So exciting.......and yet frustrating!!!!

[ddiplock]

Encountered a Japanese task force outside Manila, with a cruiser and a couple of Kongo battleships.

Must've been spotted while diving by the lead destroyers, so I began diving, I was well deep and beneath the thermal by the time they were over me, but they still found me despite this. I had to take my boat, a Sargo class, well past 250ft (test depth), right down to 490ft, just shy of 500 before they lost me on sonar, and before I reached that depth I took some light damage and was rattled a bit by a few close cans.

Managed to evade the three destroyers and slip past, began rising upto PD and took shadow maneuvers against the lead Kongo. Got in right close upto PD at a distance of 800yrds.....given there was no time for proper speed calcs, I took a best guess and let loose all four forward torps, only for them all to miss and sail past the props of the Kongo as it accelerated away!!!!!, that or my quick map calculation of the AOB was a bit off, but i'm much more certain I fluffed the speed guess.

Can't believe it, to go through all that, all those angry depth charges, to come SO CLOSE to sinking my second battleship potentially in my entire SH career history (1, 2, 3 and 4), to fluff it on the speed guess!!!!

Was a heck of a thing though, yet I quit the game in disgust straight after those torps miss. I don't react well to such things!

EDIT: For the record, in my entire SH gaming career, through all of them (bar 5, don't like 5 at all) I have only sunk ONE battleship. And it was in SH4 in another game.....i've never sunk a carrier either. Pretty sad to admit that, after playing the SH series for so long!!

[magic452]

That's the pits, have had the same type experience and yes it is frustrating

From 800 yard a little AoB error won't matter much, no doubt speed est. or she saw the periscope. Either way I feel your pain.

CVs and BBs are hard to come by unless you go looking for them and know where they are supposed to be. I haven't gotten too many myself.

Last one I got jumped ME. Coming out of the Flores sea at 23 knots head on. Some how the DDs missed me and I had just enough time to get a quick guesstimate and get all 4 fish off (Porpoise class). A down the throat shot. 2 hits and the other 2 didn't have time to arm. She went down thou.
One of the most exciting experiences in all of Sh4 and it was over in a matter of one or two minutes.

Magic

[sharkbit]

Frustrating...yes.
But it happened in real life too.

[WernherVonTrapp]

If you were DCed, then the TF knew you were there and most likely went into a zig-zag pattern, possibly even increased their speed. I have had some success by simply adding a ½ degree (torpedo) offset in the direction of their travel. Then, usually (at that range) your spread should hit somewhere from amidship to stern. It's worked for me (sometimes) in the past anyway.

[Armistead]

Could you tell if the group was zigging, they almost always do when they know you're there, so that can throw things off if you set up at the end of the zig and they go into the next one.

Take two quick stad measurements, you can get a decent speed in 5 seconds and like Wern said, if you have to guess shoot a good spread. Most BB groups slow down to either 14 or 12kts when they go into zigs.
Plus, they will see the torp wake and often speed up or slow down to dodge.

Stock traffic may spawn TF about anywhere, why I prefer RSRD, much better scripted traffic.

[Daniel Prates]

Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp

If you were DCed, then the TF knew you were there and most likely went into a zig-zag pattern, possibly even increased their speed. I have had some success by simply adding a ½ degree (torpedo) offset in the direction of their travel. Then, usually (at that range) your spread should hit somewhere from amidship to stern. It's worked for me (sometimes) in the past anyway.

I always found that the problem with offseting a spread of torpedoes is that you are willing to admit that you calculations may be incorrect, and it is better to hit just one than place all your 4 or 6 torps in a single path which may be all wrong. With BBs, which can withstand several hits, a tactic that ensures only one torp hitting is not a good strategy.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Daniel Prates

I always found that the problem with offseting a spread of torpedoes is that you are willing to admit that you calculations may be incorrect, and it is better to hit just one than place all your 4 or 6 torps in a single path which may be all wrong. With BBs, which can withstand several hits, a tactic that ensures only one torp hitting is not a good strategy.

Why shooting with poor calculations would be an issue, it was often done in the war and spreads were usually done. It also depends on your skill level. I can guess fairly quickly where a ship will be. Often my setup has nothing to do with the current setup, but where I'll think the ship will be when the torps arrive, obvious ships are usually trying to evade me.

Distance is a bigger factor to me.

Why I hate wasting torps, often one hit will slow down a capital ship just enough it lags behind and you don't have to worry about dealing with escorts.

Heck, once I had a MK14 blow the prop off a Kongo, so it couldn't turn. It went in one direction, the TF went in the other. Took me awhile to figure it out because it looked good and kept high speed. I chased it for 300 nms until land got in it's way, so it would just back up and go forward again. I had one torp left and put it in the front turrent, bad list, but no sinky.

[Daniel Prates]

Originally Posted by Armistead

Heck, once I had a MK14 blow the prop off a Kongo, so it couldn't turn.

Ah! the 'Bismark' dance move! Very popular in the 40s.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by Daniel Prates

I always found that the problem with offseting a spread of torpedoes is that you are willing to admit that you calculations may be incorrect, and it is better to hit just one than place all your 4 or 6 torps in a single path which may be all wrong. With BBs, which can withstand several hits, a tactic that ensures only one torp hitting is not a good strategy.

I don't usually have just one torp hit. Usually most or all of my torps hit. Who cares about admitting mistakes if the torps hit home? Oh, and I made a boo-boo in my last post. The offset is in the opposite direction of their travel. This (for me anyway) compensates for their slower speed caused by zigging. It's best to fire when the target is mid-zig, or close to it's original course.

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by ddiplock

Can't believe it, to go through all that, all those angry depth charges, to come SO CLOSE to sinking my second battleship potentially in my entire SH career history (1, 2, 3 and 4), to fluff it on the speed guess!!!!

Was a heck of a thing though, yet I quit the game in disgust straight after those torps miss. I don't react well to such things!

EDIT: For the record, in my entire SH gaming career, through all of them (bar 5, don't like 5 at all) I have only sunk ONE battleship. And it was in SH4 in another game.....i've never sunk a carrier either. Pretty sad to admit that, after playing the SH series for so long!!

You shouldn't feel bad about this. If you play the game in a realistic fashion, you will most likely not sink very many. I consider myself to be both knowlagable and tactically capable, but I have sunk very few capitol ships. In SHCE, I sunk only 2 light cruisers (seperate careers), and in SH4 only 1 seaplane tender (which was largely a matter of luck). Many real-life skippers, even the more successful ones, never sank a IJN capitol ship. It is just the nature of the business.

To be honest, I prefer it this way. If it were otherwise, the game would become a silly arcade game, and loose it's luster.

[ddiplock]

Originally Posted by TorpX

You shouldn't feel bad about this. If you play the game in a realistic fashion, you will most likely not sink very many. I consider myself to be both knowlagable and tactically capable, but I have sunk very few capitol ships. In SHCE, I sunk only 2 light cruisers (seperate careers), and in SH4 only 1 seaplane tender (which was largely a matter of luck). Many real-life skippers, even the more successful ones, never sank a IJN capitol ship. It is just the nature of the business.

To be honest, I prefer it this way. If it were otherwise, the game would become a silly arcade game, and loose it's luster.

Yeah I agree with your last statement. There's something to be said about the excitement when you DO come across a proper task force. Guess this one just wasn't meant to be. They started zigging pretty much after I dived, and I was running at 1/3 2 knots. So they must've seen me while diving.

I knew they knew I was there for two reasons: One, the battleships could be seen to zig/zag from far out......and second, their signal lights on all ships had started blinking like the clappers rofl

I guess what I found frustrating was this was the first time I actually decided to continue on and penetrate the screen. usually if I'm detected, I slink down deep and start heading in the opposite direction, but this time something inside me told me to just keep heading straight for them......nearly paid off too, but of well!!

[TorpX]

ddiplock,
All of this reminds me of my past career in SHCE.
The first capitol ship I sank, a light cruiser was after a number of fruitless approaches in the Truk patrol area, I think. There seemed to be frequent cruiser patrols where a CL and one or two DD's would run past. One approach in particular which was very frustrating. I had made repeated observations and was carefully plotting the course and speed (on paper no less), and just when I was getting close enough, they zig away, leaving me behind, with no shot whatsoever. This happened two or three times. Finally, I spotted a ship far in the distance and maneuvered onto it's track, again plotting and observing, This time it was one CL and one DD that were not zigging. I kept thinking they were going to zig, but I plotted and observed just the same. As they got closer, I became more confident that I would at least get some kind of shot, zig or no. In the event they went straight by, no zig, at less than 1000 yd. I fired all 4 tubes. WHAM....WHAM....WHAM...!!! In the excitement, I couldn't tell if I got 4 hits or only 3. In either case the cruiser sank like a stone. The DD was on the other side of the sinking CL and was not well positioned for a quick attack. I was able to go deep without suffering any damage and soon found a thermal layer to hide under. After an hour or so, we came up to PS depth to see the DD dropping ash cans in the distance. Don't think I wasn't one happy camper.

I think the moral here is persistance is as valuble as bravery or brilliance. Sooner or later you'll get your chance.

[Dogfish40]

Originally Posted by ddiplock

Encountered a Japanese task force outside Manila, with a cruiser and a couple of Kongo battleships.

Must've been spotted while diving by the lead destroyers, so I began diving, I was well deep and beneath the thermal by the time they were over me, but they still found me despite this. I had to take my boat, a Sargo class, well past 250ft (test depth), right down to 490ft, just shy of 500 before they lost me on sonar, and before I reached that depth I took some light damage and was rattled a bit by a few close cans.

Managed to evade the three destroyers and slip past, began rising upto PD and took shadow maneuvers against the lead Kongo. Got in right close upto PD at a distance of 800yrds.....given there was no time for proper speed calcs, I took a best guess and let loose all four forward torps, only for them all to miss and sail past the props of the Kongo as it accelerated away!!!!!, that or my quick map calculation of the AOB was a bit off, but i'm much more certain I fluffed the speed guess.

Can't believe it, to go through all that, all those angry depth charges, to come SO CLOSE to sinking my second battleship potentially in my entire SH career history (1, 2, 3 and 4), to fluff it on the speed guess!!!!

Was a heck of a thing though, yet I quit the game in disgust straight after those torps miss. I don't react well to such things!

EDIT: For the record, in my entire SH gaming career, through all of them (bar 5, don't like 5 at all) I have only sunk ONE battleship. And it was in SH4 in another game.....i've never sunk a carrier either. Pretty sad to admit that, after playing the SH series for so long!!

I'm with you on that. I hate to lose... Like that Statement Capt. Kirk says.
If you want to get a real feel for frustration, read those patrol logs. I've read about Perfect set-ups going bad over and over again and not always because of dud or defective torpedos either. Sometimes they just missed and the Skippers would be out of their minds with frustration. Also, most Skippers in the war never got the chance to fire on a battlship or carrier much less sink one. I don't know if this helps but just know that you're not alone and we all feel your pain.
Good Hunting!! D40
PS: Fleet Boat Patrol Logs; http://issuu.com/hnsa/docs