ALmost new to SH4, and an "embarassment of riches"

[Catfish]

Hello,

"embarassment of riches" was the title of a mission in the Dos sim "Silent Service II", so to say the SH series version Nr. 0
You were stuck between two fleets with one flattop in both of them.

Now that is almost exactly what happens to me in SH IV, i am in my Porpoise boat, in the southern entrance to the Sulu sea heading north towards Philippine or better Luzon, when south of me the whole japanese Navy (or so it seems) steams up behind me. Maybe they got that going just to kill me ?

Soon I am almost between two rows of BIG battleships, and unfortunately there are 2 destroyers that run ahead of this armada. And they get me every time.

I am runnng silent, make only 1 1/2 knots, tail pointed at the upcoming fleet, and what happens next is without ever raising the telescope, or course, or speeding up, one of the destroyers suddenly changes course and gets right and directly at me, no mm right or left, drops its charges, dead. I am running the game at 97 percent, only exterior camera on, for those wonderful graphics.

From all i have read a sub at Periscope Depth, and running silent and slow, is virtually undetectable at all by active sonar, and unhearable, for any destroyer (just out of its detection cone) - and those are japanese ones, not british, and in 1942.
Or have you some hints as to survive this situation at all, maybe even without attacking (i never get so far as to actually launch a torpedo, manual targetting is no problem for me otherwise) - it does not matter how deep i am, PD or even below a thermal layer at appx. 200 feet one of the dest. gets me every time, in the first run, and not a bit deviating from the very center of my boat course-wise. They often change course again when they are almost above me, just to hit me at the very center.

Now while i know a game is certainly more fun when it's harder to play i think this is just not very close to reality.

I had hoped that with the graphics, some of this "Uber" destroyer capabilities of SH3 also may have changed, but this is even worse than in SH 3.

I am still playing the game with only the 1.4 patch, and no mod at all. What would you advise, mod-wise, to maybe change this behaviour or make the whole sim better in other ways ?

The Trigger Maru mod ?
Or the Fleet Boat one ?
Any other ?

Thanks and greetings,
Catfish

[Shkval]

Once I had simmilar situation only solution is head straight amongs them kamikase style, destroyers wont be able to chase you because of their own ships, as deep as possible, as fast as possible.

[Sailor Steve]

Here is a picture of the actual parameters of active sonar:


This is the Allied sonar array, but the Japanese weren't that far behind. And periscope depth is one of the worst places you can be. Stay deep, and only come up after the escorts have passed you by.

As to mods, either TMO or RFB are far superior to the stock game.

[SteveUK]

Stay deep and quiet and try and keep a your bow or stern at them - makes a lower signature for the sonar.

[Catfish]

Hello all,
first thanks for your tips - Steve UK i AM pointing my tail to the sonar.
Kamikaze style may work, full ahead and now and then shooting a torpedo, until crash diving below a bigger warship ..

Sailor Steve, thanks - hmm according to my books even the sub hunters of the 1960ies would never detect a Sub at periscope depth. The area above the 16 degres main beam that is shown in the diagram is indeed a dead zone - i really doubt this is correct - would only work if the emitted waves would be reflected by a thermal or density layer of any kind, and thus reflect upwards again, to make the sub indirectly visible in the sonar.

Or so i think

Any mods you would propose ?

Thanks and greetings,
Catfish

[vanjast]

Convoy approach:
Night Time: Get ahead on the surface slowing down as you get closer as you bow spray gives you away. Always try to face the convoy as your visual signature will be lower. Once in position dive deep and approach (1 knot) using your passive sonar. The front escorts will pass then you start going to scope depth.

Day Time: Get ahead as usual but it'll have to be over the horizon. Dive deep and same approach as mentioned. The convoy might change course which possibly nullify your attack.

Don't try sink the whole convoy.. pick the easiest target, fire torps and get outa there, going deep again, under the convoy ships.

Always use your passive sonar for picking targets, and avoiding the escorts. you have the equipment.. use it.

Avoiding escorts:
the escorts will ping you madly... then they lose contact, but will be travelling slowly. Listen to them on passive sonar. When they slow down or stop.. you do exactly the same. At some point you'll hear the escort speed up for a DC attack - You speed up as well, turning into the attack. After the first DCs explode start slowing down, eventually stopping. The escort will be listening for you.
Repeat as necessary.

[Inner Sound]

Patch up to 1.5 (Gold) as a priority. Then you can access the latest and greatest mods. You'll still get twonked, but in a more stimulating variety of ways.

[Catfish]

Hello,
thanks, will try ...

Situation is : i am running north in broad daylight on almost calm seas, but it's enough wave action to obscure the 'scope at pd, between two coasts (south channel of the Sulu sea) at the surface, when i am spotted by a plane - crash dive, going to pd, wait for an hour, surface. One hour later my crew calls out "warship spotted 190 degrees" and there they are. No chance for evasion, they are coming faster than i could rum away, and there's that plane somewhere - ok, down to pd - and now .... that's why i asked. I cannot really dictate the kind of attack, they are coming at me at full speed and parallel course, two rows with me in the middle

Ok, will try to go deep, but my boat is already damaged ... wonder whether i can go deeper than say 170 feet .. transition zone is at 160, but they always got me. Looks like a heroic last patrol ...


Patching to 1.5 ... but this requires the german U-Boat add-on, doesn't it ? So i would have to get that first ?

Thanks and greetings,
Catfish

Originally Posted by Catfish

Patching to 1.5 ... but this requires the german U-Boat add-on, doesn't it ? So i would have to get that first ?

Thanks and greetings,
Catfish

yep ubm IS 1.5, its the only way to get it but you dont ever have to play the german side if you like.

its more of a game fix then anything to do with uboats.

look to the subsim store to get it and they donate $ to help this site.

your best value is to buy the gold version package with sh4 AND ubm both in one package for very little money, $15 i think

[Catfish]

Hello,

ok, made one game reload, and survived - cheating i know, would not have had a second chance in reality

What i did is just run on parallel in front of the approaching coloumns, but went to 200 feet (lights began to flicker below, so ...) and made revolutions for 1 knot.
When i heard the destroyers go by left and right, i again rose to periscope depth with 2 knots, while preparing the torpedoes etc. for the strike. Without really knowing their speed i hoped i would be close enough so the exact speed did not matter - set all tubes to 12 knots.

When i raised the periscope i fired my last rear torpedo at a Fuso at 200 degrees, and all bow tubes at a Kongo class battleship. I was running parallel and the latter Kongo was a bit ahead of me. I did not wait to see anything through the scope, but ordered crash dive and changed my former parallel course to 90 degrees left, going through under the baffles of the Kongo. 4 of the 5 torpedoes had hit, and exploded. When the course was changed, and i was at 120 feet i changed the speed to 1 knot again, and went deeper to 200 feet.

I had hit the Fuso with my rear torp., but she was going on, not really impressed. 3 of the four bow tubes had hit the Kongo, and stopped her.
There were at least 6 destroyers searching the area, some dropping depth charges, but no one came really near.

When i hit "F11" i saw the following:
(my Porpoise just behind the smoking Kongo)



Looking at the damage ... almost believed to see the innards of the engine room ..



2 hours later it still swam, so i fired the last torpedo from the other side, and the battleship capsized ..



Thanks for the tips !
Greetings,
Catfish

[Shkval]

Well... my bad, I thought you are trying to run away not to attack that was a bad Idea trying to wait task force at the middle of their course, next time try some safer attack