100k patrol for Dummies

[Madcowz]

You were very lucky indeed.

I have just detected a very large convoy on my first patrol but I have no torps left and no gun ammunition having used it all up earlier in the patrol on small merchant ships.

How gutting is that!

/mad

[filefool]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

100,000tons huh. Just curious but what were your Realism settings at ?

Don't mean to rain on your parade matey but someone else is going to ask if i didn't.

Well, i don't know the exact number but i don't shoot manually.
I am playing without external or event cam and of course with realistic sinking times, limited fuel and torps.

By the way, i think i really should call myself lucky, because my next patrol got me the HMS Hood in my way. Four torpedoes at 7 km, three hits and hours of evading dc's but the biggest ship of the RN ( and one of the most unique in GWX) was mine!

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by filefool

Well, i don't know the exact number but i don't shoot manually.
I am playing without external or event cam and of course with realistic sinking times, limited fuel and torps.

Just a side note: 100% realism setting does NOT mean one can't hunt 100k tons or more. I'd even say opposite - high realism could make getting high tonnage even easier. On my first weeks of playing SH3 a year ago I used autotargeting options as manual plotting scared me, and I missed really often, for a few causes:
- I relied on the auto option too much and didn't even try sometimes to take a good shot position,
- the auto option is really not sufficient for zigzaging/evading/changing speed targets,
- I suppose one doesn't relly care for some details when using autotargetting, like weather conditions, ship's draft, range. It seems so easy no matter what, so why should he care?
- auto targeting always aims in the midships, while it's not always the best spot to aim at. Manual targeting lets you pick better spots, like engines or screws, and lets sink ships with 1 shot.

After that I switched to manual targetting, no WO assistance (I only get range when on surface from my watch officer to compare it with my own range estimation - helps to identify the ship properly). And then after I finally learned (took me like 3-4 patrols) I almost never miss. And my tonnage went up like hell, to the level that some didn't belive it was true.

[Blacklight]

Last night, I ran into a nice big juicy convoy heading toward the English Channel. I observed them for a few hours and discovered that there were no escorts at all !!!

I used up ALL my ammunition (torpedoes, deck gun shells, machine gun bullets) and created the largest artificial reef in the world !!!

I only 3 small merchants escaped the slaughter (on fire) because I ran out of things to shoot at them.

Yep. I did the environmentalists proud. Think of all the coral, sponges, and fish species that will now have the undersea equivalent of Manhatten to live in !! When I get back from my patrol, I will be happy to recieve that letter of praise from Greenpeace as the first "Environmentally friendly U-Boat captain"

P.S... I'm sure that massive oil and diesel slick on the surface must have burned off by now. :rotfl:

[gimpy117]

no matter what id do i always get heard while sneaking up on a convoy, even at silent speed at periscope depth. i managed a snap shot but it hit and failed to sink a small merchant (even after a direct midships hit)

[Fr8monkey]

Originally Posted by Blacklight

I only 3 small merchants escaped the slaughter (on fire) because I ran out of things to shoot at them.

You can always put Bernard in torpedo tube #1.... Or the ship's cook!:hmm:

[Zakalwe]

- auto targeting always aims in the midships, while it's not always the best spot to aim at. Manual targeting lets you pick better spots, like engines or screws, and lets sink ships with 1 shot.

Hi,

that`s not true. Lock on the target, unlock and aim with the crosshair at the point you want to hit. I mostly set the crosshair right to the bow and let the ship pass, once the area I want to hit is in the cross hair, I fire. Works pretty well (if you don`t forget to open the tubes before.

Z.