Tides of War

Am I the only one who has beaten his brains to jelly on USN Sub-7? Any help or hints would be greatly appreciated. Take your time though...I need to replace my microphone (no, I don't want to talk about it). I have tried hitting the tanker, hitting the corvettes, the destroyers, and just plain getting out of dodge AND all of the above at the same time but to no avail. I look forward to smacking myself in the forehead when someone gives me the obvious point I missed.

Shef

Oh yeah, forgot to mention...higher blood pressure, high anxiety=good game.

refresh my memory, what is the mission orders?

Certainly.

Orders are simple: Sink Oiler. Get out alive.

Its a trap where there are two corvettes incoming and you need to pot shot (I think) the oiler and sink a few others and run. The tanker is almost out of range and is extememly difficult to catch before being swarmed. The closing statements indicate it was a trap with tanker as bait. Ends up with about 4-5 DD and several corvettes all circling the lethargic sub (me). Any hints would be invaluable. Thanks.

OK,

Sink the OILER (not the OILERS right) those are 2 diff missions.

If I remember right you start out in calm sea and have 1 OL and 2 CVs in range, and they arent moving.

Simply go to scope depth and shoot the OL, and for fun you can fire towards the CVs too, once you fired your spreads, turn around and sail away.

I'll load up ERT when I wake up and sees if Im helping on the right mission, i really cant remember.

Its 8:30am here and bedtime.

OK, it wasnt quite the mission I was thinking about.

Here is what I just did on this mission.

Ahead Flank

Hard to Starboard(or port if the OL is on that side)

Rig For Dive (click the hatch when the counter reaches 0)

Hold Course (when facing the OL)

Fire 1 tube towards the closest CV to make it evade

Aim for the other and sink it (or make it evade too)

When youre within 25-2800m of the oiler then go to scope depth.

Up scope and set zoom to 1x

Fire 1 torpedo a boat lenght infront of the OL. (fire more to be sure to hit)

Turn around and sail away.

NOTE: Dive before you are in that range if you have taken too much damage

My Thanks. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I can't get your method to work, Jesper.

This is very unrealistic - one sub against a slew of CVs, DDs and DEs.

I manage to get the first CV, then at some point, I'm encircled by everyone else. I wind up with sinking everything except two DEs but with only two torps left and my batteries dead.

After taking a few charges, I surfaced for air (almost none left) and was finished off by deck guns.

I want to move on but this one's got me stuck. Yes, I'm playing on the hardest difficulty level. Maybe I should change it to the easiest just to get past it? How depressing!

Captain! We weren't expecting to see you...

Prepare the boat. We are sailing momentarily. Captain Buxton needs to show some new boys the ropes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ahead flank...steer zero-niner-zero...rig for dive...Alarrrm!!!

Sir...corvette bearing green 20.

Steady as she goes. Standby tubes 1 and 2. Fire 1...Fire 2!

Reload the tubes, this is just the beginning. Lets try and close on the oiler before the next escort gets too friendly.

Destroyer coming up astern, she's almost on us!

Fire aft tubes...damn! Four wasted fish, they're running too deep again. Both emergency astern, dive to 20m. Brace for depth charges...we'll let her shoot right over us then see how she likes it from behind! Now, blow all tanks, bring her to periscope depth. Ahead flank, full right rudder. Tubes 1 and 2 full right gyro...fire!

Sir, incoming torpedo.

Fire 3!

Sir! Incoming torpedo!

Fire 4...take her down, chief, 25m. That's another destroyer that'll not be going home.

Another destroyer coming in from starboard sir.

Full right rudder. Hold course. Standby...full left rudder, fire tubes 1 to 3. Thats the last of the forrad fish burried in her. She's not done yet but she won't be much of a problem to us now.

Sir, the batteries are running low.

Cut speed to two-thirds. Port standard wheel, lets finish off that last destroyer and surface to recharge eh Number one?

What about the aircraft sir?

We'll see to it they're not going home either.

Destroyer on the port bow!

Good, she's taken the bait. Ahead flank, pivot starboard. Ready aft tubes, we only need one good hit to sink her.

Shame to sink her - she's one pretty ship. Fire! Damn, went straight under her. Hart to starboard, lets get some distance. Standby....standby...fire! Got her. Surface the boat, lets get some air. Be ready on those AA guns. Once we've taken the planes out we'll proceed on the surface and take the oiler out with the deck gun.

Mission orders:  Sink the oiler.  Get out alive.
08:00:42 - Mission started at 46.23.26N, 3.37.14W

08:00:43 - Spotted a League bomber at 46.22.55N, 3.34.20W

08:01:08 - Taking fire from a League corvette

08:04:36 - Destroyed CV2 with a torpedo E at 185 meters.

08:09:06 - Destroyed CV3 with a torpedo W at 447 meters.

08:16:34 - Destroyed DD4 with a torpedo E at 251 meters.

08:21:03 - Destroyed DD6 with a torpedo E at 259 meters.

08:33:20 - Destroyed DD5 with a torpedo NNE at 132 meters.

08:34:01 - Taking fire from a League bomber

08:36:00 - Destroyed B8 with a 4in deck gun round SSW at 950 meters.

08:36:30 - Destroyed B9 with a 4in deck gun round WSW at 220 meters.

08:41:34 - Destroyed OL1 with a 4in deck gun round ENE at 2300 meters.

08:48:20 - Mission completed at 46.24.0N, 3.30.20W

Planes Destroyed: 2

Ships Sunk: 6

Total Tonnage Sunk: 15130

Good work, Lionfish.  There are rumors of the RNE using Q-ships and baiting the hook for subs with oilers.  This deal doesn't sound like it fits that profile.  We think you hit something critical to Churchill's boys.  Good work!

Thanks Jesper, very similar to what I was doing, guess the increased confidence level helped. The last time I was able to take out the 2 CV's and ran before the DD's caught up...launched a few at them while they milled about, dove, a few direction changes and was home free. Again the crit points seemed to be: hit the tanker, down both CV's and make it through one attack from scattered DD's. Then run like hell.

Hope this helps others as well.

Thanks Buxton but I managed to make it through on my own.

Plugged the first two corvettes, then a third one that came with the DDs, then a circling DD, then the last CV and finally the remaining DDs. Whew! There were no planes left in the sky as one of them was downed by hedgehogs (I kid you not) and two others crashed into eachother.

I still retain my comments about the nearly impossible odds in winning this mission the first time you play it. In RL, no captain would take such absurd odds.

About those planes, I don't know if it's the model or the AI pilots or the mission script but they were constantly crashing and falling out of the sky.

Out.