i hope alla you here know CPR

[Capt. Shark Bait]

cuz when i got DD bearing down on me bow on my heart just starts beating rather hard. there should be a warning, SH4 could be a hazard to your life

[ReallyDedPoet]

Some intense stuff for sure

RDP

[DirtyHarry3033]

Originally Posted by Capt. Shark Bait

cuz when i got DD bearing down on me bow on my heart just starts beating rather hard. there should be a warning, SH4 could be a hazard to your life

I would have disagreed with you on that, my experience has been that the escorts are almost as intelligent as the pimply 15-year old kid working the McDonalds drive-thru and messing up your order for 1 small order of fries

But last night I ran across a convoy escorted by 4 DD's who actually knew their sh*t, they hounded me for 6 or 8 hours before I managed to get away. In the past it's mostly been a turkey shoot - not this time!

Quite refreshing actually, even though I wasted 4 torps on 2 ships, got 3 good hits but no kills. At least I had to do some work finally

Maybe I should get a do-it-yourself home defibrillator kit, my quack (er, I mean "Doc") has diagnosed me with serious heart probs. It could come in handy next time I've got serious pressure hull damage, bulkhead damage, diesels & electrics destroyed, flooding in 3 compartments, 100 ft below test depth and still sinking, and my command watch is for inexplicable reasons, disrobing one by one

DH

[AVGWarhawk]

But last night I ran across a convoy escorted by 4 DD's who actually knew their sh*t, they hounded me for 6 or 8 hours before I managed to get away. In the past it's mostly been a turkey shoot - not this time!

Ahhhh, you experienced the mixed bag of DD. Funny part is you were probably thinking dumb DD and did some things that if known these were the bad boys, you would have done it differently. I just wish we saw more of the the bad boys. Task forces usually are loaded with bad boys.

[popeye]

i just had a major battle with a task force, and the DD's let me sink 110,000 tons of prime military shipping, including 4 AC's.

i think a couple of the DD's tried to ram me, and a few DC's were dropped, but really the engagement was over very quickly, and the DD's fled with the remaining 2 light cruisers, 1 heavy cruiser, and 2 very damaged escort carriers (also a few support vessels).

none of the DD's remained to actually hunt for me, and i just headed south, while they continued to the north east. i really wanted to finish off the other escort carriers, as they were damaged and slow, but without surfacing, i couldnt match their 6 knots.

lucky bastards.

only on a few occasions have i seen the DD's get really fired up. during my very first confrontation in the game, a pair of them came at me full tilt, and DC'ed me. it was over very very quickly, all hands lost. i decided to be a bit more cautious, and have not had a repeat of that. if they know you are they there, they go ape ****, but if not, they dont do anything like actively look. it's been mentioned in other threads.

[Vorkapitan]

Well, I just finished sinking 9 ships in a convoy - 2 were destroyers.

I ran out of torps and was retreating....slowly.

A couple of Destroyers hounded me until dark. I then started to get away from them thinking "this wasn't too bad".

Earlier, the destroyers gave me on @#%24 of a time. I had to crash dive multiple times, and dodge them constantly. I thought this was a big improvement over the stock version. (and it is).

I was just about out of sight and (cheating) seeing only a bit of the wake of the destroyers, I sufaced and ran "flank" speed for awhile. By this time it was pitch black out. Detroyers were not using search lights.

Shortly after, I get a "were under fire" message and do a cash dive below the
thermal layer. I was now confronted by three destroyers and they would not give up until I was sunk.......surprise....surprise.....SURPRISE!

[NefariousKoel]

I can recommend Kakemann's Improved Escorts mod for a bit of a challenge.

Personally, I think stock is far too docile.

[AVGWarhawk]

Got me man, I was just whacked by cannon fire from a DD no less then 5000 yards off. Not just one hit either. I submerged and the other DD in the posse flanked to my position and dropped VERY accurate DC. I was about 180 feet down. Needless to say the USS Drum did not resurface . Once again I was fooled by the mixed bag of DD

IMHO, I like the mixed bag but I would like more deadly encountered then dumb DD encountered.

[heartc]

Dirty Harry and AVGWarhawk - do you guys feel the number of "bad boys" increases with progression of the war? Or is the number of morons still higher regardless?

[Snuffy]

Nothing gets the heart rate up and palms sweating like a good old fashioned "track ya down."

My experience has been that the DDs are always agressive. (I do not have any mods for this.) Only once or twice have I experienced the lazy DD escort.

So my usual tactic on convoys and the like are to take the DDs out first, then kill whatever is left over if I can.

BTW ... I still have yet to encounter a convoy or a taskforce with a BB or an AC in it??!!??

[heartc]

Originally Posted by Snuffy

My experience has been that the DDs are always agressive.[...]So my usual tactic on convoys and the like are to take the DDs out first, then kill whatever is left over if I can.

That sounds like some very skilled DDs to me...

[daft]

Getting thrown about by exploding DC's really makes my heart race. Almost as much as when i press my eye hard against the scope waiting for my torps to detonate against the target.

[DirtyHarry3033]

Originally Posted by heartc

Dirty Harry and AVGWarhawk - do you guys feel the number of "bad boys" increases with progression of the war? Or is the number of morons still higher regardless?

That's a tough question. I've never played the whole war thru to the end, only thru Aug or Sept 1942. Right now I'm in late April 1942 having started a whole new campaign after patching to 1.2, then restarting again in the East Asia theatre to avoid the IDL bug.

All I can say is, the last 3 convoy engagements I've had (in the last 3 days of game-time, the convoys are thicker than fleas on a dog, at 1 point I had 2 large convoys detected on radar at same time!) the DD's have been competent at worst, and scary-accurate with their DC runs and tracking at their very best.

And they've been on the ball, within minutes of the 1st torpedo hit they're lashing me with sonar and converging on my position, if I'm lucky I've got time to let loose a couple more before crash diving.

Most of my experience in the past is, I go to PD, select a target, put a torp into it and the whole convoy comes to screeching halt, then the DD's sit around and sniff each other's *sses while I pick, choose, and sink targets at will.

Suddenly that's changed, don't know why. Maybe it's totally random and I've got 3 bad-boys in a row? All I know is suddenly I'm having to work for my supper, and SH4 has got a lot more fun

DH

Originally Posted by Capt. Shark Bait

cuz when i got DD bearing down on me bow on my heart just starts beating rather hard. there should be a warning, SH4 could be a hazard to your life

That happened to me the other day,I was trying to target a nice juicy convoy
in rough seas (qiute scary when the waves hide your targets)looked around w/My scope and...... DD coming straight for me.Scopes should have a warning(Objects Closer Than They appear).

Reminded me of that seen in Das boot when the captain is looking around for
the target and gets instead a DD heading straight for him.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by heartc

Dirty Harry and AVGWarhawk - do you guys feel the number of "bad boys" increases with progression of the war? Or is the number of morons still higher regardless?

I don't know as I'm just entering 1943. I guessing they remain the same. But again, I like not knowing what I'm going to get. What we need here is the convoy that goes flank and zig zags. I'm some what satisfied with the DD but I would like the more aggressive spawning DD than the lazy DD.

Like I stated above, these last two characters owned me. I was sunk in less then 5 minutes. It was a very ugly scene.