Stupid weather

[Ryan9118]

Hey, new guy here. First started playing SH3 sometime late last year, and just getting back into it. I used to be pretty good at finding my targets manually, but I'm getting the hang of it again. Anyways I just finished my 8th patrol earlier, and thought I'd share a little with you guys.



Left Lorrient sometime now in 1941. Was heading off to AM21 for a 24-hour recon. On the way there, I came across 2 or 3 reported ship locations, but couldn't find em on my intercept route. I was using the method I found in the FAQ thread, but couldn't quite get it right. Looked like it was going to be a boring recon when I got to AM21. All dead up there, really. About 12 hours in, I get a report of a ship. I'm GONNA get this one. Plot out it's route, and figure out how I'm going to intercept it. Alas.... nothing at the end of the trail. Atleast all that time wasted was in AM21. Finish up my few hours left of patrolling and head for home.

On the way back to Lorrient, I get a radio report of a convoy heading East at a reported 7 kts. Perfect! It's bearing 90, so this'll be easy to set-up my Fast 90 targetting and just wait for them. Make contact with them a couple hours later. It's HUGE. About 3 or 4 tankers, probably 8 cargo ships, and only 2 dinky destroyers. I figure I can pick off atleast 3 of them before the destroyers find me. Set my bearing to 180 and wait for them to cross my path.....

I bring the periscope back up to range the tanker closest to me.... and I finally notice the weather. Not raining, but 15 mps winds. The waves are HUGE. Ranging these tankers is damn near impossible. I have my periscope fully extended, and it's still getting swamped in water. One second I'm 15 meters under, the next my bow is sticking straight out of the water. I'm here though, so I might as well try it. I do my best to range the tanker. I've identified it as a T3, and I'm going to take this bastard down. I estimate the range to be somewhere around 2 kms, and I enter my information into the TDC. Set my eels for fast, and the depth somewhere around 4 or 5 meters. I'd hate for the thing to rise up on a wave and have my torp go right under it.

I wait until it gets right at my 000 bearing. It's got to be within 2 kms now. Tubes 1, 2, and 3 all rip out of the sub at once. I aimed fore and aft of the engine room, with one heading straight for it. Just hoping to get a good spread and take it down. I watch the stop watch anxiously and cross my fingers. The time for impact comes and goes..... ****, I think. But luck is on my side. 15 seconds later, BOOM. Another couple seconds go by, and BOOM again. Enemy unit destroyed. Can't believe I just took it out in this weather from that range. The third torp misses, but I'll take the lesser of two evils, thank you.

The destroyers mingle around for a little, but have no idea where I am. I set my bearing for 090, and decide to ghost this convoy. I'll hang out underneath the waves and follow them until the water clears. When it does, I'll speed ahead, turn 90, and let em have it. Midnight comes around, and they're changing course. I tag along behind, knowing no one will hear me under the waves. Under the cover of darkness, I surface my boat to recharge the batteries. I'm trailing along about 4 kms behind, so I hit the gas and start to catch up before I go back to periscope depth.

I get too relaxed and get a little too close. The spotlights on the destroyers light up, immediately followed by two huge clouds of flames. ****... I crash dive to about 70 meters and turn the rudders hard to starboard. I could follow them, but I'm low on diesel anyways. If I get too sidetracked, I run the risk of running out. There will be opportunities on the way home, so I return to my original course. The destroyers throw out some depth charges, but I'm long gone by then.

It looks dead on the way back home, haven't seen a single ship. Finally, I get a report of a lone cargo ship trolling along. I change my course and head to intercept. I catch up with it and set-up perpendicular to it. I range it, but don't feel like finding out it's bearing and speed. I'm close enough to 90 AoB, so I estimate the speed at 6 kts and let two torps fly. Two impacts tear into the starboard side of the cargo ship, but my guesstimate of 6 kts was too high. I aimed for the engine room, and got midway between there and the bow. It leans over to the side, but doesn't look like it's going to go down. I surface and send it to the bottom with my deck gun.

Low on diesel and torps, I decide to pack it up and return to Lorient. All in all, nothing exciting. Right over 18,000 tons sunk, but my crew earned some promotions. I also got my U-Boat War Badge and Front Clasp. Niiice. My next patrol is being sent back to AM21 for whatever reason. Maybe I'll find that damn convoy again, this time without the terrible weather.




Gotta love SH3. After hearing so many great things about GWX, I'm debating installing it and seeing how I like it. I might try and finish this campaign out to '45 first, if that's possible. Anyways, hope the patrol report was good. I enjoy reading other peoples, so I wanted to add to the list.

[Canovaro]

Nice read!

I understand you had a lot of problems getting range in such pour wheather.
If the convoy was 7 kts, you could have positioned yourself in a 90 degrees position, set the gyro angle at 0 degrees (straight shot) and wait for the target to be at your 13/347 bearing (depending if they were coming from port or starboard) and then fire. Range doesn't matter then. Saves you some 'periscope popup time' as well.

[Ryan9118]

Originally Posted by Canovaro

Nice read!

I understand you had a lot of problems getting range in such pour wheather.
If the convoy was 7 kts, you could have positioned yourself in a 90 degrees position, set the gyro angle at 0 degrees (straight shot) and wait for the target to be at your 13/347 bearing (depending if they were coming from port or starboard) and then fire. Range doesn't matter then. Saves you some 'periscope popup time' as well.

Hmmm interesting. That must be why I hit the tanker then earlier. I fired at his engine room when it was at my 000 bearing. Now when you say 13/347 bearing, do you mean when his ship is between 13 and 347?

Let me ask you this then... When does the range calculation really matter in the TDC? I always try and use the "fast 90" targetting so that I'm assured a detonation on impact. I've tried hitting from other angles before, but most of the time I get glancing blows. Frustrating....

[kvbrock82]

Originally Posted by Ryan9118

Hmmm interesting. That must be why I hit the tanker then earlier. I fired at his engine room when it was at my 000 bearing. Now when you say 13/347 bearing, do you mean when his ship is between 13 and 347?

Let me ask you this then... When does the range calculation really matter in the TDC? I always try and use the "fast 90" targetting so that I'm assured a detonation on impact. I've tried hitting from other angles before, but most of the time I get glancing blows. Frustrating....

Between 13 and 347 because you have to calculate that in the time the torpedo takes to reach the target... If you shoot at 10 degrees and the target is for example at 900 metres, the torpedo will shoot at 0 degrees so you will have impact when the target reaches the 0 mark. This all depends on how well you have inputted all the calculations to your TDC.

and P.S. get GWX

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Ryan9118

Hmmm interesting. That must be why I hit the tanker then earlier. I fired at his engine room when it was at my 000 bearing. Now when you say 13/347 bearing, do you mean when his ship is between 13 and 347?

Let me ask you this then... When does the range calculation really matter in the TDC? I always try and use the "fast 90" targetting so that I'm assured a detonation on impact. I've tried hitting from other angles before, but most of the time I get glancing blows. Frustrating....

Welcome aboard Kaleun Ryan9118
When attempting to hit from an angle rather than "fast 90", awitch to the magnetic setting to avoid the glancing blows.

[SmokinTep]

Don't delay in loading GWX.................you won't regret it.

[Canovaro]

Originally Posted by Ryan9118

Hmmm interesting. That must be why I hit the tanker then earlier. I fired at his engine room when it was at my 000 bearing. Now when you say 13/347 bearing, do you mean when his ship is between 13 and 347?

No, what I mean is you hold the vertical line still at 13 OR 347, depending on whether the target is moving towards you from starboard (13) or port (347). These numbers are connected to the 7 knots target speed (I will give you a table for every speed if you like).

When the target crosses 13 or 347, fire. It is vital that you set the torpedo to run a straight line at bearing 0 (straight shot)
So when the target crosses your 0 line (right in front of you), that's when the torpedo has reached it. Range does not matter.

I hope I'm making myself clear.

[CapZap1970]

Welcome to the forum, Ryan.
BTW, very nice reading you posted there.
CapZap

[Ryan9118]

Originally Posted by Canovaro

No, what I mean is you hold the vertical line still at 13 OR 347, depending on whether the target is moving towards you from starboard (13) or port (347). These numbers are connected to the 7 knots target speed (I will give you a table for every speed if you like).

When the target crosses 13 or 347, fire. It is vital that you set the torpedo to run a straight line at bearing 0 (straight shot)
So when the target crosses your 0 line (right in front of you), that's when the torpedo has reached it. Range does not matter.

I hope I'm making myself clear.

Ahhh, yeah I see what you're saying now. So when I'm aiming at bearing 013 for example, I would put in my TDC the bearing for the torp at 000? That way it's aiming directly for there, right?

And yes, I'd very much like to see this table you have.

Originally Posted by CapZap1970

Welcome to the forum, Ryan.
BTW, very nice reading you posted there.
CapZap

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

[Canovaro]

Originally Posted by Ryan9118

Ahhh, yeah I see what you're saying now. So when I'm aiming at bearing 013 for example, I would put in my TDC the bearing for the torp at 000? That way it's aiming directly for there, right?
And yes, I'd very much like to see this table you have.

Exactly: bearing 000 and speed dial at 0.
Be sure to leave the periscope lock in the TDC off once you have put it off to set the bearing manually (little round button) otherwise it will change along with the turning of the persicope. You want to fire the torpedoes at bearing 000 no matter where your periscope is at.

By the way, the data in this table comes from greyrider, not from me!
All credits for the data goes to greyrider therefor.
I'll e-mail it to you.

[Canovaro]

btw 13/347 is for torpedo set to slow (only use electric) when target speed is 7kts

[Ryan9118]

Do the big waves affect the way a torpedoe works? I keep having my magnetic torps blow up early, and I'm afraid to use impact torps in case I can't get a perfect 90* shot.


EDIT: N/m, just found the answer in the "newbie guide" thread. Setting impact torps to 2m worked great. Just tried the speed table you gave you Canovaro. Worked great! First two torps hit fore and aft of the engine room, and the third hit directly on it. Just about blew that poor C2 sky high. I'm still kinda mystified as to why the range doesn't matter though. Won't the bearing you shoot at change dramatically if you're firing from 800 meters away, compared to 3 kilometres away?

[Canovaro]

Originally Posted by Ryan9118

Do the big waves affect the way a torpedoe works? I keep having my magnetic torps blow up early, and I'm afraid to use impact torps in case I can't get a perfect 90* shot.


EDIT: N/m, just found the answer in the "newbie guide" thread. Setting impact torps to 2m worked great. Just tried the speed table you gave you Canovaro. Worked great! First two torps hit fore and aft of the engine room, and the third hit directly on it. Just about blew that poor C2 sky high. I'm still kinda mystified as to why the range doesn't matter though. Won't the bearing you shoot at change dramatically if you're firing from 800 meters away, compared to 3 kilometres away?

No, that's why it is so great!

If the range between you and the target change, so does the distance between the target and the point of impact. These ranges are related. It's a triangle with one 90 degrees angle.
Yesterday I spend a lot of time calculating the table it rather than just copy the data from grayrider's table. Being not too good at math, it took me some time, and I learned a few things about reverse tangens. I also completed the data for up to 30 kts of target speed, so you can give it a try against warships as well.

I'm planning on publishing a handbook with all kinds of tables, notes and forms which to me is very useful.

[Ryan9118]

Originally Posted by Canovaro

No, that's why it is so great!

If the range between you and the target change, so does the distance between the target and the point of impact. These ranges are related. It's a triangle with one 90 degrees angle.
Yesterday I spend a lot of time calculating the table it rather than just copy the data from grayrider's table. Being not too good at math, it took me some time, and I learned a few things about reverse tangens. I also completed the data for up to 30 kts of target speed, so you can give it a try against warships as well.

I'm planning on publishing a handbook with all kinds of tables, notes and forms which to me is very useful.

Ohhhhhhh ok ok, I see what you're saying. I hadn't thought of it like that. Very interesting indeed.

Good luck on the handbook, Canovaro. Sounds like some interesting stuff.