What are you up to in your current camapign (lets get a sticky going)

[KaleunMarco]

The valiant crew of the USS Balao (SS-285) at battle stations...somewhere in the western Pacific.



also, here is a valuable piece of intel for you Pacific Kaleuns.
this sinking Japanese Merchie has deployed a new secret weapon: an air-cushioned deck gun. it is not clear if this new weapon is any more lethal than its predecessors but be on the look out.



good luck. and good hunting.

Generic Mod Enabler - v2.6.0.157
[C:\Ubisoft\TMO_2_5\MODS]

100 TriggerMaru_Overhaul_2-5
101 1.5_Optical Targeting Correction 031312 for TMO 2.5
102 1.5_OTC for 16 to 9 Aspect Ratio_TMO
104 EZ Plot V2.0
300 RSRDC_RFB_V575
301 RSRDC_V5xx_Patch1
400 Webster's Eliminate Floating Plankton

[propbeanie]

Open the ship's dat file, and see if there isn't an "F" and a "B" designation for the ship, with the gun attached to the other end of the ship, such that when you "break its back", the bow might be sinking a bit faster than the stern initially, and with the gun attached to the stern, it separates from the bow "mount" and floats. You'll see that with the "crew" of some ships, or the spotlights, etc...

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Open the ship's dat file, and see if there isn't an "F" and a "B" designation for the ship, with the gun attached to the other end of the ship, such that when you "break its back", the bow might be sinking a bit faster than the stern initially, and with the gun attached to the stern, it separates from the bow "mount" and floats. You'll see that with the "crew" of some ships, or the spotlights, etc...

way to go, PB. eff me up with a question like that.....

so i take your question and refer to the Career Track.UPC to find the ship, using the date-time-stamp from the sinking notification from my valiant crew, only to discover that the CareerTrack doesn't have ship sinking on that day.

so i have to JANAC myself with a "no credit". does that sound immoral or something.

seriously now, i have no frickin clue why there is no ship-sunk in the CareerTrack. the only reason for this to happen is if i forgot that i sank this ship between my last save and my exit during the mission.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Open the ship's dat file, and see if there isn't an "F" and a "B" designation for the ship, with the gun attached to the other end of the ship, such that when you "break its back", the bow might be sinking a bit faster than the stern initially, and with the gun attached to the stern, it separates from the bow "mount" and floats. You'll see that with the "crew" of some ships, or the spotlights, etc...

i found it, i think.
she was the KMSSRyuun aka JP Medium Raked Bow Split Merchant Unittype=102.

[propbeanie]

That's the one... the Ryuun is a small clone of the WarMelody, which in and of itself, is a clone of an old KSSSBritish... not confusing at all... At first blush though, all looks fine, with the M01 associated with the fore as it should be:




But when you zoom-in, you notice this:




The node is "hanging" a couple of feet in the air... So the "Y" coordinate needs to be lowered to be brought down to be on the hold cover (not very "realistic"), or a platform of some sort put underneath it (again, not very "realistic", when we are talking about guns being on "hold covers"...). Better still would be to "mount" a platform, fore and aft, and put the two guns on those...

Needless to say KaleunMarco, that is a STOCK (!!!) ship, and you sir, have discovered ~another~ Stock "issue"...

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Needless to say KaleunMarco, that is a STOCK (!!!) ship, and you sir, have discovered ~another~ Stock "issue"...

does that mean i rate a new badge or a stint in the brig?

[Orffen]

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

Generic Mod Enabler - v2.6.0.157
[C:\Ubisoft\TMO_2_5\MODS]

100 TriggerMaru_Overhaul_2-5
101 1.5_Optical Targeting Correction 031312 for TMO 2.5
102 1.5_OTC for 16 to 9 Aspect Ratio_TMO
104 EZ Plot V2.0
300 RSRDC_RFB_V575
301 RSRDC_V5xx_Patch1
400 Webster's Eliminate Floating Plankton

You are using RDRDC for RFB with TMO?

[Bubblehead1980]

TMO w custom mods.

USS Drum SS 228


Departed Pearl Harbor January 3rd 1944. Refueled Midway, assigned t to patrol off Wake Island and for lifeguard for airstrikes on 30 January- 9 February.

Sunk submarine approaching channel on 4 February (ULTRA alerted to arrival).

Released from lfieguard went to patrol NW of Truk. Night surface attack two ship four escort convoy 0030 17 February near Ulul Island. Sunk SEIA MARU and HAKUSIKA MARU. Dodged gunfire from escorts.

After attack raced to lifeguard station North of Truk for Operation Hailstone. Observed morning air strikes from outside reef.

SJ radar made contact with ships fleeing north channel closed to find a Katori Class CL , unknown DD, and a Aux SC fleeing north. Around 1240 SJ contact detected multiple contacts to north. In distance could see the masts of battleships. Task Group 50.9 (BB Iowa, BB New Jersey, two CA, four DD) Through periscope viewed US TG open fire on the CL, DD and SC. Observed direct hits from from Iowa main battery on CL. All three vessels quickly sunk.

Through day rescued 9 downed aircrew. Damaged large flying boat (EMILY) with 40 MM and 20 MM AA guns as it caught us on surface during rescue.

2000 released from lifeguard. Assigned to patrol off Saipan. Departed area.

19 February en route Saipan.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by Orffen

You are using RDRDC for RFB with TMO?

i guess i am.
i never noticed that before. {dumb ass}

haven't had any CTD's (knock on wood).

when i finish this career, i'll have to go back look for RSRD for TMO and re-enable the mods.

i guess RSRD for RFB can be played with TMO without destructive effects.

[Bubblehead1980]

TMO with custom mods

April 23 1944 Luzon Straits-Convoy College area.

USS Drum

Received ULTRA about large convoy transiting area 24/25 April (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Ichi_convoy)* while patrolling area was damaged by an aircraft when SD radar failed to pickup contact until less than 5 NM away. Damage repaired. Continued patrolling.

Ran into another convoy (not the one mention ed in ultra) but decided to attack as could spare enough torpedoes for one attack. Sent contact message, ordered to attack.

Seas were choppy so approach was relatively easy on the six ship 3 escort convoy. Sunk HAKUSIKA MARU 8191 tons with three Mark 14's from 1400 yards. Dove to 375 feet. Escorts pinged but never exactly located DRUM, dropped many charges 3000+ yards off.

Four hours later still under water. They are hunting but no close by.

* In real life, USS Jack attacked this important convoy on 25 May 1944. The convoy was carrying thousands of troops to reinforce New Guinea. Jack was unable to penetrate the screen so fired at night from 7000+ yards and scored multiple hits. James Calvert was operating TDC and describes it great detail in his book SILENT RUNNING.

Convoy stopped Manila, departing 1 May and again operating on an ULTRA, USS Gurnard attacked NW of Halmahera on 6 May with great success. I added the convoys to TMO, they are historical time and locations. Also received ULTRA messages about the convoys. Happened to be assigned to this patrol area , always fun to see how it plays out.

[Cajun Kaleun]

Decided to give this a go after doing in SH3 in mid-43. Just playing vanilla at the moment to get the ropes as the aiming is really confusing to me and I'm not sure why.

Decided to start in 41 with the Asiatic Fleet in an S-18 boat. Basically putters around in the South China Sea for a bit until the radio traffic came in about the invasion of Borneo. We decided it was time to get into the war and steamed west along the the northern coast of Bormeo. We got bounced by a pair of Akatsuki destroyers we dived and fired off 2 fish. Hit one of the destroyers aft and that seemed to take the right out of them we slunk eastwards surfaced and recharged the batteries and tried going east again.

We reached the western end of Borneo without seeing much of anything so we started heading a little north when radio traffic came in that a massive task force was headed south just due east of us. It was the main invasion force so we followed their track south and got into firing position. First time really trying the Dick o'Kane method in the wild. Honestly it was a mild disaster fired 4 fish and my solution was way off but I did sink a Japanese destroyer who panicked and ran right into one amodships killing her. Dived deep and headed east once the remaining destroyers left surfaced the boat and reloaded the tube to go south and try again. Honestly this is where my U-Boat time bite me in the ass I came behind the task force again but the angle was really oblique and it was a disaster. Headed back to Manila to rearm.

By the time we got back to Borneo she had already fallen. Decided to head to the the Sulu Sea but it was fairly empty so headed off the coast of Indochina to ambush merchants heading into the Java Sea. Found a decent sized merchant and deck gunned him. Then found some Sampans and did the same. Was transiting south when we got radio traffic of a decent sized task force headed north so we sprinted into a firing position.

This made the whole war patrol here. The twin Fuso battleships were transiting north. I decided to give the Dick o'Kane method a last good college try. Setup the spot on the nearest battleship and launched all 4 fish. Every. Single. Damn. One. Hit! It was beautiful it was so spaced out the bottom of the hull was Swiss cheese. Right are I launched I dived deep and headed right across the convoy it priced unnecessary but it made for a clean escape. While rearming we got the message to divert to Java as our new base of operations. While I wanted to hunt down the other battleship I decided with fuel low it was best to head to Java. Sunk another merchant in the Makassar Strait in route to Java.

Overall an excellent patrol. Started off rocky but dammed of it wasn't fun in the USS S-28. Not sure why targeting confuses the hell out of me and need to break the habit of firing on really oblique angles like ImI'm in a U-Boat. Really enjoy the campaign structure as well.

[KaleunMarco]

so you want more stories....

Playing TMO with RSRD.

commanding the Balao (ss285).

On patrol in the Yellow Sea, March 1945

detected a convoy on its way from China to Okinawa for the upcoming battle there (April 1).
convoy consisted of troop ships and a capital ship plus about half dozen escorts.
we got in good position for an underwater attack.
got past the lead escorts and lined up shots on the two leading troop ships.
Bingo! all hit and exploded and both vessels sinking.

third troop ship changes course to evade.

we increase speed and adjust course to fire our remaining two forward tubes while reloading the others.
fire two fish at approx 1500 yds.

Bingo! two hits. now it gets interesting.
this merchie must have carrying ammo or fuel because she exploded like a fourth of july roman candle.
the bad news is that she was close aboard the capital ship and....when she blew she took the capital ship with her.

Damn!
for those of you who are new to SH4, if you don't put a round or a fish into an enemy and it sinks, you don't get credit.
so....as we were coming about to bring the stern tubes to bear on the cruiser, she blew up with the troop/ammo ship, obviating the need to expend more torpedoes.

we went deep and evaded.

what can a kaleun do, eh?

[Bubblehead1980]

TMO with custom mods
4 Luzon Straits-Convoy College area.

USS Drum SS 228 (Gato Class)

Departed March 29 for patrol area Convoy College Luzon Straits.

Acting on an ULTRA. Patrolled for a large convoy (Take Ichi Convoy, see previous post) and made SJ contact at 0032 24 April.

Convoy is 16 ships with 13 escorts moving 12 knots and zigging often. Attempted to penetrate the screen by on three occasions forced to back away. A Yagumo Class DD came within 2500 yards but managed to remain unseen as kept bow pointing at him, slowly backing away with right rudder to maintain low profile.

Finally decided to fire from outside the screen from long range, utilizing the Mark 14's low speed setting. Dark night so difficult to pick out targets visually. Aimed for center mass of ships on PPI scope with spread. At 0347 fired six torpedoes from 7100 yards. Turned and quickly fired spread from stern tubes aimed in similar fashion.

After a long torpedo run, could see and hear torpedo impacts in distance. 6 out of ten fired hit, not bad. About three minutes after impact a large secondary explosion occurred. Could also see a very large troopships in distance with a fire on its bow, but moving along swiftly.

Moved out in distance to reload torpedoes and get in another attack before dawn if possible. Lost contact on SJ then reestablished. Convoy ships were constant helming making obtaining a solid solution difficult from long distances. Managed to get to 4100 yards when an escort left a gap in screen while making a high speed run to check the flank. Aimed for a large troopship identified as KITRUIN MARU and fired four torpedoes. Unfortunately, one of the torpedoes passed jut astern of an escort that raced into position unexpectedly. The escort spotted the torpedoes and sounded the alarm. Targets all turned away. All four torpedoes missed. A Shiratsuyu DD spotted us or detected on radar as it began raced right towards us at high speed. With dawn approaching and turning away presenting broadsides too risky as could expose to gunfire, ordered a dive.

As we dove to 375 feet a lone torpedo impact was heard, we had lucked out and hit something. Depth charges followed (a few close ones) and were hunted by two particularly persistent escorts for six hours. 1230 back at periscope depth, all was clear. Surfaced and had two SJ contacts at 13 NM. Turned course and noticed they were stationary. Either escorts playing possum or damaged vessels left behind. Figured most likely damaged vessels from first attack due to distance and proximity to location of first attack. Also came across debris field soon after surfacing, something had sunk, perhaps from our lone torpedo impact on last attack or a mortally wounded vessel from first attack.

As closed two contacts could see they were troopships about 3100 yards apart, dead in water. One down by the stern, other listing heavily to port. Obviously, our victims of DRUM's initial salvo. Ordered deck gun manned. Closed in to finish them off. Took about 20 4 inch gun hits each to finish them off. Both were troopships of SAKITO MARU class 6800 tons.

Secured from GQ, raced ahead to try and reestablish contact with convoy but numerous patrol planes forced us to keep diving. Unable to locate convoy and at 0000 April 25 ended pursuit after 24 hours. Resumed patrol of area.

Two large troopships sunk, believe sunk vessel of unknown type as well.

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

so you want more stories....

Playing TMO with RSRD.

commanding the Balao (ss285).

On patrol in the Yellow Sea, March 1945

detected a convoy on its way from China to Okinawa for the upcoming battle there (April 1).
convoy consisted of troop ships and a capital ship plus about half dozen escorts.
we got in good position for an underwater attack.
got past the lead escorts and lined up shots on the two leading troop ships.
Bingo! all hit and exploded and both vessels sinking.

third troop ship changes course to evade.

we increase speed and adjust course to fire our remaining two forward tubes while reloading the others.
fire two fish at approx 1500 yds.

Bingo! two hits. now it gets interesting.
this merchie must have carrying ammo or fuel because she exploded like a fourth of july roman candle.
the bad news is that she was close aboard the capital ship and....when she blew she took the capital ship with her.

Damn!
for those of you who are new to SH4, if you don't put a round or a fish into an enemy and it sinks, you don't get credit.
so....as we were coming about to bring the stern tubes to bear on the cruiser, she blew up with the troop/ammo ship, obviating the need to expend more torpedoes.

we went deep and evaded.

what can a kaleun do, eh?

Nice! . Ah the Yellow Sea. One of the more challenging areas in later war when escorts have their act together, no depth to hide in. Definitely have to plan attacks well. I opt for night surface attacks, dive only when must.

[Bubblehead1980]

TMO + custom mods

USS Drum SS 228

April 28, 1944

Luzon Strait -Convoy College Area.


After several days of foul weather, it cleared. Began seeing more patrol planes than usual. Seems DRUM stirred up a Hornets nest attacking the big convoy on 24/25 April.


On 27 April at 0204 APR-1 detected radar signals and soon had SJ contacts closed to find were two DD's patrolling. Without a favorable setup, decided to save torpedoes for merchants or larger warships. As were backing away at 6000 yards, suddenly heard gunfire, shell splashes were visible, they had detected us on radar/spotted us. Unable to outrun two fleet type DD's, we dove to 375 feet and ran silent. Pinging began and a few depth charges landed, some close but soon they lost us. We slipped away and five hours later came to scope depth to find heavy seas, rain and low visibility. Surfaced and continued patrol.

Squalls cleared that afternoon. At 1621 2 April SJ made contact with convoy in Luzon Strait heading NE. Went to GQ and approaching, diving at 1700.Closed and at scope depth, saw convoy had zigged out of position and its choice targets, two large tankers were on opposite side of convoy. Allowed convoy to pass, surfaced and conducted end around. At 0100 was in position off port column of eight ship two escort convoy. Fired at two GENYO MARU class 11000 ton tankers.

Torpedoes hit the trailing tanker, causing massive explosion after just one hit. Torpedoes hit the second tanker, causing large fire and leaving it dead in water. All bow torpedoes expended, two left in stern tubes.

Escorts chased DRUM but were able to avoid. Waited several hours until convoy moved on and escorts with them. The tanker was dead in water, sinking. Backed in with caution, fired final two stern torpedoes. Last Mark 14 was a CIRCLE RUN. Fortunately, DRUM was able to avoid impact. Other torpedo impacted tanker, which capsized and sunk.

Set course for Pearl Harbor, arriving 17 May. 51000 tons total sunk.