Hehehehehehe!!!! It works.

[Rockin Robbins]

I screwed the pooch bigtime. Somehow my course was the same as the plotted course but I was not following the plotted course. At 3072 TC this became apparent as I overshot a plotted turn and was barreling toward an island. Luckily the clutter caused my PC to stutter a bit and I hit the backspace button in time to avoid an unfortunate Dinsdale-like incident.

Hiding behind the island was a fleet of Jap warships led by the two coolest destroyers you ever saw. I shut down auto torpedo loading and damage repair, did not call general quarters and went to silent running. Talk about closing the barn door after the cows are all out! These guys saw me before I submerged to periscope depth. Two of them that I can definitely ID so far. Other warships far behind, so it most likely doesn't matter what they are. They're all in shallow water ajacent to the island and although one looks like a Mogami, I'm not going in there. Not on my career game.

Both of these guys are pinging! I hit the jets and one makes a run. I stay at periscope depth and run out from under. Back to silent speed. Lotsa booms back there. Now, as Ducimus said, one starts pinging and one is listening. I took one more run at periscope depth, pinged the bottom and found 600' of water. Time to give up the initiative (????? what initiative?!!!) and take the prudent course. Hate to do it by the book, take her deep anyway.

Thermal layer at 190' but sonar conditions are pretty good with a light chop on the surface and full sunlight, no wind. Went to 210 feet and then I got my crazy idea. Do you know the difference between the attack and observation scope? In RL the obs scope had a brighter image, and SH4 doesn't model that. But the difference I was reminded of was that the observation scope could be cranked all the way up to the vertical to look for planes. Hmmmmmm.....:hmm:



Sonar said one of the tin cans was making a run. I raised the observation scope just out of the trunk, pointed it at the destroyer's bearing and scanned up and down. THERE HE WAS! I could watch the whole end of his run! Evasion was a lead pipe cinch.

I took her down to 300' and took a screenshot, which you can see above. Unfortunately, the destroyers have given up the chase, but you can clearly see the water's surface from this depth. Coordinating with sonar to acquire the target is easy. You can see just where they're aimed and turn away at the right time. I watched depth charges explode. For some reason I haven't seen the charges fall through the water before they explode, but these went off right near the surface.

So there you go! A new evasion technique that is as exciting as it gets. I was squealing like my teenage daughter. I hope to post some screenies, but since I run Trigger Maru, convoys with multiple escorts are historically rare, thanks to tater's mission tweaking. It may be awhile.

But give the observation scope a try next time you're deep avoiding the emporer's guard dogs. It's amazingly easy to use and sure is effective!