Is there a trick for using the FLAK guns?

[Tessa]

My bad, now would like to know where I read that they had only shot down 1 plane (thought I might have gotten it mixed up with the u-flaks but they shot down at least 2 though), all this time had always thought that AA fire was a 100% futile effort, not just insanely dangerous (as if that wasn't enough).

[danzig70]

There is the Fight Back order of 1943. 26 boats lost vs 28 aircraft shot down. http://uboat.net/history/fight_back_order.htm

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Tessa

I think you mean that twice as many u-boats were sunk by aircraft than by surface ships?

No, I meant exactly what I wrote. U-boat.net says that U-boats shot down 118 aircraft, and airplanes sank 249 u-boats. That's better than 2-to-1, or twice as many u-boats lost to aircraft as aircraft lost to u-boats.

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

No, I meant exactly what I wrote. U-boat.net says that U-boats shot down 118 aircraft, and airplanes sank 249 u-boats. That's better than 2-to-1, or twice as many u-boats lost to aircraft as aircraft lost to u-boats.

After desirableroasted pointed my error out I see that your ratio was right on the nose, sorry about mis-correcting you there. Still bothers me that I got such a huge piece of history wrong, no idea where I heard or read it but what always stuck was that the u-boats only shot 1 plane down. First time even playing stock SH3 I realized what bad news they were, and never really tried to go after em. Recently now with a whole different attitude towards playing (am tired and exhausted of playing 'historically' anymore, its a game, just have fun and enjoy it) so take a lot of risks I never would've in the past (hence putting my guy at the flak gun again and again while taking down an obscene number of swordfish. After he shot down 5 I was floored, when he kept on going and was taking down 3 in the air before they could even drop their bombs I knew this guy was on a roll (my AA skills are horrible, leave that ALL up to the AI) and didn't want to stop him till we needed the medic ). He survived all the way till the ammo went dry. Personally placed the RK around his neck and entered his name into the honor roll (too bad won't get the actual award till 1944) and a special double promotion

[Sailor Steve]

Yeah. I remember one guy back when SH3 was new reporting being attacked by a swarm of Sunderlands. He said he shot down something like 52 before they finally got him.

For me historically is the only way to play, game or no. I have as much fun cruising out of the cool new harbors as I do actually sinking things.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Tessa

After desirableroasted pointed my error out I see that your ratio was right on the nose, sorry about mis-correcting you there. Still bothers me that I got such a huge piece of history wrong, no idea where I heard or read it but what always stuck was that the u-boats only shot 1 plane down. First time even playing stock SH3 I realized what bad news they were, and never really tried to go after em. Recently now with a whole different attitude towards playing (am tired and exhausted of playing 'historically' anymore, its a game, just have fun and enjoy it) so take a lot of risks I never would've in the past (hence putting my guy at the flak gun again and again while taking down an obscene number of swordfish. After he shot down 5 I was floored, when he kept on going and was taking down 3 in the air before they could even drop their bombs I knew this guy was on a roll (my AA skills are horrible, leave that ALL up to the AI) and didn't want to stop him till we needed the medic ). He survived all the way till the ammo went dry. Personally placed the RK around his neck and entered his name into the honor roll (too bad won't get the actual award till 1944) and a special double promotion

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!

[ediko]

Just a question from me. What if the weather is perfectly calm, no waves etc and the uboat is going deck's awash. Wouldn't it make it more stable as a shooting platform than if it would be fully surfaced? In real life I mean, I doubt it's possible in SH3.

[Jimbuna]

It MAY make it a little bit more stable but not enough to make a huge difference.

What it definitely would do though is slow the boat down and make it easier to hit.

[ediko]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

It MAY make it a little bit more stable but not enough to make a huge difference.

What it definitely would do though is slow the boat down and make it easier to hit.

Oh well. ALAAARM then!

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by ediko

Oh well. ALAAARM then!

Always the best policy

[K-61]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Yeah. I remember one guy back when SH3 was new reporting being attacked by a swarm of Sunderlands. He said he shot down something like 52 before they finally got him.

For me historically is the only way to play, game or no. I have as much fun cruising out of the cool new harbors as I do actually sinking things.

Amen, brother!

Something that really irked me about the stock game was the ridiculous aerial routines. For the first nearly four years of the war, Coastal Command suffered from a paucity of ASW capable aircraft, as Arthur "Bomber" Harris hoarded every large plane for his blindly zealous prosecution of the bombing campaign against Germany, hoping to prove that strategic bombing could win the war cheaply. Although he was a Brit, he was akin to Goering in his single mindedness that "Everything which flies belongs to me [Goering]." Similarly, Harris refused to release a relatively small number of four engined bombers, or even twin engined bombers which would have proved instrumental in protecting shipping from the U-boats. It wasn't even because the ASW weapons were not that efficient; even the presence of a plane would force a U-boat to dive and render it incapable of offensive action. Harris simply refused to allocate a suitable number of such planes for Coastal Command. If anyone should have been cashiered, it should have been him, not Stuffy Dowding of Fighter Command.

To see whole squadrons of Hurricanes [d'uh, a fighter plane] or Sunderlands attack a single contact was so FUBAR. The relative scarcity of such patrol planes meant they had to be spread out in order to maximize the size of ocean they could colletively patrol. There was no way they could bring such a large number of planes together so quickly as we see them in the game. GWX has done a good job of restoring the depiction of aerial patrols to more reasonable levels.

Historical is the only way to play for me. If I want an arcade game I'll get an Xbox.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by K-61

If I want an arcade game I'll get an Xbox.

But...but...on my last patrol I sank twelve million trillion gazillion tons! Aren't you happy for me? Don't you want to join my new "Gazillion tons plus a thousand billion planes shot down" club?

[edit] I thought it was funny that when I played Sid Meiers Pirates! I turned the entire Spanish Main into the English Main.

On level Three.

On level Four I couldn't survive a week without my crew mutinying and marooning me on the proverbial desert island.

[K-61]

Ha! I had that game but never played. In fact, I still have it. It came as part of a collection, "Best of Microprose" including Clash of Steel. In spite of the graphics of the time, those were the days! The gaming industry was able to introduce fresh ideas. Nowadays there is so much dreck on the market and serious simmers like us are crying out for a serious, realistic sim.

[Gerald]

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by K-61

Ha! I had that game but never played. In fact, I still have it. It came as part of a collection, "Best of Microprose" including Clash of Steel. In spite of the graphics of the time, those were the days! The gaming industry was able to introduce fresh ideas. Nowadays there is so much dreck on the market and serious simmers like us are crying out for a serious, realistic sim.

I had the old version, at the same time I had is Silent Service. But in this case i meant the new version. I don't play many games that aren't sims, but I liked the original so much I had to have the new one as well.