Waste of time :(

[Phantom Mark]

Ahhh geeez, I shoulda know after raiding ports on previous patrols.

I had a patrol near Tokyo harbour, completed it, ran back to Mid-Way and had a refit, decided to nip back to Tokyo and see whats cooking.........

How depressing, virtually nothing at all in the area apart from a few rusty old hulks and a couple of Med Cruisers, hardly worth all the effort of the sneak and peak with various destroyers and subchasers in the area

I have yet to see a proper battleship or flat top in Campaign mode

Oh well, made the most of it and managed to down 134k worth of Jap metal ( that was including a refit of course ), so not all was wasted.

Cant wait for something like GWX to hopefully breath some life into the ports etc............................

Cant help ask myself why again we have to rely on modders to finish the game properly, look at SH3, its so different now with all the mods and stuff, so much better than the devs had to leave it

[donut]

WE bitched,now we helen wait.

[John Channing]

You are looking in the wrong places. I have sunk 2 carriers, and am about to put a heavy cruiser on the bottom, once I get finished with the Huge European Liner that's in my sights.

Funny.... half he people complain there are too many targets, the other half complain there are not enough.

JCC

[Phantom Mark]

Quantity was fine, quality and variation was terrible, like a big map with lots of copy paste, lazy arse design and rushed if you ask me...........Searched every single nook and cranny of that harbour from top to bottom, guess the big boys just wernt home that day

[tater]

A few things.

One, the TFs disappear at their last waypoints, so once they get anywhere near a port, you won't see them. (so patrol at sea, perhpas NEAR a suitable major IJN port)

Two, US submarines didn't go into ports in RL. Sticking the boat's nose in a little, shooting some fish, they getting the hell out was considered amazingly aggressive. It just wasn't done. When I get around to fixing up the ports, it'll be suicide to try and get inside one.

Three, the seas in the stock game are overly abundant with such task force targets, you can't spit without hitting one, and they make loads of contact reports. Go to sea, young man!

tater

[Typhaon]

You know what happened in Pearl Habour? That's what happens when you keep your entire fleet in ports... I think the Japanese won't to the mistake they took advantage of to attack the USA, right?
The only thing I would expect in ports is more merchant traffic...
Ah yes and about sneaking into ports:
While you might get into the port to shoot some ships, you most likely won't come out in reallife... in reallife the ships would not stay at their place when beeing attacked... soon after the first hit there would be a hell of shells, DCs and really lots of ships looking for you in the shallow waters... in SHIV if anything reacts at all, it the destroyers und subchasers guarding the port, but no DDs joining them on they fight against the sub.
So as long as it is so easy to get into and out of ports I see no reason why there should be more targets...
When I see screenshots where players got over 100,000tons of tonnage on one patrol, I think this game is already too easy.

[tater]

Actually, the bulk of the IJN was in port most of the time. Sitting at anchor in Truk Lagoon, or in the inland sea, or tawi Tawi, or Singapore.

It was a bad place to be for submarines, and honestly, a poor place to sink ships. Remember that 6 of the 8 BBs "sunk" at PH actually just settled to the shallow bottom and were raised to fight again.

tater

[AVGWarhawk]

Go get taters shipping mod. He has designed it so convoys go to port and hang for a few day.

[tater]

Some ports, more on a complete redo. The idea is not to try and whack them in port, however, it's that you might get a contact report and assume they are heading to a port, let them go in, and wait for them to come out, THEN attack.

tater

[SteamWake]

Heres a tip...

If you ever get a photo recon mission "Carrier force at blah blah" lick your chops have your tactics in order and dont get caught.

I have a carrier right now.. 5th mission in there last patrol. Two of those missions were the juicy target mentioned above.

4 flatops down in one patrol (there easy to hit when there at anchor). Also one went up with the first torpedo "Kablooee" ball of fire. The other three took 4 each. [Balo Rocks ]

Did I mention dont get caught ?

SW

[Excalibur Bane]

I'm a bit discouraged myself. I've yet to encounter a right and proper taskforce at sea. The only one I encountered was bloody madness. Three destroyers in column formation, about 10km ahead of two troop transports who were in column formation. What kind of lousy escort is that? Popped them both with four torpedoes, the destroyers didn't even stop or bother to check on their buddies.

I haven't seen anything above a destroyer at all yet. I seem to always miss a taskforce, get the report when it's well out of my range. I would have thought Gato's would have radar in '42, but I guess not. I need to work on my hunting zones, I suppose. Altogether too many damn fishing boats and sampans all over the place.

Live and learn. The Atlantic and the Pacific theaters were very different in that regard. I'm glad they didn't make yet another Atlantic sim out of SH4.

[tater]

The troopships are tougher when the convoys are better designed. They can steam much faster, and they can zig-zag, too. That makes hunting them harder.

The benefit of the "generic" ship entry in the missions is that the same convoy can pass you twice, but look a little different. The down side is that a convoy would ideally be organized around compatable ships, not 4 ships than can make over 20 knots, and one that does 10 at a dead run.

tater

[NEON DEON]

Originally Posted by tater

A few things.

One, the TFs disappear at their last waypoints, so once they get anywhere near a port, you won't see them. (so patrol at sea, perhpas NEAR a suitable major IJN port)

Two, US submarines didn't go into ports in RL. Sticking the boat's nose in a little, shooting some fish, they getting the hell out was considered amazingly aggressive. It just wasn't done. When I get around to fixing up the ports, it'll be suicide to try and get inside one.

Three, the seas in the stock game are overly abundant with such task force targets, you can't spit without hitting one, and they make loads of contact reports. Go to sea, young man!

tater

Well that is not entirely true.

In January of 1945, Eugene Fluckey raided Namkwan Harbor in the USS Barb. He sank 4 ships damaged three more and did it at night on the surface against IJN escorts equiped with radar! It earned him the CMOH.

After unloading on the docked convoy, he had to escape. Here is a small bit of the details of the escape from the book Thunder Below.

"Time 0420. "Dave escort range?"

"Thirty-six hundred yards, closing."

"Get Williams on the phone. Chief, I need more speed!

"Sir the engines are at their top speed now. Any more and the governors will cut the engines out."

"Well tie down the govenors and put 150 percent overload on all engines"

Time 0430. "Dave, escort range?"

Thirty two hundred yards. Still closing, but not as fast. We are making 23.5 knots, a new world record for submarines."

"Captain, Engine Room. The bearings are getting hot!"

Let them melt. Jim, how close will we pass the rocks, the rocks awash, and the Strawstack rocks?"

"Three thousand yards, tubes 7 and 8 are reloaded."

"Thats a record. Cut into 1,500 yards from the rocks. Jim, I can see she is a frigate. I doubt she will start shooting untill she has closed to 2,000 yards. Then she will have only her bow gun. She must illuminate like they did to us in the South China Sea. The minute she does we will shoot two torpedoes aft and turn towards the rocks, hoping shell take a shortcut or give us abroadside and pile up."

Time 0436. "junks ahead 900 yards!"

"OMG! We cant stop now! Get me a last range on the escort then shift the radar to sweep back and forth 30 degrees on the either bow. I will try to avod the junks. God help them."

"Range 2,700 yards (escort)!"

The Barb highballed toward the 20 fathom curve, maneuvering wildly. Within minutes the escorts stopped chasing and opened fire on the junks. Their inferior radar evidently could not distingquish between a junk and a subamrine. No searchlights were turned on to attract a possible torpedo.

At 0438, as the frigates commenced firing, the Tae Islan lighthouse keeper illuminated. A fleeting thought---I must write a letter thanking him for his courteous navigational assistance in these crucial moments.

Time 0446. We untied the governors on the main engines, slowed to flank speed to cool down the bearings, and secured from battle stations. We sent a message to the Picuda on the results of our coastal foray. Separately, I sent another "eyes only" to the skipper. I offered to make a joint foray along the coast that coming evening or the next day, though we had only had four fish. His response again:
"DROP DEAD!"

Time 0511. The galloping ghost of the China coast crossed the 20-fathom curve with a sigh. I had never before aprreciated how much water this is. But this would be the first place they'd search for us, so I decided to stay on the surface after dawn, half an hour away. The cannonade astern continued; poor junks, absobing punishment meant for the Barb."

[zylark]

Originally Posted by Phantom Mark

I have yet to see a proper battleship or flat top in Campaign mode

They are not common. In my current career (Tambor->Gato->Balao) with a good dozen plus patrols running the TTM mod, I have encountered, engaged and did some damage to only 3 Task Forces. Two with flattops, one with mainly BBs. No Yamato though.

You need to keep in the busy-lanes to find such tasty targets I think. In mid 43-early 44, the straights right by the supply ship in Celebes sea is a good hunting spot. I catch a lot of convoys there at least, and one TF thus far (the other two have been by the Phillipines).

But really there is only one thing to do, stake your course and happy hunting

[STEED]

Originally Posted by John Channing

You are looking in the wrong places. I have sunk 2 carriers, and am about to put a heavy cruiser on the bottom, once I get finished with the Huge European Liner that's in my sights.

Funny.... half he people complain there are too many targets, the other half complain there are not enough.

JCC

I agree.

Stop moaning and get stuck in.