I finished the war.

[maillemaker]

Well, after a couple of years of playing off and on, I finally made it to May 1945. I was off the coast of Spain when we got the dispatch to surrender.

It was actually kind of sad watching port after port fall into "enemy" hands.

Some fun things: I made it into Valletta and wiped out the defecting Italian warships.

I sank the HMT Aquitane or Aquitarious or whatever it was. Found it in a convoy.

I now want to start over in 1939 with "dead is dead". Before, I saved my games and would re-start if I died. I've got external cam turned on and auto TDC, but those are my only conceits. I may turn off external cam this time around, but I enjoy the scenery.

Here are some things I have learned about SHIII:

1) Aircraft aren't so bad after all.

If you have a radar detector, you can always get under water before them come in and get you.

2) Snorkles aren't so great.

They make you blind to radar, so aircraft come along and blow you up because they see your snorkle. Better to just sail on the surface so your radar detector works.

3) Don't be afraid of escorts.

Originally, I tried to play the game "realistically", ignoring the escorts and firing all my torpedoes at big ships in convoys, and then trying to go deep and evade. I'd say in game you can only successfully evade maybe 30% of the time. In calm seas with more than one escort, you can forget about getting away. With three or more escorts, you are done for. You just can't move fast enough under water to get away. So I quit trying. I would launch my foreward tubes at convoy ships, and save my rear tubes for escorts. Acoustic torpedoes are AWESOME. But even without them I got pretty good at nailing circling escorts. My favorite trick was to run very noisy, ping the sonar, etc, and get an escort to chase me. If they are stupid, the run in a straight line for you, and then you just point your ass straight at them 180 degrees and fire a magnetic torpedo under them at 500m range. They are toast. If the escort is smarter and comes after you zig-zagging, then wait until they are almost on top of you and drop a noisemaker. The escort will usually reverse engines and hover over the noisemaker. When they stop, fire a magnetic torp under them as above.

I actually started to make it a habit to take out the escorts first, and then use whatever was left over on the convoy.



If the Germans had gone into the war with Type XXI's and acoustic torpedoes they would have ruled the seas.

Steve

[Torplexed]

Congrats on making to the bitter end.

Originally Posted by maillemaker

If the Germans had gone into the war with Type XXI's and acoustic torpedoes they would have ruled the seas.

If both worked as perfectly in real life as they do in the game --maybe. Like the American B-29 Superfortress, the Type XXI had it share of bugs. It's interesting to note that perhaps with more hope than sense, Germany had more than 1,900 Type XXI and Type XXIII submarines under construction or on order on the last day of the European war.

[kasperl]

Can I scuttle my little boat?

Don't really want to hand her over to the Tommies to die as material of damn experiment...

[ryanglavin]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

Congrats on making to the bitter end.



If both worked as perfectly in real life as they do in the game --maybe. Like the American B-29 Superfortress, the Type XXI had it share of bugs. It's interesting to note that perhaps with more hope than sense, Germany had more than 1,900 Type XXI and Type XXIII submarines under construction or on order on the last day of the European war.

Dont forget, it was built with bugs from quick manufacturing in War time Germany... Where all material wasn't as good as it was in 1939.

[Kremmen]

I was heading past the east coast of Scotland en route to my patrol grid of AM52 when I received a message from Bdu ordering me to go to Scapa Flow and sink warships.One hairy ride but nailed a BB and Carrier for my efforts.

Nice work surviving to wars end

[maillemaker]

I've done this before, but felt guilty every time. It seems more like an exploit than a tactic -- taking advantage of mediocre AI.

I would imagine that 'don't run straight at the sound contact' was the number one rule of sub hunting, with 'don't run straight at the sound contact' being the second.

Then again, I could be wrong.

Thoughts?

Oh I'm sure you're exactly right. Killing off DD's the way I do is definitely taking advantage of mediocre AI.

Whatever works, baby.

You know what else I do? I press the "L" key to lock invisible targets in poor weather. For shame!

Steve

[SilentEnemy]

Congratz, maillemaker

Yeah, when I'm approaching the convoy I do the same thing, my first target is the escort because if I don't sink them, they're gonna sink me

In my almost 4 years of playing SH3 I never managed to complete the campaign but previous month I started a new one from '39 and this time if I don't finish it then I'm a coward

[maillemaker]

One thing that annoyed me is that nothing really happens when the war ends.

I figured there would be a movie or something, or when you pulled into port there would be enemy troops waiting to "take you in" or something.

But no, I sailed back into Lorient and the band was still playing like always. Exited patrol and the game just goes back to the main menu. Nothing.

Steve

[GREY WOLF 3]

After 6 years never got past mid 44 Those dam Hedghhogs get me in the end

[PappyCain]

Glad to hear it. As you go DID, pick your battles. Going headlong into combat without a proper strategy and exit plan will get you killed or your valued crew killed. I always try to bring my crew home sound and safe.

PS: acoustic homing torps are indeed the best.

[krashkart]

Just started playing SH3 this month and am on my third campaign. I scuttled the first two due to human error. Haven't any experience yet with the game, but I do know that opening fire on a destroyer in the straits south of Scapa Flow results in an unhealthy number of depth charges being dumped on my head. I did manage to hug the floor long enough to convince the destroyers (four of them total) that they'd done their job, but man that was a long scary wait.

Grats on the completion of your campaign, maillemaker.

[Brag]

Congratahoochies Millimakar!

Interesting tactics.

[msalama]

...but man that was a long scary wait.

On my last patrol I was hunting a convoy some 20km south of Scapa Flow in bad visibility. OK, my deck watch spots an escort some 2000m off our starboard side, and I as a Kaleun then decide they'll never see me because it really was a pitch black night with a cloud cover of 10/10. Well like hell they didn't

There's like 50m of water there, and I'm now running silent some 2-3m from the bottom, with 4 DDs camping up top throwing copious amounts of ash cans at me. Needless to say I only survived because it's still early 1940 and they're not that good just yet! But oh man, that was the longest night of horrors indeed

Gotta love GWX3.

PS. Congrats maillemaker for a job well done! Now get off yer butt and buy those Engländers a beer for saving you

[Red Heat]

Originally Posted by maillemaker

Well, after a couple of years of playing off and on, I finally made it to May 1945. I was off the coast of Spain when we got the dispatch to surrender.

It was actually kind of sad watching port after port fall into "enemy" hands.

Some fun things: I made it into Valletta and wiped out the defecting Italian warships.

I sank the HMT Aquitane or Aquitarious or whatever it was. Found it in a convoy.

I now want to start over in 1939 with "dead is dead". Before, I saved my games and would re-start if I died. I've got external cam turned on and auto TDC, but those are my only conceits. I may turn off external cam this time around, but I enjoy the scenery.

Here are some things I have learned about SHIII:

1) Aircraft aren't so bad after all.

If you have a radar detector, you can always get under water before them come in and get you.

2) Snorkles aren't so great.

They make you blind to radar, so aircraft come along and blow you up because they see your snorkle. Better to just sail on the surface so your radar detector works.

3) Don't be afraid of escorts.

Originally, I tried to play the game "realistically", ignoring the escorts and firing all my torpedoes at big ships in convoys, and then trying to go deep and evade. I'd say in game you can only successfully evade maybe 30% of the time. In calm seas with more than one escort, you can forget about getting away. With three or more escorts, you are done for. You just can't move fast enough under water to get away. So I quit trying. I would launch my foreward tubes at convoy ships, and save my rear tubes for escorts. Acoustic torpedoes are AWESOME. But even without them I got pretty good at nailing circling escorts. My favorite trick was to run very noisy, ping the sonar, etc, and get an escort to chase me. If they are stupid, the run in a straight line for you, and then you just point your ass straight at them 180 degrees and fire a magnetic torpedo under them at 500m range. They are toast. If the escort is smarter and comes after you zig-zagging, then wait until they are almost on top of you and drop a noisemaker. The escort will usually reverse engines and hover over the noisemaker. When they stop, fire a magnetic torp under them as above.

I actually started to make it a habit to take out the escorts first, and then use whatever was left over on the convoy.



If the Germans had gone into the war with Type XXI's and acoustic torpedoes they would have ruled the seas.

Steve

You are right...Spain and Portugal they are great Countries to live after the War!

Good Job!

[maillemaker]

Another thing I learned is that another good reason to stay at periscope depth and fight the escorts rather than dive is that often the escorts will depth-charge themselves, as they set their charges to shallow and it blows the stern off of their ship!