That was a close one

[andy_311]

Originally Posted by DerKaleun

It´s March ´44 and I´m still alive

I´ve got a VII/42 now with the Über-Flak Tower, two 20m Vierlings in the aft and one 3,7cm Zwilling on the bow.

I was jumped by 4 swordfish bombers when my boys where reloading Torps from the external stores inside the boat (I reload only at calm sea and, when I do this, I do not dive for 3 minutes when I am suprised by enemy).

I manned my turrets, and they gave the brits plenty of munitions to eat. Downed all four of them

After Loading the torps inside I went to snorkel depth and continued my patrol

Been there 45 is even worse I ran out of AP shells blasting away at aircraft.
And all for what? 9/5/45 Germany Surrenders I end up right bang in a centre of a convoy DDs open'ed up on me snank the bloody lot of them just to get my engines taken out by Sunderland's couldn't fire at the ran out of ammo.

[Keelbuster]

Originally Posted by DeepSix

Oh, absolutely. Well, in theory at least - sometimes my "last minute" is a little too "last minute...."

Good points; they don't always stick to passive sonar, and I've been detected in the middle before - usually when the convoy spreads out and the merchants either come to a stop or slow down so the DDs will pick you up. Once they find me I definitely try to go deep.

I didn't mean to suggest that hiding under the convoy was perfect, only that it's generally the first trick I try. I don't know what "formula" was used to make use of surface noise, prop noise, etc., but it seems to be realistically modeled to me. Also, I forgot to mention that, instead of staying shallow, I do usually go down to 50m (or try to) when getting under the convoy. That's about as deep as I can get, at a quiet speed, between the time I fire and the time the first torpedos strike. But of course that depends on how far away you like to shoot from. And then there's the thermal layer you sometimes benefit from.

That's one of the things I love about the game - there's no one foolproof way to do it.

Cool. Q - I read that thermal layers weren't modeled, and that there is a mod project aimed at pulling it off. There is a distance/sound scale such that at depth your noise is less detectable by passive.

Anyhow, interesting - always cool to hear other people's convoy thrashing strategies. Do you run _with_ the convoy at 3 or 4 kts, or against the convoy?

I've been playing Dangerous Waters, and since then I've been trying to 'clear the datum' as fast as possible following attack. This involves finding the nearest gap in escort coverage, and heading that direction (usually 120 to approaching escort). Right after 'Torpedo Treffre!' I go to ahead standard and turn my bearing appropriately. Then I decide what's going to happen. If the escorts are far away, or extremely sluggish, and I have an extremely efficient crew, I might contemplate waiting to load another torpedo and getting it off into any injured merchants. But, more likely, I will use that initial confusion and (what I imagine to be) the sound cover of sinking burning hulks to get depth and clear datum - get distance from the convoy. I usually go 120 to the convoy direction (which is often also on an oblique angle to the escort's approach) at ahead standard or (if escorts are >4km away) ahead full. When I estimate that an escort is within 2km or closer, I cut to ahead slow, and then, at some arbitrary point, go silent and plod out. When I get pinged, I go to hydrophone and wait for the attack run, change course by 30 degrees and flank for the count of 10 or so then go silent. Works almost all the time (in 1941/2).

[DeepSix]

Wow, that's a strategy. I confess I haven't tried (methodically) many different tricks, and haven't played DW, but that's one trick I will definitely try. I don't play at an extremely high level of 'realism' (somewhere between 50% and 70%) due to the amount of time I have for gaming, but I try to play it straight, regardless.

As for running with or against, it sort of depends, but usually I try to run with the convoy, to maximize the time I'm under it. I don't feel comfortable once I'm out from under the umbrella unless the escorts are off on the goose chase somewhere else, and when I do get caught out I tend to do very very short spurts of 1 or 2 knots, just enough to be able to turn and just enough to sidestep the DC. I run with the convoy for a while, then try to sit tight until the warship sonar contacts fade, and only then do I fire up the engines and head away.

Usually I can run with it because when not engaged I don't run the battery or oxygen way down. When submerged I often maintain just 1 knot for the sake of keeping the boat trimmed. That way, I can stay down all day and don't have to be surfaced long at night to recharge and breathe. In places where there's a lot of warship activity, sometimes I don't even run engines to surface or dive if I can get away with taking the extra time to use the compressed air.

The other thing about running with the convoy is that sometimes I get a second chance, even if I blow the approach. Last patrol, I encountered a convoy leaving Gibraltar. It was just at daybreak, so there was enough light for me to see - and be seen - and the Tribal DD at the head of the convoy caught me in the search lights. Flank ahead, down to 150, into the convoy. I turned with it, cut back to standard, and rode along for a while. Finally came up in time to get off 4 torpedos at a passenger liner, two of which hit and disabled her. Motored on over and sat underneath her (for a stationary ship she sure made a lot of noise) at 50m until the convoy moved off, then crept out and came up for the coup de grace.

Anyway, disengaging after convoy attack is something I'm weak on, so another reason to try your tactic. It'll also improve my realism. 120 is probably the approximate angle I creep away at, but more by luck than design. More than once I've been able to break off just because I threw up my hands and went to All Stop, put everybody on damage control, and just rode out the DC (only if I'm down at 100m or more). Early war, at least, that seems ok (if not particularly true to life).

I was under the impression that thermal layers were included; seems like I read that - or saw it in one of the videos - way back when the game first came out. There have been several occasions when I was down deep and escorts had me dead to rights, pinging like mad, and then the pings faded and they just lost me, even though by my reckoning and the map bearing, I was smack in the middle of the cone of detection and only a couple hundred meters or so ahead (*not* astern). So I don't know - I was chalking it up to thermal layers but maybe I just lucked out.

Anyway - enough of my blathering!