These Cruisers are Smart! -DOH!

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

I'm 90 degress to stb of a convoy at 5 knots. I torpedo a large merchant under forward mast, he goes down in smoke in flames. I see a Dido at 4 knots same heading as the merchants 345 degrees and 2700 meters. At 2500, he is at 340 degrees, I launch a torpedo under the front turret directly forward of the bridge. I put the scope down, bring it up again, I see him steaming at 18 knots! The torpedo does not detonate, well after the clock hand shoud have hit red. Minutes later the cruiser slows down to 1 knot. I angle at 100 degrees stb of him at 2000 meters. I think, ok he dodged the first one lets see how he does at closer range. i fire, same result!

Note to self. Attack these at dark and at 300-500 meters submerged.

[GoldenRivet]

you must be using T1 steamers... the visible wakes are easy to avoid for an alert warship especially those capable of rapid acelleration or course changes.

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

you must be using T1 steamers... the visible wakes are easy to avoid for an alert warship especially those capable of rapid acelleration or course changes.

Sadly, I am. Mainly becuase I have no faith in the T2s until after April of 1940. I did manage to bag another Large Merchant out of the convoy, so I'm at least doing what I am supposed to do. I just get greedy for those warships sometimes. I just need to cool my jets until Weserabung rolls around, then I'll have all the warships I can handle!

[Brag]

Electric torps work reasonably well before April 40. I use nothing but electrics from Sept 1939 with excellent tonnage results. But I seldom fire at more than 1,000 meters

[GoldenRivet]

I use t1s more than anything else... as long as you close the distance to under 1,000 meters and use high speed settings there is little they can do to dodge it.

I usually use electric torps during daylight hours or when attacking DDs/DEs

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

I set up my attack at night, within 370 meters, stern shot. He tried that crap again of speeding up. But the torpedo didnt hit in the magazine but it did hit the engine room. He popped a starshell and swept with his searchlights, but he was down in minutes! I used a forward torpedoe for a Medium Cargo. The torpedo missed by inches! I went to 140 meters, waited out the attack. I have 65,000 tons on this patrol, 80 rounds of deck gun ammo and 7 torpedoes. I think I still have enough to get 100,000 for the patrol. Light damage.

[KeptinCranky]

Dido CLs are not worth taking the time to shoot at, only 5600 tons, unless they happen to steam along right behind you at 600m and 90 deg AOB without you having to even maneuver the boat, then it's worth shooting a stern eel at them, because you can't miss, otherwise save it for the merchies or a BIG warship over 10k tons

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Originally Posted by KeptinCranky

Dido CLs are not worth taking the time to shoot at, only 5600 tons, unless they happen to steam along right behind you at 600m and 90 deg AOB without you having to even maneuver the boat, then it's worth shooting a stern eel at them, because you can't miss, otherwise save it for the merchies or a BIG warship over 10k tons

I've always figured 5000 tons was the bottom end of what I was willing to burn a torpedo on. I dont even bother with destroyers for that reason. Having said that, I try to nail a cruiser whenever I get the chance. Mainly, because if they're not in convoy those blasted things go at 30 knots! There is no way I am taking him down unless I make a visual or radio contact almost 90 or 270 degrees from his course with time to get to the intercept point. Missing him 2x shook my confidence, so geting him the 3rd time was a moral victory. those 2 torpedoes missing wide could have equalled merchant tonnage but I wanted the challenge.

[U-TigerShark]

how do you select different parts of ships to fire at, like magazine, fuel engines or is it only a GWX thing ??

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by U-TigerShark

how do you select different parts of ships to fire at, like magazine, fuel engines or is it only a GWX thing ??

Its a stock thing. Instead of using the L key to lock onto a target just move the cross hair reticle on the periscope or uzo to the part of the ship you want to target then fire a torpedo. Assuming you have WO assist on that is. If you are using manual targetting then you'll need to get the right data entered into the TDC before firing.

[U-TigerShark]

how do i get the Weapons officer to assist ??

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Originally Posted by U-TigerShark

how do i get the Weapons officer to assist ??

It has to be enabled in your settings and he has to be in the control room. otherwise, I dont think it works. this is a GWX thing, but very handy; if you get within 1000 meters and within 15 degrees port or starboard of your target as close to 90 degrees aob as possible, you will see in the ship manual several parts of ship come up. you will see ammo rooms, fuel tanks, engine rooms. if you want to economize your torpedoes, very very usefull.

[Amiral Crapaud]

Smart ships like that can be more easily taken care of if you add manually some lead, knowing from the start they are the "quick" type.

Attacking the Hunt on the convoy qualification training mission is quite handy in this case to "test" the AI. One has to shoot a good torpedo, or more preferably a spread, at the right distance in front of the target, for her to run into the torpedo while she specifically tried to avoid it by speeding up. I find this kind of vicious attacks rather satisfactory

[BarjackU977]

I aslo use mostly T1s, set to run at full speed. The very high speed makes it hard to miss a hit

[Steel_Tomb]

i prefer the steamers, because you can fire all your fish at once but have them on different speed settings, so they impact more or less at the same time, while I'm already at 100m going further so the DD's never even pick me up. saying that I will use electric fish for big warships otherwise they will speed up, especially for BB's or CV's because the destroyer screen will see the steamers before they get close enough to the target thus missing it completely.