Getting a bit tired of not finding any ships on the open seas.

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by Armistead

42's a great year for battles and invasion groups. 43 I hang in the Truk to Home Waters lane. The Singy/Borneo is always a great shipping lane.

Once the resupply ship arrives off Tulagi I don't even leave Guadalcanal until after the Battle of Tassafaronga unless I lose too many crew members.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Admiral Halsey

Once the resupply ship arrives off Tulagi I don't even leave Guadalcanal until after the Battle of Tassafaronga unless I lose too many crew members.

Yea, you can walk on TF in 42 in the Solomons. Have you caught the Battle of Santa Cruz, that ones fun, decent zigs and 19 kts, It spawns just east of Ontong Java.

Sometimes ships so thick in Solomons, I resupply at Tulagi submerged with DD's chasing me......

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by Armistead

Yea, you can walk on TF in 42 in the Solomons. Have you caught the Battle of Santa Cruz, that ones fun, decent zigs and 19 kts, It spawns just east of Ontong Java.

Sometimes ships so thick in Solomons, I resupply at Tulagi submerged with DD's chasing me......

I doubt the resupply ship crew likes that very much. And yes I have caught the battle of Santa Cruz but only to watch it.

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by JoeCorrado

I think that a more accurate guesstimate of shipping traffic for Japan would be to basically mirror that of England during the war. I would expect that the two countries had similar requirements and capabilities; each being island nations dependent upon shipping to fill their wartime needs. Japan may actually have exceeded the shipping capacity of England in the early years of the war.

Although Japan and Britain were both island nations, they went in diametrically opposed directions in regards to their shipping.

In 1939, Britain's merchant fleet was the largest in the world, with 33 per cent of the total tonnage. Japan had the third largest merchant fleet in 1939 numerically (not in tonnage) . It was barely adequate to their needs.

When war broke out, the British merchant fleet was put under the control of the Ministry of Shipping, later part of the Ministry of War Transport. The Ministry decided which ships would go where and what they would carry, making merchant shipping effectively another arm of the state. Control of Japanese shipping was divided among the Army, Navy and the Transportation and Munitions Departments, who often weren’t working off the same sheet of music.

Japan needed 7 million tons of shipping just to manage its pre-war 1939 economy and sustain its Army deployments in China. On 7 December 1941, Japan's access to shipping immediately dropped by 3 million tons when foreign merchant ships ceased to be available. However, Japan was able to make up the deficit somewhat by trimming it's civilian needs and capturing some Allied cargo ships during their initial phase of conquest. However, that only put off looming problems. Britain, on the other hand, saw it's merchant fleet size swell when the cargo ships of nations defeated by Germany gave their services to the Allies. Norway, with the fourth largest merchant fleet in the world at the time was a nice addition in particular.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Admiral Halsey

Do you have the RSRDC_V5xx_Patch1?

Yup I have that patch working. The problem with attacking warships is that the detect me every time from amazing range (I haven't installed the two detection patches yet). If I'm decks awash the closest I can get is 4 miles before they sink me with their first salvo.

If I'm submerged I get 3,000 yards from them below the layer, running silent and the dinner bell goes off. Then I have four DDs above me dropping Valentines Cards on my head. They haven't been difficult to survive, but getting to the surface, getting to an attack position just isn't possible with stock RSRD AI settings. As Lurker has the thing set, attacking warships when escorts are around is not in the menu.

I'm still going to play with it a bit before I load up Armistead and Bubblehead's two AI patches, but I can sure see why they made em! How many depth charges do these friendly guys carry?

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Yup I have that patch working. The problem with attacking warships is that the detect me every time from amazing range (I haven't installed the two detection patches yet). If I'm decks awash the closest I can get is 4 miles before they sink me with their first salvo.

If I'm submerged I get 3,000 yards from them below the layer, running silent and the dinner bell goes off. Then I have four DDs above me dropping Valentines Cards on my head. They haven't been difficult to survive, but getting to the surface, getting to an attack position just isn't possible with stock RSRD AI settings. As Lurker has the thing set, attacking warships when escorts are around is not in the menu.

I'm still going to play with it a bit before I load up Armistead and Bubblehead's two AI patches, but I can sure see why they made em! How many depth charges do these friendly guys carry?

My normal tactic is to try and get ahead of the convoy or TF dive to around 250-350 feet and go to silent running. Then when the lead escort passes over me I do an emergency blow and at a hundred feet hit the the periscope depth button. That normally gives me enough time to figure out what i'm attacking and shoot it before the DD's even notice me.

[Rockin Robbins]

The bad thing is that there isn't a single real attack that went anything like that. After all that means that you'd have to be in a VERY NARROW range of AoB to be able to attack the convoy at all. Odds of even being in a position to make it happen approach zero.

Then the thing of waiting at depth for the lead escort to pass over and then emergency blow to get to periscope depth in attack position just never happened. Ever. It turns simulation into a cheap quarter video game. And blowing all those tanks in real life would make enough noise that EVERYBODY would instantly know where you are.

I'll still give it a go if I get lucky to be well ahead of a convoy when I sight it. Man, I liked TMO 1.9 and previous version of RSRD a lot better. Difficulty is not the same thing as realism. I have Japanese destroyers in October 1942 with abilities end of the war allied destroyers would have died to have. Difficulty is much greater than SH3/GWX. The game has become unescorted merchies only can be attacked. You might plug a DD if you're lucky for a couple hundred tons...

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

The bad thing is that there isn't a single real attack that went anything like that. After all that means that you'd have to be in a VERY NARROW range of AoB to be able to attack the convoy at all. Odds of even being in a position to make it happen approach zero.

Then the thing of waiting at depth for the lead escort to pass over and then emergency blow to get to periscope depth in attack position just never happened. Ever. It turns simulation into a cheap quarter video game. And blowing all those tanks in real life would make enough noise that EVERYBODY would instantly know where you are.

I'll still give it a go if I get lucky to be well ahead of a convoy when I sight it. Man, I liked TMO 1.9 and previous version of RSRD a lot better. Difficulty is not the same thing as realism. I have Japanese destroyers in October 1942 with abilities end of the war allied destroyers would have died to have. Difficulty is much greater than SH3/GWX. The game has become unescorted merchies only can be attacked. You might plug a DD if you're lucky for a couple hundred tons...

All of what you have said above is true but it doesn't really effect me as I go after the juiciest targets only. So if a TF has two Fleet Carriers and two Escort Carriers I only aim for the Fleet Carriers.

[Rockin Robbins]

Yeah, I'm creeping out the the Rabaul area right now to go do my original assignment. DDs aren't worth the topedoes.

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Yeah, I'm creeping out the the Rabaul area right now to go do my original assignment. DDs aren't worth the topedoes.

What year are you currently in? If it's 42 just wait till November and have some fun off of Guadalcanal.

[Rammstein0991]

Raiding harbor's isnt so bad, I have in the course of two war patrols (same career) hit Saipan, Tinian, Yokosuka, Yokohama and accounted for over 100K tons in those two patrols (including BOTH Shokaku carriers) and many merchantmen, doesnt matter HOW you sink those merchant ships as long as you put them on the bottom my friend.