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A pleasure, Tambor... thank YOU for haivng had such a good idea!!
I't becoming very good indeed! I'm pretty sure it will become a very interesting guide... I myself found some pretty interesting information!!
Anyway, as soon as I manage I'll update my part with some explanatory screenies... I'll let you know when I have
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Here is a tidbit I have found helpfull!
You need to follow the golden rule for game saving in SH4.
You need to be alone, at least 50 Mi. from any land mass and away from contacts of any sort.
As I said, you need to be alone!
Also you want to be on the surface and have any time compresion turned off before you save.
P.S.
On the issue of deck gun ammo, Ducimus mentioned in one of his early works that the HP and AP ammo do indeed have diffrent properties with the AP being weaker than the HP. I think he said that the HP did 20 pts damage VS 14 with the AP. I do not recall if the AP had any benifit against armored targets. You may want to ask the master on this point.
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SUBMERGED ATTACKS....ACT TWO
1. Some additional pointers to add to another skipper's post. Generally, Japanese merchant convoys are small, usually 8 or 9 ships. They tend to be "wide" as opposed to a box or rectangle such as the allied convoys, which could be 40+ ships. The good news is, because they take this wide stance, there is usually a gap in the escort screen you can exploit.
Here's an example:
M6 M7 M8
E2 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 E3
E1
S
The escorts (E1-E3) are screening in a sort of V shape pattern. Your goal is to get into the gap and go after the merchants (M1-M8)
For our example, let's assume that the convoy is heading due South and you are at position S. Go slow and quiet (below a thermal if you can) until Escort 1 has passed you. In most cases I basically run at the point where E1 is initially, he'll be gone by the time I get there and it gets me well past the flank escorts at the same time. Escorts have a hard time finding you when you are astern of them because of the noise of their screws.
Plan your attack, let's make it easy, M1 is a small cargo vessel, M2 is a medium cargo vessel, M3 a large modern tanker. You want to target the farthest target first. With a little luck, your torpedoes will arrive at several targets at about the same time if your go from farthest to closest. OK, you set up on the tanker, fire 4 bow tubes. Now set up on M2 and fire your two remaining bow tubes. Drop the scope, go to ahead slow if you were going any slower, and put in hard right rudder. When you are pointing roughly South East, bring your scope back up and see if you can line up M1 with your stern tubes.
If everything works out, you should be scoring 3 kills. Drop the scope, head as deep as you can, rig for silent running and pick a heading that takes you away from the escorts.
2. Don't be too concerned about reloading tubes. You probably will not be able to attack again without doing another intercept a few hours later anyway. Just concentrate on getting clear of the area.
3. Sometimes just when you think you can start working your way back to periscope depth, because the remaining merchants are moving away, one or more of the escorts will perform a wide sweep. If you can still hear them on your sound gear, they're too close.
4. Another trick is to have one of the escorts go to all stop and just sit there waiting for you to poke your scope up for a look. They are especially inclined to do this if you manage to bring a merchant ship to a complete stop, but not sink it.
5. Just get far away (I usually allow myself at least 30 minutes of real time quiet travel without being attacked). Then, come up nice and quiet to periscope depth. If you don't see any escorts, surface, secure from silent running and then figure out if it's really worth running another intercept on what's left of the convoy.
6. Oh yeah, once I surface, I secure from general quarters. Even if I plan to attack the convoy again, it lets the crew rest, and even the duty watch will get the tubes reloaded long before I'm back in position to make another run.
7. Long range "Hail Mary" shots, especially at a ship doing more than 5 knots are usually just a waste of time. If you can't get in close (1500 yards or less on your initial target) I wouldn't bother. Either sneak away and try to set up again or just abandon the attack and see if something else turns up later.
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