Ramming ships

Originally Posted by Threadfin

Might have better luck submerging below, then piercing the keel with your periscope. Have a look at what's in the holds while you're at it

This is just fricking funny!:rotfl:Excellent....

[CWorth]

Its things like this that makes me pray that they get SH4 damage right.

You should not be able to ram any ship with a submarine and expect to come away unscathed and should expect to be damaged beyond repair and most cases destroyed outright.Short of maybe a wooden fishing boat.

[HunterICX]

:hmm: LoL, yep you're right....I got rammed by an DD a couple of times and it leaves me unscratched...now really....20 knots right on my tower must do some damages right...

or get bernhard on the look out next to an passenger linger and let him his head on the side of the boat...maybe that will make some damages

[theluckyone17]

Originally Posted by HunterICX

:hmm: LoL, yep you're right....I got rammed by an DD a couple of times and it leaves me unscratched...

Must be nice. I've lost two careers (one under RuB, the other via NYGM 2) due to ramming by escorts (both DD's), mostly due to my own stupidity and eagerness. Not a good combination... "I can get one more fish off, really I can..."

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by theluckyone17

Must be nice. I've lost two careers (one under RuB, the other via NYGM 2) due to ramming by escorts (both DD's), mostly due to my own stupidity and eagerness. Not a good combination... "I can get one more fish off, really I can..."

I got that thingy to....Comon!!! pull yourself together!...last Fish...FIRE!!!!...DAMN HE EVADE IT!!! Ow crap 50 meters...beter crash dive...errrr (ram event) BOINK!! after that DC's and ur an gonner....

[tbarak]

I think too it has a lot to do with experience playing the game. I mean, when you first start out and you see your first merchant, of course you rush in with guns blazing. No matter that its just a fishing ship or whether you actually hit anything, just shooting is cool. But of course after three or four missions with a pittance for tonnage and renown it becomes obvious that patience is the better part of valour.

I remember making my pact of only sinking tankers. Easy enough until I got into the water and saw my first lonely C3. It took a lot of discipline to watch it steam peacefully by. But of course in the end of the mission I docked with almost 175K in tonnage made up almost exclusively of tankers. Later in the war when the allies become more skilled at anti-submarine warfare, your patience will be tested to the limit. Take to heart the motto that a u-boat's greatest asset is stealth. Sure its fun ramming and shooting it out with destroyers, but I think as a successful Kaleun you have to be calculating and discerning at what you shoot at.

Anyway it's always nice to share people's first encounters and experience of the game. Always brings back nice memories. GL.

[Khayman]

tbarak, the B.D.U. would have your guts for garters if he knew you were letting cargo ships pass unmolested - even if you did manage to get a lot of tankers. "What you have got you have got".

I attacked a convoy and had to blow ballast after taking too much damage. Just as my boat reached the surface I was rammed by a Destroyer. We screeched past each other, hulls scraping and grinding for a moment. Then the Destroyer caught fire and blew up.

So Dekessey, perhaps you should try approaching the ship from the front or the rear and scrape your way along its hull. I should point out that I didn't survive this encounter though

[Brag]

Stuck has a bug where you can sink at least a DD by pocking your periscope into the hull. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I normally shoot the nose off of C2's and C3's, takes about 30 rounds from the deck gun usually. Course you have to shoot the deck gun off the C2/3 first, or you'll incur hull damage due to their nasty habit of shooting back. For a Cargo with a front mounted deck gun, imagine a vertical line from the cargo's deck gun downward, and shoot forward of that. I'm playing SH3 with patch 1.4b (i think) and using a VIIB with the 8.8cm deck gun. No way i'd try ramming one though if i expected to finish my patrol
I've also been rammed by destroyers, while going backward at back emergency trying to blow them to bits before they get to me, and failing lol, and lost a few careers by not submerging quick enough. I've found that even at back emergency, once they get closer than about 900 metres it's too late if they're doing 35 knots straight at you.
Oh by the way, i'm at November 7th 1942 patrolling out of brest, and when i wandered round to merthyr docks i found a passenger liner in it and en route to AL14 i went via, erm, is it Eyre loch? the one below and to the left of Scapa flow, and found an Illustrious class carrier, a Bogue class carrier, and a fji light cruiser, plus a T3 tanker in there. Thought it was my birthday lol.
Happy hunting fellas

[Dekessey]

OOPS

Sorry about the bitmaps.... dunno, wasn't quite awake I guess
Fixed it now.

Well alright, thanks for the comments.
I agree that a sub wasn't meant to ram ships, and I should suffer some serious damage after all those hits, but... a cargo doesn't have a thick hull, and the sharp bow should bend metal.

Ever heard about the Empress of Ireland?
A large liner was sunk in 15 minutes by being rammed by a smaller cargo.
Ramming can damage and sink ships.

I agree, if you ram a cargo ship you should put a very large hole in it, and it should sink.

Of course, you could break your pressure hull, or you could get stuck and go down with it, or you could slip right in so far you could shear off your deck gun, or even damage your conning tower, or...

[tbarak]

Aye, aye, aye. First off, your boat is a fine instrument of warfare, not a smash up derby dinghy. And I'm sure there'lll be a few dock workers upset at your rash actions too - if you even made it home.

First off, in general, WWII era u-boats - especially their shells - were pretty fragile, and collisions were something most good skippers tried to avoid at all costs. Kurisho's little pictorial display I think makes the point in terms of how small u-boats were in comparison to their adversaries. If you are bobbing out in the middle of the mean Atlantic in January '40, one shouldn't be in a big hurry to nussle up to a 8000 ton steel whale.

LOL, actually the screenie of the collision is funny.:rotfl:"Look at these new heros, all full of wind and smoke." That IIB looks like the ant and the elephant, and the ant has rape on its mind. Papa Dornitz won't give you a IX lest you forget not to crash the boats!!!

Your gunnery will improve as you gain experience, as well start promoting at least one crack gunner. Let 'em have a go on his own once and watch where he shoots. Ships have sweet spots, and in SH3, if you shoot at close range (real close like 300 metres) and focus your fire around engine rooms, you'll get a C3 and maybe a tanker with perhaps a quarter of your ammo.

[mheil]

I had a similar situation last nite - put 3 torps into a c-2 (spent a total of 5 - my FULL load out) and she still did not sink. Got on the flak gun and unloaded all my rounds (800 AP - forgot to/don't know how to load HE roads at patrol start) into it and she's still swimming! I blew up all the cargo on deck and shot up her hull at waterline. I did not target engine area as this is where I had already hit her with the other three torps. I'm under the impression that the flak does squat in RUB 1.4! I considered ramming based on posts I've seen here but itt was late, the wife was in bed . . .

[Keelbuster]

It's also annoying when you get rammed by a merchant or warship and it does little or no damage. I was just rammed square abeam by a large merchant with a low bow, travelling at about 6kts. He hit the deck first, then the conning tower, rolling me down to 25m and under him. NO DAMAGE TO MY BOAT. Kinda ridiculous.

Kb