how to attack in heavy fog?

Hi all!

I am a noob who is in command of a class VII (Kiel) in June 1940. These are the "happy days", I am starting to get convoys (as opposed to lone merchants) though you can tell things are slightly tougher than before. I must say that I am playing at the easy level!! (I think it is 29% realism). I think one of the ways in which the game tries to make thing a bit harder (or rather not so boring) is in the sea conditions: you have rough seas and you cannot use the deck gun, which reduces your kills.

I am now in a patrol with awful sea conditions: rain, fog and 200m visibility. My question is how you can sink ships in these conditions: you can detects ships easy with the hydrophones but you then surface and see nothing until you actually bump into the merchant! So then... what can you do??

Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by plastik

Hi all!

I am a noob who is in command of a class VII (Kiel) in June 1940. These are the "happy days", I am starting to get convoys (as opposed to lone merchants) though you can tell things are slightly tougher than before. I must say that I am playing at the easy level!! (I think it is 29% realism). I think one of the ways in which the game tries to make thing a bit harder (or rather not so boring) is in the sea conditions: you have rough seas and you cannot use the deck gun, which reduces your kills.

I am now in a patrol with awful sea conditions: rain, fog and 200m visibility. My question is how you can sink ships in these conditions: you can detects ships easy with the hydrophones but you then surface and see nothing until you actually bump into the merchant! So then... what can you do??

Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

There are two ways to do it. One is to use Manual TDC and fire based on the Hydrophone bearing. To get the speed right you'll need to get your sonarman to follow the nearest merchant and time how long it take sot go a set number of degrees which should give you an idea of the range also if you listen for long enough. BTW there is a cheat here also if you surface wit the sonarman tracking he will continue to track the target even though you are surfaced.

The second way is a cheat an all you have to do is repeatedly hit the L key until you get a lock on a ship. If you are fast enough you should be able to fire off a torp before it fades. IIRC it will hang on for about 3 secs. (Dunno if this is configurable somewhere).

I'm not a fan of the cheat although it was useful when I was still coming to terms with steering and diving, let alone hitting anything. Have a look at the community wiki as I recall there being an article on how target by sound only.

Gute Jagd!

Wow, this IS a fast reply!!! Always been amazed at the efficiency of this forum...

I agree that cheating is not the best; I mean, I am playing at the easy level, that is enough cheat but I guess I'll have to try what you say if I don't come up with any other alternative...

Thanks!

[TarJak]

No worries, all part of the service!

Check you this thread and the info that Seth (Thanks Seth), put toegther on using thehydrophones for targetting here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=99580

[VIICDriver]

Yeah once you get a lock on him you can keep relocking on him everytime it looses contact. Like was stated it will stay locked for 3 seconds. Usually no matter how rough the wx I can still see them inside of 450m. Yes it is close but if stopped or moving at ahead slow you should still have many seconds to get things going for the attack.

Chuck

Originally Posted by plastik

Hi all!

I am a noob who is in command of a class VII (Kiel) in June 1940. These are the "happy days", I am starting to get convoys (as opposed to lone merchants) though you can tell things are slightly tougher than before. I must say that I am playing at the easy level!! (I think it is 29% realism). I think one of the ways in which the game tries to make thing a bit harder (or rather not so boring) is in the sea conditions: you have rough seas and you cannot use the deck gun, which reduces your kills.

I am now in a patrol with awful sea conditions: rain, fog and 200m visibility. My question is how you can sink ships in these conditions: you can detects ships easy with the hydrophones but you then surface and see nothing until you actually bump into the merchant! So then... what can you do??

Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

I have to be honest: if the weather is that bad, I don't usually bother even attempting attacks. In the past I used to get frustrated and make approaches anyway, but I've learned that doing so usually (for me) resulted in one of two --if not both-- outcomes: 1) being rammed and/or fired upon (if the ship is armed) and/or 2) making snapshot launches that had low probabilities of successfully hitting.

Assuming they were unarmed, and hadn't damaged me by ramming, I'd wind up playing 'chase' at flank speed on the surface, racing after them . . . which, to me, didn't seem very realistic.

So now, when it's that bad, I might try and shadow the contact and hope for better weather but, if it still stays miserable I just shrug off the contact and chalk it up as a lost cause.

[Incubus]

For single ships, I often try to chase behind them until I get a 0 degree gyroangle, more or less. Then I fire a magnetic at around 400 meters. The nice thing about being behind them is their lateral position on the scope doesn't change- they are just moving away from you. This means even if you can't see them, you know they are still directly in front of you.

[TarJak]

I remember a great chase I had in Narvik harbour. Visibility was down to 200m, just fog no rain and a bit of wind about 10m/sec,

I surface attacked a C3 and Troopship that were parked there using the phones technique and then got chased around the harbour by two Flower corvettes that couldn't quite keep up with me in the fog. I was a very atmospheric moment with the shapes of ships fading in and out in the fog, shells whistling over the conning tower and my eventual escape through the harbour entrance into deeper waters. Great fun.

There have also been times when I've scrubbed an attack because the of the number of escorts and the lack of deep water. Convoy attacks in fog can be downright dangerous!

BTW Plastik don't forget to open your tube doors before firing, especially if you are using the cheat method.

[mookiemookie]

How to attack in heavy fog? You don't. Wait for the weather to clear up. Simple as that.

Real kaleuns couldn't attack reliably in those conditions, and I like to play it as realistic as I can. But that's just me.

[FIREWALL]

Hi plastik welcome Follow this great gangs advice and before you know it you'll be pointing someone else in the right direction.

[Melonfish]

i have used the lock cheat once in bad weather. BUT in my defence, i'd already identified my target by closing to 300m and i had to back off to fire my eals.
it was mainly for range though as it was a stationary target (C3 in Harbour)

otherwise before now i've heard SHIFF GESICHTE! only to take a look out my binocs and see a sailor wave before firing his Oeilikon at me! (ALAAAAAAAAARM!) bad weather makes for some close encounters!

pete

[_Seth_]

Originally Posted by TarJak

No worries, all part of the service!

Check you this thread and the info that Seth (Thanks Seth), put toegther on using thehydrophones for targetting here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=99580

I have found another intercept calculator that is usable if the hydrophone guy shout out the bearings to target. Its made by David Sandberg, and its Excellent! Here is a copy from the included readme:
"This freeware utility, created by David Sandberg, can calculate
optimal intercept solutions for any target for which you can
supply distance, heading, bearing and speed information. This
can be used to determine both weapon and vessel intercepts."

Here is the link to this excellent tool:
http://files.filefront.com/intercalk.../fileinfo.html

[Corsair]

Trying to attack in heavy fog is imho a waste of time and torpedoes. Besides this, you run the risk of running at high TC into some destroyers that your watch crew will spot when the first shells fall on the conning tower, which is very late to react...
My tactics in heavy fog are go submerged and surface for 2 hours every 12 hours for ventilating and recharging batteries, and wait for the fog to lift. It usually doen't last very long (am using SH3 weather)
Heavy fog is a defense system invented by the Brits like cold and snow in Russia.

[andy_311]

I've stopped hunting convoys in heavy fog a lot of thing could go wrong,trying to sink ships at 375m,theres been a many a time I have been run over by a c3,t3,well all sorts of ships even dd's personally I would track the convoy until the weather breaks,(if it breaks).

[AVGWarhawk]

All have their own tactic but personally I depend on my hydrophone man and myself manning the hydrophone. I attempt to find the general direction of the ship. I make every attempt to get ahead of the trajectory. Submerged in it's track I let the hydrophone man call out location and if the ship is moving closer. I sit with periscope up scanning the general direction the hydrophone man is calling out until vessel comes into view.

Once I used this tactic and was probably the coolest thing I did in the game. The fog was as thick as pea soup. I sat in the targets track with periscope up scanning the area my hydrophone man was calling out. Out of the fog came chugging a massive black Liberty ship less than 1000 meters at a 90 degree angle to my bow. I could not ask for a better solution for a sinking. It was just darn cool to see that ship coming out of the fog like that