Early War - Merchants with Veteran crews?

tat501 · 07-18-16, 10:20 AM

Question says it all.

Just started playing SH4 after a long break - with TMO. Been playing a lot of SH5 so I'm kind of used to blind merchants.

Its my second war patrol - early March 1942. So far I've sunk two merchants for a combined total of 12000 tons. Quite happy with that considering no map contacts on.

However - the problem I've had is that I've been had my persicope spotted by both of them - from 2500+ yards or so - in pretty difficult conditions to spot periscopes - this most recent one it was dawn and I was in the dark with the sun rising behind the merchant. I should have been invisible but it spotted me and started zigzagging. I rather rashly surfaced and went at it with the deckgun - but 4 of my gunners were killed by their machine guns before I sank her.

Is that spotting behaviour normal for TMO? Should I be a lot more disciplined with my scope at those distances? I had it down - was listening on hydro until it crossed where I wanted to shoot from - just raised the scope to confirm it was still on the same course and instantly she saw me.

07-18-16, 10:20 AM	#1
tat501 Helmsman Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: London Posts: 108 Downloads: 275 Uploads: 0	Early War - Merchants with Veteran crews? Question says it all. Just started playing SH4 after a long break - with TMO. Been playing a lot of SH5 so I'm kind of used to blind merchants. Its my second war patrol - early March 1942. So far I've sunk two merchants for a combined total of 12000 tons. Quite happy with that considering no map contacts on. However - the problem I've had is that I've been had my persicope spotted by both of them - from 2500+ yards or so - in pretty difficult conditions to spot periscopes - this most recent one it was dawn and I was in the dark with the sun rising behind the merchant. I should have been invisible but it spotted me and started zigzagging. I rather rashly surfaced and went at it with the deckgun - but 4 of my gunners were killed by their machine guns before I sank her. Is that spotting behaviour normal for TMO? Should I be a lot more disciplined with my scope at those distances? I had it down - was listening on hydro until it crossed where I wanted to shoot from - just raised the scope to confirm it was still on the same course and instantly she saw me.