Attack or shadow?

treblesum81 · 05-30-10, 12:37 PM

Its the middle of the night in bad weather conditions with visibility of about 100 yards. Almost perfect conditions for my newly acquired sonar only manual attack skills. That being said, I'm presented with a medium sized convoy, something which I have a lot of trouble tracking with sound (well any convoy over small for that matter) because I have difficulty picking out individual ships from the mess of sounds. The question is, given my current skill level, should I attempt the attack, or should I shadow the convoy until somewhat better weather conditions exist so I can have a little better chance of conducting a good attack? I am saving the situation so that I can practice sonar only convoy attacks, but for the short term I'm not wanting to spend a week reloading while I figure out the attack method...

Thanks

G2B · 05-30-10, 12:41 PM

Well if you attack just make sure they are enemy ships, not to mention names but somebody did a sonar attack without any visual confirmation and did what the Japanese never could, Sink an Essex class Carrier

treblesum81 · 05-30-10, 12:43 PM

Wait... That's bad....

But then is that a vote for shadowing? I mean I can use ship hopper cam to check it out, but in reality, if I can't seen 100 yards, I would never be able to properly identify the the ships.

magic452 · 05-31-10, 01:28 AM

What I do is use one of the rear ships to track and get course and speed. you can get a clear reading on the longest sonar line. Once you get course set up about 2000 yards off the course. As they get closer the contact lines will spread out and you can track two or three different ships and refine their different courses. Pick a target and adjust your range at this point. Track just that one ship and hope it's a good one. Of course if playing no map contacts all this is totally worthless.

If you can't get a good setup than shadow till things improve a bit, but beware the weather clears very fast sometimes.

As far as identifying friend or foe, the situation will help here. Early to mid war deep in Japanese waters, pretty safe to shoot. Very late war not so sure. That is what happened to our fellow subsimmer, I wont mention his name but initials are RR.

Magic

Armistead · 05-31-10, 12:47 PM

You can take them out with the deckgun. Just get sonar line bearing and range and shoot in that direction, best about 800 yards or so. It's blind shooting, but the blast will show the outline of the ship. You can ask for nearest contact and keep shooting down that bearing if it's picking up correctly. Once you set it on fire, it's easy to see.

You can pick off the merchants one by one. Just be careful if it's later war and the escorts have radar. Nothing worse one coming up your stern in a dark storm.

05-30-10, 12:37 PM	#1
treblesum81 Frogman Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 308 Downloads: 71 Uploads: 0	Attack or shadow? Its the middle of the night in bad weather conditions with visibility of about 100 yards. Almost perfect conditions for my newly acquired sonar only manual attack skills. That being said, I'm presented with a medium sized convoy, something which I have a lot of trouble tracking with sound (well any convoy over small for that matter) because I have difficulty picking out individual ships from the mess of sounds. The question is, given my current skill level, should I attempt the attack, or should I shadow the convoy until somewhat better weather conditions exist so I can have a little better chance of conducting a good attack? I am saving the situation so that I can practice sonar only convoy attacks, but for the short term I'm not wanting to spend a week reloading while I figure out the attack method... Thanks

05-30-10, 12:41 PM	#2
G2B XO Join Date: May 2009 Location: Guam, I think Posts: 420 Downloads: 80 Uploads: 0	Well if you attack just make sure they are enemy ships, not to mention names but somebody did a sonar attack without any visual confirmation and did what the Japanese never could, Sink an Essex class Carrier __________________

05-31-10, 01:28 AM	#4
magic452 Sea Lord Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Reno Nevada USA Posts: 1,860 Downloads: 85 Uploads: 0	What I do is use one of the rear ships to track and get course and speed. you can get a clear reading on the longest sonar line. Once you get course set up about 2000 yards off the course. As they get closer the contact lines will spread out and you can track two or three different ships and refine their different courses. Pick a target and adjust your range at this point. Track just that one ship and hope it's a good one. Of course if playing no map contacts all this is totally worthless. If you can't get a good setup than shadow till things improve a bit, but beware the weather clears very fast sometimes. As far as identifying friend or foe, the situation will help here. Early to mid war deep in Japanese waters, pretty safe to shoot. Very late war not so sure. That is what happened to our fellow subsimmer, I wont mention his name but initials are RR. Magic __________________ Reported lost 11 Feb. 1942 Signature by depthtok33l

05-30-10, 12:43 PM	#3
treblesum81 Frogman Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 308 Downloads: 71 Uploads: 0	Wait... That's bad.... But then is that a vote for shadowing? I mean I can use ship hopper cam to check it out, but in reality, if I can't seen 100 yards, I would never be able to properly identify the the ships.

05-31-10, 12:47 PM	#5
Armistead Rear Admiral Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: on the Dan Posts: 10,880 Downloads: 364 Uploads: 0	You can take them out with the deckgun. Just get sonar line bearing and range and shoot in that direction, best about 800 yards or so. It's blind shooting, but the blast will show the outline of the ship. You can ask for nearest contact and keep shooting down that bearing if it's picking up correctly. Once you set it on fire, it's easy to see. You can pick off the merchants one by one. Just be careful if it's later war and the escorts have radar. Nothing worse one coming up your stern in a dark storm.