Convoy tactics
 

When I encounter a large convoy, my gut feeling tells me to put one torpedo in as many ships as possible to make them stop (a well placed torpedo tends to make them stop dead in the water). And then when the escorts and the rest of the convoy is gone just finish off the ships.

However, whenever I try that, the escorts and the rest of the merchants just stops and start to circle the place. It's a pain to get any chance to kill off a few damaged ships with the deck gun. I might get a few if it's dark and rainy, and I can shoot from 4-5km away - but not otherwise.

And I have stayed at the spot for at least 24 hours.

Why do they stay? Just to annoy me - I just can't imagine that being a tactic that was used in the WWII.

Lately, I've just taken to surfacing in the middle of the convoy and sinking everything with my deck gun.

...but I suspect that's not entirely realistic. :arrgh!:

wait till 1940...then try that when half of them are armed

I've had the convoy sail on, and had folks hanging around as well (which is very annoying). I usually try for at least one or two solid known kills (two torps), and go for damage or hopefully keel breakers on others.

I even had one huge group (25 or so) armed merchants with 6 escorts. They all started hunting me instead of sailing on.

Indeed, those armed merchants will shred you to f*ing pieces in no time flat. No more wild deck gun antics for me after the first part of the campaign...

i think they're more accurate this time around

and i just upgraded mt gun crew too :damn:

I would bet my right arm that our cannon was used for threats, sinking/finishing of a single ship or for last ditch defence.

NOT FOR SLAUGHTERING ENTIRE CONVOYS! :nope:

Well, it is an 88mm. Beyond that, can't really elaborate. If anything, it's been criticized by SH5 players for being too weak, not too strong.

Though I do know that wolf packs several times did decimate unprotected convoys, especially in the early war years.

So true! But not with the deck gun alone!

The U-boat Commander's Guide says "Better to sink little than damage much!"

But of course not! Did you think I was suggesting they didn't also use their 20mm machine gun?!

Okay, okay, so maybe it's not that realistic:D.

Yeah, even the merchants shoot lots of holes in me if I surface near them. But if I shoot at them from 3-5km in the middle of the night, they usually don't shoot back.
However, if there are any escorts still around, they come steaming at 35kn and fire from rather long distance.
Yesterday I found a lovely convoy with like 50 merchants and 6 escorts. I stopped 10 ships without sinking them, and then I hopes for the convoy to sail on, which it didn't. If I would have had to sink the ships, I might have managed to sink 4 ships - a big difference...

kittelmann wrote: this is my grand plan too, hence my interest in damaged ship speeds. i hope this is modded!