Arctic Convoys

[SoulShock]

Has anyone had any luck finding convoys or ANY ships in their designated arctic patrol area? I have never been on patrol in an assigned area and NOT stumble across something.

Do convoys sail closer to Svalbard or Norway when heading to / coming from the Soviet Union?

[Urfisch]

I assume, they are not set or it's before 1941 :)

[dbond1]

In my first career, after the approaching ground forces made La Rochelle untenable, we transferred to Bergen, where we ran a few Arctic Convoys missions. First one in late '44 was a bust. Found nothing in our assigned area and had to go west where we finally found a convoy near the Faroe islands.

In a later patrol, we did find two Murmansk convoys. They were heavily escorted, about 15-20 ships ringed by ten destroyers. Not in game now so don't recall the grid, but these were in the waters southwest of Bear Island heading east

What year are you in?

[SoulShock]

It's September 1941 and the battle for the Arctic region has just kicked off. I'm on my first patrol and just confused by the sheer nothingness of the northern regions, especially when compared to the Med or North Atlantic. Also - the BdU and other boats are unusually quiet.

I have run into convoys or single merchants in every other theater so far, but the straight between Svalbard and Norway just seems strangely barren.. will keep an eye out SW of Bear Island.

The mission brief also stated that the battleship Rodney was to be in the area of operations.

[dbond1]

I see that a lot, about Nelson, but yet to see it at sea.

"SW of Bear Island" is not exactly nailing it down, but I hope you are successful. Good hunting.

[Para]

If you don't mind raiding ports, try the Port of Reykjavík. It should be within the Arctic convoy campaign area. Not that heavily populated with ships though.

[dbond1]

Yep, good advice. Any ships sunk in the right grids will count, even if you are not on an Arctic Convoys mission. Same with Happy Times, Black Pit, Last Stand and Battle of the Mediterranean

[SoulShock]

Alright - I discovered a convoy east of the Faroe Islands. As luck would have it, BdU hits me with a message shortly after, requesting me to find the needle in said haystack heading for Murmansk. I decided to disengage and shadow the convoy with the hydrophone instead.

Here is the convoy route:

AF 7144, point of initial contact - heading NE.
AB 2839, convoy turns E - almost runs me over.
AC 2893, contact lost on hydrophone - I do a 360 sweep in the immediate area with no results, it seemingly vanished into thin air. Bad weather prevents surface reacquisition.

Draw a line between these coordinates on your map and may the odds of a convoy encounter be ever in your favour.

[wolf310ii]

Originally posted by SoulShock:

Do convoys sail closer to Svalbard or Norway when heading to / coming from the Soviet Union?

If its historical accurate, they should stay away from norway as far as possible, because of the german airforce and the heavy surface vessles stationed in norway.

[dbond1]

Looking a the map after firing UBOAT up, the Murmansk convoys I mentioned were in AB6/AB9. Nice work finding one skipper. Good hunting.

[dbond1]

Originally posted by wolf310ii:

If its historical accurate, they should stay away from norway as far as possible, because of the german airforce and the heavy surface vessles stationed in norway.

It would be cool if Scharnhorst or Tirpitz came steaming out, the Royal navy had a distant covering force of a couple battlewagons and a bunch of cruisers. A carrier maybe. The Luftwaffe as you say. These convoys were a big deal, and both sides spent a lot of effort to get them through, or stop them.

I can't say this stuff isn't already going on in UBoat, I can only see so much, and who knows what we miss just over the horizon. In many Silent Hunter versions (games/mods/supermods) there is historical ship traffic. I assume we aren't there yet in this game, right? But maybe we will get there, for those skippers who want to see that sort of thing.

Like my current career is in the Med. If I go west in early November, 1942, will I see Torch forces? Over time I hope we see an expanded ship roster and some of this historical ship traffic, even if it's only the big shows, like Torch, or Husky. Add Italy, (Salerno, Anzio, etc) and the Med would be pretty spicy.

The Allies lost a number of warships here, running convoys like Pedestal to Malta. I have yet to see anything like this in the ten months we've been here. Not expecting it either, at this stage. Maybe down the line.

[Alex Paen (ljekio)]

It's very hard to meet anyone there. In a week I met 2 small groups of destroyers and one Liberty...

[muffin <3]

You can cheese convoy routes by waiting for a technology prototype mission then just shadowing the convoy to see what path it takes. Note the month/year, draw the path, take a screenshot, and go from there. Variations on this trick also work, like snorkelling around while you are AFK for weeks with good hydrophone listeners until you run into something.

[dvpierce]

The Arctic Convoy campaign objective says that ships sunk in AE, AF, AB, AC, AT & AW count, but if I get into Murmansk (which seems to be in AC997?) the ships I sink there don't seem to count... :-(

Or am I wrong and Murmank is over the link into AG?

[Vlad Tepes]

Reminds me of SH4 out in the Pacific Ocean... lotta nothn. :)

[Gefallener_Held]

These comments are not encouraging. Would I, or anyone, be encouraged not to partake?