Wishing upon a star shell

[Ping Panther]

O.k., this is just a situation that I have encountered while on a war patrol recently. It got me thinking again, about the ammo. loads on u-boats.

I'm playing GWX 3 Gold with the magic eyeball disabled from Realism.

On patrol July 1941, my deck watch announces a single ship sighted, bearing NW, heading slow and due North. It's a very dark night with light clouds, moderate visibility. I order flank speed, surface battlestations, figuring to run North and outflank this loney, yet anonymous ship. It's still early war, so I must respect the many neutral merchants on my patrol route, and certainly I don't need to blow a hole in Der Furher's fleet. I make a good & quick approach to it's broadside... now closing in with an UZO scope view... I can make out the flag... shape?... as far as colors, it could have Mickey Mouse or even Sponge Bob on it for all I can see.

A black profile of a flag, flapping away, and still a good 5 hours or so until the dawn brings me some daylight over my east-facing stern... A star shell, just 1, could light it up just enough from far enough away to decide to either shoot ... or salute .

GWX is historically restricting my deck gun to a strict diet of HE rounds.

I look forward to some discussion about this... what would you do?, what have you done?, the shot is so ready to go... so shoot first?, just give up and run away?, gun the deck cargo up enough so that the flames illuminate the flag, then decide?, it's a juicy ore carrier...give 'em all you got?, ghost the ship until morning light?

[Jimbuna]

I'd trail her or motor on ahead of her predicted course until first light.

[sunvalleyslim]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

I'd trail her or motor on ahead of her predicted course until first light.

I agree with jimbuna, wait for first light. The Star Shell would probably scare the heck out of the ship and it would start zig zagging all over. Not seeing any surface ship or radio contact would have them believe it was a Sub. Don't know if its scripted that way in SH, but would be in real life.......

[Mittelwaechter]

In '41? No risk no fun!

You want to deckgun him anyway. Get closer until you recognize the flag or the freighters reaction. If he starts to zigzag start shooting.
If he starts to shoot - dive!

[Lt.Fillipidis]

Jimbuna's got my vote too.
If you arent sure wait for the morning.
Although im pretty sure that besides HE shells some uboats carried a couple star shells with them.

[U2222]

Theres only one realistic decision - wait until confirmed nationallity.
Anything else would be deemed reckless by Bdu.
After all it could just be a German merchant

[Uncle Goose]

Originally Posted by Ping Panther

GWX is historically restricting my deck gun to a strict diet of HE rounds.

Which is wrong, U-boats did carry various types of rounds. Kretschmer's biography mentions he used incendiary shells to set ships alight at least on one occasion . So it's not true that U-boats only carried HE shells.

[Ping Panther]

I figured that this HE shells only setting is a little too strict. I may look into one of those GWX mods that allows for a little different load-out on my shells for some of my next patrols.

Jimbuna seems to have given the wisest, and safest advice.
The only alternative would be to approach on the surface, at very low speed, and from well forward of the beam. Don't let him get more than 30 degrees off the bow. At somewhere near 1000 meters you should (Let's hope) have an answer as to whether to fire, or quietly let him pass. Not being so patient and wise as Jimbuna, that's what I would try.

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Originally Posted by Uncle Goose

Which is wrong, U-boats did carry various types of rounds. Kretschmer's biography mentions he used incendiary shells to set ships alight at least on one occasion . So it's not true that U-boats only carried HE shells.

By and large YOU are wrong. Starshells carried by U-boats were the RARE exception and not the rule. This matter was researched heavily by the GWX dev team... and our decision to remove them from player U-boats was not taken lightly.

Tread carefully when you make such flat statements.

Do a little hunting in these forums and you will see that the matter has been discussed both here and in the SH3 mods workshop... in detail more than once.

[U2222]

Originally Posted by Legionary74

If it was me, I personally would charge it and either try to ram it to damage it, or torpedo it with my stern tube while i pass it, so if that misses i can always hook around right under him... but thats just me

Just how successful have you been at ramming a merchant with a U-boat?
I would think that the U-boat would come off worse in 90% of cases.

[flakmonkey]

while not historicaly accurate (or even possible), in this situation id have cheated, if time compression wouldnt let me go any higher than 8x then its an enemy ship.

[Captain Nemo]

Originally Posted by flakmonkey

while not historicaly accurate (or even possible), in this situation id have cheated, if time compression wouldnt let me go any higher than 8x then its an enemy ship.

32x if the enemy hasn't spotted you, if I'm not mistaken it drops to no more than 8x if the enemy is aware of your presence. If your up against a neutral you can increase time compression beyond 32x. Plus if your using time compression and the watch crew calls out "Ship spotted" and time compression drops to 1x it's an enemy, if time compression drops to only 8x then it's a neutral. This is a shame in my view as I automatically know whether I'm facing an enemy or neutral. I wonder, is there a way to correct this in SH3 Commander?

Nemo

[U2222]

Bah. How did I miss/overlook that trick!
There's me been sneaking around for years trying/waiting to get a visual on the flag which at night is nigh on impossible.
Cheating maybe. But it does save a lot of wasted time.

[janves64]

Originally Posted by Kpt. Lehmann

Tread carefully when you make such flat statements.

Do a little hunting in these forums and you will see that the matter has been discussed both here and in the SH3 mods workshop... in detail more than once.

If anyone can recall the words for search how to return that ammo back, willl much appreciate that. Thanks