TMO + RSRD 1943 and yet to see a convoy?

[Piggy]

Not sure if this is normal but Ive done 7 war patrols out of Pearl/Midway all of which (except 1) have been in Japanese home waters or the Japan Truk/palua supply routes but Ive yet to come across a convoy.

All my sinkings are against lone merchants and Ive only ever been DC'd once (that happened on my first patrol near the bungo straights)...

Not that Im complaining about the lack of DC's but a little excitement is needed...

My next patrol has me going off Palua again... maybe this time?

[AVGWarhawk]

I get a convoy every now and then. Japanese were not big on the convoy like was seen in the Atlantic. You will find them though.

[Ducimus]

The Japs ran convoys, they just weren't as big as allied convoys, and they didn't start running them in earnest until a bit later in the war. Nor did they have the industry to replace their losses.

As for convoys in RSRD, you just have to be in the right place at the right time.

[Armistead]

You can look for my thread "Convoy SS", shows where many are and I've only listed a few of those I've been in. I can spend each patrol fighting large battles or attacking one large convoy after the other. It helps to know history, where invasion forces landed, shipping lanes, ect. All the large battles are scripted and it's just knowing where to be at the right time.

[Piggy]

Aye, thanks for the hint there armistead, I'll keep that thread for the future

I know its hit or miss sometimes, I tried to get into the battle of the coral sea last night using historical maps, I thought I was in the right position but never saw a thing.

I'll just keep running my original career and hope the brass sends me decent areas.

[Armistead]

Coral Sea can be hard to find, but I'm sure I have a shot of it..

I assume you understand PC lag also means a ship,s are near. So it you notice lag, check you're sonar, you can hear further than your sonarman early war...too long to explain, but it works.

Some battles are easy to find. You certainly want to try the large battle of the Philippine Sea...I have some SS in that thread. The battle of Leyte is easy, just sit in one of the straits of Surigao or San Bern and they'll come to you. I prefer the Surigao, cuz several US TF attack and you can sink a bunch of wounded leftovers.

The patrol star usually just puts you in a shipping lane where you'll mostly get singles or small convoys.

Another thing you can do is take SS of flash messages for convoy movement for later use. That way you'll know where to be. For instance I know 3 large convoys are coming through Formosa august of 44, so I can always be there if I want to fight 12 dd's and 20 merchants in 70ft of water...fun way to die.

You'll learn. The best convoy is probably the Java invasion force...50 plus ships, plus 2 other large convoys near it...

[Gilbou]

I just installed TMO and its patch
And well. Three patrols. Nothing.
I just did shoot down a fishing ship and that's it.
No merchant, no convoy, nothing.

I could always find ships or convoys before TMO and it's cool but since it's installed I don't see nor hear any ships.

[Armistead]

The main thing with RSRD is to know some history. There isn't one patrol that I go out on that I can't find a large convoy. Sometimes I get skunked looking for something new. I got one pattern down to the point it was one large convoy after the other, but got boring, so found other groups.

Almost every Island or nation the JP's took over, there were large invasion forces, almost all of these are perfectly scripted. If you start at Manila, all you got do is head North and you're gonna find a large invasion force. There are several that surround the philippines as the war starts, one near the San Bern S8's with 4 nice Chitose's. and about 20 ships...fun to sink. I still haven't took on most invasion forces.

If you go sit on your patrol star and hang around there, you're not gonna find much.

Every large battle and many medium to small battles are well done. With some major surface battles you can get in. Stock sucks.

Palaus aren't dead early 44, but was correct for no heavy traffic about summer on, but you can find some large convoys coming in from the NW. After the large battle of Philippine Sea in June of 44, there was no real traffic left in Palau.


If you want large convoys, they travel from Shanghai to Hong Kong through Formosa all the time. Just don't waste your torps on the singles, they will come.

Another good thing is the TF traffic, like the late war ISE leaving Singy. The Shinano coming out. You can catch the Midway battle group in the bungo at the right time.

I simply wouldn't play without RSRD. Obvious you play it a lot, you learn all the patterns, ect, but you can always find other things. I finally found the Carrier group raiding the Indain ocean early war near Christmas Island, one I've been trying to find forever.