destroyer evasion and attack strategies

[gAiNiAc]

First and foremost...........

TMO's destroyers are not all that uber-badass.........I avoid them with regularity, I evade them with regularity as well. It takes a wee bit of active persistence.

Second..AMBUSH. Strike fast, and strike hard. Do not get spotted.

Keep your periscope exposure to a minimum, 3 - 4 seconds....like in RL.

Fire, dive, and maneuver.

You have a flank bell for a very good reason. Use it to get as far away from your firing position as fast you can before the escorts can triangulate your position.

If you do this religiously you won't have to evade that hard.

Evasion: (You just had to go back for seconds!!!)

Things get interesting with 3+ destroyers.

Lets say you hung around and they localized you..........

You want to be deep, because deep = reaction time, it takes ash-cans a long time to get to 450+ feet.

Shallow is bad, frankly if you're brazenly stupid (like me )enough to go after a well escorted convoy in shallow waters you're going to need to just duke it out, or do like I do fire from longer range at night on the surface, those 19 knots come in handy then!

Bad weather is your friend.

Back to evasion.

Be deep.

Always have some torpedoes at least 2.

You want to be moving at 3 knots..........I know that's not "silent running" but when they are pinging you silent running is useless.

You need to figure out who is setting up for a run. When you here them commit (high speed, coming overhead) you want to punch up to a full bell. This action should occur about 2 - 4 seconds prior to the drop.

You see once they've committed they already have a drop point and it's too late. The idea is not to be at the drop point when the ash-cans arrive. Sounds simple........

When the first one pops drop back to a slower speed and change your direction 20 - 30 degrees, this isn't a random decision either. You want to work yourself continuously away from proximity of what's being escorted. They HAVE to go back to the herd.

The part I can't teach you is how to figure out when they really have a fix or they're bluffing you. It has to do with the confidence and frequency of their attacks. If you know they're not onto you then keep a low profile.........

Low profile means keep your cross section small and don't flinch.

With the above tactics worst comes to worse is that you'll be actively avoiding their drops until they recall back to their charge.

Now, every once in a while you'll get an especially nasty and tenacious bunch. That's why you have some spare torpedoes. If they're really making hell for you you want to pop at least one of them. Usually that's the guy whose listening for me. You want to get him from inside 600 yds...preferably broadside. Squeeze a fish at his middle to get him up and running then pop him in the bow. If your lucky you'll nail him with both. This usually screws them up enough to give you an envelope of escape.

You'll learn via experience when you've lost them.