Strategy: Convoy vs Single Ships

Baumann · 01-19-09, 01:58 PM

In terms of risk/potential reward, is it better to try to sink single ships or actively seek out and engage convoys? Although convoys present more numerous and varied targets, there are some downsides also:

I find that attacking convoys can be problematic -

1) if you are intercepting on a course that runs at 90degrees to the course of the convoy then you run the risk of being picked up on sonar by escorts running on the side of the convoy.

2) although there are a variety of targets to choose from, due to reloading times, and the escorts being alerted after the first target has been hit (immediatley it seems which wasnt always the case), it in fact becomes difficult to destroy more than 1 or 2 ships from a convoy. If you try to slip away and come back, you find you have to surface to get the speed up, and chase to re-engage the convoy at somepoint where it may have either changed course, or escorts might be lurking on your approaches.

3) historically, a captain like Kretschmer would attack the rear rows of a convoy, from within, but it seems that the columns in SH3 are closer than in reality, that the convoys are not as big as they really were, that you get spotted at a relatively long distance (even at night), and that escorts are very prompt to locate and fire upon a uboat that is in the convoy. In reality, escorts would often be decieved by an attack from within the convoy and on the occasion that they did realise they would rather not fire in to areas where they might hit their own merchants! I have also had problems with attacking on the surface - the method by which the majority of allied ships were sunk by u-boats.

Maybe I am not using the right kind of approaches/stealth? Maybe I have misunderstood the strategies of successful captains? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps it is better to sink individual ships?

01-19-09, 01:58 PM	#1
Baumann Watch Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Dover Posts: 28 Downloads: 4 Uploads: 0	Strategy: Convoy vs Single Ships In terms of risk/potential reward, is it better to try to sink single ships or actively seek out and engage convoys? Although convoys present more numerous and varied targets, there are some downsides also: I find that attacking convoys can be problematic - 1) if you are intercepting on a course that runs at 90degrees to the course of the convoy then you run the risk of being picked up on sonar by escorts running on the side of the convoy. 2) although there are a variety of targets to choose from, due to reloading times, and the escorts being alerted after the first target has been hit (immediatley it seems which wasnt always the case), it in fact becomes difficult to destroy more than 1 or 2 ships from a convoy. If you try to slip away and come back, you find you have to surface to get the speed up, and chase to re-engage the convoy at somepoint where it may have either changed course, or escorts might be lurking on your approaches. 3) historically, a captain like Kretschmer would attack the rear rows of a convoy, from within, but it seems that the columns in SH3 are closer than in reality, that the convoys are not as big as they really were, that you get spotted at a relatively long distance (even at night), and that escorts are very prompt to locate and fire upon a uboat that is in the convoy. In reality, escorts would often be decieved by an attack from within the convoy and on the occasion that they did realise they would rather not fire in to areas where they might hit their own merchants! I have also had problems with attacking on the surface - the method by which the majority of allied ships were sunk by u-boats. Maybe I am not using the right kind of approaches/stealth? Maybe I have misunderstood the strategies of successful captains? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps it is better to sink individual ships? __________________ 'When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die.' (Jean-Paul Sartre)