AoD Career: Franz Kerber

It has been a while since Ive played this gem, so I decided to begin a new career - and post some pics of the first Feindfahrt.


Assignment



The latest Gossip




The Top Aces



First Patrol



100% or nothing!



Leaving Kiel



Home Sweet Home



Patrol Area Reached



Airplane spotted!



Status Report



New Orders



A beautyful yet dangerous Sunderland(?) - too close for my taste!



And she hits us with 3 Waterbombs as we were crash diving for save 150m




Later this evening, the Grey Wolf found its prey...



One close distance shot from tube 1 destroyed the 2000 tons merchant



We deliver the good news...



... and receive this -.-

(be more agressive)

New base: Lorient

After days of nothing, we found juicy prey...



... and attacked right away with tube 1+3...



...to send this huge tanker to the bottom of the sea




After continuing the patrol for a couple of days, we returned to Kiel - and received a neckslap because we were supposed to go to Lorient -.-



If you never played this game, give it a try! The graphics are far from nowadays standards but still: AoD is beautiful in its own way, you´ll see

I will continue this thread with Feindfahrt 2...

[MinskMariner]

Hi!

I really enjoyed following the pictorial of your first patrol. I've recently started playing Silent Hunter Commander's Edition again and feel a similar kind of affection for the quality work that went into that classic game. I'm going to try my hand at posting a few videos on YouTube of my SHCE patrols. From what I can tell, there's only about two videos of SH1 gameplay on there.

Anyway, good work and happy hunting!

[Onkel Neal]

Nice work!

[Der_Meister]

Thank you for your post, I thoroughly enjoyed that! I've been playing AoD for almost a year straight now, and it never gets old. It's my subsim of choice (with GWX a close close second).

Gut gemacht!

Nur eine Frage: How did you get German text in-game? Is this a German copy? I was under the impression that the European release was only in English.


Thanks!

Thank you guys, expect more action-loaded patrols soon when the brits´ finally start trying to kill me

Meister, IIRC, you can switch between english and german voices - but not text language. I searched for a german version of AoD and copy/pasted the language files over (after making a security backup of course).

It worked, except for the menus. So it still says "War Patrol" instead of "Feindfahrt" but that is not a big deal, the voices are more important to me.

After ~2 weeks on land, my crew and me cant wait to get out again!
But before we leave for our second war patrol, Ill check the nightclub and the latest gossip...



Historical Background: Fritz-Julius Lemp drowned in the northern Atlantic on May 9, 1941, after his U-Boat was attacked and disabled by allied forces. Some sources claim, he was shot by the boarding team. He also was responsible for killing 112 passengers in the Athenia incident.

Heinrich Liebe was one of the most successful commanders ever by sinking 34 ships with a total tonnage of 187,267 GRT. He survived the war and died on 27th July 1997, as an old man (89).

Besides the good news, we also hear about this:

(keep that one in mind...)


Off we go, AN13, very close to Scapa Flow, the base of Britains Home Fleet!



Leaving Kiel... for the last time?



Days later, we reach our patrol area without problems.


But we dont have to wait long until the first british fighter appears above our heads



After a few hours, we surfaced to continue our patrol. Other boats report convoys - far away though.


Finally, the first vessel was spotted!



I quickly plot an intercept course...


Identify the target...


and attack with one eel...


Ziel Zerstört Herr Kaleun! Oh how lovely that sounds in my salty ears!


Happy about the good results, I inform the BdU, only to receive his standard message... how motivating



I request new orders after not finding anything in this quadrant...


AN41? As you wish, BdU...
While travelling for the new quadrant, we get a little wet...


...and if the weather is fine once in a while, the sky is infested with airplanes!

Anyways, we are lucky later on and find a tanker...


...and attack...





Back on the surface, all we find is a huge burning spot of oil... We avoid getting closer and set a new course...



Requesting new orders, again.


AM32, very cold and rough up there. On the other hand, we may get some rest from those pesky airplanes... We even have plenty of fuel left, so lets go!



A rest from airplanes? Dream on sunshine... Fortunately, he missed and we managed to escape into the deep sea...



...only to encounter our ultimate fate later...


Too late, he directly hit us with a WaBo. The boat was instantly ripped apart, leaving no survivors...



The Newspaper in Germany is reporting our assumed fate...


Career summary:


Wow. That went down the river quicker as I would have thought. The plane surprised us, leaving no time for evasive maneuvers. One of his WaBo directly hit ME, while standing on the tower, so I knew it was over, even before the boom.

Bad graphics or not. It was a scary moment anyways
Still, I hope you enjoyed this short career with me!

Oh, and you remember what the other Commanders told me in the nightclub just before I left base?


I have the strong feeling one of those got me

Nice! Must have a Pils in honour of U-114.

Franz' story has inspired me to pick up an old AOD career, U-222 in the summer of '42. Now trailing a homeward bound convoy off the Grand Banks but was forced under by carrier planes and a pair of 4-stacked destroyers before BdU could reply to my contact report. Three troopships and a couple of tankers but didn't see the carrier. Hopefully by the time I can surface there will be a wolfpack forming!

Thanks for sharing.

Things to like about Stock AOD:

You can save when submerged;
You can save when in contact;
BdU will often call up a wolfpack if you can maintain contact with a convoy from 1941-43;
Your boat leaks when submerged;
Sunrise and sunset times in the log;
Fidos and Foxers and Hedgehogs Oh! My!

Thank you for honoring my crew and boat, I wish you luck in your situation! 1942 is no piece of cake anymore...

And yes, those are things to like in AoD, just as:
Wolfpacks at all
More realistic and enhanced damage system
Intelligent and unpredictable AI
Dangerous air attacks (started a new career, sunk on first patrol... da hell!?)
More realistic rate of duds
8-bit record player
And more...

Have fun, dont hesitate to share your experiences!

[Sailor Steve]

Started my own career thread a long time ago, but got busy with other things. Your pictures are great, and your story is great.

You have me thinking about firing it up again. Good job!

Stop thinking about it, just do it!

[Mars Mullo]

Hey.. if your still responding to posts please do...

I have been playing AOD again recently.. and have found some things that work or confuse me..

attacking destroyers is easy... let them run down at you.. set your gyros of about 4 to 7 deg,,fire at 450m or less mostly hits.

and the destruction usually brings o\in another corvette

The gyros work in reverse for the rear facing tubes.. left =right and vice versa

Do the escorts have limited ammo? Even in 100% reality? Some destroyers only have about 50 DC's but seem to be able to throw out about that much each day... would love to mod so they count their DC use.

Never even tried to sink a warship that was hunting me I think.

Regarding the ammo, good question. I would be surprised if they would have unlimited ammo, cause AOD really got into such details. Maybe someone else knows for sure.

[Mars Mullo]

I suppose I could find a convoy and perhaps set the invulnerability level up (if it is available) and play with a few escorts until they stop depth charging and perhaps count the charges thrown... compare it to the ammo specs in the ships details screens... Might call it milking destroyers?