U-Valhalla - tell me your death story, Herr Kaleun

[Abd_von_Mumit]

I think it would be interesting to gather stories about our last moments in the game.

First it's always good to hear a good story.

Second we should never waste a possibility to learn something new.

Third we could then make a statistics report on how we usually die, when, where, why... (of course it's Bernard at most). This info could be useful for modders but also for other players (to avoid death). I've always liked to play with statistics (you know, those numbers, schemas, tables, functions) and if you give some details, I'll try to present a kind of "death chart".

So please do not hesitate to tell your death story, Herr Kaleun. It would be best to stick to career stories, I think. We are much more cautions when playing in career mode than in single mission, as we want to save our achievements and beloved crew. Let us know:
- what killed you (DD, rock, plane, friendly fire, Bernard),
- with what it killed you (depth charges, ramming, mine, subnet, gunfire),
- where you were killed (port or see, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Baltic, North See, Scapa Flow),
- when you were killed (night or day?, month, year),
- why do you think you were killed (cockiness, poor equipment, accident, bad luck),
- do you think you made some mistakes that caused the disaster?

Provide as many details, as you can and wish - weather, type of boat, enemy characteristics... Just anything can be important.

Every story will be read. Every Kaleun will be listened carefully. All of us deserve our place in U-Valhalla.

[Vacillator]

Okay, here's a quick one (adapted from my post elsewhere).

I found HMS Rodney in a convoy into which I'd infiltrated nicely and got lined up perferctly for the kill. Then I started making my mistakes! Fired tubes 1 and 2 at her, but got greedy and fired 3 and 4 at a large merchant. Meantime 1 and 2 hit and Rodney opened up on me (even though I was at periscope depth). I didn't last long!

Presumably I should have given her at least 3 straight away and made myself scarce...

The convoy was off Ireland, heading for Liverpool I'd guess. Early 1940.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

I'm not good at telling stories, but these two are going to be short ones.

First death kissed me when I tried to go through Der Kanal (La Manche or English Channel). Mistake followed mistake... First mistake was trying to pass Der Kanal. Second: I run at 10 knots speed that was much too fast. Third: I did it on day with good weather and high visibility. Fourth: Of course I was surfaced. Fifth: I was running (I hear you laughing loud) at 4096 time compression... When I saw "Ship spotted" report it was much too late to do anything. A destroyer damaged my sonar before I managed to dive, so I was completely blind under the water. Her friends came very soon, some 2-3 more destroyers and other smaller units, like trawlers/patrol craft. No chances in such shallow waters. I couldn't believe that, but I was still able to live for 15 hours... But finally they got me in the morning, when my batteries went flat and the oxygen went to the red area... DC-d to death. Type IXB, February '40.

Second time it was much faster. Somewhere around AM52 I prepared for an attack on an east-bound convoy. Went sumberged, silent running, machines stopped, waited for the convoy to get closer, all the time listening at the sonar (never raised my scope). Then the lead escort started to ping me (?!). I immediately ordered 2 knts and dived deeper. When it stopped pinging and went to attack run, I ordered flank speed and hard turn left. I was still like about only 20 metres deep. She dropped her depth charges very precisely. After the first boom I saw multiple damage reports and immediately after the second and third blasts I saw the death screen. Had no time to switch to the damage control room. Launched a 'blind' spread of torpedoes, don't know if any of them hit anything. Type IXB, December '40.

[bigboywooly]

Patrol in 1940 in a IXB
Forget the grid

Came across a large convoy in real bad fog
I should have shadowed and waited till weather cleared but being greedy thought I would press the attack

Made a side on attack , aiming for the furthest column I could see and managed to hit 3 ships - sinking one tanker
Warships seemed to head for the opposite side of the convoy so rode my luck and continued to load torps while keeping pace with the convoy and heading into the middle rows
One of my earlier hits went down too
Managed to load bow torps and fired again on another 2 tankers
Both of these sank
Managed to hit a small ship with the stern tube that also sank
Now I had 57000 tons
All I had left were external fish and should have just broke off contact and crept away
The escorts had no idea where I was

So like a dumbass I surfaced to decks awash while running in the middle of the convoy
Could barely see the ships either side and none of them put lights on so I carried on
I could hear a DD in the distance dropping DC but they were way of where I was

All of a sudden I get " Warship spotted short range closing fast 001 "
Spun around to see a destroyer on a collision course at high speed
Impact
Screen of death

Uboat destroyed by collision

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by bigboywooly

All of a sudden I get " Warship spotted short range closing fast 001 "
Spun around to see a destroyer on a collision course at high speed
Impact
Screen of death

Uboat destroyed by collision

And that was a brave death. Almost a knight's one against a barbarian horde alone!

[Biggles]

long time ago, while playing stock SH3, I was searching for targets outside Florida in shallow waters....it was heavy fog...


that bloody DD came out of nowere....I was dead before I even could think "Holy sh...:"

[Sailor Steve]

It was on my third day of training. I was shooting my deck gun at a freighter and was very close to it when it exploded. Everyone on the bridge was killed, including one of the Kriegsmarine's top instructors.

[WOD]

Originally Posted by bigboywooly

Patrol in 1940 in a IXB
Forget the grid

Came across a large convoy in real bad fog
I should have shadowed and waited till weather cleared but being greedy thought I would press the attack

Made a side on attack , aiming for the furthest column I could see and managed to hit 3 ships - sinking one tanker
Warships seemed to head for the opposite side of the convoy so rode my luck and continued to load torps while keeping pace with the convoy and heading into the middle rows
One of my earlier hits went down too
Managed to load bow torps and fired again on another 2 tankers
Both of these sank
Managed to hit a small ship with the stern tube that also sank
Now I had 57000 tons
All I had left were external fish and should have just broke off contact and crept away
The escorts had no idea where I was

So like a dumbass I surfaced to decks awash while running in the middle of the convoy
Could barely see the ships either side and none of them put lights on so I carried on
I could hear a DD in the distance dropping DC but they were way of where I was

All of a sudden I get " Warship spotted short range closing fast 001 "
Spun around to see a destroyer on a collision course at high speed
Impact
Screen of death

Uboat destroyed by collision

Now I´m glad to see I´m not alone with this
Nearly same happened to me in the north of the Canarian Islands.

But I was better in one thing....the collsion with the Black Swan was not the only one....2 made it right to get me nearly the same time....and all two collided with me at full speed...the 2nd 5 seconds later as the first...2 Black Swans vs a single UBoat from typ IX C....

Fate was same as u had....and I have had over 70000 tons sunk from that convoy.

[bigboywooly]

lol
Glad I am not alone

[stabiz]

I think "greed" could be put up as cause of death in 99% of the cases. I constantly tell myself "Get out, get out, go silent and deep" when I get the oh so alluring itch for JUST ONE MORE torpedo at the convoy.

Will be back with death-tale, gotta watch Dexter first.

[bigboywooly]

Dexter ?

[WOD]

Originally Posted by bigboywooly

lol
Glad I am not alone

Since this one time when this happend I´ve never ever fallen in madness that way lol.

But in another way I have been mad which has end in my Uboats death too....was on patrol in early 41 ...PG was EK77....found only one destroyer, followed from a Pyro and a large cargo.....ok lots of torps still have had.....so I invaded freetown. Bad weather and heavy fog. All ok sunk one passenger liner....one large cargo, a large tanker and a medium tanker. One armed trawler...I have had sunk on the way in. Heard one DD pinging for me outside the port.....running against the wall and couldn´t get me (seen with the free cam)....and finally I thought he was mad. So as no more ships were in sight I decided to surface and leave on flank speed. Before that I have had already plottet my course outside the harbour.

Now the mad thing begun....after that patrol I wanted to eat something and drink coffee....so I thought no more danger in here....and left pc alone running TC on 4....half a minute....set on coffee on the coffee machine.....was not more than half a minute.....on my way back to the pc from the kitchen I heard the crackling of ramming something....I began to run....lol and when I was on PC....Screen of death was on screen....collision....this was in fact the most mad thing I ever have done when playing SHIII....never ever leaving not paused when playing SHIII.

[Iron Budokan]

Heavy fog during the day and I was motoring on the surface trying to approach the convoy. All of a sudden a friggin' DD flies out of nowhere from the fog and slams into me. Death screen.

I sit there my jaw agape staring at the screen. I play DiD but I was momentarily trying to convince myself this was just a mistake and I really should reboot from my last saved game because that DD appearing out of nowhere like that wasn't really fair.

But then I accepted reality and started a new career.

DDs get me more than anything else, usually either by ramming or depth charges. Planes are a bother but I've never been killed by one...yet. Of course, I've also never lived much past June of '43, either.

When I look back over my careers it seems to me I've been killed more often than not because of my impatience. Just want to get that one last torp fired off at the convoy or try to sneak deeper inside the convoy to get the juicy targes instead of using my head and playing smart. (Which, admittedly for me, is sometimes a difficult concept to pull off anyway! :rotfl: )

[Ducimus]

Since im at work, i cant spend the time to write up a short story. So i'll point to the story that ive already written. Both are of the same boat, in the same career game.

Here i barely survived:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...38&postcount=1

Here my luck ran out:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...82&postcount=1

Most action packed career game ive ever had i think.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by Iron Budokan

I sit there my jaw agape staring at the screen. I play DiD but I was momentarily trying to convince myself this was just a mistake and I really should reboot from my last saved game because that DD appearing out of nowhere like that wasn't really fair.

But then I accepted reality and started a new career.

Man, why are you describing me?! The same every time I get killed: "That shouldn't have happened, it was not fair, she wasn't supposed to be there, I should be still live and kicking... Lets reboot! But... but... no... the pleasure from my game would go away and never come back... Ok, new career. You freak!!"

My third GWX career, two nights ago. The first time I decided to do a surface night attack in bad weather (heavy rain, storm, extremely poor visibility), grid AM52, October '40. My type IXB performed very well. We started with sinking the lead escort (Q&R Class destroyer) with 1 torpedo (a safe shot with an electric torpedo from a really short distance) and stayed unspotted. Then we placed ourselves in the very middle of the convoy and started shooting. Scored many hits (like 8), but only two ships went down, the rest was still sailing, not even a bit slower. We wanted to make them down before we leave... Started reloading external torpedoes while still sailing in the middle of the convoy. Suddenly two beams of light were aimed at us from a small merchant, followed immediately by some flares shining like sun. After a while we managed to hide in the darkness again and the lights were gone - we believed we're safe again. But that was not true, as the alerted ascorts were just on their way to our spot. When we spotted the corvette, she was very close. Crash dived with some minor damage in the aft torpedo room and we were sent straight to the bottom with a few depth charges a while after.

What a shame... On the first patrol. :/ My first watch officer told me he'll never speak to me again. And that's definitely true, as he's not going to speak to anybody any more.