Having a hard time convoy hunting in poor weather.

I'm not far off the coast of Ireland, hunting a convoy that BdU sent me a contact for. I've been able to home in on the convoy by plotting an intercept to its route and following hydrophone contacts, but I'm having one hell of a time actually scoring any hits! The seas are very heavy with 15 mps winds, rain, and high waves. It's nighttime and visibility is very poor. I thought that this would make for perfect hunting weather, since I've been able to get inside of the escorts without even trying (and without knowing it). The problem is, I can't get close enough to see anyone, much less sink them! If I run underwater, the waves cover the scope and I can't see the ships until they're right on top of me. If I run on surface I get spotted long before I can see the ships I'm hunting. I dont really understand this, since my Uboat should present a much smaller visual target. I've got my officer on deck and a qualified watchman also up there, but they can't seem to see ships until they are *right there*. I was surfaced, looking at the chart while my men were standing watch up top. I got the "ship spotted" message and when I got on the bridge to look, there was a tramp steamer clearly visible just 300 meters off starboard! Two other times I was running surfaced and was fired upon by destroyers without my men even seeing them!

So, why the heck can't my men see ships when the ships can see me just fine? It's especially frustrating considering how poor the weather is and how big the waves are. I've tried tracking targets using just the hydrophone, but can't figure out how to get a firing solution. "Long range", "Short range", etc. just doesn't cut it.

Any tips?

[subvers4]

Yes Cueball, I know how how you feel, weeks of virtually nothing then a golden opportunity presents itself and the weather turns against you .
In those conditions I would normally shadow the convoy hoping the weather improves before it got to safety. Or as a last resort, you could infiltrate the convoy submerged, marking out the lanes by the hydrophone, ready the tubes for a snap shot, and take out whatever presents itself. Ok you can't pick your target, but better than nothing, and the evasion will be a bit easier in that weather. It all depends on the philosophy of your current Kaleun.

[Brag]

Cue Ball,

Yes, it is fruistrating! This can go on for weeks at a time. You don't mention the date. After 1940, the enemy has radar, to mess you up even further.

[Kapt Z]

I've had 3 convoy contact reports in my area(500m W Gibraltar) in the last few weeks(ingame) but haven't found one due to heavy seas, heavy, fog and heavy rain. I can barely make out the bow of my own boat! The weather has finally cleared so I hope to find something before I run out of fuel(below 50% now).

[TarJak]

You could try shooting using your hydrophones rather than your scope. You'll need to get familiar with manual targetting though.

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by TarJak

You could try shooting using your hydrophones rather than your scope. You'll need to get familiar with manual targetting though.

I've done this a few time with pretty good success. (blind luck though, no pun intended) I set my torps at 8m, set a pretty wide spread, and fire all at once. The best I've done was 3 out 4 hits. Total luck though.

[Cpt. Angry F...]

Fog and high seas... So much for realism.

I have also noticed that sometimes with high waves the bridge will go underwater, and the electric engines switch on and off and on and off. Highly irritating! Is ther a way to get around this?

[irish1958]

Originally Posted by Cpt. Angry F...

Fog and high seas... So much for realism.

I have also noticed that sometimes with high waves the bridge will go underwater, and the electric engines switch on and off and on and off. Highly irritating! Is ther a way to get around this?

There is a mod which turns off the bad weather for a while which is activated by JSGME after saving and activating and then resuming via saved game. Other than this, no. See, Stop the Rain in the download section .

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by Cpt. Angry F...

Fog and high seas... So much for realism.

I have also noticed that sometimes with high waves the bridge will go underwater, and the electric engines switch on and off and on and off. Highly irritating! Is ther a way to get around this?

Is it fog or just reduced visibility due to spray or rain? Reduced visibility could be caused by other atmospheric events other than "fog".

The only way to get around the engines switching to electric is to submerge and just use electrics. Or get a schnorkel. Other than that stay in port and you won't have the problem.

[FIREWALL]

You can be better helped if, you tell us what level your currently playing the sim.

And what level you want to play at.

[Paul Riley]

Interesting CueBall,I had a similar encounter the other day,but only against a single vessel.I was in the N.Atlantic,waves were 15,vis. practically nil with heavy rain.Yet I was determined to nail the ship,as there is a solution to everything.The only practical way was to plot the vessel's course ready for a night attack,and get to about 300m from the target's beam,as any greater than this and you cant see your target as you stated,which also happened to me in the initial phase.A night attack was crucial due to the fact that I would be using the darkness to hide most of the uboat as I struggled to keep a good depth as it bounces up and down in the current.I normally try to maintain a depth of around 9-10m,giving a fairly unimpeded view through the PS and adequate cover.
This tactic COULD work against convoys,but as someone said,radar is a nightmare and your boat would be picked up probably as it bounces up and down at the surface.A possible workaround would be to try and track the lead warship of the convoy just using the hydrophones,and then use the previous mentioned method of depth control as the warship passes in front of your position to get as good a view of the convoy as possible,and then execute your attack as quickly as possible,then make your pre-planned evasion route,if you have one.Again,this of course would only be useful at night,as in the day you would be like a sore thumb,and DC'd to the bottom in seconds.
Also consider the wind direction too,as once or twice before I have had torpedoes that veered off their track and pass harmlessly by the target.If firing into a head wind add +1kt to your torpedo speed to compensate for the drag.Yet,at 300m you are virtually assured a direct hit if all other values are correct,and you dont get a dud.

You probably know much of this already,but hope some of it helps.

I eventually was able to sink one ship in the convoy (there were at least two big tankers, but all I could get was a tramp steamer...<sigh>) through pure blind luck, but that was it. I just happened to get into a decent firing position and was close enough to see him and just *barely* far enough away that the torpedo would arm. I sent him to the bottom but gave up on the rest of the convoy. After hitting the tramp steamer I submerged and slinked away at slow speed, staying submerged as much as possible to stay out of the weather.

The most irritating thing isn't even that I can't see my quarry in the weather. The worst thing is that my spotters on the bridge apparently can't see enemy ships until they're right on top of me, but the destroyers guarding the convoy had NO trouble homing right in on me. This, despite the fact that the waves were over the conning tower and visibility was only about 350 meters, at best. This is December of '39, so the destroyers shouldn't have radar. And even if they did, the rain is very heavy and the waves are huge, which should make it nearly useless. One interesting thing is that when I asked the bridge for a weather report they always said "Precipitation: None". Riiiiiiiiiight! It was like a monsoon!

I wound up spending as much time as I could submerged, ignoring hydrophone contacts because I knew that even if I intercepted I'd never be able to see well enough to get off a decent shot. After about a week of in-game time the weather cleared and the seas were smooth as glass. When the seas are rough and I can't see my hand in front of my face I get two convoy reports and multiple single ship contacts. As soon as the weather clears it's like the ships all disappeared with the rain!

To add insult to injury, I finally was able to find and intercept a ship, since the weather finally took a turn for the better. It turns out to be an American transport which is off limits! There goes two hours of time intercepting a ship I can't even sink. Lucky me, I get a ship report from BdU and am in the perfect position to intercept. I get in position and listen as the ship closes. Again, it's a tramp steamer. I was hoping for something bigger, but won't look a gift horse in the mouth. I bide my time and setup a perfect "fast 90" shot. The torpedo runs straight and true and explodes perfectly, sending the ship down in less than 15 minutes on an even keel. I'm so excited about finally sinking something (this is only the second sinking in over three weeks of game time) that I accidentally drop my hand right onto the Windows key. SH3 minimizes to the taskbar and when I try to reopen it, it crashes.

AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

For those that asked, I play on 75%-ish realism. I leave on external and event cams, but try to use them for eye candy without relying upon them for other uses. I also leave on Weapons Officer targeting, since I really suck at manual distance estimation.