How Much Deck Gun Fire ?

[Goat]

I'm pretty new to this game, so I did the 'Naval Academy' training missions. When I came to the Deck Gun Artillary, I was amazed at how MUCH H.E. those freighters could absorb..barely burning, much less sinking! I thought maybe it was the gun crew, so *I* did the job. I concentrated more ordnance on one place than they did, but it still took almost all we had on board, to 'qualify' [and, inspite of what it says in the book, I think *I* did a lot better than what the Watch Officer ordered]

Question: Is this 'normal' ?

[Redwine]

Originally Posted by Goat

I'm pretty new to this game, so I did the 'Naval Academy' training missions. When I came to the Deck Gun Artillary, I was amazed at how MUCH H.E. those freighters could absorb..barely burning, much less sinking! I thought maybe it was the gun crew, so *I* did the job. I concentrated more ordnance on one place than they did, but it still took almost all we had on board, to 'qualify' [and, inspite of what it says in the book, I think *I* did a lot better than what the Watch Officer ordered]

Question: Is this 'normal' ?

Download the Timetraveller's program called MiniTweaker, and rise up shells power.

Take in account, according the mod you are using, the ship may be condemned too much before you receive the message "enemy unit destroyed"

How to explain in my bad english, in example you can hit a C2 cargo with 20 shells under and along the waterline. You will not recive the message "enemy unit destroyed" but if you stay there, ship's compartement are flooding, and the ship may sinks in few hours, o may be in the next day....

Any way you can rise upo the shells power using the MiniTweaker program up to yur pleasure, in example to destroy a C2 with 30, 40, or 50 impacts.

[enaceo]

It depends also on what mods ,if any,you are using.With GW and NYGM ,you can only sink the ships if you blast them below the waterline.If you play vanilla SH3,you can blow them up by hitting even the command deck.It is best,however,to blast the ship under the waterline,and concentrate fire on the cargo/ammo/fuel bunkers,since making these explode will most of the time make the ship go straight down to a watery grave.

[SubConscious]

I'm using the stock version of SH3 with the 1.4 patch and I've found it to be pretty easy to sink most ships with the deck gun. For Coastal and Small Merchants, I have been able to dispatch them with as few as three well placed rounds at the waterline under the smokestack - not all in exactly the same place, but along a line. If this doesn't do it, an additional 1-2 rounds on the waterline in the fore and aft storage compartments will usually do the trick.

I take out Tug Boats, Small Coastal Vessels and Trawlers with the 2cm gun. Blast the engine, then just forward of the engine to catch the fuel.

T2 and T3 tankers require more effort, but they usually blow up if I can first hit them several times in the engine room, then several times just aft of the forward superstructure. I think I'm using about 15-20 rounds on these.

I have found C3s will sink more readily than C2s. For C3s, I try to nail the engine room, under the front of the superstructure (fuel?) and along the stern in very rapid succession, as they'll settle quickly. I have noted that if I hit the stern just a few feet behind the superstructure that it will ignite a fire at that location.

C2s are the pain in the rump. In my experience, you have to hit them in very rapid succession in the engine room and along the stern to get them to sink. This could be superstitious behavior, but I'm of the belief that if I leave them for any length of time, they manage to stop the flooding and can list heavily for days. C2s usually take me 15+ rounds to sink.

Note that if you leave the area or submerge to allow faster time compression that the ship might not be there when you get back (even when it is at zero knots). If your watch crew doesn't give you the "ship sighted" message, then you may not receive credit for sinking the crippled vessel.

Oh - one last thing: I have found that having a gunner on deck significantly improves the deck gun reloading time.

Good luck and good hunting!

<edit> For what it's worth, I think the deck gun is too powerful in the stock game. From what I've read, it should take a multitude of rounds to sink a large cargo vessel.

[Goat]

'Gracias', Redwine... and your English is better than my Spanish, even after two years of College Study ! Tengo seseta y nueve anos ...

enaceo, I suspect YOU have the answer. I installed Grey Wolves. Probably should have done the training missions before that ... I may uninstall SH3 and do them all again...

Thanks for the replies...

[Goat]

Sunconscious, I don't think I can even get the gun to work...without some 'crew' on it. I've let the Watch assign...I've assigned from the boat's crew... and I've just clicked on the gun trunk... But gotta have men up there or nothing goes 'boom'... so I don't understand your statement:

Oh - one last thing: I have found that having a gunner on deck significantly improves the deck gun reloading time

[enaceo]

Originally Posted by Goat

Sunconscious, I don't think I can even get the gun to work...without some 'crew' on it. I've let the Watch assign...I've assigned from the boat's crew... and I've just clicked on the gun trunk... But gotta have men up there or nothing goes 'boom'... so I don't understand your statement:

Oh - one last thing: I have found that having a gunner on deck significantly improves the deck gun reloading time

By "Gunner" -he meant an officer with the gunner specialization on the bridge.And it is true,having a gunner officer will make the gun reload faster,so if you intend to use the deck-gun in the campaign,you should make sure your watch officer has that perk or get some petty-officers on the gun and give them the perk.

[Goat]

Wow.... Unbelievable.... I uninstalled SH3 and GW... Cleaned out everything. Re-installed SH3 and the Patch.. NOT GW. Ran the Training/Exams ... CAN'T believe how much MORE damage the guns do...without Grey Wolves!

I wonder if everything in the Real Game is more difficult running Grey Wolves ???

[Pants]

GW 1.1a is running NTGM's damage model...please aim " BELOW " the water line...these will be more balanced in GWX.

[Redwine]

Originally Posted by Goat

'Gracias', Redwine... and your English is better than my Spanish, even after two years of College Study ! Tengo seseta y nueve anos ...

You are wellcome... your spanish is good, where is Boomer Heaven ?

Remember some mods like NYGM increase the Hit Points of compartements, so it is more hard to reach the destroy points, but those compartements are flooding, then.... even if you dont destroy the ship by shell hits, it will be continuously flooding up to it sinks in some hours.