Is SH3 for me?

[Flaxpants]

I take your point Steve, having a fruitless patrol actually makes this game feel more realistic to me. Having said that, if they were all fruitless patrols then I might get a tad frustrated!
I finally had my date with destiny last night when, after deciding to take a small 'detour' via the East coast of England in search of some serious bounty, I came across a big convoy travelling North, around 15-20 ships I would guess, and clearly several destroyers & gunships providing escort. I got myself into a decent position, at right angles to the convoy, and approximatley 4ks off to starboard (didn't fancy getting much closer), I had been very careful not to be spotted and everything was looking great. I knew this was going to be a potentially dangerous situation, maybe too dangerous as the max depth around where I was was only 60m or so, so no deep dive escape, plus there were some flanking escorts knocking around as well. Then the immortal words of Jimbuna came repeating into my head- "Be more aggressive!", "Sink 'em all!","Be more aggressive!", "Sink 'em all!", over & over. So I set up the TDC and a 4 tube salvo with a nice spread. Then I hit the fire button, and immediately dived to 40 m or so and plotted an escape route. 2 out of 4 of the torps met their mark on two seperate ships, the first didn't go down, but the second ship in the far column imploded and went down in spectacular fashion. So now I'm excited, my first kill, and a convoy in disarray. Oh how I laughed... that was until I saw 4 naval vessels converging on me at great speed. Now I was in a situation where I had no experience. I immediately recalled the scene in Das Boot where they are pursued by more than one enemy ship, and how they kept changing bearing, depth, speed, and whatever else might confuse the monsters lurking above on the surface. I did the same. Not only had three ships broken off from the convoy and come my way, but a fourth flanking vessel, which I had previously failed to notice was approaching from the direction I was attempting to escape, so now I was effectively encircled. I tried everything, and before long they were pinging me and commencing their depth charge runs. I manged to evade the bombs for a good 30 minutes or so, but eventually they closed me right down and I had nowhere to go. Two charges exploded right alongside the boat, killing several men in the sterm quarters and engine room and causing some serious flooding. The repair team got to work, but it was too late, the breach was so severe that they were overcome and the boat went down with all lives lost. R.I.P Captain Heinz Kawohl and his loyal crew.
So now what I need is some serious tips on how to survive depth charge attacks. I'm not sure if I should be trying to run at full speed, or if I should just sit there with everything shut down, probably a combination of the two. What is the general strategy when you start getting 'pinged'?- my current strategy is to wet myself and be indecisive, which doesn't work so well. I felt last night though that there was absolutely no hiding place, maybe I just got myself into a dreadful position from the outset and that was my problem, or maybe I should've never taken them on in the first place.
Hey Ho, this is sure a great game! Live or die- I love it!

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Flaxpants

The repair team got to work, but it was too late, the breach was so severe that they were overcome and the boat went down with all lives lost. R.I.P Captain Heinz Kawohl and his loyal crew.

RIP, Kaleun.

Convoys sure are exciting, aren't they?

So now what I need is some serious tips on how to survive depth charge attacks.

My usual approach is very simple, I don't do anything that might result in a depth charge attack in less than 150m of water. This may turn out to be difficult in the near future since my current patrol grid is gonna put me too close to the coast for that, but maybe I'll get lucky and not have any contacts there.

I'm not sure if I should be trying to run at full speed, or if I should just sit there with everything shut down, probably a combination of the two. What is the general strategy when you start getting 'pinged'?

Keep in mind that just because you can hear them pinging, doesn't mean they've actually located you, so don't panic just because they've broken out the ASDIC. Order silent running if you haven't already and stay that way unless you are damaged and must put men to work on repairs. Unless I believe they've got a lock on my position, I steer a course that will take me away from the scene of the action ASAP and stay on it.

Go as deep as you can, but it's not a bad idea to leave yourself 10-20m of water under your keel to drop into if you get located and they start dropping charges. Charges are set to detonate at a particular depth, and if they've got your location AND your depth figured out you'll want to change your depth to get clear of the detonation range. Particularly in water where you don't have much depth to play with and can't just go deep enough to avoid everything.

When there are depth charges in the water, the explosions will render ASDIC temporarily useless, so that's the best time to (temporarily) bump up your speed or make a course/depth change if necessary. They won't be able to track you until the kerfluffle from all the explosions is over, when it is, you need to be back down to slow ahead.

my current strategy is to wet myself and be indecisive, which doesn't work so well.

Yes but just think of the mess you'll leave for the Tommies if they capture your boat!

[Flaxpants]

Cheers Frau Kaleun, yes Convoys are exciting- a little too exciting at the moment! I may well take your advice about the 150m rule that you apply to attacks with potential depth charges, sounds like a safe bet, at least till I have more experience. The trouble is it's so tempting to 'have a go' after you've been searching for a target for a week or so, I shall have to show some more restraint!