attack tactics

[Luckye]

This is probably the wrong place for this long reply i'm fixing to make, but i've just got through reading the whole post and i think i got some interesting things to say about my patrol today.

I've had this game for about 3 days now so i'm still new, so bear with me. This patrol was run in v 1.3 SH4, realism 94 i think, everything set to hard except i kept external view on this time cause i wanted it on for learning purposes.

Anyway, i start a new career at pear harbor 1941, and receive my sub the USS Permit.

1st Mission, Photo recon of Tokyo naval base. At first i say no way i'm going into tokyo, i'm too new. But then i thought, think of how much a mission like this could help out the war if completed, heh.

I leave dock and set up waypoints to go from pearl harbor, then to midway, then to tokyo. I set speed standard and increased time and arrived near tokyo pretty fast and in the cover of night, plot a short coarse to go up in there to the dock and go half way in surfaced and the other half at periscope deapth. On my map i messed up my calculation of 8nm so that i can take a picture and flee and set up a point i needed to go to that was 800m, and i only realized this because i wasn't even close to that point and realized it would be suicide to go in that close since the ships belly was nearly draggin on the floor.

Anyway figured out that i was plenty close, raised periscope, took a photo and started to make my way out, its early morning and i decide to hop to the surface and get some distance south and recharge my batteries a bit. Some reason my crew neglected to tell me ship sighted, i read the chat box and i was surfaced for a long time and looked soon as i was surfaced and didn't see this destroyer. Getting to the point i hit the time accelerator and noticed rounds being fired at me, i go to periscope depth, in shallow waters and thats as deep as i could go, and i dodge his depth charge attacks by using the observation scope to bank hard just before he ran over me.

This is where it gets good if your still reading this poorly told story.

This destroyer calls in 2 other destroyers and 4 other gunboats that don't drop depth charges, or they never did the whole time. By this time i have gave up on not cheating so i'm using the external view to navigate around and dodge ships.

Destoryer #1 passes over me, i bank hard then continue south after he passes and drops some depth charges, he circles around, i pop up attack periscope, whip up a quick shooting solution and fire out aft torpedo and make a direct hit and he goes down.

Well while doing all of this i didn't see Destroyer #2 commin in for his depth charge pass, and he runs smooth over me, i mean all i had time to do was drop the periscope, his full left rudder and bam, he runs into my tower, ship leaned sideways, screaching of metal rubbing to together, and i just set back in my chair and think GG.

But the destroyer drops his depth charges all the way to the floor and i'm not harmed, lawl. I immediately raise periscope and go for a quick shooting solution on him, hes banking hard and i'm at flank speed from trying to evade, i whip up and quick solution, guess the range and the speed and fire with highe speed torpedo, torpedo turns sharp and hits him right on the tail, just barely, and this just just limps off, not turning back to me, he just left the battlefield, guess the rudder was gone.

By this time destoryer #3 is commin in for a pass, and he wasn't moving that fast and i was waiting for the right moment to hit flank speed and hard rudder, but he like turns on the turbo jets and is on top of me before i had time to evade, another metal grinding experience and he actually hits me with depth charges and knocks some holes on the right side of my hull, he too banks right and i set up for a quick shot, guessing on range and speed i fire and the torpedo is right on, i mean it couldn't have been a more beutiful shot, and the torpedo just goes right through him, either it was a dud and the ship didn't stop the torp, or it messed up and just went too deep, i'll never know.

After this i'm running and trying to evade, i had so ignorantly wasted the rest of my torps taking pop shots and the gunboats (lesson learned) and was outa torpedos not just dodging destroyer #3.

Then all of a sudden like if the game had seen all that i had done decided to show mercy, the destroyer makes a pass from the front and i'm once again hit from his belly and the metal grinding again, he drops depth charges too shallow.

Here is the wierd part, i don't know if he depth charged himself, if one went off in the boat, or of he running into me cause something bad to his ship, but i look back after regrouping and this guy has his nose stuck in the mud and about 1/4 of his tail end is stick up in the air and fire and smoke everywhere.

All of the gunboats, 4 of them, just start circling this guy, and i float off at 1/3 silent running and escape.

Ships all repaired with my hard working crew, i'm about 1/4 of the way back to midway and i run into a lone merchant and sink him.

Now for the sad part, i'm about 1/2 way back to midway and i missed it somehow, but some planes came in and starting bombing me, i crash dive and one drops a bomb and kills me at 50 meters under water. All that work gone, of coarse i had it saved and made it back to home, but still i would've been so great if i woulda made it back without having to have 2 lives.

And i didn't even get a single medal for my heroics that day when i got back .

Really long story but i some weird things happened, thought i'd share it.