I used to think u flakboat guys were silly ...

[BettingUrlife]

Well, my apologies! Recently I upgraded my Type VII to 3 flak towers, one with a quad 20, plus two of the lighter ones. Turned over the guns to the crew and I seriously doubt there is a single flyable Sunderland in Coastal Command (they are in Coastal Command, right?) left in this current campaign.

The amount of firepower these guns put out is pretty amazing. My tactic is just to put the sub into flank speed just as the planes go into their dive and turn the sub into them. Has worked very well. Originally I thought flak boats were dumbass as they didn't work well in WW2 and early in the SH3 campaign the boats just couldn't put out that much firepower to down aircraft. The type XX1 is an excellent flakboat as well.

[tennozan]

Yeah, I think you have a pretty lethal anti-air platform. I put the airpower mod in which sort of leveled the playing field a bit however - no more shooting down 20 planes a day. In fact, I still can hand most flyboys their hat but now I seek to engage and escape instead of just running on the surface and wailing on the allied airpower.

Of course, they do get through to you...I had a B-24 drop a bomb on my conning tower after I had done in his wingman. Blew off my 4X20mm flak gun and killed 3 crewmen - I barely made it back to port.

And by late 1943 I generally don't try and engage them unless I have to - they just call in the entire Allied and RAF air corps and pommel you. I've never lived to patrol past 1944 so I can't tell you what it's like after that - I'm sure they just let by-gones be by-gones and watch you idly whilst sipping their coffee as they fly around you in circles.

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by tennozan

And by late 1943 I generally don't try and engage them unless I have to - they just call in the entire Allied and RAF air corps and pommel you. I've never lived to patrol past 1944 so I can't tell you what it's like after that - I'm sure they just let by-gones be by-gones and watch you idly whilst sipping their coffee as they fly around you in circles.

Pretty much. They also entertain you with some pretty spectacular formation stunt flying. It's like the 40's version of the Blue Angels, but with big, slow, ugly bombers.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by BettingUrlife

I used to think u flakboat guys were silly ...

I still think this way.
It´s just stupid to be able to shoot down dozens of planes in a single patrol.

Like the little turtle teached: Duck&Cover

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Dowly

I still think this way.
It´s just stupid to be able to shoot down dozens of planes in a single patrol.

Like the little turtle teached: Duck&Cover

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...DUck+and+cover

[STEED]

It's better to slug it out with aircraft but when a Destroyer comes on the scene?

Originally Posted by Dowly

I still think this way.
It´s just stupid to be able to shoot down dozens of planes in a single patrol.

Like the little turtle teached: Duck&Cover

Absolutely. The real U-Flaks tempted captains to stay up and fight it out, and they died.

The way the game treats aircraft is totally bogus.

[Letum]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Absolutely. The real U-Flaks tempted captains to stay up and fight it out, and they died.

The way the game treats aircraft is totally bogus.

I remember attacking a late war VIIin the Crimea in IL2
I cant remember its armament, but I do remember it not being easy.
If I tryed to strafe it or do a shalow dive bomb on it then I didnt stand much chance.
Acute dive bombing was also difficult as the U-boat is a tiny target to bomb.
Cloud cover makes things harder as it isnt as easy to stay out of the u-boats range.
It is possible to fly at 0* to the uboat and get in its blindspot and level bombing is as easy as pie if you have a large stable plane with a bomb sight.

I am a skilled pilot with plenty of ingame, and some real life experiance, but the U-boat still managed to do serious or critical dammage to my plane in about 1/4 of my attacks and I only scored a hit on the boat around 1/5 times

[Laughing Swordfish]

I'm with the guys playing it historically.

Deliberately up-gunning boats and sending them out in the Bay togthether for mutual support, did give the RAF a bloody nose and a bit of a shock for a while. Until they were all sunk.

That's not to say don't arm yourself to the hilt if you can.

But even with the sharpest teeth, you scurry into your burrow when the hawks are circling overhead.

Not as much fun, but more fun than losing your boat which is realistically what happens when you give up your third dimension to an enemy which has a third dimension of it's own and is about 200 times faster than you.

LS

[Kalach]

I would really like to see a Destroyer Command and also a Bomber Command for SH3, I'm sure I could do a better job than them :hmm: .