Ahoy... from the bottom.

[Kobal2]

First of all, a salute to you all - I've been lurking the forum for a while, but this will be my first post. Hope you like it

Let me tell you the story of U-15, the little Type II that couldn't.

I have been playing for about a month, and the learning curve was getting flatter and flatter - I started like every kaleunt out there, torpedoes missing wildly at 500m, running into the ground etc..., then I got better, learnt to open them torp doors, to calculate precise torp solutions (haven't tried a convoy yet, though - it takes me so much concentration to plot a single, constant-speed-and-heading ship, that I shudder at the thought of doing it for 20+ at the same time ), to run perfect intercept courses and so on. Then I installed RUB and had to learn to do all that again. And I still was good - my average patrol on a type VII in 39 yields about 35-45 ktons of freight sunk. Gotta love those new "Large cargo" - 15 ktons of easy sinking.

My last patrol had decidedly been frustrating - december 39, we went all the way over to AM23 by the northern route, found nothing but small fry (well, small sunken fry anyway) on the way, then went to BF 13 as I heard it was a good fishing spot. Ran into a convoy, fired 4 torps at the leading C3 too far and too early (I didn't want to risk being found out by the escort - there were only 3 of them, and I know I can easily deal with a searching destroyer, but 3 of them helping each other sounded like a bad scenario) and had to let go because my crew was knackered and I could either have decent propulsion or decent reloading times - not both.

Grinding my teeth, I decided to head back home (only 3 torps left, 2 fore 1 aft). On the way back, about 10 miles northeast of Londonderry I encountered one of the aforementionned large cargoes. The weather was awful - 15ms winds, heavy clouds, medium fog, no rain though. Never mind, I still managed to make a clean intercept (right on it's path with a 450m range) and solution (both torps hit *exactly* where I wanted them to go, in that kind of weather I usually miss a bit since it's really hard to get precise range data with the scope bobbing up and down like a rollercoaster, and being under the water half the time), and the clunker was cleaved in two right in the middle, then blew up to boot.

I was content.

Then I ordered the navigation officer to get us back on course, and saw on the nav map that the "sunk ship" icon was ... WTF, green ? I went to free view as fast as I could and yes, yes, it was a friggin' Norvegian. What was he doing in Ireland, I'll never know.

But I was very, very discontent now.

On the way back we encountered no less than 4 more large cargoes. And I had one aft torp left.

Well, like I said, frustrating patrol

I told myself "M'boy, you are going to learn not to waste torps on coastals if it's the end of you. It's Type II time for you ! Firing ditzipline !".

Created a new officer, this time I turned fatigue down (I tried many different ways of dealing with it, but none are satisfying - especially when you're shadowing a ship waiting for sundown at 32x. Vanilla crews get tired in 50s, and get back up quick but officers are almost impossible to rest enough (5 officers, 2 bunks - the math is easy, especially since they fatigue a lot faster than they rest), RUB crews are tougher but they don't rest ever.). I also noticed that Type IIs have enough crew space to fit a full crew in them - on my Type VIIs there was always a git for whom I had to install a bunk in the torpedo room. Always the same guy to - I figured he likes his privacy. Anyway, routine checks, launch. Hmmm, Kiel. Destination, AN16. Just enough torps to make believe I'm in a submarine, and just enough fuel to get stranded in the middle of the North Sea.

This was going to be a looong patrol.

We head out, and I compress time till I'm out in the North Sea. I had recently learnt that the Sonar officer only calls out close contacts, but that the hydrophones really pick things up from *way* further, so I try it out, and yes, my god yes, there *is* something bearing 240. Definitely a merchant, probably slow speed but besides that I'm at a loss (I distinctly hear 4 blades chugga-chugging slowly, but I never could tell the difference between an Elco and the Bismarck, or a tugboat and a tanker by ear. And I have neither printer nor stopwatch, so I can't use the soundcharts I dled a coupled days ago - though they look mighty usefull. Ah, well.). Having played a lot of 688i and SubCommand, I decide to make a rough TMA (neverminding the fact that I was always useless with TMAs). I also can't tell wether he's closing or moving away. I decide to assume the ship is at 10 kms, and to take 30 mins soundings. One, two, three, soundings later : he is definitely heading north. Set course to 350. Four, five...five... five... Damn, lost him. Must have been NW or NNW. course 270, flank speed. half an hour later I pick him back up, due northwest of me. Set course 330, 30 mins soundings with bouts of flank speed inbetween. Everything seems to go smoothly - I can definitely make out his course by now, 335ish, and if he *is* at 10kms he's going at 7,5 knots. And he's way ahead.

Verdammt. That's going to take a lot of flank speed. But what the heck, it's going to be good training.

Like I said, I'm awful with TMAs, and I forgot to "cross the bearings", so I don't get an accurate range fix. 150kms later, my SO finally picks him up (bloody slacker you), and estimates a 6500m range. Good. I plot a course that should put me within a mile from him. 30 mins later, another sounding... He's on starboard this time and the SO calls a range of... 6500m again ? Grmbl. Okay so my course estimate was wrong, stop smirking you deaf as a fencepost SO you (by that time I actually trusted his range estimates. Cf. later). Little by little, the intercept gets better, and I finally pinpoint location, course and speed with way less assumption/guesswork and more actual math. By now I'm 8000m ahead of him, right on his path. Alle Maschinen stoppfen, austauchen.

Ye gods, that is some schlechte weather. 15ms winds, heavy clouds, heavy fog. He could pass within spitting distance and I'd miss him. I decide to trust my WO - he spots things way better than I do anyway - and to compress time, since by my math it's going to be two hours before the unknown merchant reaches us. By the time I get the "ship spotted !" warning, 3 bad things have happened.

1) I compressed time too much. The warning came as the ship had already passed us by 1200m. Might be the weather playing tricks on my WO, but I doubt it - like I said, the ship was supposed to pass within 500m of us at one point.

2) It's a Small Merchant

3) It's a *German* Small Merchant (I had already decided not to sink it, what with firing discipline on, but I made sure in Free View for the sake of curiosity).

I realize I have burnt 20% of my fuel chasing a frigging friendly. I curse a lot, then some more. I consult my NO : yup, we don't have enough to make the trip to AN16 and back to Kiel on ahead standard if we want to keep some room for combat manoeuvers.

I curse the sky blue (well, gray really). It's going to be a loooong patrol, at 5 knots and without enough leeway (nor speed - the Devil knows that Type II is slow. I would have figured it to be a German Alfa, it's so small) to chase targets. All I'm going to sink are ships coming to me.

But wait a minute... AN16... that's right next to Scapa Flow... and I just spent an hour reading about all those Kaleunts sneaking into there, sinking this and sinking that... Hmmm, I don't know what will actually be there when I get there, but by gods I have 5 fishes, that's more than enough, even should I find the Forrestal.

I begin to grow an enthousiasm back. This is gonna be great.

The trip takes forever at 5 knots, even at 1024x, but the good part is that by my NOs calculations we should reach the bay by 18 o'clock. Which means the ingress should be a night affair, and I'll be able to use my scope without much fear of overzealous British binoculars jockeys. I'll probably reach the actual port by midnight, and be back out before dawn. Great news.

We reach AN16, I decide for a quick hydrophone check. Oh my, lots of noise. I count two warships on our path, one merchant SW of us, going away, one NNW closing. I surface back and go to the bridge to check if I can see that one, because he sounds very close (well, very close with the hydrophone sound pumped up to max - I had forgotten that at the time). Nothing on either binocs or UZO, but I notice the bloody weather is once again bad for us - clouds nil, light fog, 2ms winds. I swear Thor works for MI-6.

One hour later, new sound dive. Now there's 3 warships ahead, the South merchant has disappeared, the North one sounds closer than ever. My nav map being covered in lines and points, I figure it's going to be too complicated to track the movements of everything and everyone, so I clear it. Besides, my targets ought to be nicely moored anyway, and the SO will be kind enough to tell me wether destroyers are closing or moving away. I'll let the sloth be usefull for once. I plot a course around the bay hugging the eastern coast - I don't know if the Allies already have sonars in 39, but if they do our ship should get lost in the ground noise, especially with their noob crews (don't know if that's modelled in the game though, I read once that you get sound bearings through landmasses...).

I dive at periscope depth, check ground depth - Hmmm, 6m. If the destroyers find me, it's going to be hard to dodge them. Silent running, helmsman, if you please. I plot an escape course to zig-zag between the little islands on the western side of the bay - if I'm discovered, I'll hightail it to there, hoping to either lose them or ground them.

20h. So far, so good. 5 warships around, but they're all moving around far away from us, the closest being about 3km away if I'm to trust my SO (yet I don't, because when I repeat the "estimate range" command, his estimate varies wildly, from 4500 to 1800. I *have* to get a real sonar NCO.)

20h30. We have reached the bottleneck entrance of the bay. 6 destroyers around, 3 ahead, 3 behind. I'm getting edgy. I really don't trust that sonarboy one bit. Up scope, just to check. OK, they don't look like they're on a search pattern, and there's no searchlight in sight, but what are those funky little black things on the ground ?

"We've been detected by land forces, Herr Kaleunt !"

WHAT ?

Those two funky little black things light searchlights, and point them right at my scope. VERDAMMT ! So do the 2 closest destroyers ahead of my path. Why didn't anyone tell me there were spotters on the ground too ? Down scope. What do I do, what do I DO ? Listening to the sonar, I hear all 6 destroyers are coming in fast. But there's *got* to be nice things to sink in that port... Ah, what the heck, I change course to WNW to hug the western coast instead of the eastern, there's another exit out there and that way lies also my escape maze of islands.

Time passes. The destroyers seem to have lost my trace, and I should be far away enough from those land thingies to try a scope check. Up scope. All 6 destroyers are grounded. I smirk (yet blame buggy AI - where's the fun ?!) and fire away at torpedo in the mess - can't let such easy pickings pass. Down scope, BOOM ! I don't know what it is, but I must have hit something.

Two minutes later, my SO informs me that a ship is going down. Good.

Ten minutes later, "We're taking damage Herr Kaleunt !" "Forward torpedo room damaged Herr Kaleunt !". My speed is down to 0 knots. DAMN ! They must have heard my torp doors or something ! I run to the sonar room... But no, I don't hear anything flying past us, no depth charges, nothing. I check ground depth, nope, still 4 good meters of water between me and the ground. What the hell is happening ? Up scope. The destroyers are still grounded, and they obviously don't know where I am - the outer ones' searchlights scan the outside of the bay, the inner ones are searching their port (I'm way away on starboard). I also see the keel of the one I torpedoed - it was the closest of the three. The land lights are down too. I hear no gunshot, see no muzzleflashes... What the heck has damaged me ?

I grumble something about buggy games, down scope, I repair the light damage (3% of hull) and order 1/3 ahead.

This time I don't compress time. 30 seconds later, I hear a distressing "SSSSHROOOIIIING" metallic noise, my speed is back to zero, and again the front torp room and front crew area are damaged. OK, I *demand* to know what the heck is happening out there. Could it be... mines ?

I up the scope again, but this time not all the way up. HOLY MOSES ! There's a row of huge black spheres right under the waterline ! MINES ! MINES ! MI... NO ! There's a wiremesh under those black thingies. It's a subnet ! I can't believe this ! Thank God that torp didn't blow up against it. Heck, for all I know it could have sunk us !

And now we're right alongside of it. I can't do a *thing* : wether I try to go forward or backward, my sub is going to scrape again, make a lot of noise, and bring them destroyers right on top of me when I can't dodge the Wasserbomben. I'm toast, I'm toast, what do I do... I know !

I'm going to wait for darkness, surface, jump the fence, go back down as soon as it's cleared, and make a beeline for the port to make for the wasted time.

I compress time till 22h, and make another scope check. The destroyers are still where I left them - must be grounded for good I guess. I order to surface, and things look good - no scraping this time. I order 1/3 ahead too, so that once I'm out I'll have some speed already.

Well, I got up allright.

And I got back down faster. The second I surfaced, all five destroyers had their light right on my con tower, and boom, boom, boom, I'm blown to pieces.

Next time you jokers brag about sneaking into Scapa, would you please mention where those bloody nets are ?

EDIT : Oh, and BTW, how do you guys avoid the nets and mines ? With RUB murky water I can barely see the prow of my sub, let alone something in it's way for enough to stop/change the sub's course before I hit it...