What's a successful mission?

[dfscott]

I'm a pilot in RL and I've always said that a successful landing is any one you can walk away from. And I imagine that that holds true for a large extent for U-boat captains.

However, I've noticed that my tonnage numbers are significantly lower than many others on the forum. I'm not interested in playing a numbers game, but I do want to make sure that I'm maximizing my value to the Kriegsmarine!

For reference, I'm in a VIIB in Sept of 1939, running GWX3 at about 97% realism (everything clicked except no map contacts and the event camera). I've run 3 patrols (not counting the initial pre-war "pleasure cruise"), and I'm ending up in the neighborhood of 8-10K sunk per patrol. I usually end up having to return due to being out of fuel rather than out of eels. In comparison, I see people talking about hauling in 10-20K in a IIB, and some people are even talking about sinking well over 50K.

Part of what seems to be the problem is that I end up burning tons of fuel chasing down contacts that end up being a trawler or fishing boat (i.e., not worth wasting a torpedo on). This early in the war, I would expect to have a pretty target-rich environment, but I'm guessing about 2/3 to 3/4 of my potential targets end up being either neutrals or worthless targets.

So, all you well-seasoned Kaleun out there, share your tricks and knowledge with this green freshly-minted Kaleun -- is this type of experience typical at this realism level, or are there some tricks I can use to increase the number of tasty merchants I can send my eels to visit?