Patrol 4

[GoldenRivet]

just finished a fairly realistic patrol...

left kiel on the 7th of November 1940, not one single visual or sound contact until the 29th. Weather was horrible for the longest time... 22 days mostly submerged because of the bad weather. finally cleared up on the 28th.

finally got a couple of sound contacts and chased them down... two red cross ships! Damn! got a third sound contact and chased it down, lone tramp steamer from Canada... shelled her until she sank. then went to the assigned patrol grid.

on the 30th i spotted a mast on the horizon and dove to periscope depth. It was a Town class headed right for us. she closed to within 700 meters and i let her have it, one electric torp right under the magazine... sank within 2 minutes.

No other contacts until the 2nd of december... intercepted a convoy and shadowed them for 3 days. during the course of the battle i managed to sink 2 large cargos (the only large ships in the convoy) 2 black swawns and a corvette during the 3 attacks on their convoy. I usually dont attack the escorts, but the opportunities presented themselves and these gys were getting to close for comfort a couple of times. throughout the course of the engagement i was depth charged on 2 occasions and nearly blasted out of the water by a black swan i never detected. Despite the constant pinging and diving to 180 meters i never received so much as a scratch. I had to let the convoy go as they made it into the shallow waters of the St. Georges canal.

After deciding that i had pressed my luck as far as i cared to press it i set course for Kiel putting into port after an 11 day voyage to home base.

In the end i had spent 41 days at sea, sank 3 merchants and 4 warships for a modest total of 27,725 tons of allied shipping. not a great number compared to my previous three patrols where i sank 48,526 tons...13,352 tons and 64,064 tons respectively. but considering that i survived a couple of severe depth charge attacks and encountered NO shipping for the first 21 days of the patrol ill take what i can get.

for the past 4 patrols i have been playing 100% realism, keeping a war diary, with no saves unless weather threatens a power outtage and "dead is dead".

its funny but when you play it that way... you think about how you really dont want a war diary sitting on your desk that ends abruptly 1/5 of the way through the book! You think about how "dead is dead" and if something bad happense like running out of fuel or getting bombed etc its all over with... your decisions start to be more strategic, you start to consider that you really want your "Story" and your "Game" to go on and you frequently opt for discretion over valor.

[Jimbuna]

Possibly like it was in RL

[Brag]

Yeah, Rivet,
A war diary is an additional investment into your story, as is the crew. You get a lot more realism when you care as to what will happen; when there is serious doubt on the outcome of a patrol.