Torpedo Tips...

[frau kaleun]

Also if you have "realistic sinking times" checked in your realism options, it will take longer for ships to sink (and for you to get confirmation of same). Sometimes it's not a matter of putting additional eels into them, but of having the patience to wait and see if the hits you already got did in fact do enough damage.

I've gotten impatient a few times and lined up a second or third shot on a ship only to get the "She's going down" message just as I hit the Fire button.

In the torpedo training mission I eventually got into the habit of putting one well-placed eel into each ship (or two at most for bigger ships) and then moving on to the next target. Lots of times the ships I'd already hit once would sink while I was busy lining up to attack the others. If not, I'd at least done enough damage to slow them down or leave them dead in the water and then if necessary I could go back and finish them off at my leisure.

In the convoy mission you can do this as well and then finish them off with the guns if you run out of eels.

[maillemaker]

GWX seems to have stouter ships than stock SH3.

I'd say it's about 50/50 odds sinking a ship with one torpedo.

Most seem to take 2.

Steve

[Jimbuna]

That's because most of them have different damage models Steve.

It is still possible to sink most if not all provided you hit the right 'sweet' spot.

[schlechter pfennig]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Also if you have "realistic sinking times" checked in your realism options, it will take longer for ships to sink (and for you to get confirmation of same). Sometimes it's not a matter of putting additional eels into them, but of having the patience to wait and see if the hits you already got did in fact do enough damage.

Frau Kaleun is correct about that. It's not uncommon (for me, anyway ) to hit a larger ship with one torpedo and have it finally sink anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours later.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by schlechter pfennig

Frau Kaleun is correct about that. It's not uncommon (for me, anyway ) to hit a larger ship with one torpedo and have it finally sink anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours later.

I followed an ore carrier for 2 hours once waiting for it to sink. I put my last torpedo into her, a nice shot right into her bow section in some really heavy seas. Had the weather not been so rough I don't think I would've bothered trying to take her out with one eel, but I'd seen some pretty big ships go down after one well-placed hit in bad weather. I wasn't using All-Weather Guns so I couldn't finish her off that way either.

Also had to play footsie with an ASW trawler that came nosing around while I waited... I just stayed submerged and ran silent while I followed the ore carrier out of the area. The trawler stayed in the vicinity of the attack and we slowly but surely left it behind.

Took a while, even when I was able to bump up the TC a bit - but it was totally worth it.

[Mittelwaechter]

Freighters tend to sink being hit by one torpedo opening two (freight-) compartments. Often masts indicate the seperation section. Aim for the first or second forward mast and they sink more than often after a single hit. Additionally the forward drift seems to help drive them under.

Another good spot is the area around the fuel/coal bunk and the adjacent freight compartment. Well - again open two compartments.

Some freighters layout is slightly different and some seem to be well constructed. The tiny freight- and passenger ship is hard to sink for me.

[maillemaker]

I don't try and hit different parts of the ship. I generally aim for dead-center. With manual targeting I would rather hit the target than miss it completely. In theory you can pick and choose where to strike a ship with manual targeting, but if you are off with your speed you will be off where you hit.

Steve

[timmy41]

10-15k ton ships should take just 2 torpedoes. they may not sink for over an hour, but they will sink.
anything below 10k tons i use just one torp.
anything above 15k i may use up to 4.

always try to spread out your torpedo hits, you do not get any 'bonus' for hitting the same spot twice. it is also far more difficult for damage control to stop the flooding if there are two areas being flooded.

in addition to those 'sweespots' mentioned in posts above, its always good to get a hit on the bow of a ship, as the ships movement will supposedly push more water in, and cause it to dig its nose into the water, slowing it down quickly.

never use impact torpedoes on battleships. battleships have torpedo belts which are basically an extra layer of armor below the waterline to detonate torpedoes before they hit the hull, resulting in no damage to the battleship. torpedo belts are already filled with water, so its not like they can be flooded. always use magnetic pistol, and do it in good weather so that you can get at least 3 torpedoes under the BB, which should guarantee a kill.

many escort carriers are actually converted merchant ships, for example the bogue class carrier is a C2 merchant. so treat them not as a warship when choosing where to hit, but actually as a merchant.

[Iranon]

Hitting them in the engine room (under the smokestacks) is fine, hitting them under the fuel bunker is even better. That's usually just in front of the engine room; a notable exception is the passenger liner (just aft of the aft funnel).

If you can't line up a critical hit... asymetrical flooding works nicely on freighters. One in the bow (rough weather) or the stern (calm weather) is usually enough but it may take some time.

[nemchenk]

In my meagre experience of GWX3 (ahoy there, fellow deck-swab! ) I have to say that the flooding resulting from hits looks about right, but does take a heck of a long time! My two ships sunk in GWX3 were in very rough seas (5-10m waves) yet still took around 1-2 hours to sink.

The first was a Med Cargo hit with an impact torp running at 2m, just aft of the middle of her starbord side. She started listing to starboard almost immediately, but after about 30 minutes of doing ~4 knots like this in these heavy seas, without going down, I decided to put another torp into her, again on the starboard side, a little further forward than the last hit. After that she rolled over and sank after about 10 minutes.

The second was a Passanger/Cargo, again in very rough seas. I fired a spread of two torps, again impact and surface running because of the weather. One hit her right in the bow, the other missed -- too wide a spread! She ploughed on for almost 2 hours, the crew putting out the deck fire in the lashing rain, only to have it start up again several times. Eventually she came to a dead stop and nose-dived to the bottom -- it was only about 40m deep where we were, so she ended up sticking out of the water with her stern in the air, props spinning, explosions going off in her after compartments! After 10 minutes of that she broke up and sank beneath the waves

So, yeah -- it seems to take a long while in GWX3. Especially given the weather, I was expecting my targets to fall apart like wet cardboard

[twblackeagle]

Guten Abend Frau Kaleun:

It's been over a year since I've taken time to have a look at Sub Sim.
Back when I think I recall your reporting being in a XI D-2, and having amassed over 20,000 renoun. It would be fun to compare career notes with you.

I'm about to embark on our 20th mission in a XXI, and have a question in mind.

Over and out.

Oberleutant Z S Rolfe Hass

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Also if you have "realistic sinking times" checked in your realism options, it will take longer for ships to sink (and for you to get confirmation of same). Sometimes it's not a matter of putting additional eels into them, but of having the patience to wait and see if the hits you already got did in fact do enough damage.

I've gotten impatient a few times and lined up a second or third shot on a ship only to get the "She's going down" message just as I hit the Fire button.

In the torpedo training mission I eventually got into the habit of putting one well-placed eel into each ship (or two at most for bigger ships) and then moving on to the next target. Lots of times the ships I'd already hit once would sink while I was busy lining up to attack the others. If not, I'd at least done enough damage to slow them down or leave them dead in the water and then if necessary I could go back and finish them off at my leisure.

In the convoy mission you can do this as well and then finish them off with the guns if you run out of eels.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by twblackeagle

Guten Abend Frau Kaleun:

It's been over a year since I've taken time to have a look at Sub Sim.
Back when I think I recall your reporting being in a XI D-2, and having amassed over 20,000 renoun. It would be fun to compare career notes with you.

I'm about to embark on our 20th mission in a XXI, and have a question in mind.

Over and out.

Oberleutant Z S Rolfe Hass

Guten abend!

Actually I have yet to play a career in anything but a VIIB. I'm currently at the beginning of my 8th patrol with the 2nd Flotilla out of Wilhelmshaven, as Kptlt Kurt Dennert of U-57, July 1940. We have 200k+ GRT to our credit so far, and I received my Oak Leaves after sinking the HMS Warspite while defending Narvik back in April.

I may upgrade to a VIIC when one becomes available, but I confess I've grown attached to my VIIB. She's been a fine old boat and gotten us out of more than one tight spot over the past couple of months. Right now I'm just hoping we'll survive long enough to see one of those French ports everyone's all in a tizzy about.