what looked like the front of the engine, in the stern, and got severed and sank.

Needless to say the two left were doomed. I sank the damaged one, then the last one. now im going to sail home.

this showed me that i should ALWAYS upgrade weapon personnel first. the first guy i spent promo points on was torpedo man, then the rest on my motor. i finished off my motor and topped my gunner. as a result, my gun reloaded in about 3 seconds (maybe less) and torps were loaded in a minute or less. plus i did 21 knots at full speed ahead ad turned better with an upgraded nav officer. cause thats what a sub is built to do. sink things. who needs better radio range when you cant dive or turn or go fast enough. who needs a special meal when you need to take out a destroyers guns quickly and efficiently before he can kill you using a deck gun.
in my opinion, the first upgrade should be spent on making your torpedoes load faster and hit stronger, not increase radio range or whatever.

[GoldenRivet]

i have full torpedo officer points on everything.

even with preheated eels i still have to hit everything 2 or 3 times just to get it to slow or stop. - let alone encourage it to sink

[CaptainMattJ.]

thats why if you got an unescorted convoy, you fire 1 torp at everything, then finish em with ur deck gun. its a better use of your torps believe me.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by CaptainMattJ.

thats why if you got an unescorted convoy, you fire 1 torp at everything, then finish em with ur deck gun. its a better use of your torps believe me.

yes obviously.

but these unescorted convoys - though they do exist - are rare.

[CaptainMattJ.]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

yes obviously.

but these unescorted convoys - though they do exist - are rare.

RARE!?!?!!?! dude ive encountered like 10 of em, although they vary in size. theres like some with 12 or 20 or 7 or w/e

[GoldenRivet]

somewhat rare yes.

i have encountered a few of them... and when i do, i employee the tactic of slowing them down and finishing them off.

but perhaps you and I are operating in different phases of the game

compared to the number of escorted convoys i encounter... unescorted convoys... are rare

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

but perhaps you and I are operating in different phases of the game

Or perhaps you're playing at different difficulty levels.

[GoldenRivet]

possibility, i play at a relatively high realism setting. (dont recall the percentage)

[CaptainMattJ.]

but that has nothing to do with escorts or no. however i am around febuary 18th right now, 1940 i still havent sunk that carrier though i REALLY need to

[Akula4745]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Or perhaps you're playing at different difficulty levels.

Massive understatement...

[Faamecanic]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

yes obviously.

but these unescorted convoys - though they do exist - are rare.

They should be RARE (especially trans atlantic).

But sadly they are not. I finished my 100K in one patrol (well 91,000k of it) due to a large unescorted convoy off the coast of Ireland.

Then on my next patrol encountered another for 70,000k....

Not very realistic...but then again when the devs decided to put these stupid high mission requirements in game to meet...Im not complaining.

[Faamecanic]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Or perhaps you're playing at different difficulty levels.

Ahh could be true. Im a medium difficulty (64% or so). I like my external camera to see the gooddies, and for now am testing floatation mods so I like the ship health bars for that.