Is there any possible way to sneak up on a convoy? TM 1.6

[Doolan]

Originally Posted by tater

The problem is that in RL, the japs droped loads of DCs, but poorly. In game they seem to only drop within certain "firing solution" parameters so if they drop at all, they tend to be better aimed than they should be.

Tell me about it... I'm probably the unluckiest captain to ever set sail, but I've found three or four DDs that basically snipe me with their DCs.

"No no, a bit to the left, we want to hit the bearded guy, not the one with the glasses"

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by Doolan

"No no, a bit to the left, we want to hit the bearded guy, not the one with the glasses"

:rotfl: Feeling a bit paranoid, are we?:rotfl:



just kidding, BTW

[Snuffy]

Since starting a new career with Vanilla, 1.3, and TM 1.6+ I have not had an opportunity to bump into a convoy, or a task force for that matter. Most of my contacts have been single ... maybe the occasional double ship type.

I'm hoping one day to get a good convoy so I can see if I'm any good or not.

[leovampire]

All I have found so far is invasion forces with little troop carrier's and lots of DD's

But a total of 10 ships down with only minor leaks and deck gun damage.

Northern Luzon to north western Luzon area's. But had to go for a reload in ammo and fuel to do next mission orders.

[Seadogs]

Originally Posted by Snuffy

Since starting a new career with Vanilla, 1.3, and TM 1.6+ I have not had an opportunity to bump into a convoy, or a task force for that matter. Most of my contacts have been single ... maybe the occasional double ship type.

I'm hoping one day to get a good convoy so I can see if I'm any good or not.

Try a carrier in early '42 and head out to the Luzon straight, maybe a tad to the west. I swear I couldn't surface long enough to recharge batteries. I got so paranoid I thought all the BB and CL TF's were stalking me.

As far as sneaking on convoys and TF's I have not found it a problem. However, if I do get detected it is much harder to shake them. Pretty much time to break the engagement at that point. Maybe fire a quick few from the stern on the way out depending on breathing room.

And I would't think of pulling off something like that in shalllow water.

[GerritJ9]

Tried every approach I could think of to get close to convoy undetected (in this case a single mission), even approaching on silent mode without using the scope even once but doing everything using the chart only, depth 150 ft- but on external view three destroyers would dash up when well outside asdic range and head unnerringly to the spot where I was. On the last occasion I tried, the same happened, went up to periscope depth and got one of the destroyers, but the other two were impossible to get rid of.
Have all the IJN escorts been turned into Bungo Pete clones?????????? IJN A/S forces weren't that good........... not even close.

[leovampire]

when the DD's start to get close drop a decoy at Pariscope Depth in the water and keep your speed just under the 1knt mark and head under the thermal layer they have always gone to the decoy first as long as you are under the thermal layer AFTER you drop the decoy for me this works well when they are just too good!

Then after some distance from the DD's go back up to attack depth and only peak with the scope to adjust heading and try not to go fast enough for the DD's to pick you up over the decoy.

I have also used them after torpedo's hit and they come looking around to make it easier to hide once they come in. If they pick it up before picking you up they stick with that decoy for a while!

[Seadogs]

Originally Posted by GerritJ9

Tried every approach I could think of to get close to convoy undetected (in this case a single mission), even approaching on silent mode without using the scope even once but doing everything using the chart only, depth 150 ft- but on external view three destroyers would dash up when well outside asdic range and head unnerringly to the spot where I was. On the last occasion I tried, the same happened, went up to periscope depth and got one of the destroyers, but the other two were impossible to get rid of.
Have all the IJN escorts been turned into Bungo Pete clones?????????? IJN A/S forces weren't that good........... not even close.

Hmm... maybe the single mission has a ramped up crew level? Or is it the convoy training mission?

[GerritJ9]

Tried it with several single missions, including "Manila bound", "NLuzon intercept" and "Solomons encounter"- the result is always the same so the mission itself doesn't influence things, I would think. Oh well, back to the drawing board............

[tater]

It would be interesting to test some things with a mission that you've really tried hard to master, but have had no luck. Take the saipan convoy (whatever it is called). The AI are all set to 3 (veteran) in the TM version I believe (AI=4 would make them all bungo pete). You could do a replace on the text file and change all the crew quality = 3 to =2, then try again. It might be interesting to see how crew quality affects the issue.

TM tends to compress the warship crews into 3s, with a few 2s, and nothing else in the whole game. If the 2 quality is at all capable, it might be better to look at having more of an AI skill mixture as a mod to soften the ASW capability while preserving the ability of SOME units to do better. I have a test mod that creates 2 AI_Visual sensors, one that is what you see in stock 1.3, another that is toned down a bunch for use on merchants, etc. A similar route might be the ultimate solution. You make a bunch of variant sensors so that while most are toned down, here and there you get the ship that is able to spot the scope at 3000 yards.

tater

[FAdmiral]

I have no super mods installed, only some tweaks to how close I see air &
ships traffic. I make my own test patrols so I know exactly if I encounter my
own set-up convoy/TFs or they are spawned from the layers. My observations
to date with Warships all set to Veteran, large Merchants/Tankers set to Competent, Med. merchants set to Novice and small ones set to poor: (1.3)
No pings if I am out of the sonar cone, PD & silent the DDs pass me by at 1200
yds while scope is up. At night, surfaced, clear sky, slight white-cap seas, bow to DD, he will see me at 1500 yds. Under the thermal, going at silent, I have yet to be fully detected. I don't think I can get a better AI than that. Date of Patrol:
Jan. 1943. As soon as I get this patrol fully done, I will put it up for others to
see if they get the same results with what mods they have installed. The patrol
is called "Darwin Adventure" and is a mixture of just about everything....

JIM

[capcup007]

Originaly by Tater

The problem is that in RL, the japs droped loads of DCs, but poorly. In game they seem to only drop within certain "firing solution" parameters so if they drop at all, they tend to be better aimed than they should be.

I don’t mind being detected so much. That’s what they are supposed to do. The only thing I would like te get rid of is the almost pinpoint accuracy. While using TM1.6 I edited the [Sonar] section within the sim.cfg one more time:

Detection time=20
Loose time=10

Sometimes the AI was way of, dropping DC at the wrong spot, at other times being real close with DC landing on the deck. It also happened it made a pass without dropping at all.
I used a simple testmission for this with a sub facing a single level-3 DD and have absolutely no idea how this will work out on a “real” mission.
In the past things didn’t allways work out as at first expected, so I don’t know if I will keep these settings, but it is worth the try. A weaker but unpredictable enemy can be just as dangerous than a strong but predictable one.