good tactics/tips for torpedoing small, fast targets?

[kz26]

Just got back to SH3 and the community after a looong break (due to school and a lack of adequate computer power)...I must say that GWX3 kicks some serious marine ass.

Anyway, I was wondering what techniques would be useful when trying to attack small boats/ships (torpedo boats, trawlers, smaller destroyers, etc.)

I recently wasted an entire salvo of torps trying to take out an ASW boat...so I figured what the heck, why not surface and just pound her with the deck gun. That didn't turn out so well...the darned ship kept turning which made it really hard to torpedo, but using the deck gun caused my boat to incur WAAYYY too much damage

[ryanglavin]

Ignore em, theres no point wasting a torpedo on a target 2k tons or less.

[Rafael]

Originally Posted by ryanglavin

Ignore em, theres no point wasting a torpedo on a target 2k tons or less.

Correct ignore 2k tons and certainly (in your specific case), a small warship.

[Task Force]

Use what BDU gave you... your deckgun.

[Flippo84]

If you want to take out one of the escorts in a heavy guarded convoy, just wait for fair conditions. When you've got no heavy sea, just get near the escort and make some noise. Turn around and get away from it at max speed at perioscope depth, it should follow you in 180°. Flood your stern tube and select the magnetic detonator. Torpedo depth should be about one meter below the escort's keel. Show them your perioscope, still running away on max speed. Check if it hold's it's course at 180° to you (torpedo angel has to be 0°). Launch the torpedo at a range of 600m. Lower your perioscope and dive, do NOT change your course until the torpedo hits. When it misses, pray and dive.

Better option is to wait for moderate sight, not completely calm sea and some clouds in the night. Then perform a surface attack. If there is no space to slip through the defense line, try a submerged attack and engage the convoy at ~45° at silent running. Maybe you even want to dive deep to evade the ASDIC.

IMO it's not a very bad mistake to "waste" one of yout stern tube torpedos on a escort. You just need them really to attack when you penetrate the convoy formation. But until radar, I mostly perform surface attacks at night, shooting from a position outside the convoy, only using the bow tubes. According to that, I use the stern tube on single merchants, or an escort when I estimate some advantage from it.

P.S.: Never shoot a torpedo on these elco sissy's or trwalers. Otherwise the BDU would make a wise decision to degrade you into the position of the boat's cook : P

Gute Jagd und fette Beute!

[PavelKirilovich]

I often raid harbours, and in the very shallow littoral waters it is often a good idea to expend a torpedo on a target such as an ASW Trawler or a patrolling destroyer lest they detect you on the infiltration/exfiltration stages of the operation. Inside the harbour itself, assuming you can bypass any minefields and/or anti-torpedo/anti-submarine netting, you're usually fairly safe, they can't get inside after you and will sometimes collide with breakwaters and scupper themselves.

However, it's never a good idea to use an ato (gas-steam torpedo) on a military target, their watchkeepers are typically pretty good and they often have the agility to get out of its path. It doesn't take much to screw up the solution if they spot it early enough. When attacking convoys, I'm usually sorely tempted to shoot the escorts, as then I can reload at my leisure and attack the convoy repeatedly. Convoy escorts however tend to be more dynamic than patrols in littoral waters and are difficult targets; hence the concept of engaging the merchantmen and diving away from the escorts.

Military vessels (and not just the big gun battleships or an aircraft carrier) seem to carry a lot of renown value. I've noticed a pretty significant difference in my 'merchants only' renown values versus 'everything that floats' renown values after certain patrols.

Best weapon/tactic combination for an attacking destroyer, in my experience, is to center my bow on the middle of the arc he travels through as he zig-zags towards you, set a gas-steam torpedo to run fast, and when he's within 700 metres I fire at him just as he begins a fresh zig or a fresh zag. The torpedo should be able to hit him before he can alter course. Torpedoes seem to need at least a 250m run-distance before their safeties disarm. Anything closer than 250m attacking you, you won't have time to set a solution up and engage unless you're very good, in which case you already know the required distance for your torps to arm themselves.