Tips for hunting in bad weather, pre-radar?

[MKalafatas]

Originally Posted by Captain Hammered

My advice would be to end-run. Using the sound data you can establish a general idea of the convoy's heading and range. The initial part of the attack - when you are BVR and listening to their distant screws - you have all the time in the world; you can stop your vessel (for ease of calculating), and record numerous marks at the point at which the sound heading indicators fade out. Enough marks give you sufficient information to give you the convoy's general heading and speed. Using that data, surface and race like hell to a point far ahead of the convoy's path.

This turned out to be excellent advice. Thank you. Bagged three merchants in three attacks during the storm without any visual cues. It is difficult to trust the course/speed estimates without visual confirmation but it must be done.

Accurately guessing the convoy's destination (Toko, Formosa) was hugely beneficial to the calculation of course and speed. In future storms I may just camp within striking distance of an enemy port for this reason.

[Captain Hammered]

Originally Posted by MKalafatas

This turned out to be excellent advice. Thank you. Bagged three merchants in three attacks during the storm without any visual cues. It is difficult to trust the course/speed estimates without visual confirmation but it must be done.

Accurately guessing the convoy's destination (Toko, Formosa) was hugely beneficial to the calculation of course and speed. In future storms I may just camp within striking distance of an enemy port for this reason.

Excellent, Captain SH4 provides sufficient information to work up a crude TMA on the target. The math can be done but I, for one, am terrible at math and can build up a visual plot instead; it may not be as accurate but when your torpedoes slam into the enemy's bow it's definitely as satisfying.

[CptGlub]

I'm experiencing a situation where rough water is actually a bad thing. I've stripped off the escorts from a 9 ship convoy. They travel in a tight 3x3 formation. Have done an end-around set up three times. Because the water is so rough, my sub is exposed as the swell travels over me at peri depth. With 9 ships so close to me, somebody always spots me and they do the headless chicken fire drill.

The rough water makes the deck gun problematic, not to mention the wall of in-coming ordnance from so many merchants.

I'm actually having to shadow the convoy waiting for calmer water that won't expose my position.

[propbeanie]

one video, one line... Gotta wait for the singin'...

[Captain Hammered]

Originally Posted by CptGlub

I'm experiencing a situation where rough water is actually a bad thing. I've stripped off the escorts from a 9 ship convoy. They travel in a tight 3x3 formation. Have done an end-around set up three times. Because the water is so rough, my sub is exposed as the swell travels over me at peri depth. With 9 ships so close to me, somebody always spots me and they do the headless chicken fire drill.

The rough water makes the deck gun problematic, not to mention the wall of in-coming ordnance from so many merchants.

I'm actually having to shadow the convoy waiting for calmer water that won't expose my position.

Smile - I ran into the same thing in hurricane conditions in the (IIRC) South China Sea; ridiculously frustrating. The good thing was that the surface-dwellers were making lousy time so I got ahead of them out of sight, surfaced, recharged then dove and hummed along at 2kts. and 200ft. until the storm blew itself out. Horribly annoying; I REALLY wish I had a Captain's Bed as in SH5 but it got the job done.

Of course, once I WAS in attack position came the second kind of frustration: underrun...underrun...miss...dud...underrun...dud. ..AAAAAAAAUUGH!

chuckle - cheers!

[Lubber]

Originally Posted by CptGlub

I'm experiencing a situation where rough water is actually a bad thing. I've stripped off the escorts from a 9 ship convoy. They travel in a tight 3x3 formation. Have done an end-around set up three times. Because the water is so rough, my sub is exposed as the swell travels over me at peri depth. With 9 ships so close to me, somebody always spots me and they do the headless chicken fire drill.

The rough water makes the deck gun problematic, not to mention the wall of in-coming ordnance from so many merchants.

I'm actually having to shadow the convoy waiting for calmer water that won't expose my position.

To avoid being spotted in heavy seas, you might try staying submerged a little deeper than periscope depth. Watch the sonar, then come back up at the last moment to attack.

If you want to stay submerged (as much as possible), but the waves keep washing over your periscope, spoiling your aim, try manually setting your depth to shallower than periscope depth, or set it to radar depth. You'll be more visible but you'll have a better view.

You can also attack from below periscope depth using only sonar. (You can't go too deep or the torpedo tubes will close - 100 ft? I'm not sure.) Once you have done it once or twice it's not much different from using the periscope. The easy way is to set it up with the scope at longer range where you won't be seen, then just use sonar to pull the trigger. The harder way is to use sonar to set it up. There are one or two video demonstrations here on Subsim (in the Skipper's bag of Tricks, I think), and also on YouTube.

Attacking via sonar can be used to stay hidden, so they can't see you - but it is ALSO very useful when you can't see them, due to fog, weather, fog, darkness, fog, or damaged periscopes. Or fog. (It's really useful in fog.)