100 Tips for Sinking Ships

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Damo

I was so tempted to put 'Be more aggressive!!' but I'll leave that to Jimbuna if he cares to step up...

A pleasure to come across an English gentleman.

Originally Posted by Commander Gizmo

Let me be the first to say it: "BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!"

Hardly....if you'd care to look above

Always check your stern area with the scope prior to firing.....the wing escorts have an uncanny habit of sweeping outwards then returning to the convoy rapidly.

My secondary often used pearl of wisdom (before anyone takes the liberty as was the case with my first) must be....

SINK EM ALL!!

[Tom]

23 (I think). If you attack two or more ships at the same time, try to make the torpedoes hit simultaneously (shoot at the furthest target first). If ships are traveling side by side (as in a convoy) shoot from a 90 deg AOB position as the ships pass the 0 deg mark on your TDC. The torpedoes will hit simultaneously.

24. When attacking from inside a convoy, there are ships behind you too. Just remember to turn the AOB dial from 90 port to 90 starboard or vice versa before firing your rear tube(s).

25. Always mark the position of your attack on the nav map, especially in bad weather. This makes finding the ships so much more easier if your first attack only cripples them and you have to spend the next 5 hours avoiding escorts.

26. The escorts mentioned in the previous tip will most likely return as soon as you open fire on the aforementioned crippled ship(s). So be patient and wait until they are at a safe distance.

27. When hunting a ship using hydrophone, run on the surface for 30 minutes or so and then quickly dive to listen for the heading again. This way you will be faster and will save batteries (and can catch ships you couldn't catch submerged). Try to set your speed and heading so that the target bearing stays constant, this way you will eventually be close enough to see them.

28. Make a habit of writing down times of contacts. This way you can often calculate the speed of a ship by measuring the distance it has traveled while you have tracked it. Especially useful when hunting hydrophone contacts in < 1 km visibility conditions (no time to measure speed when you finally get visual contact).

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Tom

25. Always mark the position of your attack on the nav map, especially in bad weather. This makes finding the ships so much more easier if your first attack only cripples them and you have to spend the next 5 hours avoiding escorts.

An excellent suggestion! One that I will start following for the very reasons you mentioned

28. Make a habit of writing down times of contacts. This way you can often calculate the speed of a ship by measuring the distance it has traveled while you have tracked it. Especially useful when hunting hydrophone contacts in < 1 km visibility conditions (no time to measure speed when you finally get visual contact).

I wish the program did this automatically. When I use the "mark" function, not only should it put down an "x" and a mark number, it should also automatically record the time. Still have a hard time believing this was not incorporated in the game. It also would be nice if we could change the label from "mark 1" to something we choose.

But I would settle for just having the time recorded with every mark. I can not believe in real life any navigator would make any "mark" without recording the time.

[Tonnage_Ace]

Originally Posted by Platapus

The actual number is 1.94 but it is close enough. You can even use 2.0 if you like, at combat ranges <1000 meters, it is will be good enough. If we can use 2.0 for the full length of the ship, we can use 1.0 for half the length of the ship.

I've been using 1.852 for years! But I have seen the 1.94 method before somewhere, thanks for the heads up, I'll try this out...

[Ancient Mariner]

28. Dont get too greedy or cocky for that matter. In the heat of the chase you might get the idea of taking out as much as you can in one foul swoop,I do this but also don't aniticipate lasting the whole war either!! Pick your target(s),collect info,fire eels & get out!! Plenty more ships for a live Kaleun than a dead one.

29.Dont slug it out with a Destroyer on the surface...self explanitory

[Dissaray]

If a distroyer finds you and sets to attack, dive deep and run silent. Chouse a general direction you wish to escape in and travle that way, dodging depth charges as needed. When depth charges are exploding go to flank speed and drop back to ahead 1/3 when the explosions stop.

Make sure you open your tubes when you are lined up for a shot. Opening them early ensures that the torpido is fired at the exact moment you want it to.

Aim for the engine room or magazine of targets. The engen is generaly under the smoke stack, the middle one on ships with more than one. Magazines are generaly located under the guns. Distroying the engines will stop the target dead, in addition to causing flooding, and can be left there and picked up later if it hasn't sunk alowing you to futher target other ships in a convoy; it also has the addid benifit of slowing down all the ships behind the target in a convoy making them excelent targets as they make their way around the cripled ship. Poping the magazines can cause the whole ship to explode making it easyer, and more ammo effective, to take down larger war ships.

Don't forget your aft tubes if you boat has them. They come in handy if you find your self inside a convoy or if a ship sneeks up behind you. Finaly torpidos can be fired from a depth as great as 20m.

[Jimbuna]

30. never hang about at PD to admire your handywork, dive immediately after the launch.

[Radio]

31. Do not waste deckgun ammo on sampans and other small boats, use the large calibre AA guns instead (shoot manually). You will need the precious deck gun ammo for biger targets.

32. Carriers are (at least in my experience) easier to sink than Battleships. If you have only a few torpedoes left this might be relevant.

33. Cuties are very limited, yet they can save your sub in certain cases. Do not take more than 1 or 2 with you.

34. When using an homing torpedo, switch the engines off and dive directly after you launch one.

35. Most Merchants, Destroyers, Carriers can be sunk with contact triggered torpedoes that run close to the water surface. Most of the time you will need influence triggers (and the according depths) only for armoured warships like Cruisers and Battleships.

Yes, the influence trigger is the more effective way of delivering damage, but when you have to act quickly go for a contact trigger shot.

37. NEVER fire a homing torpedo right after launching any other torpedo, because the noise of the first torpedo will make the homing torpedo follow it. And even if you launch a homing torpedo first instead: make sure you do not fire in it's general direction before its time is up as you might distract the little gremlin in the searching torpedo

38. If you are using an hydrophone or sonar only attack (or any non-visual-targeting method), make sure you still visually ID your target BEFORE shooting. The chances to hit a friendly ship are usually small as you are in enemy territory most of the time, but better be safe than sorry.

39. If you know how to do a vector-targeting attack: It is possible to use the passive hydrophone as an aiming indicator instead of the periscope. Any enemy target will make noise in both directions on your hydrophone and in SH3 and SH4 that field is roughly identically big for both directions. e.g. If you can locate the target between 14° to 34° then the target is at 24°.
An example: If your aiming bearing would be e.g. 21° and half of the total area the noise field covers is 10° then you simply would point your hydrophoone at 11° and wait for the lamp/indicator to go on. Make sure you open your tubes way before the launch (see Dissaray's post)

[Platapus]

It is better to sink one ship than to not sink three ships.

Go for the kill and make sure you get the kill.

When making a night surface atttack don't be cheap with the torpedoes.
If he is armed, and he doesn't go down, you could have a bigger problem than him.
"It's better to destroy a-little, than damage a-lot". (The Handbook).

[Lt.Fillipidis]

Originally Posted by Radio

31. Do not waste deckgun ammo on sampans and other small boats, use the large calibre AA guns instead (shoot manually). You will need the precious deck gun ammo for biger targets.

31a. Be at least 600m when attempting something like this. Ships attacked with high caliber flak rounds, tend to explode violently. I once got a chain reaction and the exploding ship blew away the other that overrun it.
No credit for the other though.

[Tom]

32. When no escorts are around (lone merchant, most of the time), be patient and save ammo. Many ships take 30+ minutes to sink and more often than not your first torpedo will slow down the ship enough that you can easily follow it even submerged (if it is armed). My suggestion for lone merchants: two initial torpedoes for large ships (> 8-10 k tons), one for smaller ships. Wait 30 minutes and shoot one more if needed. Repeat until ship sinks. When conditions allow it (target unarmed, good weather), use the deck gun instead, after the initial torpedo(es): fire 5-10 rounds, wait 10-20 minutes, repeat until target sinks.

[java`s revenge]

I have another tip.

When a destroyer is heading to you, try to have your bearing at 0 or 180 to the destroyer.
Take care that you use a magnetic torpedoe. So 1 metre under the keel.
Set it to fast. Wait till the destroyer is about 450m from you and shoot.
I have destroyed many destroyers on such a manner.

Further all the tips from above.

[Bosje]

-be aware that after torpedo impact, anything will look for you. night surface attacks are great but you might want to dive after firing, just to avoid getting blasted by merchant's deck guns when they go to 'code red'

-a fast running torpedo needs to be aimed ahead of the target by roughly the target's speed (kts) in degrees. equally, a slow running torpedo gets twice the speed in degrees. this only works at short ranges but it's a great way to shoot at anything when you can't get a proper solution. (a scattering convoy, pesky destroyers, etc)
for clarity: if the target does 5 knots, aim 5 degrees ahead for fast, 10 degrees ahead for slow torpedoes. works at ranges less than 1500 meters

That rings so true, Bosje.
Thanks for a great tip.