NYGM ruined my weekend

[schuhart]

or 'NYGM 2.0 Convoy Battles'.

Ok, i knew NYGM 2.0 was going to be harder, but i had not imagined that i would spend approx. 7½ hours being pinged and wasserbombed by escorts in real-time!

My story:

On the way to my patrol grid, i accidentally stumble upon a large convoy.
I notice a faint plume on the horizon in perfect clear weather with calm sea. Closing in on this plume, i suddenly see a lot of plumes on the horizon (count 16-20 ships).
Getting closer during overtake,i notice a flank escort about 7-8 km away, suddenly the escort turns towards me. First when i actually see his bowspray i realise that i have been spotted. I dive to a comfortable depth of 100m and is soon getting pinged by asdic.
Now continues 1 hour of wasserbomben and i learned the hard way that you cannot just sit back anymore, you have to actively try to evade all the time. I went for a drink and coming back i saw my diesel-room damaged and one man wounded. There is no first lucky punch any more, as the punches can now happen anytime it seems.

Using my hydrophone for evasive maneuvers i suddenly hear another fast propeller closing in (and the convoy was now some way off doing about 4-5 knots). My torturer had called for help. Then went another 2 hours of wasserbomben until suddenly they seemed to give up.

Ok, its dark now and i found the convoy again, set up an attack from right flank on a 45 angle. It was dark so i thought this should be good. Convoy came into sight, almost all large merchants. Noticing a flank escort on my left I start my attack run. This is the first time in SH3 i have actually been forced to make an attack run like that.
Fire I+II at C-3 and both hit damaged, fire III+IV at C-2 both hit sunk.
When firing III+IV i realise that i am taking fire from the convoy (1000-1500m). No time to see who is firing at me i crashdive.
Now follows 4½ hours of relentless wasserbomben by initially 3 warships and in the end 2. The last hour or so they ran out of wasserbomben, but still made their attack runs.
During those 4½ hours (real-time) I tried every trick i know (even those Teddy had suggested, but i simply could not slip away).
Running at 1 knot is good but you cannot maintain depth. I was forced to go deep, even deeper than i liked to go. So maintaining depth at 200m is crucial at some point.
Well, in the end a series of flank bursts behind the warship doing an attack run succeeded to make me slip away even though i had tried it several times. Pure luck i think.

This escort was extremely agressive and well organised. When one made an attack run, the other was setting up his sonar scan. And so on.

A wasted weekend? Not a bit! This was my most exciting experience in SH3 yet.

Word of caution. You might want to train evasion before you attack a convoy. I did some missions first, but somehow this campaign escort seemed a lot more brutal. So training in a campaign might be better.

Thanks NYGM team


- Schuhart