After this performance... maybe I need to resign my commission...

[treblesum81]

40 torpedos, 7 different attack setups, 10 reloaded tries on the same large convoy (3 columns of 8-9 ships plus another 7-10 escorts), all with 0 hits... all fore or aft, not under.

I recently switched over to manual targeting, having watched the guides and read the how-to's, all with some good attacks, but for some reason, this one is eluding me. It doesn't matter what angle I come at the convoy, I have to stay too far away from them due to the escort screen being close in, so when I fire, the ships always evade the fish. I could understand the target evading, but the merchants are all packed up in a ball, I can't believe that all of them managed to evade it every time....

Any thoughts about what I'm doing wrong? Should I be using a different attack method? Could the problem be that the weather is perfect with no waves at all in the middle of the day?

Thanks

PS: I'm running TMO 1.9 and RSRDC

[NorthBeach]

Those conditions dictate patience. They're hearing the fish coming from a long way off.

I'd shadow them, and hope for any kind of weather (even wind, to whip up a chop, will help) to up the odds of success.

While you're out on the fringe, you might want to sprint out a bit, to give yourself some time to take a dip and find out where the thermal layer is. You could use that later, if conditions do not become optimal, to set up a sonar based vector analysis shot.

More than once, after tiring of waiting for "prime" conditions, I've used this approach. Set up a 60deg (or so) shot and wait under the thermal layer until just before the escort screen reaches my locaton (or, parallel to it). Timing it so that I can rise to a foot over max firing depth (based on the boat you're on) just before my first target is ripe.

[BillBam]

Originally Posted by treblesum81

Could the problem be that the weather is perfect with no waves at all in the middle of the day?

I would think this is your problem. Long range shooting during perfect weather and during the day is pretty easy on the merchants for avoiding your torps.

Try stalking them until night time, then you not only can get closer but it will be much harder for them to see your torp wakes. If you must shoot under these conditions and using the PK be sure to dial in a wide angle spread on your fish.

[Fish40]

What he said!

[treblesum81]

I gave that a try (using the constant bearing method) and ba-dow! four shots, four hits... right now I'm stalking away for another end around.

Thanks for the tips.

PS: in this process I've found the weather to stay this way for days, so the best I can hope for is night, but still at least I've got some hits now.

[Rockin Robbins]

Rough water and lousy seeing with either rain, fog or dark are your friends. If you haven't already done so, drop by the Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks thread for a lot of great pointers by a lot of great posters. That thread is packed full of targeting ideas.

[treblesum81]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Rough water and lousy seeing with either rain, fog or dark are your friends. If you haven't already done so, drop by the Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks thread for a lot of great pointers by a lot of great posters. That thread is packed full of targeting ideas.

I finally got success after reading through your discussion about the three firing methods and getting my head around the constant bearing one... I still have trouble with getting proper ranges, but I was able to deliver a nice salvo without much trouble.... now if I could only figure out how to do it faster....