Escort Question

[btaft]

OK....I have been playing SH4 for a little bit and have had a couple encounters with major task forces. They both occured in early 42 and in both cases I was in my trusty S-class. Here are the details

Large CV (2) Task force + escorts and troop ships, straits heading south from Celebes Sea, weather moderately choppy, night time, relatievly deep water (i.e. deeper than my crush depth). I intercepted on the surface at flank speed (in plain view of the escorts) and only submerged for the last 500-1000m to perscope depth to make the attack once the data was obtained. I put 4 fish into a Hiryu, destroyed it and just slinked away at 1/3 parallel to the convoy path in the opposite direction at deep depth (above thermal layer). Absolutely no escort response (pinging, depth charging, etc) while on the surface or after the attack. (note I replayed this encounter 4 times with similar results)

Large BB (4) Task force + escorts, passage just north of Java heading towards South China Sea, weather relatively rough but not extreme, night time, very shallow water (30m below keel). I intercepted submerged at ahead slow. I put 4 fish into a Fuso BB and destroyed and slinked away as above but at periscope depth. Again absolutely not escort response as before. (I replayed this one 3 times with similar results)

I have heard some mixed reports on the escorts, so here are some questions

1) Was it too soon for the escorts to have proper detection gear?

2) Do they just get better later in the war?

3) Do they have radar that early in the war?

4) Did I just get lucky and run into a pair of juicy TFs with inadequate escorts.

5) Could it be that these TFs were part of a scripted RL battle group and thus had "ignore" settings in the script to keep to historic timeline, etc

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to necessarily be depth charged, but a big part of the thrill is that the possibility exists. I want to be challenged. Note: these were played at 88-100% realism.

Any insight is appreciated.

Regards,

BT