To attack a flower, or not?

[Packerton]

Originally Posted by Brag

Allways keep the advantage to yourself. Torpedo the flower!

But I thought Balz would surface underneath the Flower

[johnm]

Torpedo the flower!

why chance damage which could let the convoy through unscathed?

Then enjoy the deckgun!

oh for a UberBoot!

[Brag]

Originally Posted by Packerton

But I thought Balz would surface underneath the Flower

Balz is 90% arrogant, but only 50% stupid. I taught him the tricks of the trade


(see the Balz is Back! Thread)

[dmlavan]

Early in the war, I've found that if you can keep your bow pointed towards the Flower (minimize your silhouette), with a decent deck gun crew - or doing it myself - a few hits and the Flower turns away. This masks their single gun forward, and I can usually plug away at his stern and sink him before the aft machine gun does any damage.
Of course, for anyone working on GWX 1.04... please disregard this thread... the Flowers are tough foes

[GoldenRivet]

frankly im surprised there are not more un-escorted convoys in very early war in any version of the game

[tmdgm]

Thanks for the response. I'll give it a shot. Torp the flower it is. I don't feel to confident with the deck gun idea, and why risk casualties.

Wish me luck.

On the unescorted convoy's, i was also surprised there aren't more unescorted convoys early in the war.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by dmlavan

Early in the war, I've found that if you can keep your bow pointed towards the Flower (minimize your silhouette), with a decent deck gun crew - or doing it myself - a few hits and the Flower turns away. This masks their single gun forward, and I can usually plug away at his stern and sink him before the aft machine gun does any damage.
Of course, for anyone working on GWX 1.04... please disregard this thread... the Flowers are tough foes

That's because it's a game. In the real war, a u-boat tried just that, and the corvette's 40mm killed the entire u-boat gun crew and everyone else on deck, forcing a surrender.

[Foghladh_mhara]

Damn right. U-Boats and Destroyers just did not slug it out.

The game is called Silent Hunter for a reason.

The greatest acolade you could get was that your enemy never knew where the hell you were

[JU_88]

Despite what all the realists say. You can beat a lone flower on the surface if your sneaky enough, the flower has 4 weaknesses we can exploit.

Its slow compared to most escorts
Its lighty armed (about the same fire power as your Uboat)
Its lightly armoured
Its as blind as a bat from the rear.

Preperation.
1) First off prepare an electric eel in one of your fore tubes to run at about 3 meters set to magnetic or 1 meter on impact make sure the tube is opened too.
2) Through out this attack you should always keep moving at ahead standard as full and flank will effect your aim with the deck gun.
3) Have some crew assigned to dammage control just in case.

Approach.
The best approach is to get on his tail whist you are submerged, surface behind him at about 3000 meters distance - he wont see you even in broad daylight, flowers (bizarly) are visually blind on their 180 degrees.
This gives you time to prepare deckgun (assign crew, load gun and take careful aim)

Attack.
The flower will be alerted as soon as you fire off the first shot and will start to swing around to return fire with his main gun, giving you a few vital seconds to deal some heavy blows with AP shells whist he is defensless, as he turns, the gun will start to fire but will likley miss (due to him turning)
when he does turn around to face you, you are still quite safe at a distance as you are facing him head on, which gives the Uboat its smallest profile and thus a tricky target for his gunner. that said his shot will now become more accurate.

What happens next depends on how the flower behaves, if he heads right for you, you can lanch that torpedo (we prepared earlier) in to his bow, while your crew continues to attack with the deck gun -if on the hand he he zig-zags or alters course in anyway then dont bother.
If the flower manages to close to about 1500 meters its time to cut your losses, knuckle to port or starboard whilest crash diving. (do this at 2000m if in a type IX) You'll get a pasting from his charges, but its probably not going to be fatal if you get go deep enough.

But all being well you should have destroyed or at least mangled him pretty badly. Most of the time i have tried this I have succeded in crippling the the flower to the point where he can no longer engage me while im submerged.
Its worth a try because if anything its garranteed to get your pulse racing.

This will not work on any destroyer they are way too deadly! If there are any other armed ships around (including merchies) dont risk it!
I also dont belive it can be done if you play at 100% realism, (feel free to prove me wrong) quite simply, your reload times will be too slow - but i dont expect those players to try this tactic anyways as it probably to 'gamey' for them.

Its risky but it can be done!
Happy hunting.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by JU_88

Despite what all the realists say. You can beat a lone flower on the surface if your sneaky enough

That's because it's a game. Of course you can beat them. Some of us, whom you dismiss as 'realists', are looking to recreate the war we've read so much about. If I'm a 'realist', does that make you an 'arcadist'?

[HMCS]

I will torpedo an escort if she presents in a favourable way 90% of the time (60-110 deg. AOB, less than 1000 yds, and not actively searching for me). So if the Flower puts herself in harm's way, then one torpedo gone is no loss at all.

I always kill the Black Swans, if I can...

On general principles. I hate 'em.

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

That's because it's a game. Of course you can beat them. Some of us, whom you dismiss as 'realists', are looking to recreate the war we've read so much about. If I'm a 'realist', does that make you an 'arcadist'?

steve..
Perhaps i minced my words,anyway I wasnt trying to provoke an argument and I wasnt dismissing anybody, When I said realists I meant 100 percenters, I was mearly pointing out that they woundn't try gunning down a corvette, as it doesnt suit their style -thats all. I wasnt trying to put them or anybody down, The whole point of my post was just to share the above tactic - nothing more nothing less.

[Kaleu. Jochen Mohr]

Originally Posted by Kpt. Lehmann

Hmmm, maybe we should give that convoy more escorts?:hmm: 1940 though. Hmmm.

i passed and whiped away a lot of those convoy's. plz add more escorts to those convoy's (even then they dont stand a chance )
a large convoy usualy ends up with only 4 ships left (the smallest of the convoy)

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by JU_88

steve..
Perhaps i minced my words,anyway I wasnt trying to provoke an argument and I wasnt dismissing anybody, When I said realists I meant 100 percenters, I was mearly pointing out that they woundn't try gunning down a corvette, as it doesnt suit their style -thats all. I wasnt trying to put them or anybody down, The whole point of my post was just to share the above tactic - nothing more nothing less.

I HATE quoting useless, talentless pop divas, but "Oops, I did it again.":rotfl:

Sorry, man.

[Subnuts]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

That's because it's a game. Of course you can beat them. Some of us, whom you dismiss as 'realists', are looking to recreate the war we've read so much about. If I'm a 'realist', does that make you an 'arcadist'?

What it comes down to is that, in real life, a Flower could shrug off a couple of pithy 88mm shells, and a single hit from a Flower's 4-inch gun would punch a hole right through a U-boat's pressure hull, rendering it unable to dive, and completely fu*#ed!