Am I being too timid?

[the.terrabyte.pirate]

I'm having difficulty avoiding convoy escorts, and usually end up sunk after two escorts team together.

Immediately after I fire my eels, I hit a deep depth, and move at ahead slow so as not to give away my position. Unfortunately this means that when by eels hit, I'm usually only 30-40m deep, and really not that far away from my firing point. Escorts quickly arrive on the scene, one or two active pings later, and I'm busted.

I'm doing what I can to lose them. Manually setting the speed at less than one knot. Silent running. But to no avail.

If I go any faster, they hear me. If I don't go faster, they ping me. I can't get my boat end on to them quickly enough to minimise my sonar return. I can't even avoid one on a depth charge run by ordering flank ahead and a hard turn in one direction, as the other escort is following me on it's hydrophones.

The only tactic I haven't tried is to flank ahead as soon as I've fired my eels, but I don't see the point in advertising my presence earlier than need be.

Any advise or guidance would be appreciated. This is damn frustrating.

[U570]

Hi there,
One thing you could try, not sure if it works, is as you're firing the last torp to but the boat hard over (port or starboard, doesn't matter) and reverse at 2 knots, while diving.
Hope this helps.

[Fish In The Water]

Originally Posted by the.terrabyte.pirate

If I go any faster, they hear me. If I don't go faster, they ping me.

The way you've described it, it sounds like you're darned if you do and darned if you don't. This being the case, you're best to do the one thing you haven't tried and crash dive at flank as soon as you unload your last eel.

That way, when the escorts arrive overhead, (which seems ATM to be inevitable), at least you'll have more than your current '30-40' meters of depth to work with. In this game depth is your friend. The further down you are, the more time you have to react and avoid.

The other option of course, is simply to fire from further afield, (more evasion time), or even from inside the convoy itself. That way the escorts have a 50 percent chance of guessing wrong when it comes time to try and determine which side of the target the eels came from.

[papa_smurf]

Someones bound to post this sooner, so better get it in first:


BE MORE AGRESIVE!

[frau kaleun]

What I've found to be successful - at least early in the war, I've haven't yet played past 1941 - in a convoy attack is to dive immediately after firing, at full ahead or flank, while making a (more or less) 90 degree course change by going hard to port or starboard. If I can put myself directly under part of the convoy, so much the better.

If you have not yet been detected, with any luck the escorts will not start actively looking for you (in particular, as opposed to routine sweeps) until the torpedoes hit and detonate. At that point, you want to be as far as possible from the spot where you fired and as deep as possible. Setting the eels to run at slower speeds also helps as you will have more time between the moment of firing and the moment of impact.

In night attacks early in the war it's also possible to get away on the surface if you haven't been detected yet. Get in, fire the eels, and get out at flank speed on the surface. You can get a lot farther away a lot more quickly but success may depend on the visibility/weather conditions and the skill level of the escorts. Obviously if you do have to dive it's probably going to be after they've got a bead on your position and you probably won't be able to get so deep before the wabos start falling.

[1480]

I agree with all of the points made by the fine members of this community.

When faced with any attack, whether it's naval, gun battle, or melee remember these three concepts: distance-cover-shielding. Distance is your best friend and in our situation, distance is two dimensional (depth and relative spacing). Cover, since we are all ready in an "invisible" state, we have taken away the enemy's sight away. He has two powerful sensors that they can use both actively and passively. Silence is golden. If they cannot hear you than in theory they cannot find you. So think of cover as a hiding spot. Shielding is a physical barrier capable of defeating an attack. This one is usually not available in the game. As Frau mentioned, if you can get into the convoy, you have a bunch of shielding available, running interference. Ideally having all three is the best option. Two is better than one and one is better than none.

[Jimbuna]

Sounds to me like your firing from a typicaaly expected location and too near at that.

Upon release of your last eel turn 90 degrees away from the direction of the convoys route whilst hitting 'C' almaost at the same time....once your at 50+ metres set a deeper depth and go to less than one knot.

You should have the momentum to see you to 80+ metres....a good start prior to the expected arrival of the escorts.

[Brag]

What has worked for me (up to Nov 1941)

A fast dive tp 80 meters then order depth to 160 meters.
Change heading 30 degrees passing 60 meters. at 60 or 80 meters slow to one knot.

When escorts are close 3 - 5 degrees port or starboard rudder.

I believe that using the outside view atracts escorts

if you still are close to the surface keep rudder at zero and go flank straight ahead. Do not turn as this just keeps you in the target area.

Best of luck

[Capt. Morgan]

Before launching your attack, try to place the disposition and types of escorts around the target. This will help you determine the best direction to run.

Remember that any escorts which have passed your firing position will have their sterns turned towards you. They will be deaf to any manoevers you make until they can turn around - figure on about 30 seconds of freedom to manouver at flank speed before they can hear you at all. Use that time at flank to dive as deep as you can and turn to your escape course.

Do not use full rudder for your turn when leaving the firing position. If you do, your boat will remain almost stationary while it's turning. It is more important to put distance between you and the firing position than it is to get on the right course.

[Tessa]

You can also take advantage of their depth charges, count how many they drop (by manually operating the hydrophone) then when the first one hits slam the boat into flank and aim to move the boat into a heading 90 degrees perpendicular (knuckle turn) to the escorts oval shaped pattern. When there is only 1 depth charge left to detonate kill the engines completely. Once you are moving at 1 knot or less than set it to a bit less than 1 knot and keep moving forward in that direction.

Might have to repeat this several times but ime it works very well for me. Eluding 2 escorts is pretty easily down, 4 or more and its going to be tough no matter what you do.

Times when a boat is disabled and not moving, but not sinking can be your refuge spot where as long as the ship doesn't sink you're guaranteed to get away. Even if you have to maneuver underwater at flank get about 15 meters or so underneath the disabled boat. The escorts won't drop any charges when one of their own ships is in very close proximity. If you need to do repairs or want to reload your tubes you can make as much noise as you want without fear of them finding you. Basically it becomes a waiting game. Once the convoy gets too far away from the escorts they are forced to rejoin the convoy and will just leave you. Afterwards just move out from under the boat, sink it and either follow the convoy and attack it again or head back to shore. The obvious hazard with this method is that if that ship does sink you 1. run the chance of it hitting you as it goes down which will cause massive damage and 2. the escorts will know exactly where you are after the ship goes down.

The same kind of strategy can be used if you damage a ship that falls out of the convoy lanes; and get under it, just keep speed with the boat over you and wait for it to fall out of the convoy, then either surface or sink for 1000m or so away.

If you're up for the Kretshcmer challenge you can move straight into the convoy lanes and start sinking ships around you. Escort move very clumsily when they have to go inside the convoy lanes and are hesitant to fire if you're adjacent to another ship. If there's some large ships in the front of the convoy like an ocean liner, one of the large troop ships or a Battleships if it doesn't sink quickly and especially if it starts listing and moving left or right of the convoy path such large ships can cause massive traffic jams. It can take quite awhile for the rest of the convoy to actually have to stop, and move around the enormous blockade wall you've just created. The escort can get quickly confused and sometimes don't even make an attempt to pursue you as long as you move out slow until you can't see the convoy any longer.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Tessa

when the first one hits slam the boat into flank and aim to move the boat into a heading 90 degrees perpendicular (knuckle turn) to the escorts oval shaped pattern.

I disagree. With any of the supermods the AI is blind at a sonar angle of 30 degrees or so, just like real life. I go to flank as soon as I hear their propellors, dive 20 meters and go full right or left, turning towards the destroyer. By the time the first one explodes I'm already somewhere else. Then back to silent until they try again.

[Fish In The Water]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I go to flank as soon as I hear their propellors, dive 20 meters and go full right or left, turning towards the destroyer. By the time the first one explodes I'm already somewhere else. Then back to silent until they try again.

Quite right.

Or is that left?

[Nicolas]

Go 220 m deep, if i remember right early war sonar can't reach you at that depth. You have a better chance of not being detected using T2 torpedoes that do not have wake. If you are being depth charged is not hard to dodge dc's at deep if you put your boat perpendicular to escorts, wait until they get close and order flank speed, more than once i survived more than 2 hours and hundred of DC's that way.
When escorts pass above you and they are getting away go flank speed as much as you can to try gain distance with luck you made enough space to avoid being pinged again as they keep doing circles.

[Pisces]

Definitely try to speed up a bit more as you dive. Flank might be a bit to much noise drawing attention. Though you might get away with it anyway, worth a shot. But surely 2/3rds or full doesn't get you noticed right away. Either way, it's more safe to get down quickly ASAP, than to stay quiet and not move. If they get you on their active sonar and you are still shallow, well ... sitting duck syndrome.

[postalbyke]

Call me crazy, but I rarely go below 20m, and almost never go fast after an attack.
Periscope Depth. Fire. Turn. Ahead 1/3. Silent running, 15-20m depth if escort comes my way.
The depth charges almost always go deep, so I stay shallow
old ninja trick!

I only seem to get killed while I'm trying to shoot a damaged ship before the escorts leave... *dangit!*

edit: I also only use electric eels. If you never shoot from greater than 5km, you never need steam torpedoes...