Forget the DD's....watch out for the Fast Freighters!

[snordin]

I've just completed my fifth patrol with the U-31, and on two of those I've encountered some nastiness I never thought I'd see. On three separate occasions, I've run into a "fast freighter", all between 12k and 14k tons, and all three have taken a full salvo of fish from my bow tubes and not sunk. Not just not sunk, but not even slowed down. Well, until I surfaced for 2 of the 3 (the third was in the middle of a convoy), and they turned and opened fire on me.

Now, this is barely December 1939, so I really wasn't expecting to be shot back at by two deck guns and several smaller guns. Interestingly, the two ships succumbed rapidly to my 8.8cm deck gun (one was sunk by a shot I heaved off as the crew was scrambling to get back in the boat for the crash dive I ordered after those big guns came to bear on me).

Now, as I'm still just fresh out of Command School, is this something I should anticipate seeing often? Or am I seeing a fluke? Or maybe a bug?

Since I know it'll be asked, I'm running GWX 2.1, with a bunch of mods (mostly the standard ones you see).

[kenijaru]

I'd go with "extreme bad luck"

I've never had much luck on the surface either, I'd recommend staying below as often as you can Less dangerous down there LOL

[Uboatman]

Those Fast Freighters do seem to just laugh at you for thinking you can sink them with a couple of torpedoes, I had one recently that took 5 torps before it went down, however there is some hope, recently I fired 2 fish at the bow end of one and the 1st fish caused it to blow up, I'm not sure exactly where the fish hit but it was stormy weather and the torp was set for 4m impact, it did hit around the area of the foremost rigging, if I ever find one on it's own I may try to replicate this hit

[meduza]

It's not advisable to enter a gunfight against an armed vessel. I was once sunk by a Tramp steamer. Don't ask...

In my opinion, the merchants are far too deadly. Once or twice, I torpedoed a ship on surface at night, and once the ship was hit, they immediately pointed the searchlights at me, and start shooting. While I was diving, they scored a several hits. Although they were in flames, sinking.

[Ping Panther]

Hello snordin,

It does seem like some merchants in GWX2 acquire deck guns much earlier than I had been used to before. I'm not sure if this is happening more at random as more of a GWX2 challenge, or if it is from some of the newer ships in the merchant fleets that have been added in the more recent GWX updates.

It looks like you are a first time poster on Subsim, welcome!

[Murr44]

Originally Posted by meduza

It's not advisable to enter a gunfight against an armed vessel. I was once sunk by a Tramp steamer. Don't ask...

In my opinion, the merchants are far too deadly. Once or twice, I torpedoed a ship on surface at night, and once the ship was hit, they immediately pointed the searchlights at me, and start shooting. While I was diving, they scored a several hits. Although they were in flames, sinking.

Yesterday I ran down an 11,000+ ton large merchant NW of Tobruk. She was sailing alone & conditions for making an unobserved approach were awful: mid-morning, clear skies without any wind. My watch crew had spotted her moving away from us at 15,000+ meters (using OLCE 2). I waited until we got to within 4500 meters then opened fire. It took 70+ shells to kill her but I got off without a scratch. Normally I wouldn't have taken such a risk but pickings had been pretty slim: I'd only sank 2 small merchants in 6 days. Two hours after I sank that large merchant I got another 11,000+ ton one. This time I was able to make a proper submerged approach & sank her with 2 torpedoes (the gun crew needed a rest).

Meduza is correct though; engaging an armed merchant can be very hazardous to your health!

Welcome aboard Snordin.