Why me GWX? - Page 3

Iron Budokan · 01-02-07, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyW

Sitrep:

The BdU is worried: Seems that the enemy has a new very effective ASW weapon called GWX

LOL, ain't it the truth!

Trimbeaux · 01-02-07, 11:50 AM

U-50 VII, My 2nd patrol April 8 1940 (90% realism) and I learned a new lesson. After sinking a Pyro ammo ship in a large convoy and finally evading a couple close depth charge attacks at 80 meters ( I could go no deeper as its to shallow and I think I might not try this again lol) I surfaced as the convoy was moving away but failed to check for enemy aircraft

. But to my suprise a swordfish was waiting

(called in by the enemy escorts) and pounced. Alarm! crash dive! to late! 2 bomb hits and I was flooding and sinking

. I had no choice but to blow ballast and surface. I had both batteries knocked out and looked like I was going to the slam into the bottom at 90 meters but was able to stop sinking and get back to the surface. Well I got bombed again and straffed by machine gun fire but I managed to limp away and repair my batteries and stop the flooding. My veteran chief engineer Wilhem Villian, winner of both the Iron cross 1st and 2nd class repaired all critical damage so we can dive again. I got real lucky no one was killed on my watch crew. I think I will head back to port as my hull is badly damaged. Hopefully I will get lucky and find some lone merchants on the way back. Only 2 torpedos fired on the 10th day of the patrol and 1 ship sunk

. Bdu will be very unhappy with my mistake.

IceGrog · 01-02-07, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Since the advent of GWX I make about 3 patrols then I'm fish food

. I check the boats at uboat.net and find, well, most only made a 2-3 patrols before the inevitable. Sure, there was a handful that were very successful boats but by and large most not scoring anything and getting sunk.

Thanks GWX for making it real......jerks....J/k. It's awesome!

My first, or I should say my second GWX career, my first is a 1x and I’m not out of the bay, well my first taste of GWX battle mission (early 1940) I was heading down south from the St. Nazaire base and I received a message saying there was a large slow moving convoy heading out from England. I thought I could race up there and get in front of it when I ran into a medium size loner transport. I took it out with the deck gun, wanted to save my fish for the convoy, after sinking this one I started back to intercept the convoy when I was given more info on another ship, in my greed I took off after it. I knew I was getting a little too close to British waters but I proceeded anyway. Suddenly there was a destroyer chasing after me, I dove down to 100m and can go no deeper, haven’t able to loose him, and he’s not wasting his depth charges, it seems he only drops them when he’s right on the target. As I was trying to loose this guy, my soundman informed me that another warship was approaching, crapppppppp! I had to use my camera to see what was going to be my outcome. The new warship was a PT boat, a little speed demon, now when I run out of air I don’t think I’ll be able to come up and out maneuver the both of them. My time is running out!

AVGWarhawk · 01-02-07, 12:13 PM

Icegrog, it can get ugly real fast for sure! Attempt 2 kts/silent and change course often to elude the DD. Pray for bad weather! Write you last will and testament! GWX has a habit of making you think twice. It is that one time you do not think twice and bam....fish food

. I have had two careers so far. First career I made 3 patrols, second career I made 2 patrols. My life insurance carrier has dropped me

. I'm on my third career on my first patrol....here goes nothing!

01-02-07, 12:30 PM

So far I seem to be doing OK. Driving a Type VIIB (84% realism; I can't get away from having the external camera on; I'm a screenie-junkie --grins-- and GWX has soooo much to look at and admire!), on my 4th patrol during January 1941. I've around 130,000 tonnes so far.

I've had several hair-raising encounters, and some tense moments (hours actually) evading escorts. I'm very deliberate on how I make approaches now, fine-tuning depth, speed, approach angles, vectors and positions. I'm even more cautious when the bottom is shallow (less than 120 meters for me I now consider shallow :p ).

The end of my third patrol was awesome: less than 300 km from St. Nazaire and I encountered --and sank-- a S-class sub!

I'll be posting screenies of this when I get home, but the 2nd day of my fourth patrol was astounding. Again we spotted a sub, but this time it was a Type VIIC U-boat . . . attacking a convoy I then discovered! And not just one U-boat, but three! By the time we were done, the entire convoy was littering the bottom.

I don't expect it to stay that easy though! :p

The deck gun seems to be tweaked to give a very good blend between realistic reloading time and damage, although it does seem at times as if it's a bit too easy to whack the larger ships. I've noticed two really awesome effects with the deck gun though. The first is that, sometimes when I hit the hull (I'm aiming for the waterline but at times the shot does go high) there is the primary explosion of the round against the hull, then a secondary one: sometimes external and sometimes seemingly internal. The second effect I've noticed happened while we were gleefully sharking our way through the unescorted convoy minnows. I'd shelled a large merchant with about 12 rounds, then left it to pursue the slowly fleeing ones. I wasn't worried about the large merchant getting away, as I was sure I'd crippled it. It was listing, and on fire. About 30 - 60 seconds after my last round hit, with no warning at all, it suddenly erupted into a huge fireball, rocked by several massive explosions!

So far I've found the escorts to be more of a nuisance than a danger. Not belittling them by any means! They sure can kill you if you're not careful. It's just (again, so far) it's been more of a case of, 'Sheisse, they've twigged onto us' and spending 30 minutes to several hours with them playing cat-and-mouse with me before I manage to disengage and creep away. With the concurrent frustration of losing contact with the convoy at times.

However, I certainly expect, as time marches on, for things to get a lot hairier then they are right now!

fredbass · 01-02-07, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albrecht Von Hesse

The deck gun seems to be tweaked to give a very good blend between realistic reloading time and damage, although it does seem at times as if it's a bit too easy to whack the larger ships.

Yes, you can do more damage with your deck guns in GWX, but when the merchants become armed, you'll be thinking twice about engaging.

AVGWarhawk · 01-02-07, 12:45 PM

That is excellent Hesse! I suspect it will get harder and I suspect you might get cocky as you have done well Captain! Time will tell!

01-02-07, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

That is excellent Hesse! I suspect it will get harder and I suspect you might get cocky as you have done well Captain! Time will tell!

Nu-UH!! Ain't no way I'll get cocky. But I'll tell you this much, for certain sure: by the time I get a transfer order back from BdU to be a trainer, I'm not gonna be whining, "Awwww, but I wanna stay at sea on patrols!" :p

Seriously though: right now they are an aggravation and pest, but I don't ever forget that they are also very lethal ones, too. And although my primary duty is to sink the enemy, I also have the important secondary duty to not waste the resource of my boat and crew by being cocky and overconfident.

It only takes one mistake: you seldom, if ever, get a chance to get a second mistake.

AVGWarhawk · 01-02-07, 01:01 PM

True that!!!!! let us know how it goes! Some really did make it back and survived the war....perhaps you are the chosen one!!!:hmm:

01-02-07, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

True that!!!!! let us know how it goes! Some really did make it back and survived the war....perhaps you are the chosen one!!!:hmm:

If I do, it'll be as much a matter of luck as anything else.

Yanno, I think GWX should adopt your siggy "GWX makes me feel like a condemned man....It is just a matter of when...." as their hallmark slogan, AVGWarhawk. That pretty much sums it up perfect!

01-02-07, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fredbass

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albrecht Von Hesse

The deck gun seems to be tweaked to give a very good blend between realistic reloading time and damage, although it does seem at times as if it's a bit too easy to whack the larger ships.

Yes, you can do more damage with your deck guns in GWX, but when the merchants become armed, you'll be thinking twice about engaging.

I'm not, by any means, a deck gun junkie. But there are (for now, anyway :p ) certain situations that I feel are appropriate for using it. In the situation I was referring to, there were nine unescorted merchantmen lumbering along at 5 or so knots.

After flushing all five tubes I decided to engage the remainder (and polish off the cripples) with the deck gun while reloading the tubes. The weather was virtually ideal: 4 MPS wind, no fog, no clouds. Since I was only a few days into my patrol, I decided to continue the engagement on the surface with the deck gun even after the tubes were reloaded, in order to save the torps for later in the patrol when conditions wouldn't be so ideal.

I've no plans on engaging any armed ship, of any size, merchant or otherwise, on the surface with either the deck gun or flak cannons. But this was a situation highly unlikely to repeat again, and it seemed the right thing to do.

fredbass · 01-02-07, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albrecht Von Hesse

Quote:

Originally Posted by fredbass

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albrecht Von Hesse

The deck gun seems to be tweaked to give a very good blend between realistic reloading time and damage, although it does seem at times as if it's a bit too easy to whack the larger ships.

Yes, you can do more damage with your deck guns in GWX, but when the merchants become armed, you'll be thinking twice about engaging.

I'm not, by any means, a deck gun junkie. But there are (for now, anyway :p ) certain situations that I feel are appropriate for using it. In the situation I was referring to, there were nine unescorted merchantmen lumbering along at 5 or so knots.

After flushing all five tubes I decided to engage the remainder (and polish off the cripples) with the deck gun while reloading the tubes. The weather was virtually ideal: 4 MPS wind, no fog, no clouds. Since I was only a few days into my patrol, I decided to continue the engagement on the surface with the deck gun even after the tubes were reloaded, in order to save the torps for later in the patrol when conditions wouldn't be so ideal.

I've no plans on engaging any armed ship, of any size, merchant or otherwise, on the surface with either the deck gun or flak cannons. But this was a situation highly unlikely to repeat again, and it seemed the right thing to do.

Hey, I wasn't criticizing you. I'd do the same thing. I was just giving you a heads up for later.

01-02-07, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fredbass

Hey, I wasn't criticizing you. I'd do the same thing. I was just giving you a heads up for later.

I didn't take it as criticizing, honest.

AndyW · 01-03-07, 04:15 AM

Yesterday afternoon I run directly into a convoy heading south at 6 to 7 knots between Greenland and far southwest of Iceland.

The weather is the worst of possible: storm, heavy rain, maximum wind. Visibility is 350 meters, diving is not possible because of the DD’s ASDIC and the swelling. No radar.

I gave it a try anyway (“BdU: Be more aggressive”)and zigzag at full speed into the also zigzagging convoy to launch torpedoes on every ship that’s coming in sight. Managed to hit 5 ships and sink 3 of them so far. 3 torps left.

Following observations:

With GWX’s new swelling model it’s impossible to dive & shoot in heavy seas, it has to be done on surface. Guess it’s the best way, though.

The first ship I run into was a medium tanker with a flag unknown to me…Hmmm, I guessed that’s Panama but I wasn’t sure so I pulled down the reference card on the upper left corner…not on it. I checked the flags on the ID book, yep. Panama, now the BIG question: Is Panama in war with me? :hmm: Well, it’s December 1943, I’m in the middle of the Atlantic and in the middle of an enemy convoy and have no-one to ask. With the BdU’s standing order in mind (“Be more aggressive!”) I decided to shoot first and ask later, but during all that, the tanker already vanished in the storm and wasn’t seen again

(I checked later at Google: Panama declared war on Germany on January 16, 1942).

At a visibility of 350 meters max, it’s impossible to aim a target properly, as 300 meters is too short and at 350 they are out of sight. All I can do is to preset the torpedoes for a 90 degree shot with 5 or 6 meters running depth and contact fuse. As soon as I hear them I try to get them in a position somewhat perpendicular and between 300 and 350 meters and fire away. It’s a hell of manoeuvring work going on, and for every single merchant you can hit you’ll loose contact with two others in the storm.

While I’m running blind on surface with flank speed like a grey wolf in the enemy flock of sheep, I can hear the DD’s launching their depth charges, spooky. Suddenly a DD is crossing my way from starboard at 300 meters: full rudder starboard, engine flan backwards! Enemy DD also turns towards me, and with the rest of my forward momentum I crush into him, better: I touch him before my boat is going backwards. I thought that’s it, but not much damage, hull still O.K., the DD vanishes in the storm, but a second DD on 120 degrees! Hard rudder, flank ahead, I’m showing him my aft, he turn towards me, shoots, but after 15 seconds I can’t see him any more in the storm. Survived so far!

This is one of my most intense battles I had with SH so far. You don’t know where the enemy is, you don’t know if you are running in the wrong direction, you don’t know if that ship coming up 350 meters away is a destroyer running to you or a huge fat tanker. You don’t know if the torpedoes you shot from the hip at point blank will hit or not, or if you are below the 300 meter range. You hear the cargo ships in the storm before you see them, you hear the DD’s throwing their depth charges and you hear them explode and you are in the middle of it struggling with the storm just like they do.

Very intense fight, thanks to GWX.

Cheers,
AndyW

currently U-792 König, 1st patrol 12/1943 [SH3 + GWX 1.0 @ 84% realism]
Total: 10 careers, 40th sailing, 856 days at sea, 544,474 tons sunk

johan_d · 01-03-07, 07:52 AM

I love the storms.. perfect cover, only no use of the deckgun.

But I am just in april 1940, 6th patrol, but being very cautious. No heroic deeds, I am planning to survive the war after all. So is my crew.

Maybe I am to cautious, on average 30.000 tons sunk per patrol, and I am happy with it. Avoiding shallow waters, DD's and planes as the plague.

No sign of the luftwaffe yet, where are they!!

Anyhow, great fun with GWX!

01-02-07, 11:50 AM	#32
Trimbeaux Nub Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 3 Downloads: 79 Uploads: 0	2nd Patrol U-50 VII, My 2nd patrol April 8 1940 (90% realism) and I learned a new lesson. After sinking a Pyro ammo ship in a large convoy and finally evading a couple close depth charge attacks at 80 meters ( I could go no deeper as its to shallow and I think I might not try this again lol) I surfaced as the convoy was moving away but failed to check for enemy aircraft . But to my suprise a swordfish was waiting (called in by the enemy escorts) and pounced. Alarm! crash dive! to late! 2 bomb hits and I was flooding and sinking . I had no choice but to blow ballast and surface. I had both batteries knocked out and looked like I was going to the slam into the bottom at 90 meters but was able to stop sinking and get back to the surface. Well I got bombed again and straffed by machine gun fire but I managed to limp away and repair my batteries and stop the flooding. My veteran chief engineer Wilhem Villian, winner of both the Iron cross 1st and 2nd class repaired all critical damage so we can dive again. I got real lucky no one was killed on my watch crew. I think I will head back to port as my hull is badly damaged. Hopefully I will get lucky and find some lone merchants on the way back. Only 2 torpedos fired on the 10th day of the patrol and 1 ship sunk . Bdu will be very unhappy with my mistake.

01-02-07, 12:13 PM	#34
AVGWarhawk Lucky Jack Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: In a 1954 Buick. Posts: 28,303 Downloads: 90 Uploads: 0	Icegrog, it can get ugly real fast for sure! Attempt 2 kts/silent and change course often to elude the DD. Pray for bad weather! Write you last will and testament! GWX has a habit of making you think twice. It is that one time you do not think twice and bam....fish food. I have had two careers so far. First career I made 3 patrols, second career I made 2 patrols. My life insurance carrier has dropped me. I'm on my third career on my first patrol....here goes nothing! __________________ “You're painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture.” ― Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

01-02-07, 12:45 PM	#37
AVGWarhawk Lucky Jack Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: In a 1954 Buick. Posts: 28,303 Downloads: 90 Uploads: 0	That is excellent Hesse! I suspect it will get harder and I suspect you might get cocky as you have done well Captain! Time will tell! __________________ “You're painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture.” ― Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

01-02-07, 01:01 PM	#39
AVGWarhawk Lucky Jack Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: In a 1954 Buick. Posts: 28,303 Downloads: 90 Uploads: 0	True that!!!!! let us know how it goes! Some really did make it back and survived the war....perhaps you are the chosen one!!!:hmm: __________________ “You're painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture.” ― Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

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01-02-07, 12:30 PM	#35
Albrecht Von Hesse Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	So far I seem to be doing OK. Driving a Type VIIB (84% realism; I can't get away from having the external camera on; I'm a screenie-junkie --grins-- and GWX has soooo much to look at and admire!), on my 4th patrol during January 1941. I've around 130,000 tonnes so far. I've had several hair-raising encounters, and some tense moments (hours actually) evading escorts. I'm very deliberate on how I make approaches now, fine-tuning depth, speed, approach angles, vectors and positions. I'm even more cautious when the bottom is shallow (less than 120 meters for me I now consider shallow :p ). The end of my third patrol was awesome: less than 300 km from St. Nazaire and I encountered --and sank-- a S-class sub! I'll be posting screenies of this when I get home, but the 2nd day of my fourth patrol was astounding. Again we spotted a sub, but this time it was a Type VIIC U-boat . . . attacking a convoy I then discovered! And not just one U-boat, but three! By the time we were done, the entire convoy was littering the bottom. I don't expect it to stay that easy though! :p The deck gun seems to be tweaked to give a very good blend between realistic reloading time and damage, although it does seem at times as if it's a bit too easy to whack the larger ships. I've noticed two really awesome effects with the deck gun though. The first is that, sometimes when I hit the hull (I'm aiming for the waterline but at times the shot does go high) there is the primary explosion of the round against the hull, then a secondary one: sometimes external and sometimes seemingly internal. The second effect I've noticed happened while we were gleefully sharking our way through the unescorted convoy minnows. I'd shelled a large merchant with about 12 rounds, then left it to pursue the slowly fleeing ones. I wasn't worried about the large merchant getting away, as I was sure I'd crippled it. It was listing, and on fire. About 30 - 60 seconds after my last round hit, with no warning at all, it suddenly erupted into a huge fireball, rocked by several massive explosions! So far I've found the escorts to be more of a nuisance than a danger. Not belittling them by any means! They sure can kill you if you're not careful. It's just (again, so far) it's been more of a case of, 'Sheisse, they've twigged onto us' and spending 30 minutes to several hours with them playing cat-and-mouse with me before I manage to disengage and creep away. With the concurrent frustration of losing contact with the convoy at times. However, I certainly expect, as time marches on, for things to get a lot hairier then they are right now!

01-03-07, 04:15 AM	#44
AndyW Electrician's Mate Join Date: May 2005 Location: Germany Posts: 133 Downloads: 66 Uploads: 0	Yesterday afternoon I run directly into a convoy heading south at 6 to 7 knots between Greenland and far southwest of Iceland. The weather is the worst of possible: storm, heavy rain, maximum wind. Visibility is 350 meters, diving is not possible because of the DD’s ASDIC and the swelling. No radar. I gave it a try anyway (“BdU: Be more aggressive”)and zigzag at full speed into the also zigzagging convoy to launch torpedoes on every ship that’s coming in sight. Managed to hit 5 ships and sink 3 of them so far. 3 torps left. Following observations: With GWX’s new swelling model it’s impossible to dive & shoot in heavy seas, it has to be done on surface. Guess it’s the best way, though. The first ship I run into was a medium tanker with a flag unknown to me…Hmmm, I guessed that’s Panama but I wasn’t sure so I pulled down the reference card on the upper left corner…not on it. I checked the flags on the ID book, yep. Panama, now the BIG question: Is Panama in war with me? :hmm: Well, it’s December 1943, I’m in the middle of the Atlantic and in the middle of an enemy convoy and have no-one to ask. With the BdU’s standing order in mind (“Be more aggressive!”) I decided to shoot first and ask later, but during all that, the tanker already vanished in the storm and wasn’t seen again (I checked later at Google: Panama declared war on Germany on January 16, 1942). At a visibility of 350 meters max, it’s impossible to aim a target properly, as 300 meters is too short and at 350 they are out of sight. All I can do is to preset the torpedoes for a 90 degree shot with 5 or 6 meters running depth and contact fuse. As soon as I hear them I try to get them in a position somewhat perpendicular and between 300 and 350 meters and fire away. It’s a hell of manoeuvring work going on, and for every single merchant you can hit you’ll loose contact with two others in the storm. While I’m running blind on surface with flank speed like a grey wolf in the enemy flock of sheep, I can hear the DD’s launching their depth charges, spooky. Suddenly a DD is crossing my way from starboard at 300 meters: full rudder starboard, engine flan backwards! Enemy DD also turns towards me, and with the rest of my forward momentum I crush into him, better: I touch him before my boat is going backwards. I thought that’s it, but not much damage, hull still O.K., the DD vanishes in the storm, but a second DD on 120 degrees! Hard rudder, flank ahead, I’m showing him my aft, he turn towards me, shoots, but after 15 seconds I can’t see him any more in the storm. Survived so far! This is one of my most intense battles I had with SH so far. You don’t know where the enemy is, you don’t know if you are running in the wrong direction, you don’t know if that ship coming up 350 meters away is a destroyer running to you or a huge fat tanker. You don’t know if the torpedoes you shot from the hip at point blank will hit or not, or if you are below the 300 meter range. You hear the cargo ships in the storm before you see them, you hear the DD’s throwing their depth charges and you hear them explode and you are in the middle of it struggling with the storm just like they do. Very intense fight, thanks to GWX. Cheers, AndyW currently U-792 König, 1st patrol 12/1943 [SH3 + GWX 1.0 @ 84% realism] Total: 10 careers, 40th sailing, 856 days at sea, 544,474 tons sunk

01-03-07, 07:52 AM	#45
johan_d Samurai Navy Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 556 Downloads: 113 Uploads: 1	I love the storms.. perfect cover, only no use of the deckgun. But I am just in april 1940, 6th patrol, but being very cautious. No heroic deeds, I am planning to survive the war after all. So is my crew. Maybe I am to cautious, on average 30.000 tons sunk per patrol, and I am happy with it. Avoiding shallow waters, DD's and planes as the plague. No sign of the luftwaffe yet, where are they!! Anyhow, great fun with GWX!