Contempt for Japanese ASW...

[Bubblehead1980]

I would say normally by 1944, I do not have contempt for Japanese ASW, especially in TMO RSRD but last night it nearly cost me.Gato-USS Herring out of Fremantle. 100 difficulty

February 1944 Celebes Sea.After patroling Western Celebes sea with three tanker convoy sunk on Feb 6/7 in one submerged and one night surface attack, found nothing until an ULTRA directed me just south of Tawi Tawi waiting for two convoys to pass after midday Feb 16. Sure enough, along comes a 7 ship, two escort convoy late in afternoon.Decided on dusk scope attack, follow up night surface if possible, or wait for second convoy, depends.Attacked, sunk a large freighter with 3 Mark 23's from forward tubes, sunk a smaller one with two, then went to 300 feet.The escorts were a minesweeper up front, and a momi patrol boat in the rear.The minesweeper was way up front but the momi was closing it, I was surprised when it never pinged but was closing, obviously it did not have active sonar yet but passive. I leveled off at 300 feet, few charges fell, none close.The minesweeper was on scene, but not pinging.Then I heard the momi roaring back overhead and dropped 6 charges at short intervals.I was not worried since had no active gear .Suddenly, the boat was shocking, taking damage, lights flickering, reports of flooding in control room, trimp pump damaged.Then two more close explosions, various noises.Man the luck, I would say 5 of 6 charges were very close, caused some damage.Fortunately, got the minor flooding under control.Then the minesweeper began to ping me, dropped more close ones, boat went to 350 feet before coudl level off due to the flooding.They seemed to lose me for a bit due to the water disturbance(love that mod) but then regained contact and kept me pinned with multiple charges as they hunted me for 5 hours before departing area.Surfaced, repaired, attacked next convoy, expending last of torpedoes, went home with 7 ships down, 55k tons.

I will admit I was not worried about either escort, esp the momi when found it had no active sonar but they were pretty solid, definitely a wake up call to not hold contempt for even the escorts things are not much of a threat.

[TorpX]

This is why I'm not really a fan of mods that pump up ASW abilities to unrealistic levels. To win, you must be lucky every time, they only need to be lucky once.

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by TorpX

This is why I'm not really a fan of mods that pump up ASW abilities to unrealistic levels. To win, you must be lucky every time, they only need to be lucky once.

This game doesn't really have winning so much as surviving.

[Bubblehead1980]

I would not call it unrealistic, it was luck and ideal passive sonar conditions.I gave them a target by staying at scope depth to watch torpedoes hit and hit flank to close in and fire on the small freighter to sink it, so even without he had an idea of where i was, but depth etc hard to determine without active sonar, just got lucky.

I would much rather have them diffficult to easy, not getting depth charged in this sim after an attack is anti climatic.I am working on a mod that stops the insta death, basically upped the sub's hit points from the extremely low 300(a solid barrage of charges would easily top that if they are scoring max amount.However, sub's equipment maintains current hit points, this is basically about the hull, making them durable as they were.

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

I would much rather have them diffficult to easy, not getting depth charged in this sim after an attack is anti climatic.

This is my point. Either you have as a goal, making the sim as dramatic as you can make it, or as realistic as you can make it. I am willing to forgo the constant drama and near-death experiences in return for a realistic sim. After all, I know, sooner of later, I'll make a mistake, or the AI bad guys will get lucky, and administer a good beating, but it doesn't have to happen all the time.

I don't want the sim too easy, or too hard. I want it just right, or as close as I can get it.

I know I'm in the minority here. Most like the constant thrill of ferocious escorts breathing down their necks.

[Eesocks]

I don't want the sim too easy, or too hard. I want it just right, or as close as I can get it.

So do I, but I've come to realise that true realism in any computer sim is not really possible, the best you can hope for is historical accuracy.And the Japanese convoy protection was inefficient for most of the war due to the IJN using the best escorts and crews for their surface fleet.

Another problem with any sim is that the enemy is computer controlled and your computer always knows exactly where you are!

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by TorpX

This is my point. Either you have as a goal, making the sim as dramatic as you can make it, or as realistic as you can make it. I am willing to forgo the constant drama and near-death experiences in return for a realistic sim. After all, I know, sooner of later, I'll make a mistake, or the AI bad guys will get lucky, and administer a good beating, but it doesn't have to happen all the time.

I'm in the same minority as you. While I appreciate the effort that went into making TMO, I often get that "U-Boat being quickly spotted and pursued to exhaustion vibe" that I get in late war SH3. It just doesn't seem to jibe with Japan's historical performance and capabilities.

Certainly, Japan's maritime protection forces did improve as the war progressed. By early 1944, according to Admiral Lockwood, "the enemy was learning from experience, and the task of our submarines was becoming more difficult and hazardous." This was particularly true of aerial escort, at which the Japanese became relatively adept when they could scrounge up the aircraft.

But anyone not hopelessly incompetent is bound to get better at anything tried often enough, and the Japanese navy's eventual improvement at ASW was always relative to it's rather lackluster beginnings. It certainly never reached the sort of suffocating ASW coverage the Allies practiced.