first convoy, and in the soupy fog.

[vodkajello]

14 days into a patrol, and 10 days of straight fog and big waves I finally hit pay dirt!

Holy crap, tracking large convoys in dense fog is crazy!

I beleive I have 14 contacts out there. 4-5 of which are escorts.

Fog is so thick you can't see 300M in front of the boat.

This is so tense. It's a bloody good thing I do have this fog and the waves, because they'd see me for sure without it.

It's so hard to target stuff though. arg.

I guess one should go for the big tonnage first, then see how it works out.

Do you guys put 2 torps into a couple of large/medium merchants and wait for them to fall behind? Or is it more advisable to hit them till they break and then get the heck out of there fast?

Once a boat mounted an attack there was pretty much no chance for a second run at the convoy, right? The ships just move too fast for us. (Unless you manage to cripple one of them and they have to limp behind the rest.)

On my first try against this mass of ships I targetted a large merchant in the middle of the convoy. So got right in there, with in 750M and did a full spread of 4 torps on him, so he was headed to the bottom. Then a medium was directly aft, so I put my rear eel into him, but it didn't hurt him much. He took off at 12kts, and then I got harrassed by a DD and a corvette. So is there usually a chance to catch back up to a convoy once they are running? Or do you hit them fast and hard then dissapear into the sea?

Oh yeah, large merchant ships are HUGE compared to this little sub.

[Salvadoreno]

what mods are u using? I only get fog when there is rain. Never just get normal fog

[zzsteven]

Originally Posted by vodkajello

14 days into a patrol, and 10 days of straight fog and big waves I finally hit pay dirt!

Holy crap, tracking large convoys in dense fog is crazy!

I beleive I have 14 contacts out there. 4-5 of which are escorts.

Fog is so thick you can't see 300M in front of the boat.

This is so tense. It's a bloody good thing I do have this fog and the waves, because they'd see me for sure without it.

It's so hard to target stuff though. arg.

I guess one should go for the big tonnage first, then see how it works out.

Do you guys put 2 torps into a couple of large/medium merchants and wait for them to fall behind? Or is it more advisable to hit them till they break and then get the heck out of there fast?

Once a boat mounted an attack there was pretty much no chance for a second run at the convoy, right? The ships just move too fast for us. (Unless you manage to cripple one of them and they have to limp behind the rest.)

On my first try against this mass of ships I targetted a large merchant in the middle of the convoy. So got right in there, with in 750M and did a full spread of 4 torps on him, so he was headed to the bottom. Then a medium was directly aft, so I put my rear eel into him, but it didn't hurt him much. He took off at 12kts, and then I got harrassed by a DD and a corvette. So is there usually a chance to catch back up to a convoy once they are running? Or do you hit them fast and hard then dissapear into the sea?

Oh yeah, large merchant ships are HUGE compared to this little sub.

To do an "end around" or not? Guess it depends on what boat you're driving. Type II then no, you'll burn up more fuel than it's worth. Sink what you can and then move on to the next target.

Tpye VII or above? Oh heck yes. I'll keep hitting that convoy until I run out of torpedoes or run out of targets.

zz

[MarshalLaw]

Target the largest ships first..usually they are in the middle of the convoy...tankers, troop transports, liners. What I do is use 1-2 torpedoes on them cripple them and wait for them to fall behind. Take your time and shoot for the engine room. Once you have shot your first volly. Dive to 20-40 meters, move within the convoy and look for a escape route to circle back to take care of the crippled ships. If you missed or the ships you hit did not fall out of line. Find your escape route, reload and position yourself once again.

[SubCommander7142]

My first convoy, I was so green, I didn't even notice the bastards spotting me when they did; who was to know that the little green icon turns red when spotted

I usually go after the big tonnage target first, strive to line up my eel enough so that it breaks the boat in half with one shot, that usually disbands the convoy in confusion. If it's raining though with massive waves and if the target is not a tanker, I launch two torpedos, just for good measure if I don't have time to line up a good shot, to which, initially, I most of the time do.

When the destroyers start in on me though, I dive and make silent running maneuvers. Breaking ahead full when in their baffles or being DCed.

If its just one destroyer though, and its on me, I go along side a merchant, and wait for the destroyer to maneuver itself around the merchant to my side (if you get into this position, they can't depth charge you, and if you're submerged, they can't really gun you) and launch a torpedo ether to the front tubes or to the aft, depending on which axis the destroyer is following on. Due to the size of the destroyer and the constant away speed of both you're sub and the merchant, you're more than likely to get a fast 90 degree shot out of the deal, it all depends on the distances after that.

Using this tactic I mowed down a convoy, destroying all its destroyers during the battle, to which afforded me time to deck gun the small tonnage to pieces.

That was a good day in the Atlantic

[Dowly]

Hehe, I remember my first convoy. It was a large 20+ ship convoy with no escorts. I missed with all my torpedos ( ), so I sailed into the middle of it and started shooting them with my DG. I bagged one small merchant and a C2 bagged me. I was so thrilled, that I forgot to keep an eye out for those crazy merchants, whom captains were obviously drunk. So the C2 rammed me straight on and I sank to the bottom.

Believe it or not, that was my tactic in the 'Noob' days. A little after I changed to manual TDC and started hitting the ships. Nowadays, I leave usually my DG to port.

[vodkajello]

To do an "end around" or not? Guess it depends on what boat you're driving. Type II then no, you'll burn up more fuel than it's worth. Sink what you can and then move on to the next target.

Tpye VII or above? Oh heck yes. I'll keep hitting that convoy until I run out of torpedoes or run out of targets.

zz

I was in a VIIB.

So the ideal is to exit at a 90 degree angle from the convoy, keeping your signature small from where they would be looking for you. I guess you would head out to about 8-10k and then surface and go full flank to get ahead of the convoy and set up to close in and make another kill again?

And yes it is very foggy and very rainy. Full storm conditions. It's quite difficult to track and line these guys too. I don't know if I can target specific areas of a ship if I can't see it. I'm doing good if i hit. Can you lock on to a specific area of a ship once you have it identified?

I did forget to mention what mods I'm playing with.

Grey Wolves with the Unified Campaign.

[thyro]

Originally Posted by vodkajello

Holy crap, tracking large convoys in dense fog is crazy!

With fog is rather cool

You can see (listen) them but they hardly see you.

Go to periscope depth to get their position then surface to get speed.

Originally Posted by vodkajello

Do you guys put 2 torps into a couple of large/medium merchants and wait for them to fall behind? Or is it more advisable to hit them till they break and then get the heck out of there fast?

If the convoy is large and well protected is what I do

I often fire just 1 torp near the screws or in the engine room. To disable the large and medium merchants. I leave the DDs/Corvets/etc alone and the rest of the convoy for awhile to get some distance... 20km I surface to finish the disable ships.

If the convoy is medium/small and not so well protected (lets say 1 or 2 corvettes and one DD... no guns in merchant)

Then what I do is a thriling raid surfaced, firing torps while my crew manage the deck guns to finish the merchants.

Corvettes and DDs will help you in the party... just dodge their fire by moving flank and close and between merchant ships.

you can also disable merchant weapons 1st or get so close to them or in a position that their weapons can't fire at you

(check the pictures in the following link)

http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=50525

Have fun

[zzsteven]

[quote="vodkajello
So the ideal is to exit at a 90 degree angle from the convoy, keeping your signature small from where they would be looking for you. I guess you would head out to about 8-10k and then surface and go full flank to get ahead of the convoy and set up to close in and make another kill again?


.[/quote]

That is the basic idea.

zz

[BigBadVuk]

Originally Posted by vodkajello

Do you guys put 2 torps into a couple of large/medium merchants and wait for them to fall behind? Or is it more advisable to hit them till they break and then get the heck out of there fast?

Well m8 it depends..If u r in happy time and u have good situation awarnes u can stay at surface,and go for it...1 by 1..nice and easy...If u r in 1943 u will have only 1 chance..so then u will concetrate on that to disabel 1-2 ships(lets say 2 ships each with 2 fishes) and when (IF) escorts loose u u return and kill em by 1 final coup the grace!(err...did u watched Das-Boot)


In fog...nop..i will put 3-4 fishes in biggest tonnage single target i can find(and i have good solution to fire,i dont want ,slides,duds,etc) and then get out fast as i can...BTW...i play GW mod on 100% and im in Jan.1940 and im doing good with this tactic!