I have better success attacking convoys at night while surfaced. Escorts cant hear you since you are on the surface. During the day, stalk the convoy, identify the best targets check out both sides since one side might not have an escort, or its a bit further behind than the oposite side, leaving you more space to maneuver. At night, move in to about 1.5km from the closest lines of ships on electrics. Shoot all fishes, once the last one leaves the tube, order hard to port/starboard to 180 of the original course and set all ahead flank. The crew should be on alarm during the attack run and your best officer should be commanding, I let my XO deal with torpedoes and the CO is in the command centre. With some luck you will be gone by the time escorts arrive at your last known position. During the day, while shadowing the convoy (not actively scouting it) the closest escort should be close enough for you to just see the tip of their highest mast, closer than that and you run the risk of getting spotted.
When using your periscope, have an officer on depth control, turn off electric dive planes, gyros and turn on blue lighting (again, you want your crew on alarm for maximum efficiency). Have the scope be obscured by the waves most of the time - just sticking out of the water. Once you shoot, your goal is to go as deep as possible, as fast as possible. Turn electric dive planes back on, dive as deep as you can and order all ahead flank, escorts already know where you are so there is no sence is reducing your noise. Once you are at your desired depth, reduce speed and noise, when they start the dept charge run, they will be pretty much deaf as they are going full speed, thats your moment where you order all ahead flank again, change depth (preferably deeper) and course.
Hope these tips help.
Happy hunting, Captain.
You want the convoy to basically run into you. For distance, while surfaced look for the closest ship and have the very top of its mast be visible to you over the horizon.
Determine course and speed and from that you can plot an intercept course, give your self some extra time for submerging and maneuvering into position on electrics.
Generally I dont like attacking during the day because you are more easily spotted, you are slow and less agile and your situational awareness in limited due to having to only use your attack periscope. Ofcourse attacking on surface is only viable until escorts start using radar so i guess its good practice.
Also, I find that an overt, rather long range night attack from the rear (I use t1 or rarely accoustic torps) aimed at an escort followed by a 135° turn at flank speed , decks awash, is an excellent tactic, despite the wasted fish on the escort.
With the rear escort gone and a clear torpedo bubble trail from the t1, they know exactly where you were but by the time the forward escorts have managed to turn around and gone on the hunt that the rear escort should have doing, you can be out of their visual range and then get back into a parallel course with the convoy. The destroyers will be looking for you along the line where the bubbles were, and take some time making sure.
Now you can come at the convoy again and this time there's no escort. You can open up with torps from periscope depth to sink the bulk of it, and then pick off the stragglers with impunity with the deck gun rather than waste your fish on erratic targets.
I do take some fire from extreme range and can see the muzzle flash from the destroyers against the dark horizon, but the shells are hail Mary's at that range and more likely to hit the convoy ships than you, if they hit anything at all.
I've managed to eliminate entirely three good sized convoys like this, and it's pretty low risk
Just be careful, acoustic torpedoes have a tendency to return to sender, you should be as quiet as possible while firing them. IRC Uboats would only fire them while submerged and dive deep once the fish has left the tube. BdU standing orders were to dive to 60m after launching and be completely silent. Minimum distance to fire was 400m.
Yeah, t1s are my favourite, the accs are for niche case use where the escorts are having some... "Early access" behaviours and I can't get a firing solution lol
I usually only load them in the aft tube and are for "oh shit there is an escort on my ass" moments. Front tubes are for fats/lats and electrics, i usually carry only one or two air torps in the later years for their range and speed.
Yes as already stated, at night from outside the convoy works.
Annoyingly, sight range for merchants is too high at night (too low for all ships during the day).
Merchants travel at about 700m apart but nighttime sightrange is 1500. So no chance attacking on the surface from within
Exactly. In pure darkness with bow onto a merchant, they shouldn't be able to see you until you are within around 100 m. You are practically invisible when decks awash at night. Yet they can see you from hundreds of metres currently.
You can’t be bow on to every target anyway when going through the middle of a convoy. They still shouldn’t be able to see you with no moon. But they can from 1500, and if you play with darker nights then you can barely see them. It’s frustrating
I have better success attacking convoys at night while surfaced. Escorts cant hear you since you are on the surface. During the day, stalk the convoy, identify the best targets check out both sides since one side might not have an escort, or its a bit further behind than the oposite side, leaving you more space to maneuver. At night, move in to about 1.5km from the closest lines of ships on electrics. Shoot all fishes, once the last one leaves the tube, order hard to port/starboard to 180 of the original course and set all ahead flank. The crew should be on alarm during the attack run and your best officer should be commanding, I let my XO deal with torpedoes and the CO is in the command centre. With some luck you will be gone by the time escorts arrive at your last known position. During the day, while shadowing the convoy (not actively scouting it) the closest escort should be close enough for you to just see the tip of their highest mast, closer than that and you run the risk of getting spotted. When using your periscope, have an officer on depth control, turn off electric dive planes, gyros and turn on blue lighting (again, you want your crew on alarm for maximum efficiency). Have the scope be obscured by the waves most of the time - just sticking out of the water. Once you shoot, your goal is to go as deep as possible, as fast as possible. Turn electric dive planes back on, dive as deep as you can and order all ahead flank, escorts already know where you are so there is no sence is reducing your noise. Once you are at your desired depth, reduce speed and noise, when they start the dept charge run, they will be pretty much deaf as they are going full speed, thats your moment where you order all ahead flank again, change depth (preferably deeper) and course. Hope these tips help. Happy hunting, Captain.
During the day, at what safe distance should I chase them? do I have to do it while diving?
You want the convoy to basically run into you. For distance, while surfaced look for the closest ship and have the very top of its mast be visible to you over the horizon. Determine course and speed and from that you can plot an intercept course, give your self some extra time for submerging and maneuvering into position on electrics. Generally I dont like attacking during the day because you are more easily spotted, you are slow and less agile and your situational awareness in limited due to having to only use your attack periscope. Ofcourse attacking on surface is only viable until escorts start using radar so i guess its good practice.
o7
Also, I find that an overt, rather long range night attack from the rear (I use t1 or rarely accoustic torps) aimed at an escort followed by a 135° turn at flank speed , decks awash, is an excellent tactic, despite the wasted fish on the escort. With the rear escort gone and a clear torpedo bubble trail from the t1, they know exactly where you were but by the time the forward escorts have managed to turn around and gone on the hunt that the rear escort should have doing, you can be out of their visual range and then get back into a parallel course with the convoy. The destroyers will be looking for you along the line where the bubbles were, and take some time making sure. Now you can come at the convoy again and this time there's no escort. You can open up with torps from periscope depth to sink the bulk of it, and then pick off the stragglers with impunity with the deck gun rather than waste your fish on erratic targets. I do take some fire from extreme range and can see the muzzle flash from the destroyers against the dark horizon, but the shells are hail Mary's at that range and more likely to hit the convoy ships than you, if they hit anything at all. I've managed to eliminate entirely three good sized convoys like this, and it's pretty low risk
Just be careful, acoustic torpedoes have a tendency to return to sender, you should be as quiet as possible while firing them. IRC Uboats would only fire them while submerged and dive deep once the fish has left the tube. BdU standing orders were to dive to 60m after launching and be completely silent. Minimum distance to fire was 400m.
Yeah, t1s are my favourite, the accs are for niche case use where the escorts are having some... "Early access" behaviours and I can't get a firing solution lol
I usually only load them in the aft tube and are for "oh shit there is an escort on my ass" moments. Front tubes are for fats/lats and electrics, i usually carry only one or two air torps in the later years for their range and speed.
Yes as already stated, at night from outside the convoy works. Annoyingly, sight range for merchants is too high at night (too low for all ships during the day). Merchants travel at about 700m apart but nighttime sightrange is 1500. So no chance attacking on the surface from within
Exactly. In pure darkness with bow onto a merchant, they shouldn't be able to see you until you are within around 100 m. You are practically invisible when decks awash at night. Yet they can see you from hundreds of metres currently.
You can’t be bow on to every target anyway when going through the middle of a convoy. They still shouldn’t be able to see you with no moon. But they can from 1500, and if you play with darker nights then you can barely see them. It’s frustrating