First GW2 Patrol: Success and Failure

K-61 · 12-14-07, 09:14 PM

I sailed out of Wilhelmshaven on Sept.1 '39 in a VIIB. West of Ireland my bridge watch spotted a warship moving from west to east off my port bow some distance. As it was dusk, I risked a high speed surface run to get closer and then dove for a submerged approach. The contact turned out to be three RN vessels in line formation: a Southampton cruiser followed by two auxiliary cruisers. Visions of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Weddigen danced in my head. Hoping it was dark enough that they would not see my steam torpedoes, I fired two at the lead cruiser. The first one sailed just past his bow, but the second one hit midships, setting it alight and listing about 10 degrees to starboard. The two behind began to zigzag, but I was able to hit both of them with my two remaining forward torpedoes and one stern tube which I was able to bring to bear with a high speed submerged turn. Both of them sank, rather quickly to my surprise. After letting the Southampton pull off a safe distance, I surfaced and made a high speed end around run, submerged and finished it off with one more torpedo. That was the success part.

I then immediately left the area and moved off to the southeast so that any aircraft appearing at dawn would only find an empty sea. The next day I spotted a lone warship which was making an irregular course. It was a destroyer; figuring he may be a perimeter guard for a convoy, I dove and then conducted a manual hydrophone sweep and picked up multiple screw sounds: a convoy! I then surfaced and approached closer before diving. The seas were fairly calm, so I knew I had to be quiet. The destroyer may have sniffed my scent and began to pound the area off to my starboard with several depth charges. When he was about 2000 metres aft of me I increased speed to 2-3 knots. Without warning, he made a high speed run on me and caught me too close to the surface. A well placed brace of charges sent me on a death plunge; my boat imploded at about 350 metres! Holy cow, could it dive that deep?

I'm guessing the sensors for the escorts have been tweaked? I've never before had an escort home in on me from such a distance prior to this. Looks like I have to pick up my game now that I'm running GWX 2! I conducted my own post-mortem and I know what got me killed: my complacency from playing earlier versions of SH3. The prudent thing would have been to dive deep, let him pass over me and then come up instead of letting him get into my baffles and blindside me like some kind of new guy on the job. I'm old enough to know better.

Kpt. Lehmann · 12-14-07, 09:33 PM

First off K-61, I want to express to you, the gratitude of the entire GWX team for the support you have offered us at the UBI forums this week relating to the 'pirates.'

Regarding the enemy AI sensors adjustments... I will answer you via this video by _Seth_:

The enemy AI has real teeth now... and will be a shock for you if you are new to it. Refer to Appendix B of the GWX manual on "Surviving Anti-Submarine Warfare in GWX."

Good hunting mate.

K-61 · 12-14-07, 09:56 PM

My pleasure, Kpt. L. Thanks for the survival tips.

I am now stalking a convoy by sound; weather is the pits: pitch black, heavy fog, winds and rain. How you get heavy fog with rain and high winds is a mystery, but I'm having to deal with it. I'm making sound check dives every so often; I don't want to run right into a destroyer before I can see it.

Kpt. Lehmann · 12-14-07, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K-61

My pleasure, Kpt. L. Thanks for the survival tips.

I am now stalking a convoy by sound; weather is the pits: pitch black, heavy fog, winds and rain. How you get heavy fog with rain and high winds is a mystery, but I'm having to deal with it. I'm making sound check dives every so often; I don't want to run right into a destroyer before I can see it.

Well, all I can say about the weather in SH3 is that it is sometimes a little screwy. GWX does very very little to modify it.

(The only thing we changed was the default starting weather to partly cloudy... and increased the frequency of random weather change opportunity. We did not touch weather patterns themselves. Very easy to mess that part up.)

Gezoes · 12-14-07, 10:38 PM

Thanks for all the work! GWX rocks!

And more Das Boot clips with SubSim subtitles, obviously

Kpt. Lehmann · 12-14-07, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gezoes

Thanks for all the work! GWX rocks!

And more Das Boot clips with SubSim subtitles, obviously

You'll have to talk to _Seth_ real nice for that one.

He made that movie.

(The first time I saw "Das GWX"... I laughed so hard that I slipped forward out of my chair, hit my head on the desk, and almost pulled the keyboard out by the roots! My now-ex-girlfriend thought I had LOST MY MIND and didn't think the video was funny... naturally she didn't understand it. Oh well, I'm sure that if the U-bootwaffe wanted me to have a girlfriend... they would issue me one.)

Steeltrap · 12-15-07, 06:39 AM

Best bet in really foul weather is to dive to about 40 - 50m and set speed to 1kt. I just bumble along like that, coming up to check the weather/get fresh air in the boat.

The point is you won't see anything in heavy fog/rain in time to do an approach, and you run the real risk of finding an escort at close range (something of a no-no!).

So why risk it? Just pull the plug and wait for the weather to improve.

Looking forward to the AI. It's very good in NYGM, improving over time (of course), so I'll be keen to see if there are any glaring differences....

Cheers

12-14-07, 09:14 PM	#1
K-61 Grey Wolf Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Ontario Posts: 795 Downloads: 39 Uploads: 0	First GW2 Patrol: Success and Failure I sailed out of Wilhelmshaven on Sept.1 '39 in a VIIB. West of Ireland my bridge watch spotted a warship moving from west to east off my port bow some distance. As it was dusk, I risked a high speed surface run to get closer and then dove for a submerged approach. The contact turned out to be three RN vessels in line formation: a Southampton cruiser followed by two auxiliary cruisers. Visions of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Weddigen danced in my head. Hoping it was dark enough that they would not see my steam torpedoes, I fired two at the lead cruiser. The first one sailed just past his bow, but the second one hit midships, setting it alight and listing about 10 degrees to starboard. The two behind began to zigzag, but I was able to hit both of them with my two remaining forward torpedoes and one stern tube which I was able to bring to bear with a high speed submerged turn. Both of them sank, rather quickly to my surprise. After letting the Southampton pull off a safe distance, I surfaced and made a high speed end around run, submerged and finished it off with one more torpedo. That was the success part. I then immediately left the area and moved off to the southeast so that any aircraft appearing at dawn would only find an empty sea. The next day I spotted a lone warship which was making an irregular course. It was a destroyer; figuring he may be a perimeter guard for a convoy, I dove and then conducted a manual hydrophone sweep and picked up multiple screw sounds: a convoy! I then surfaced and approached closer before diving. The seas were fairly calm, so I knew I had to be quiet. The destroyer may have sniffed my scent and began to pound the area off to my starboard with several depth charges. When he was about 2000 metres aft of me I increased speed to 2-3 knots. Without warning, he made a high speed run on me and caught me too close to the surface. A well placed brace of charges sent me on a death plunge; my boat imploded at about 350 metres! Holy cow, could it dive that deep? I'm guessing the sensors for the escorts have been tweaked? I've never before had an escort home in on me from such a distance prior to this. Looks like I have to pick up my game now that I'm running GWX 2! I conducted my own post-mortem and I know what got me killed: my complacency from playing earlier versions of SH3. The prudent thing would have been to dive deep, let him pass over me and then come up instead of letting him get into my baffles and blindside me like some kind of new guy on the job. I'm old enough to know better. __________________

12-14-07, 09:33 PM	#2
Kpt. Lehmann GWX Project Director Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: The Republic of Texas Posts: 6,993 Downloads: 124 Uploads: 0	First off K-61, I want to express to you, the gratitude of the entire GWX team for the support you have offered us at the UBI forums this week relating to the 'pirates.' Regarding the enemy AI sensors adjustments... I will answer you via this video by _Seth_: The enemy AI has real teeth now... and will be a shock for you if you are new to it. Refer to Appendix B of the GWX manual on "Surviving Anti-Submarine Warfare in GWX." Good hunting mate. __________________ www.thegreywolves.com All you need is good men. - Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock

12-14-07, 09:56 PM	#3
K-61 Grey Wolf Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Ontario Posts: 795 Downloads: 39 Uploads: 0	My pleasure, Kpt. L. Thanks for the survival tips. I am now stalking a convoy by sound; weather is the pits: pitch black, heavy fog, winds and rain. How you get heavy fog with rain and high winds is a mystery, but I'm having to deal with it. I'm making sound check dives every so often; I don't want to run right into a destroyer before I can see it. __________________

12-14-07, 10:38 PM	#5
Gezoes XO Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 435 Downloads: 22 Uploads: 0	Thanks for all the work! GWX rocks! And more Das Boot clips with SubSim subtitles, obviously __________________ If I wasn't a little mad, I'd go mad.

12-15-07, 06:39 AM	#7
Steeltrap Grey Wolf Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 818 Downloads: 3 Uploads: 0	Best bet in really foul weather is to dive to about 40 - 50m and set speed to 1kt. I just bumble along like that, coming up to check the weather/get fresh air in the boat. The point is you won't see anything in heavy fog/rain in time to do an approach, and you run the real risk of finding an escort at close range (something of a no-no!). So why risk it? Just pull the plug and wait for the weather to improve. Looking forward to the AI. It's very good in NYGM, improving over time (of course), so I'll be keen to see if there are any glaring differences.... Cheers