Sub Defense?

My strategies are nothing conventional and its probably going to cost me one of these days but heres how I do things. Go straight at the DDs or whatever it is as they are comming at me..... Fire 1 fish 1mile of less, wait for the DD to start turning and fire a few more in that direction. Then continue into him if there is time or the boat is not under the waves by now fire 1 or two more when hes almost on top of me, I mean like emergency dive or you'll hit him. Then cut engine, depth 199.

Wait 1-2 minutes and start engines ahead flank or full to pariscope depth, when you surface the DD isnt far behind and finish him with the aft torps. This is one of my favourites but it never happens the way I say it and it makes it that much more fun. I only ever cut my engines and go silent for prolonged periods when I have 3 DDs circling above me, even then If I can i goto pariscope depth and try and sink em. Aggressive is the way to be.

bash:

One of the only reasons I choose to go under the waves is I can't do anything above the waves lol, even on the surface I resort to using my port/ starboard tubes. I can't deal with them waves...

I usually motor on at ~190 and flank at an oblique angle towards the DE/DDs until they're within 800m. Once I see that they look like they're coming straight for me, I order a hard rudder towards my target, then cut engines. The drift until you hit 0 knots is usually enough to get you clear from where the depth charges are likely to hit; also, it suddenly lets your hydrophones update everything around me.

Once the DD starts turning away, I then open up at flank on the heading I want to go to and start motoring away, until the DD's within 300m. Wash, rinse and repeat until I'm within 1.5km of my target, then cut engines and drift to periscope depth. Fire all six torpedoes in two groups of three (one at where you think it's going to be, and one at one degree away from that bearing at each side), then dive to 30.

When firingat periscope depth, make sure you're at a complete stop before you raise the scope. If you're not, the wake will be a tell-tale sign. In calm seas, I usually raise scope at either 14 or 13 metres, to make sure that I put as little above the water as possible.

Stern tubes are usually very useful at this point too since enemy surface units are usually coming on at flank from behind, trying to catch you. I also find that using spectator view can be very helpful when pushing along at 30 metres because you can roughly tell whether the DE is going to nail you with the depth charges or not.

Now if only I could figure out how to KILL subs...

Now if only I could figure out how to KILL subs...

One of the demo missions, where you're in a sub, also has an enemy sub lurking.

Once I found it surfaced. That was an easy kill with a torp.

Another time I found that the AI would wait for you to reach periscope depth or surface and then atempt to attack you. Well, DUH! notify:

Simply make sure you aiming right at them when surfacing, surface very near the enemy sub (150-300 meters), evade their torp(s), fire yours dead on target and crash dive just in case.

A good thread this . Interesting was East's comments about patience , and survival.

Seems some balance of attack and defense is optimal .

1 Torp does slow them , but I usually try blasting off 4 at DDs all at once ( or whichever the minimum requirment is to sink them ; 2 Corvettes , 3 DEs ) when opportunity presents , when successful , it means no tubes are about to be fired from the beam in reprisal as a damaged target sails by , or repeat encounters . One target destroyed is one target less , but 3 or 4 with damage can still use full weaponry , tho' reduced in speed .

If the multiplayer is to include damage to weaponry etc , the strategy will be a little different in a few ways.

i have a suggestion,,,,,just sink "Argon" ....err... uh.... i mean the destroyer and you won't have to worry about it.....

I've had reasonably good luck driving straight into a convoy, even under heavy escort. As long as you can get beneath one of the T/M/O ships you're safe from everything (so long as you had a pretty reasonable charge before hand). Once I sat just under a tanker for quite some time, just watching DDs and DEs swarm about in a distraught manner. Whenever an opportunity would present itself, I dropped a torpedo off towards one of the other blips on the BTAC. Eventually, I was down to two targets and a plethora of escorts, I pivoted to face the far target, went to flank, shot bow and stern tubes and finished the mission.

Perhaps not the most elegant or effective way to do things, but it is fun going to spectator view and looking at a massive tanker hull hanging out 5-10 meters above your boat.

And all this coming from a skimmer rolleyes:

I've been toying with a tactic of allowing myself to be chased and hitting the enemy with aft torps.

I've been working on this with the 3rd sub training patrol--I believe that's the right one, with the convoy protected by the corvette. I've learned that hitting a corvette straight on is a tedious task and waste a lot of torps. So I go after the tankers first until the corvette is within 1000m. I know he knows where I am. Then I set my depth between 175 and 199 meters and run silent. I prepare myself to make a hard course correction into the path of the convoy. Once the corvette is within my 300 to 250 meter range I go ahead flank and make my turn. Timing this is just right and it hasn't worked very well only once.

The corvette will come about to pursue you. He needs to be farther than 250m to actually hit it at any periscope depth. Go to spectator to make sure you are clear from depth charges. Being this deep makes it hard to see them (how 'bout some flood lights on the top of these here subs.) If you're clear, surface to periscpope depth. You need to be above 5m to hit the corvette, deeper torpedoes just go under him. The same is true if he's within 250m. Since the corvette is chasing you, it can't pop off depth charges that can hit you, provided you are still running flank speed. Use the aft tactical view and remember that to turn you must use opposite commands in order to align yout tubes to his bow. With skill and luck you should be able to ram two torps down its throat without it having enough time to evade.

I came up with this on the patrol protecting the merchant from a corvette and two destroyers, and it worked very well. If its not timed right, the corvette will be to close and he'll run you out of batteries.

Sometimes when not possible to use bow tubes this seems to do well .

Even a damaged DE , if you have at least equal speed .

Higher forward sub speed reduces their advantage .

I try to surface momentarily to make sure they hit target .

Occasionally necessity if no torpedoes are left forward !

Can be fun .

In multiplayer we probably will not have underwater external view tho' .

Pursuing a corvette is fun too , on surface, with equal or greater speed , if you can get in position that is , then firing at point blank range , but yell back flank when it explodes or you collide . ( oh yes and yell dive dive dive , AND hard -a port ALL at same time - it takes practice !)

Even some first person deck gun firing at its stern is possible ,and fun whilst you use voice , and if first torpedoes miss , until they reload

I have tried all sorts of ways , nose to nose a few times by chance , zero distance !

I've been luring DDs and DEs to their death through stern tube attacks since early on.

It's to easy. The game should be tweaked so that these boat attempt to avoid aligning with the wake/scope of the sub they're chasing. I would assume that was true in real life, no?

From what I gather of the game, the CVs want to get close enough to disgorge depth charges, so following the wake would seem a good idea. However, they don't wish to do it at full speed, to close that gap were your stern torps are no good--that is if you're skillful enough to maneuver into a position where you can hit them.

But I feel the game shouldn't be too realistic. It shouldn't be a training simulator whereas everyone that played would be required to have some form of formal naval training in operations and tactics. I certainly don't want the AI commanders to be War College grads, with me having no chance in beating them. I imagine that we will all agree that we just want to blow things up. It shouldn't be too easy, not too hard.