I always end up chasing

[Captain Dork]

Hi, I've made a simple practice mission for myself to learn the basics. I have a medium Merchant type ship about 2km straight north of my sub going east at 7 knots. Now with 100% realism I am nearly always able to make the first shot (yeah I'm petting myself on the back) but after that it's a mess. The ship never sinks and any further shots I fire (using manual TDC) always miss. The speed the XO estimates seems to be correct and mostly the torpedoes seem to be travelling in the right direction (even with map contacts on they miss). Also they are going to fast for me. If I chase them under water I never catch up, if I chase them above water they start firing their deck gun and the sub can't take a lot of that. What am I doing wrong? I use stock SH5 with torpedo speed ability fix mod and that recoginition manual with the green stripes to know where to align the stadimeter.

[Trevally.]

Fire more torps with the first attack - try and get two hits in on him.

The shots you are taking when the ship passes you and is alerted to you are hard to pull off.
Trying to catch him when you are underwater is also going to be hard if he is moving away.

What you could do is wait for him to move away, surface and do an end around. This is where you run faster than him on the surface, just out oh his sight. Remember that you can see him from further away than he can see you.
When you get in front of him, move in for the attack and dive so he can not see your approach.
Make you torp solution again and hit him as he passes.

With convoys - repeat as often as you can

[Captain Dork]

That's fast. Thank you for the reply Trevally. In a way I was hoping that it was a bug that could be fixed by a mod or something. I'm going to have to do it the real & hard way. I find it easy to forget that those real sailors weren't doing it for fun. Is 10km distance a good rule of thumb (for not to be spotted) or is that too far?

Originally Posted by Captain Dork

That's fast. Thank you for the reply Trevally. In a way I was hoping that it was a bug that could be fixed by a mod or something. I'm going to have to do it the real & hard way. I find it easy to forget that those real sailors weren't doing it for fun. Is 10km distance a good rule of thumb (for not to be spotted) or is that too far?

IM not sure about SH5 but heres what worked for me (With deadly outcomes for the merchants) in SH3 when I was able to play. Usually Id find a convoy, even guarded ones, early war with about 5,10, or 15+ merchants and anywhere from 2-4 destroyers guarding. Id move myself into a position to intercept (Basically using their course and speed given to you on a contact report to meet them at a certain spot, you want to arrive an hour or so ahead of time.

Then after I scout out the convoy once they arrive, I devise what I want to attack and how (I try to attack to ships side by side in columns, this allows you to have simultaneous impacts on both ships) Ill get just far enough out of visual range, about (8-10km?) ahead of them, then Ill move about 4.5 km off of their course and turn perpendicular, and submerge. Once the two ships cross my scope, 2 torps into each if they're huge, just one each if not. and as soon as the second one leaves my tubes, Ill surface (Usually at this time I'm about 6 or 7km away from them) and full speed ahead again in the convoys direction and set up for a second attack. Thats a modified end around method and it works well because they usually stop their zig zags before they get to you. Sorry if this doesn't help at all. Trevally mentioned end around so I blame him

[Captain Dork]

Thanks for the reply Casey. I've had my first success getting out of sight and returning to sink them with another torpedo. Do I understand right though that you fire torpedo's from 6-7 km distance sometimes? If I do that they never hit. I fire from ~2km distance.

Originally Posted by Captain Dork

Thanks for the reply Casey. I've had my first success getting out of sight and returning to sink them with another torpedo. Do I understand right though that you fire torpedo's from 6-7 km distance sometimes? If I do that they never hit. I fire from ~2km distance.

When you load your torpedoes before you launch a patrol (YOure using GWX right?) you should be able to "read" a little description the torpedo you are hovering over (a steam or electric) that tells you if its steam or electric and the max ranges AT certain speeds, write these down (I usually will load a 75% electric and 25% steam, steam are great for night attacks because they can't see the bubble stream any ways)

Max distance Ill go is 5km from the ship or convoy's course (Mind you Im PERPENDICULAR to their course at as close to a perfect 90 as possible). But if your out at 5km, your gyro will be something like 20 or 30 degrees to the port (left) side of your boat, making a right triangle, the line from you to where they cross your gyro is going to be pretty big, definitely larger than 5km, thats where I came up with "6 or 7km away from them" sorry for the confusion, if that still doestn make sense Ill try to draw it up for you

also remember if you want near simultaneous impacts, you need to adjust your torpedo speeds, what I mean is this, if your picking merchants that are side by side in columns, the inner most merchant (farthest from you) you are trying to hit will cross your scope first, fire these torpedoes at either slow or medium. Then when the merchant closest to you crosses, fire the torpedo at medium or fast accordingly. Just remember, SPEED affects the range the torpedo will travel, so be sure that it is within range if you set its speed.