Question for the DiD players: How long did you survive?

[Annatar]

My most recent career went up until Christmas 1940, 14 patrols with some 350,000 tons sunk. (including 2 Battleships and an ocean liner turned troop transport)
With the impending release of 3.0 I'll never get to finish that one.

[antikristuseke]

I usualy do not survive longer than to the second half of 41, but thats usualy when i try to do a patrol when a bit drunk, which seems like a good idea at the time.
Once I was sunk in the fog by the guns of a battleship which was sort of awesome i guess.

First ended mid '41 with a final plunge in the middle of a convoy. The second had it's last moments when i returned into Lorient-Base during an air raid at late '43. The third DiD-adventure found me cursing in '40 when i hit a mine near Dover. The fourth ended at August the 1st 1939, when the navigator plotted the a heading out of Kiel and i forgot to hit the "Follow-plotted-heading"-Button .
The fifth is currently in progress.

[PappyCain]

I am a conservative Kaleun in that I like full immersion and am attached to my crew and boat - managing both all the way through. First DID, I made it until Jan.43 I believe and lost only 2 crew on an air strike since '39. The I was sunk when my phone rang and did not hit pause!!

The one I am on now, I am in November '42, have same full crew since '39 and am headed to port for Christmas. Phone is off the hook now.

S'

[Task Force]

Im in mid 41, U 45, and where still in business.:p over 700,000 Brit tones bagged.

U 45 might have met here match. GWX 3.0, my carrier might not work.

Still aiming for 2,000,000 tons in 1945.

[Steeltrap]

I don't find racking up absurdly high tonnage totals all that satisfying (but that's NOT a criticism of those who do!).

One of the things I minimise is the use of the deck gun. I never use it without having hit a target with a torp unless the target is too small to warrant a torp (by which I mean around 1,000t or smaller). The fact is the DG remains far too powerful when compared with actual reports - even small vessels would regularly take 50+ hits to sink, but SHIII allows you to kill them with fewer than 20.

A few other things:

- I never attack escorts. Again, the fact is u-boats very rarely fired on escorts. They were tricky targets even from ideal ambush (they're small, and their shallow drafts make them hard to hit with unreliable torps), and sinking one didn't really make much difference to the campaign. Playing DiD but then allowing your u-boat to snipe escorts then wipe out a convoy with the DG is, to me, pretty pointless (find me examples of that happening in the Atlantic war and I might revise that view....).

- I always crash dive when aircraft are sighted, unless they are right on top of me when sighted (and that hasn't happened yet).

Another reason for the massive totals is that ships are too numerous AND too big. If you look at the displacements of most merchants sunk, they are considerably lower than the average you'll manage in SHIII. This, naturally enough, inflates tonnages. Multiply too many targets and too great a tonnage per target and you get results (patrol tonnages) far in excess of what is 'realistic'.

My own view is if you don't address those things, DiD is rather meaningless.

[Kapt Z]

Originally Posted by Steeltrap

I don't find racking up absurdly high tonnage totals all that satisfying (but that's NOT a criticism of those who do!).

One of the things I minimise is the use of the deck gun. I never use it without having hit a target with a torp unless the target is too small to warrant a torp (by which I mean around 1,000t or smaller). The fact is the DG remains far too powerful when compared with actual reports - even small vessels would regularly take 50+ hits to sink, but SHIII allows you to kill them with fewer than 20.

A few other things:

- I never attack escorts. Again, the fact is u-boats very rarely fired on escorts. They were tricky targets even from ideal ambush (they're small, and their shallow drafts make them hard to hit with unreliable torps), and sinking one didn't really make much difference to the campaign. Playing DiD but then allowing your u-boat to snipe escorts then wipe out a convoy with the DG is, to me, pretty pointless (find me examples of that happening in the Atlantic war and I might revise that view....).

- I always crash dive when aircraft are sighted, unless they are right on top of me when sighted (and that hasn't happened yet).

Another reason for the massive totals is that ships are too numerous AND too big. If you look at the displacements of most merchants sunk, they are considerably lower than the average you'll manage in SHIII. This, naturally enough, inflates tonnages. Multiply too many targets and too great a tonnage per target and you get results (patrol tonnages) far in excess of what is 'realistic'.

My own view is if you don't address those things, DiD is rather meaningless.

I agree with most of what you state above and play by quite similiar 'rules' myself. I would add that I do not conduct harbor raids and I limit myself to about 9-12 patrols if I live that long.

DiD has meaning for everyone to the extent that we all invest time and energy building experienced crews and updated boats. No matter how we play we all feel the pain when we lose a good crew and boat...

[kiwikapitan]

I have never played anything other than DiD in a career. I know it's only a game but kaleuns never had the option of reloading a save game after being sent to Davy Jones' locker!

My best tonnage in a career was from an old mod Improved U-boat 1.03 and that was 10 patrols (155 days) netting 217,048 GRT. Started Jun. '41/Ended Jul. '42. It was using a VIIC U-96 with Kptlt. Juergen Prochnow as the proud commander.

But GWX is a hell of a lot harder. My best and longest career is Oblt. Luger in a IXC U-158 with 103,620 GRT after 5 patrols (223 daya). I haven't finished that career yet.

I've had many failures.

[CaptainAsh]

I agree with all Steeltrap home rules and I had some more myself :

- if it s more than 2k tons, I m firing the first time at him with a spread salvo of 2.
- as soon as I am detected by a convoi, I stop attacking it for 48 hours. This is to reflect that convoy evasion manoeuvres are just plain stupid.
- I ignore all "ship sighted" information. Only "convoy sighted" are proceeded.
- Aft shot are only for the "coup de grace" on a heavily damaged ship.
- Every enemy civil ship of more than 1K is a valid target for torpedoes.

My final rule is a bit hard to play with and I WOULD LIKE a technical solution.
- I m trying to ignore "She's going down!" message. So sometime if it s not really visible that my pray is killed, I waste more torpedo on it.

I would really like a way to completly remove that message.


With all those rules added to steeltrap's ones a really successful patrol for me is anything over 10K.

Still, those rules have a great advantage. I do believe I m surviving longer than most kaleum . I m not playing with the auto career end and I m always starting august or september 39 but playing with the transfert crew in/out. Usualy I m meeting my fate in late 42 or 43 after around 20-25 patrols.

[Letum]

I made it all the way playing DiD in a VIIC and VIIB. 30+ patrols.
After 1943 I did not sink many ships and did nothing to attract destroyers.

[BasilY]

The last one:

Date: October 4th, 1943.
Locale: South of Cape Town
Boat: IXC U-504
Realism: 100% GWX2.1
Cause: Diving deep (220m) with previous battle damage, after a successful convoy attack that sunk 2 tankers. The end came rather quickly.

But not before I rack up 3.1 mil tons. :-) Mostly from convoys.

And yes, I use my deck guns quite liberally (only against unescorted ships). My deck gun shells are too precious for any thing less than a 1000 GRT , I have my flak gun for that! (and why not, I never fight air planes anyway)

But I completely agree that a good captain should avoid tangling with DDs. The reward, if any, just isn't worth the risk.

[Gaijin]

1st Aug 1939 - 25th May 1943.

26 Patrols, 611,434 tonnes

VIIB/VIIC.

A core crew worth its weight in gold, with 2nd generation transfers in beginning to get skilled.

So many close calls...on Patrol 12 came back with 6% hull integrity.

Eventually, 'Death by Stupidity'.

So sick, I can't bear to start from 39 again...until GW3.

[Iron Budokan]

I always play DiD and I've never lived past '43.