VIIC/41

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Threadfin

Well, I'm not sure. After posting I did an internet search for deepest WW2 depth charge and this sort of thing and found nothing. I've always had in mind that Royal navy charges were max 164m, but maybe that's not accurate? What about US DCs? And anyway, regardless of what is historical, all that matters to us here is how it works in the game. Perhaps the DCs have no max depth? Need to discover how it works.


Now that I have the VIIC/41 I should be able to go below 300m and if I get hit down that deep at least we will know they can reach us any depth we can go in the game. I will be testing it, hopefully not so often, but next depth charge rainstorm I'll test it out.


Playing dead is dead and now in 1942 I'll take every advantage or kernel of info to help us survive.

You peaked my interest concerning detonation depths and I found this. Hope it’s useful to you and modders.

U.S. ASW
http://navweaps.com/Weapons/WAMUS_ASW.php

U.K. ASW
http://navweaps.com/Weapons/WAMBR_ASW.php

Generally speaking if the information above is correct subs should be safe below 300 feet (91 meters) until around 1943

Also: https://maritime.org/doc/depthcharge6/index.php

https://maritime.org/doc/depthcharge9/index.php

[Threadfin]

Thanks mate. It is expected that the implementation in the game mirrors real life specs, but no guarantee. Anecdotally I can only say that so far we have not been hit below 200 meters, and according to the above information that is expected. The VIIC/41 is the way to go in dead is dead careers no doubt. The key is to use that capability and not hang about near the surface too long lol.


U-292 has reached January of 1944 if you can believe it. We have had our close calls, and got lucky a few times too. Didn't expect to live so long if I'm honest, but there ya go. We have completed both Black Pit and Last Stand, each of which required 250k in trade shipping in the square comprised of BE, BD, AL and AK grids. That's a lot of sinkings. Warships do not count toward the total. There are not a lot of different merchant ships in the game yet. Largest we have seen are T2 tankers, which come in around 14,000 GRT. Mostly though, at this stage of the war, it is C3 freighters and Liberty ships, 7800 and 7200 tons respectively.



We have seen no liners, merchant cruisers, big troopships. Nor have I seen any battleships or carriers outside of Scapa Flow. The milk cow has proven valuable, allowing refueling and rearming and turning some patrols in to double-barreled affairs. I can shift it around as needed and it all works beautifully


Our tonnage totals are exorbitant. Some higher difficulty settings and house rules for tech are in order for the next career I think. This first career is to get a feel for what needs to be done to get the game where I want it. Making it a little harder is needed. The alternative technology timeline has given us a big advantage I think. The Cross (and upgrades) are the most important installation on the boat. T5s I'd rate as next. Having these things years early makes a big difference in the campaign. Slowing things down will help to even the playing field I think.


Great game. If we are able to make it to the end I'll be pleased. And then I'll start immediately on career number 2 with some revised settings and rules and mods.

[Rockstar]

I always thought if the boat and crew makes to the end. A last mission should be created to pick up a shadowy figure and his entourage navigate past an extensive ASW dragnet and Escape to Argentina.

[Threadfin]

There's an achievement for sinking your boat off the Argentinian coast at the end of the war. Not exactly sure how that is done, can't scuttle I don't think.

[Threadfin]

U-292 has made it to June of 1944. We had one close affair with a determined escort group out in the mid-Atlantic and had to go very deep. Our boat did in fact take damage at 235 meters from DCs, but all topside and superstructure (AA guns, radar detector, bow caps) suggesting the charges were exploding some distance above us. No leaks or breaches but the boat, she was a-rockin'!


Usually I feel safe and stealthy below 200 meters, but this group was good. Went on for hours. But we made it. I don't think I would have survived without one, the VIIC/41 and two, the little blue hydrophone contact lines on the map which let me con the boat reactively and accurately to counter every move and eventually slip away. But it was a very close thing. Thought the jig was up, and playing dead is dead it would have been disappointing to come this far (over 40 patrols) and have it all end, but that's the appeal of playing this way. It is all hanging out there.


In my next career I'll slow down the tech arc a bit, so we are not so far out in front. But I might make an exception and get the VIIC/41 as early as possible again. This thing is fantastic, and the reason we have made it this far I reckon.

[Threadfin]

U-292 set sail from Bergen on March 5, 1945, with the boat stuffed to the overheads, and headed south. We re-arranged the milk cows along our route, attacking a convoy in the Pit along the way to make this mission an honorable one.

Met a cow south of the Azores, refueled and took on provisions and then kept shifting them to new locations. By early April we were off the coast of Brazil and kept going south.

Passing Uruguay we ran the radio out of range, so hung about, awaiting a message announcing the end of the war.

On May 2, Donitz instructed all warships to prevent capture. U-292 closed the coast of Argentina in the early dawn hours of May 6. A few years before, Donitz had sent us a bottle of champagne which was put in a locker and forgotten about. But now we pulled it out and drank a toast to our survival (this was dead is dead), to the fallen kameraden and to the good boat U-292 which never failed us. U-292 was then scuttled to prevent capture. Most fun I've had a in a sub sim career.


I had known how much trade ship tonnage we had put under, since Tonnage War tracks it to the end. But I didn't know how many ships that was. So this summary screen was nice to see. Played this career dead is dead at 71% difficulty. I'll bump some stuff for the next career.


I'll start in U-96 in France, January 1941 and take the first mission to transit Gibraltar Strait, redeploy to La Spezia and become a Med boat. I fully credit the VIIC/41 with our survival, the depth capability allowing us to evade the worst of the poundings.


Nice work devs, most fun I've ever had a in a sub sim career.


In order to approximate a semi-realistic operational rate, we took a vacation between every patrol, and then quarreled with the quartermaster for days on end to get our refits out to about 30 days each. Even so we did 29 patrols, and 15 special missions for 44 total over the course of the career.

[Threadfin]

Started a new career, this one in U-96, January 1941 out of La Rochelle. My plan was to take the first available mission to pass through Gibraltar and transfer to the 29th at La Spezia. Did one Happy Times patrol, and hoped to get the interned officer mission before transferring. That came up next so we did it, which is key for research.


Ran the strait in early March and went to La Spezia. After just two Battle of the Med patrols, we tripped the second phase (100k), earning a blueprint and taking command of another VIIC/41, U-327 (I re-rolled the boat number a lot until I got this one).


In the first career the first /41 patrol was January 1942, so we accelerated this by six months with this plan. In career 1, I got the second blueprint form Black Pit, not knowing at the time that Atlantic Theater Operations also rewards a blueprint, or we could have done so earlier. But Black Pit is my style, anti-shipping patrols in the middle Atlantic, where Atlantic Theater Operations are special missions like agent insertion and weather station deployment. Took a few months longer, perhaps, but more in my wheelhouse. I like special missions just fine, by the way, but hunting on the convoy routes is where its at.


So far in the Med we have run wild, not seeing a single enemy warship or aircraft after making it through the strait. Three patrols, for 66, 53 and 53k. All singles, all British-flagged, no neutrals at all. All three patrols were hunting in the chokepoint between Sardinia and Tunisia, which was one of the best spots in Silent Hunter. The superb range of the hydrophones in UBOAT means we can sit in the middle and cover to both coasts. Not much can slip past.


We will enjoy this time, as the Torch landings will turn the Med in to a Allied lake. In the war, around 62 boats entered the Mediterranean, all Type VII. None left. Maybe we can be the first.