Senior Member
I encountered some strange behaviour on the part of a convoy. This was my first convoy since installing the new U-boat War Ace mod. I can't say if it was due to the mod or not, just adding it for information background.
The weather was high wind, 15 mps, with the resultant big waves. This concerned me, because of the possibility of being discovered while trying to maintain periscope depth in rough water in daylight. Nevertheless, I approached submerged to the front of the convoy and began my setup on the Southampton light cruiser at the front of the convoy.
The convoy was in disarray, with poor station keeping. I thought it would make an attack very difficult, as many ships were not on a steady course. I chose the cruiser because it was a high value target and was keeping a steady course, which seemed to me to offer the greatest promise of a sinking.
Here is an overhead map view of the convoy. you can see how the ships were scattered about.
I moved into position on the cruiser, launching 2 G7E electric torpedoes, to minimize the chance of their wake being spotted and the cruiser evading. I launched from about 400 metres away, so perhaps steam torpedoes would have been alright, with the target having very little time to evade them, but I decided to play it safe and opted for the electrics. Both hit and caused massive damage to the cruiser.
Here are some photos of the convoy. Notice how many ships are on different headings.
At the rear of the convoy was an escort in some form of distress. It was heeled over to one side, as if damaged and flooded.
After the cruiser exploded, I was damaged somehow. Perhaps it was collateral damage from the cruiser, as I was within 300-400 metres of her when the torpedoes detonated. It may have been from her firing at my conning tower as it was exposed in the pitching sea, I can't say for certain. My bridge was completely destroyed, as were both of my periscopes. My flak gun and deck gun areas were heavily damaged, but repairable.
I stayed under at about 120 metres and evaded by the back of the convoy. When I eventually surfaced, four of my crewmen were instantly killed in the act of going up top. I don't know how that happened, but that distressed escort was nearby, but tilted right over. I don't see how it would have been possible for her to fire on me. After the four crewmen were killed, I wasn't bothered again. I tried to sink the escort, but I could not get the UZO to work for surface firing. Thinking that it might be radioing my position to the convoy, I immediately left the area at top speed. After a nervous run home, without a bridge watch, we made it to port and laid up for repairs. Here is a photo of the distressed escort as I found it when I surfaced.
Senior Member
I'm beginning to think there is a problem with this new mod. I'm on my second patrol, outbound, and have just intercepted another convoy, which is behaving exactly the same as the previous one; ships out of line, same escorts, seems to be an exact copy.
I've just uninstalled the mod and am going to try again to see if there is any difference in game play without this mod installed.
Member
Junior Member
from my experience this can happen when the leader ship of the convoy is sunk, whitout a leader the convoy will get dissoriented,
in U-Boat War Ace mod- Axis patrols are increased wich could increase the chance that the convoy would have runned into a firefight before you encountered it.
since you also explain that one of the escorts seemed to be damaged this was most likely what had happend.
i wouldnt call it a bugg, more maybe a future of the mod
Senior Member
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Indeed â€" great presentation & a valuable report. Many thanks!
Some great shots, as well. The 3rd from the bottom in particular is superb!
From the look and sound of it, it does rather create impression that you’ve there run into a Convoy that’s already been harried by other U-boats â€" or, in any event, by something that threw them a panic-attack.
It seems as well that someone (recent U-boat attack?) hit that Destroyer rather smartly. Look like she’s in a world of trouble out there.
Incidentally â€" kudos for a good ‘clean’ kill of that Southampton.
There seems some strange ‘stuff’ afoot …
Although I’m not-using that Mod (U-Boat War Ace Mod) -
I mentioned to you earlier about my coasting off the north-west coast of England, trying to repair those tubes & etc…
While there (and about five minutes before being jumped by a couple very healthy Hurricanes) I noticed two columns of smoke ashore on the near-horizon.
Couldn’t resist a look â€" so went over in Free Cam to see what was burning.
Rather strange â€" I found two ‘dead’ Hurricanes just laying on the ground maybe some thousand meters or so apart.
Never seen anything like that before.
I did not engage either â€" or any â€" aircraft, so whatever killed them, it wasn’t me. I hadn’t fired at any aircraft for well over a week â€" and no-where around ‘here.’
Might you or anyone else have any thoughts about this?
Wonder what’s up… - ?
It makes me wonder â€" yet-again â€" whether there really isn’t a “war going on” out here â€" whether we’re present for all the action or not.
I mean â€" what’s the point in ‘scripting’ that? It’s meaningless isn’t it?
Who in their (her) right mind would bring a U-boat to within shouting distance of the coast of England ‘here?’ There’s nothing here. It’s another 30-40 miles to reach Loch Ewe.
It couldn’t be expected anyone would ‘see’ those two smoldering piles of once-were Hurricanes.
Did they run out of fuel together and crash?
Were they shot down? ..If so, by whom, by what?
* shrugs * I have no clue….
All I know for sure is â€" they were there, and U-53 didn’t do it.
Best,
~ C.
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Member
@Kaleun: as stated, the convoy may have stumbled across a pocket BB, but i have no experience of that happening in the game, id put it down to the mod (ship may have been damaged in a collision). but without trying it i really wouldnt know.
@Chrystine: something like that happened to me recently, at periscope depth i was checking out a convoy, when i saw what looked like 2 meteors coming down in the distance, didnt get a screenie in time, but i went over and checked it out. 2 hurricanes must of collided mid-air. which is what happen on my flak-gunning exam. planes are too dumb in this game.
Member
Senior Member
Open the RND.mis file in the campaign folder. Scroll down to RND group 61, the first convoy. See what the spacing is. If it is 400 change it to 500.
At 400, the ships go crazy at waypoints. They will still have realignment problems at 500 or higher, but not ridiculous as with 400.
Another way to do this faster is when you open the RND, click edit, scroll to “find”. This will open a box, copy the RND Group 1 into that box, then change the 1 to 61 and click “find next”. After looking at 61, change to 62 and click “find next”. Do this through RND Group 118 which is all the convoys and change the distances to 500 or 600 (What I did). The farther the distance, the farther the escorts are away. At 800-900 they will not bother you at all even if you reload in the middle of a burning convoy. I want them to act more like, I don’t know, ESCORTS!!!!
Wulfmann
Member
There was a post a few month back with screen shots. The Kaleun watched a Luftwaffe attack on a convoy from his periscope.Originally posted by ILikePortillos:
I was actually wondering about the likelyhood of air attacks. Would it be possible that the Luftwaffe (active in the North Atlantic) could have made a strike earlier? I came upon a convoy once, escorted by Corvettes, and one of them was LOW in the water. No bad weather either.
Senior Member
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“2 hurricanes must [have] collided mid-air.”
I thought about that possibility also â€" but the only time I’ve ever seen aircraft collide is when ‘swarming’ in attack mode (and have only seen Sunderlands collide: my husband has also seen Hurricanes collide tho’).
One would think they could fly in formation on ASW Patrol without clipping each other with fatal effect …
It is very possible that’s what brought these two down tho’.
I suppose it’s probably even the most likely.
Best,
~ C.
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