GWX - tactical Help needed!

[danlisa]

Exert from the manual...

.....The next thing to think about is how you approach a convoy. You can’t just lay in wait and let the convoy run over you while hoping you won't be detected. Find the gap, watch the escorts, and watch their sweeps. After a patient bit of observation, you will see how the escorts will sweep and will likely find a gap. When you DO find that gap... go for it!......

Change the way you hunt.

[Pants]

Yup as dan has said...change your tactics, Somethings that worked before wont work now in GWX..be patient, observe and choose your target wisely


And Always have a escape plan ready

[Cap.Palla]

Yes maybe i should change tactic .... only a question : at what range you close to a convoy before fire torpedoes? i just ask because the more appetizing targets are inside the convoy ...

You wrote you were at "all stop" waiting for the convoy.

That might have floated your boat's tower top above the surface, even if just for one or two centimeters. And that is a dead giveaway.

Another thing - you waited at 90deg offset. Try doing that at a heading the same as the convoy so you dont give a hughe ass profile to the destroyers in the convoy. Then as the destroyers in the front of the convoy passes you you knot up to 2kts and maneuvre into attack heading.

[MRV]

Ok, now that I calmed down, I might be able to describe the situation I were in better

1. Its my first patrol and England just got hostile about one day ago, when I encountered a Tribal DD on patrol about 50 miles away from the english shore. I repeat again: its September 1939.

2. The DD spotted me due to bad weather and caught me by surprise, checking depth I knew I had only about 30 Meters under keel. I went to ahead flank and PD, because a crash dive would have rammed me into the seafloor. The DD hit my stern section anyway and fired a few times, causing flooding and a little damage.

3. I went to 25 meters and got my flooding unter control, after this I had gone silent. By this time I've already had trouble with evading DC's. It worked, but wasn't easy and damaged me a little. (OK, fine so far, I love the new damage model, really!)

4. The ASDIC of the DD NEVER looses me, it isn't the noise which causes me trouble, it's my VIIB being around 70 Meters long and 10 Meters high. It didn't seem to have any effect from which side the DD was coming at me. A few times it approached directly from behind, giving him a very low sillhuette to ping on.
He did anyway, and found me, everytime.

5. The DD is out of DC's and still circling around me, pinging and pinging. He never really had to search for me, he just knew where I were and passed over me again and again.

7. I went up to PD, got struck by the DD's keel once, locked on, fired torps until the DD sunk and went back down. There was a second DD at about 1000 meters coming at, and, guess what, pinging me.

8. The second DD was shortly joined by a third one, both emptied their DC racks again and, showing the typical lack of imagination, kept circling and pinging me like the first one. (psychological warfare??)

9. I stopped and grounded my u-boat at the seafloor, waited for about 6 hours, no effect. (IRL I would guess that a DD Crew would assume my sinking if there is something sub-like lying steady on the seafloor with no noises coming from it.)

10. I ran out of battery power and quit. I must say that you really feel at such a moment that the DD's are machines lead by an AI. They don't give you the feeling of a real DD crew like your own crew does (e.g. fatigue)

It would be OK for 1944 or something like that but come on, it's 1939. The U-Boats were just too much for the RN to handle by then.

My Recommendation:

-Alter the introduction of ASDIC in GWX. Of course that thing WAS effective, but until 1942 there were still a couple of DD's out there without that system.

-AI should give up after a period of time, depending on the strengh of contacts and experience (and maybe on the ships you sunk before they spot you *hehe*) but I think this cannot be done my modders anyway.

- maybe someone should alter the loose and detection times in the Sim.Cfg. I'm already fooling around and testing this.

[joea]

Originally Posted by Mast

Sonar in 1939? That doesn't seem right. I thought sonar came out in mid/late 1940.

Mast

Nope it was invented before the war which is why Doenitz promoted night time surface attacks when the u-boats had the advantage. Til the allies installed radar on their ships , and planes.

[Corsair]

There is a simple solution : don't get yourself in shallow waters...

When I sail from W'haven I hug the coast of Norway from Stavanger where it's deep and take the deep channel north of the Shetlands to get in the Atlantic. No bad surprise and always lots of water under...

Originally Posted by Cap.Palla

Well...i don't think you can be silent as a fish even if in silent running. I explain :

i intercepted a large convoy in AL 03 ... i have advantage so i get my U-29 exacly at 90°STB respect the concoy course. Off course the head of convoy is made by a DD and i have to wait he pass me ... well i was at periscope depth ,all stop,silent running and in a calm sea(and periscope down) and i was sure the DD pass me without any problem! But for some reason,the DD start pingin me ...ping...ping...ping....so i turn to give him my short profile and go to 50m .....again...ping ping pign pign pign...deep charge in water sir! Luckily the charges are not so accurate and i can reach the center of the convoy ......
I returned home with a 29K tonnage ... but was not so easy...DDs and Corvette give me a 8 houars hunt....they damaged my compressor and sonar room!

Well...i dont remember why post.....ah yes....i was all stop,silent runing and DD pinged me!!! WHY ?

The reason is a new Uboat behaviour

You can`t stay in all stop, you boat will start to surface with out warning (read the GWX readme). I gues that destroyer spot you because of that reason. I know mate thise is harder that the stock or TGW but not imposible .
Remember you must move your boat almost all the time to mantaine depth, you must plane your atack according to current situation and many more.
I playing at 100% realism for a long time, but affter i read the manual - i deside to myself - i need practise more before i finish my carer in the bottom of the atlantic.
And that what i am telling you also - practise, run accademy missions, i also recomend to install WaW training missions - they are working with GWX and they are very cool .

Good luck

[MRV]

Correction: its the hydrophones.

I just had the same situation with an armed trawler, this time I had been at 100 Meters Depth and still Sept. 1939. (And before you tell me to: I run silent and at low speed).

Wasn't there something in the manual that DC's ruin the sound environment after exploding?

In a type II I would have been screwed.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Mast

Sonar in 1939? That doesn't seem right. I thought sonar came out in mid/late 1940.

Mast

Actually the first active sonar was tested in 1918. By 1924 the British were equipping destroyer training squadrons with the device.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonar