the VII C U-Flak rocks

[Renesco]

so after doing 25 or so patrols mostly in a IX series I got a IX-D2 and spent a few patrols in that, it was pretty good but my game suffered from the bug where your torpedoes disappear as you try and refill from external reloads and it seemed confined to the IX D2 in vanilla 1.4, so reluctantly I decided to go back to an older boat which didnt have this bug, and chose the VII C U-Flak just to see if it was actually any good, and my god its one fun boat to use.

My first patrol, coming out of lorient into the bay of biscay my radar was left on as usual because I forgot to turn it off, and of course it attracted loads of planes, now there's also a bug where flak doesnt fire on its own until you enter the turret by pressing f then f4 (to cycle back to the tower) then t then f4 then g then f4, sometimes the flaks would stop firing but this would fix it.

by the time I was out of the bay of biscay my automated flak's had downed 21 planes without a scratch



as awesome as that was it ended up being an interesting patrol out in the atlantic too, shadowed a convoy for 3 days and engaged it 3 times each time at night and each time getting depth charged repeatedly, again without a scratch save for 5% hull damage



overall I was hugely impressed with the U-Flak but that was only late 1943, I can only imagine things will get a lot messier in 1944 seeing as air cover dramatically improves around then, but all in all if you havent tried the U-Flak I recommend it

[Jimbuna]

I suspect you are playing the stock/vanilla version of the game....nothing wrong with that mind, but try GWX and you'll find the planes a lot tougher to destroy (as was the case in RL).

Put it this way....you won't be downing 25 in a career nevermind a single patrol

U-621

[STEED]

I got bored with vanilla after while shooting planes down one after another, it was like stabbing a bucket full of fish, not very realistic but if your half drunk then its fun.

[Sailor Steve]

That's a great comparison, Steed.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

That's a great comparison, Steed.

Said in STEEDS inimitable style

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by STEED

I got bored with vanilla after while shooting planes down one after another, it was like stabbing a bucket full of fish, not very realistic but if your half drunk then its fun.

Artillery and alcohol... what could possibly go wrong?

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Artillery and alcohol... what could possibly go wrong?

"Nein nein nein nein NEIN!! Remove those charge bags at once! Bernard! How many times have I asked you not to fire ze ham und Beck's from ze cannon?!"

Just imagine that they're using a deck-mounted M198 howitzer, okay?

[STEED]

And a pickle egg or two.



Then you could race yourself, how many planes you can shoot down while you fart.

[papa_smurf]

Once you have GWX installed, you won't make it out of the Bay of Biscay without been severely damaged

[Fozzy22]

Is it impossible now with GWX to stay on the surface during an air attack and not loose you're entire deck crew? I have tested the theory but every time I try to fight a plane off with my flak guns i get bombed pretty spot on every time.

[RConch]

Used nail polish "red" to color the "c" key on the board.
Not wasting one second heading for the cellar.

[maillemaker]

Lately for fun (it's only 1941) I have been staying on the surface and shooting at planes. I'm on GWX 3.0. I have not been hit yet.

HOWEVER, on my last mission out in the bay heading into Gibraltar I got pounced twice by TWO aircraft (didn't even try and duke it out with them) and took damage both times.

Steve

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Fozzy22

Is it impossible now with GWX to stay on the surface during an air attack and not loose you're entire deck crew? I have tested the theory but every time I try to fight a plane off with my flak guns i get bombed pretty spot on every time.

No it is not impossible....but it is as similar to RL as we could make it.

For a short while Donitz gave orders for his U-boats to join up as a group whilst transitting the Bay with a flack boat in company whenever possible. The thinking was that the combined flack guns of all the boats in the group would be sufficient to destroy or at least drive off any attacks from the air.

The allies soon countered this tactic by instructing the aircraft who made the initial contact to stay beyond flack range and radio in air support elements.

It wasn't long before Doenitz saw the number of U-boat losses rise dramatically and rescind his order to what it was previously....dive when spootted and travel submerged for as long as possible and surface to recharge the batteries only in darkness hours.

Next came the Allied eyes....radar and the Leigh Light blah blah blah.

Originally Posted by Rconch

Used nail polish "red" to color the "c" key on the board.
Not wasting one second heading for the cellar.

LOL

[flag4]

Originally Posted by STEED

I got bored with vanilla after while shooting planes down one after another, it was like stabbing a bucket full of fish, not very realistic but if your half drunk then its fun.

HEY! i was just trying my BUCKET-FULL-OF-FISH-MOD; guess i'll come back to the CHIPS ( GWX - the salt and vinager mod !)

[pickinthebanjo]

The planes in GWX3 are tricky to say the least, but I have managed whole careers without seeing more than a couple