Dealing with the threat

Rwearjr · 08-28-17, 07:26 PM

Hi All,
I am really interested in your strategies for handling destroyers in TWoS.
I will share a few of my personal observations:

1. Deep water. I attempt to stay in water over 100m. If that target is so juicy I cant resist and, in shallow water then a couple of questions arise. Is the target on a heading which will place her in deep water? Are there any destroyers within hydrophone range? Can I wait until night to perform this attack? If she is alone, and more than 100Km off the coast and I have no warship hydro contacts I may well risk it. If any of the above aren't true then caution is advised. I attempted to shell a French small merchant of the east coast of Britain on my last patrol, and within 5 minutes had an airplane dropping DC on me. Luckily I was already at safe depth (I followed the depth rule and attacked in an area where I had 169m of depth. A destroyer also was called to the area, but I was long gone by then.

2. Convoys. I attacked a convoy off the coast of Norway on my present patrol. We attacked from within the convoy.
Sank two juicy targets for 11,000GRT in one swipe. But, we paid the price. The convoy had 5 outer ringed escorts, and we endured 6+ hours of depth charging and a hair raising evasion. We were nothing short of damn lucky to get out alive. The whole crew needed new underwear. In the future convoys escorted by more than two destroyers will be given serious scrutiny. Of course type and capability of escorts play in. Not to put too fine a point on it, but again in this scenario I had 300m of depth at my attack point, and it saved my crews lives. I believe in one of Berbsters posts I read about diving immediately following a convoy attack (not waiting on torps to hit) and staying at least 3000M away (when escorted) using the spread salvo method. Thus giving you precious time to get deep before the mayhem starts.

3. If you are detected. Decoys, and flank bell. Use Decoys wisely! I haven't actually counted, but I think there are around 10 decoys in my inventory, the UI doesn't list this to my knowledge. Careful with depth changes. They use precious compressed air, too many and you will be in trouble. Get as deep as you safely can. I am currently trying to get an estimate of how far away from escorts I should be before returning to silent run after a decoy/ flank bell escape. It would appear if you can get 5000+ meters away then perhaps you should consider silent speed/ all stop and course change. This depends on the lifespan of decoys, perhaps someone knows this? If so, use the stop watch and run flank bell until the decoy expires would seem wise. I have a question here also concerning ASDIC. Most of the destroyers I have encountered are equipped with ASDIC, and I am only in 1940. Not being a complete historian I thought this wasn't on a large portion of the British fleet until much later in the war? Is this accurate? Also, Is there thermal layer modeling in this game? Diving deep help avoid ASDIC?

4. Stay the hell out of this situation!

Any thoughts?

08-28-17, 07:26 PM	#1
Rwearjr Soundman Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Seattle WA Posts: 142 Downloads: 199 Uploads: 0	Dealing with the threat Hi All, I am really interested in your strategies for handling destroyers in TWoS. I will share a few of my personal observations: 1. Deep water. I attempt to stay in water over 100m. If that target is so juicy I cant resist and, in shallow water then a couple of questions arise. Is the target on a heading which will place her in deep water? Are there any destroyers within hydrophone range? Can I wait until night to perform this attack? If she is alone, and more than 100Km off the coast and I have no warship hydro contacts I may well risk it. If any of the above aren't true then caution is advised. I attempted to shell a French small merchant of the east coast of Britain on my last patrol, and within 5 minutes had an airplane dropping DC on me. Luckily I was already at safe depth (I followed the depth rule and attacked in an area where I had 169m of depth. A destroyer also was called to the area, but I was long gone by then. 2. Convoys. I attacked a convoy off the coast of Norway on my present patrol. We attacked from within the convoy. Sank two juicy targets for 11,000GRT in one swipe. But, we paid the price. The convoy had 5 outer ringed escorts, and we endured 6+ hours of depth charging and a hair raising evasion. We were nothing short of damn lucky to get out alive. The whole crew needed new underwear. In the future convoys escorted by more than two destroyers will be given serious scrutiny. Of course type and capability of escorts play in. Not to put too fine a point on it, but again in this scenario I had 300m of depth at my attack point, and it saved my crews lives. I believe in one of Berbsters posts I read about diving immediately following a convoy attack (not waiting on torps to hit) and staying at least 3000M away (when escorted) using the spread salvo method. Thus giving you precious time to get deep before the mayhem starts. 3. If you are detected. Decoys, and flank bell. Use Decoys wisely! I haven't actually counted, but I think there are around 10 decoys in my inventory, the UI doesn't list this to my knowledge. Careful with depth changes. They use precious compressed air, too many and you will be in trouble. Get as deep as you safely can. I am currently trying to get an estimate of how far away from escorts I should be before returning to silent run after a decoy/ flank bell escape. It would appear if you can get 5000+ meters away then perhaps you should consider silent speed/ all stop and course change. This depends on the lifespan of decoys, perhaps someone knows this? If so, use the stop watch and run flank bell until the decoy expires would seem wise. I have a question here also concerning ASDIC. Most of the destroyers I have encountered are equipped with ASDIC, and I am only in 1940. Not being a complete historian I thought this wasn't on a large portion of the British fleet until much later in the war? Is this accurate? Also, Is there thermal layer modeling in this game? Diving deep help avoid ASDIC? 4. Stay the hell out of this situation! Any thoughts? Last edited by Rwearjr; 08-28-17 at 08:16 PM.