Pursuing long range in high seas and rain

on the way to my patrol grid picked up a long range contact heading away going medium speed, designated as a small convoy.

Sea was high and at night and rain and could only do 7 knots, never did see it or catch it, should i have pursued more vigourously until daylight and see if storm breaks or carry on on my way?

feel guilty i let it go now!!!

[bert8for3]

That's when you have to weigh the pros and cons, notably fuel status, distance back to base, remaining torpedoes. I just abandoned a chase in similar circumstances. At flank speed on the engines, I was only making maybe a knot better through the water than the targets. Having to maintain the necessary distance in daylight, I just wasn't going to overtake and get into attack position for a very long time. My fuel was at less than half and I've only used two torpedoes on this patrol so far, so I want to stay out on patrol. Given the distance back to base and the fuel needed to continue patrol for a decent amount of time to use my remaining torpedoes, I decided to give up the chase. BdU should understand, although some bureaucrat there will probably send me a snippy radio message.

[3Jane]

I found a large convoy last night in similar circumstances. Only five torpedos left in my VIIB, wished I had a IXB at the time. Such fun though, finding the ships in the gloom and watching for the escorts. Much more enjoyable than the conventional convoy attack.

Originally Posted by Mikhayl

as long as you are empty on fuel and torpedoes when you're back to home base, there's nothing to feel guilty about

thats just it - i was on my way out, all torps and most of the fuel - i just couldnt find them in the storm, hydrophone boy couldnt pick them up either - followed the contact but never saw them again, and eventually went back to original course

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by 3Jane

Nice pic I once ran into a fellow wolf the fog\weather was so thick


RDP

[trongey]

I was able to catch up with a C3 in nasty weather last night. The problem was that I couldn't see him beyond 300m so I was never able to get a good solution. I thought about taking a blind shot, but with only 2 stern eels left I decided to save them for a better situation.

Tony

[MarkShot]

Speaking of fog ... SH3/GWX has fantastic graphics. Sea/weather FX are simply awesome.

However, when I ask my WO "How's the weather?" and he reports heavy fog, it never really looks much different than clear weather. Pretty much it looks like the included screen shots above with a horizon that goes forever.

I am running with a NVidia 8800 GTX card. Is there something that I am failing to do that would with heavy fog do the following?

(1) Reduce the apparent distance to the horizon.

(2) Produce a noticeable obscuring of world features and short distances along.

(3) Generate a grayish color shift the as distance increases.

So that fog would indeed look like fog? Right now, if you didn't tell me I was in a fog bank, I would not know.

Thanks.

[Heibges]

It's really dangerous to attack a convoy in heavy fog, especially if the escorts might have radar.

I followed a convoy for 3 days once waiting for the weather to break.

[Brag]

I've had to give up many a fat target. C'est la vie.

[seafarer]

It makes you appreciate that no matter what else your boat may have, your primary sensors are still standard issue MK-I eyeballs (or MK-1b, if you justly give cephalopods first rights to our kind of image forming eye).

If you can't see them, you can't sink them, well, basically anyway (rare or lucky sound solution shots don't really count).

[Laughing Swordfish]

One of the beauties and frustrations of the game is that getting a good contact is by no means guaranteed. And targets can either slip away, or circunstances dictate that you have to let them go.

But it makes the ones you do catch even better!

LS

[Sailor Steve]

I think bert8for3 said it best, with weighing the pros and cons.

Two of the things SH2 actually got right, but are lost in SH3:

1) Awesome fog, with drifting patches and shadows of ships coming and going at varying distances.

2) The chance for a diesel to break down after running too long at high speed, requiring several hours at 'Ahead Slow' while the damaged engine was repaired. Nothing more frustrating than having the convoy in sight, and then having to let it go due to mechanical problems.

[danurve]

Mood will dictate your persuit sometimes.
A few days of nothing and then next thing you know its time to plot a course that has you making full speed runs and hydrophone checks.

found it in the end!!! a schooner which sank in the storm before i could kill it!!!

[3Jane]

Originally Posted by undercovergeek

found it in the end!!! a schooner which sank in the storm before i could kill it!!!

I always hate it when that happens. The contact is reported of course by the hydophone operator as a merchant. :rotfl: