Happy Hunting Grounds

[KeptinCranky]

good point gabeeg, let's not forget the med

Only trouble I have is the need to identify every freighter because some of those are Italians and other axis ships supplying the afrika korps, and I'd hate to sink a ship full of brand new Tiger tanks destined for herr Rommel (I did that once )


also in gwx there's the suez canal, I didn't see any locks on the map, is it actually navigable in a uboat? say a type IXd2 heading for penang, or maybe a U-flak, it would be extremely silly and entirely wrong historically, but what fun

[Brag]

Bloody passenger/cargoes.
I followed one forever. Damn thing would not sink. Must be carrying ping-pong balls. That is one ship not worth torpedoing.

[Canovaro]

Hmm this is getting off topic. May I ask your attention to my post above?

No offence intended

[KeptinCranky]

just got home form work, I like your idea canovaro,
anywhere I can find a more detailed gridmap online, the one that came with the game is not very clear and the ingame worldmap is nice but I can't alt-tab because of serious crashosity in the game if I even think about it

I'll just take notes for now

[KeptinCranky]

small update, had a very short patrol last night, no useful info, for now I intend to use a copy of the paper map to keep notes on,

I'm just about to start another IXc patrol to freetown, will make notes,

Canovaro, your online editable map idea sounds good, however, I'm not all that good with that sort of stuff (forum tags like [img are about my level )

If there were such a thing though, I'd definitely help in adding contacts, eventually the single dots would sort of coalesce together to give clearly defined shipping lanes and hotspots that are not shown on the ingme map, they'd also indicate areas that see little or no traffic, although, it could also indicate that no-one is actually visiting them...a good example is BF73, I usually go past that or plow right through on the way to better things, but early on, say 39-40-41, when I happened to be there for some reason, can't recall why I did encounter some lone merchants there, big ones too IIRC

sorry for double post

[Canovaro]

Originally Posted by KeptinCranky

Canovaro, your online editable map idea sounds good, however, I'm not all that good with that sort of stuff (forum tags like [img are about my level )

Me neither, I can't program in html script languages or things like that, but I can make a website and host it myself.
If I would make a picture of the atlantic, I could update that with dots myself. This would be no problem at all to do.
But I would need the community to send me reports of the contacts.
That would be a fun alternative to the weird contact reports in SH3

I'm still thinking how to make it work.
We could work with colors to make a difference between the sorts of contacts.
Maybe put an arrow to show the general direction?
Would the contact map only be used for convoys? Or also single ships?
What about task forces and single war ships?
What about the mods? Only do this for stock? GWX?
Or use the colors to indicate different years?

If there were such a thing though, I'd definitely help in adding contacts, eventually the single dots would sort of coalesce together to give clearly defined shipping lanes and hotspots that are not shown on the ingme map,

That's the spirit

they'd also indicate areas that see little or no traffic, although, it could also indicate that no-one is actually visiting them...a good example is BF73, I usually go past that or plow right through on the way to better things, but early on, say 39-40-41, when I happened to be there for some reason, can't recall why I did encounter some lone merchants there, big ones too IIRC

Yes you're right, if everyone would use the same route, then there will be lots of contacts there. That's why I intend to use this only for the open ocean grids.
But still, I think most of us use the sea lanes provided by the SH3 map.
That's a bit of a problem.
Any ideas on this are welcome.

sorry for double post

What double post? I think that's already taken care of by the admin

[KeptinCranky]

well, that was brief patrol.....

ran into a convoy in thick fog, nearly got rammed by a black swan, hardly any relevant notes, then just when I have evaded the damn escort, the crew mutinies...they wouldn't respond to anything anymore, all the other buttons worked, but no response from the crew, couldn't manage the boat, couldn't navigate, had to exit the game...

I generaly don't stick too close to the sealanes, at least, not when heading south, near britain, sure, but when heading to gibraltar or further the convoy lanes on the map are a tad out of the way, and i run into a lot of southbound convoys when sticking to a line from BF7 via CG1 4 and 7, then I choose to close in on the straits or go further south past the canaries

I'll post screenies of my near fatal encounter later, right now I'm just going to reboot the computer and do a type II patrol, or maybe start a career in the med...

later...

[Lagger123987]

Go to AN 16 for good hunting grounds, because it's full of big ships!

[KeptinCranky]

I've just been to AM92, because Donitz said so, befehl ist befehl and so on, was pretty hairy, and of course the big convoy comes along just when I've only one eel left. still sunk a tanker with it though.

then, when I've waited for dark, along comes a taskforce.....and no eels at all, very frustrating

came out with 40k tons this patrol and a promotion to full Kapitanleutnant, I think it might be time to retire this captain after this patrol (number 8)

oh well, below are some notes on contacts between 27-2-41 and 6-3-41

lone ships
BF1369 heading 0 slow, specific type unknown, failed intercept
BF2111 small freighter heading 60 9knts
AM9746 type unknown ssw slow
BF2419 large cargo ssw slow

larger groups

28-2-41 AM9734 convoy ssw, chages heading to due south, 5 knts

AM9242 TF 2 CL 4 DD heading 210 at least 20knts

Kpt. Lehmann noted in another thread that some changes will be made in GWX 1.04 might want to wait for that, who knows :hmm:

[The_Rus]

Originally Posted by Brag

Bloody passenger/cargoes.
I followed one forever. Damn thing would not sink. Must be carrying ping-pong balls. That is one ship not worth torpedoing.

First they should be worth about double the tonnage. Also I have sunk one with about 3 rounds from a deck gun. Also AM52, it is the best for tonnage. I literally got 120K of tonnage out of one grid.
It was a good mix of convoys and single contacts.

[blue3golf]

I've had good luck from AM54 throught AM52, pretty good traffic.

[johan_d]

We need a database for this, a BDU hotline...

enter:
encounter:-- ship, convoy, dd, etc
datum;-- time of day
location;-- bdu grid, like be49
comment;-- severe dd here!, watch out.

results from the database just show the info.. all compiled together..

if anyone want to pick this off, joomla with a facile form will do.

I can have it up in short time, but it will be a telnet database connection, not webbased., nor your regular info connections, but sufficient. PM me in you are interrested?

[Brag]

Here is Tanker Alley:

BF 13.
On southern boundary measure 35 kms from western edge of grid. Then run a line 60 -240 degrees. draw second 60 degree line at 60 kms. You will find plenty of large tankers inside that corridor.15K tons per ship.

This also passes through NW corner of BF 17

[KeptinCranky]

Confirmed Brag!

I'd noticed this as well, but not that specific, I usually cruise through there on the way to my patrol grid, BF17 is like a box of chocolates....

concerning the Eastern Med as follows:

CO6477 seems to be a turnaround point for lots of small groups of warships, watch out there unless you like depthcharges for breakfast

Stick your sub about 50km below the first M in the word Mittelmeer on the map, draw a line parallel to the entire word Mittelmeer, sail along that, rinse and repeat, works like a charm plenty of lone-merchant allsorts, only trouble is they are often escorted by 1 or 2 DDs, also taskforces and groups of DDs heading for Tobruk

also look for two CLs at 15knts heading to Tobruk from CO42, gave me quite a shock spotting those only 4000 meters away and me still surfaced didn't see me thankfully

also CO35, look for an S class sub heading roughly 290 at 7knts, 1 fish wont take it out and it has a deckgun too, but it's worth shooting for coolness' sake, doesn't register as a kill though in the after action log but you do get the tonnage

[Canovaro]

Originally Posted by johan_d

We need a database for this, a BDU hotline...

enter:
encounter:-- ship, convoy, dd, etc
datum;-- time of day
location;-- bdu grid, like be49
comment;-- severe dd here!, watch out.

results from the database just show the info.. all compiled together..

if anyone want to pick this off, joomla with a facile form will do.

I can have it up in short time, but it will be a telnet database connection, not webbased., nor your regular info connections, but sufficient. PM me in you are interrested?

Johan_d, sounds interesting, but what excactly would this look like?
How to make this visual with a database?
See my ideas some posts before. I'm planning on working out a visual map.
In fact, I've already started.