Quick query on tonnage...

[Raven Morpheus]

Hello, me again...

Just a quick query this time about tonnage.

I've read somewhere (although I can't find the thread or forum post) that some people who get low tonnage on a mission, or in successive missions, get sent to some sub school or something in their campaigns in SH IV.

Currently I'm sitting on 38k having just sunk a large European liner (which for some reason was escorted by 3 DD's in a "convoy"!!), and 3 or 4 miscellaneous merchant ships.

I've already been back to midway twice for refit (due to running out of fish) so I'm wondering if I should go back a 3rd time (after I run out of fish this time) or go back to Pearl and end the mission...

So, what is ideal tonnage for a mission?

Thanks in advance.

[HertogJan]

As far as I know there's no real amount of tonnage required to complete a mission, it's mostly about how lucky you are finding and sinking large vessels.

Sometimes I don't sink over 10t in a patrol mission, other times I'll hit the jackpot and sink 100t.

The trick is to sink vessels in the designated area (bino in Star) for the mission to be completed.
Sometimes you'll get ordered to go to a area 'flag in Star' once you arrived to the designated area you'll get a message saying you're free to roam the seas or return to base, depending on the amount of fuel and torpedoes you have, you can stay on patrol, sink any hostile's units wherever found untill you hit bingo fuel. then you can choose to refit of go home.

I do recall getting a message at patrols end saying I needed to be more aggressive but it didn't bench me, maybe, if you don't sink many vessels over a long period of time in different patrols, you'll get pulled from active duty but I doubt you'll have problems finding enough vessels over the course of the sim-war.

After sinking 38t, refitting twice you should think of giving you're crew some RnR... And depending on the period you're in, upgrade you sub with better equipment or switch sub's altogether.
You won't get benched.

I'm not sure but I think the patrol time (departure/arrival home port) in real life was +-1.5 months (you'll probably be able to find this on this forum).


HJ

[raymond6751]

Hi

I have never had a message about low tonnage, and I am not particularly successful on patrol.

My understanding is that tonnage earns you renown which you can then spend on upgrades for your boat. You cannot get a better boat unless you have a lot of renown.

[Armistead]

When it comes down to it all you have to do is sink a ship, but the more you sink, the more renown you get. Mods may differ, but about the only way you'll be relieved is doing a few patrols with nothing sunk. I seldom go to an actual assigned patrol zone unless it happens to be where I'm headed.

One flaw of the game is being able to constantly refit, in reality your crew would go nuts.

[Raven Morpheus]

So no real specific "x tonnage is reasonable" figures then.

That's cool, because on my 1st mission I had a miserable time, I sunk under 15,000 tons, but only refitted once anyway.

Much better on the 2nd mission that I've just finished where I achieved 38,000 tons on 2 refits - mostly helped because I looked at a chart with the shipping lanes on and found a nice sweet corridor coming up from the Carolinas and just west of Guam and I came across a Large European liner in a convoy...

Funnily though I'm top of the Sub Aces board in my game!


About refitting - surely they would have gone back to refit once out of torpedoes and/or deck gun ammo? I'm guessing then that realistically the game should forward time a couple of weeks/months instead of the instant refit it does?

[SilentPrey]

I'm running TMO, RSRDC, OTC, and Traveller's mod. My last patrol netted me 800 renown. I went where I was sent, I ran low on fuel and went home, no refits. I only sunk two 4,000 ton ships. The TMO manual says 601+ renown is a good patrol. I'm not sure if Traveller changed that but I was number two on my leader board with less that 9,000 tons. Top guy had 13,000 if I remember right.

15,000 is plenty good. If you end up going back to school with that it will be as the teacher. Unless your realism settings knock it down too far. I play at 100%. I believe the raw renown score gets multiplied by your realism percentage before you get credited.

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Raven Morpheus

About refitting - surely they would have gone back to refit once out of torpedoes and/or deck gun ammo? I'm guessing then that realistically the game should forward time a couple of weeks/months instead of the instant refit it does?

The term "refit" is really a misnomer. All you are doing is loading torpedoes and fuel, and maybe making a few minor repairs. This would likely take hours to a day.

At the end of a patrol, a refit crew would take over, and start repair and the crew would have shore leave (if you could call it that). After they were rested, a period of training would commence and finally some exercises before the next patrol. This would usually be about 3 weeks, unless major repairs or such were to be done. Then it could be much longer, as extensive overhauls required shipyard work in the States.

The fleetboats were designed to carry stores and fuel for 75 days, but generally were scheduled for 60 days. However, it often happened that patrols had to be terminated for various reasons, including fuel, torpedoes, mechanical problems, battle damage, illness, etc.

Personally, I feel a patrol should be limited to about 60 days, or 75 at the most. Say about half that for a S-boat. Early in the war, operations were conducted on an emergency basis, due to desperate circumstances, but that is a bit different.

As far as the "double-barrel" patrols are concerned (using "refits" to get more torpedoes and fuel), I doubt that many skippers were willing to prolong their patrols much beyond 60 or 70 days. Patrol ops were very fatiguing and stressful for the crew, and they would likely be worn to a frazzle after that length of time.

[merc4ulfate]

Originally Posted by Armistead

... about the only way you'll be relieved is doing a few patrols with nothing sunk.

^^^^^^^^^^

This and sinking one of your own carriers ... that got me relieved real fast. LOL

I hit her in an extremely dark night engagment.

[Raven Morpheus]

Hah! I nearly did a similar thing the other day, only it was a merchant ship.

It was very foggy.

I had a map contact telling me there was a single merchant nearby but no coloured marker.

So I cruised up to it and manned the deck gun...

Luckily I used my noggin and cheated by checking what side the ship was on by looking at it via the free camera - I could see the dark shape of the ship but not the flag in my binoculars...

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by merc4ulfate

^^^^^^^^^^

This and sinking one of your own carriers ... that got me relieved real fast. LOL

I hit her in an extremely dark night engagment.

That can happen, but it comes down to point and mods. I sunk two US carriers once, but later sunk a Yamato and several jap ships, came home and got a medal.....

[Rammstein0991]

Originally Posted by Raven Morpheus

Hello, me again...

Just a quick query this time about tonnage.

I've read somewhere (although I can't find the thread or forum post) that some people who get low tonnage on a mission, or in successive missions, get sent to some sub school or something in their campaigns in SH IV.

Currently I'm sitting on 38k having just sunk a large European liner (which for some reason was escorted by 3 DD's in a "convoy"!!), and 3 or 4 miscellaneous merchant ships.

I've already been back to midway twice for refit (due to running out of fish) so I'm wondering if I should go back a 3rd time (after I run out of fish this time) or go back to Pearl and end the mission...

So, what is ideal tonnage for a mission?

Thanks in advance.

The reason it was so heavily escorted is the Japanese used their ocean liners as converted troopships, so it was probably packed to the gunnels with Japanese soldiers and their supplies.

[Raven Morpheus]

Originally Posted by SilentPrey

15,000 is plenty good. If you end up going back to school with that it will be as the teacher. Unless your realism settings knock it down too far. I play at 100%. I believe the raw renown score gets multiplied by your realism percentage before you get credited.

Yeah I'm running on 73% realism, but I think that's only down that far due to having the no external camera and no stabilise view, no map contacts update options off, all other options are on.

Originally Posted by TorpX

As far as the "double-barrel" patrols are concerned (using "refits" to get more torpedoes and fuel), I doubt that many skippers were willing to prolong their patrols much beyond 60 or 70 days. Patrol ops were very fatiguing and stressful for the crew, and they would likely be worn to a frazzle after that length of time.

So if I were to play realistically then I'd be looking at keeping patrols down to about 60 days. I'll give that a go, might make it a little more interesting.

Originally Posted by Rammstein0991

The reason it was so heavily escorted is the Japanese used their ocean liners as converted troopships, so it was probably packed to the gunnels with Japanese soldiers and their supplies.

Yeah, I kind of knew that, the same is true of the Allies they use passenger ships as troop transports, seen them in SH V and sunk quite a few. I just wasn't expecting to see a single liner with 3 DD's, more I was expecting to see at least 2 or 3 of them.