Convoy strategy

[bairdlander]

Everytime I run into a convoy at night,drop to periscope depth,get closer then im pinged by escorts.They know exactly where I am everytime.Every corvette and destroyer destroys me with depth charges.I drop depth to 150m flank speed to get away and I get sunk.What is a better strategy since mine does not work.

[BanDHMO]

First, you might not want to attack at night.

Second, do not run flank speed when escorts are nearby. The sound of the engine is a dead giveaway. You have to learn how long it takes the destroyers to get within 1.5-2km of you as you are running away and then kill the engines, the gyro and the steering servo motors, as well as put the crew on blue light mode.

If you are being bombed, do not sit still. That's when they already know you are there, so gun it, and go deeper. The deeper you are, the longer it takes for the charges to reach you, and more time you have to get away.

When explosions are happening, enemies can't hear you. Use that to relocate, then kill the engine again as things are quieting down.

[III./ZG76_saipan 17]

at night stay on the surface

[Twelvefield]

Originally posted by III./ZG76_saipan 17:

at night stay on the surface

I agree, but as the war goes on it's going to be harder to avoid the escorts. Make your attacks as far away as you can, to give yourself a fighting chance to escape.

If you are very far away, you can risk evading at flank speed, it sometimes works. Otherwise, you go deep and silent, and move slowly so that you don't make noise. The only time you can go to flank speed when escorts are around is just after depth charges explode: the water gets churned up and that makes listening on hyrdophones impossible for about 30 seconds.

[er.tz]

If they catch you during the day, you're screwed; at night, there are better chances of escaping. You just need to stay out their visibility distance and escape surfaced. Attacking at night while surfaced is an option that Uboats would use because it was safer—the majority of aircraft couldn't see at night (in the first years of war). Surfaced at night give Uboats better visibility and mobility. Here in the game, it works the same way, but you have to keep a few things in mind. If you're on the surface, the enemy ASCID cannot ping you. However, if you are very close to the enemy, use electric motors to minimize noise.

At night, while surfaced, the only danger is being visually spotted (late stage of war things get more complicated). Therefore, you should always stay outside the distances where they might see you and have a good idea of where all the ships are, especially the warships. Ideally, you would avoid contact, but sometimes, due to the enemy's positions, it's necessary to come into visual range for an attack. In that case, if there's no other option, you should submerge the submarine (if you decide to take the risk and go for the attack). Once inside the convoy, due to the noise of all the ships, it becomes much more difficult for the ASCID to locate you.

What I usually do is follow the convoy during the day, taking notes on their speed, their course, where the warships are, and mapping out the convoy's structure as best as I can. When night falls, I try to exploit any protection gaps in the convoy and get as close as possible to attack. I aim to launch torpedoes at 1 km surfaced (or closer if there is a chance) and 500 m submerged (i only submerge as last resort defensively or offensively) and several shots if possible against at least 2 ships, then escape and get ahead of the convoy again to make another ambush hours later. If I notice the convoy is very disorganized or the warships are lost, I slip submerged inside the convoy, reload, and launch attacks at point-blank range until all torpedoes are gone.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3284814227

[bduduty]

I want to also mention that that escort : merchant ratio in convoys is WAAAAAY off from its historical values. I'm, as of this moment, sitting about 4km away, at night, from a passing convoy. I've counted no less than 12 destroyers and corvettes on just the port flank of this convoy. If the starboard side has just as many, it means this convoy of about 50 ships is 50% escorts. This is an absurdly high number compared to the historical average of about 12%.

Right now your best bet for penetrating convoys is to ambush them in waters shallow enough for you to sit on the seabed to avoid ASDIC, and then come up in the middle of the convoy. Or, do long range fan shots from 2.5km-ish out on the surface. And that's early war. As other posters have said, late war complicates things mostly due to radar and aircraft. Until a mod comes to fix the ratio or the devs fix it in a patch, convoys are going to be really hard to penetrate with any measure of safety.

[Alex Paen (ljekio)]

There are usually enough gaps between them to wait for them to pass. You can safely be underwater (silently) if the warship's line of passage is more than a kilometer away from you. Although the year is not written here, in later years I would not lie abeam of the convoy, but would attack from the side and from afar.

[Gutted]

This is what i do at night on the surface before they get radar.

https://imgur.com/a/pFkDwqV

Rinse and repeat. Just keep the escorts chasing a ghost. Whenever there's an opening charge back through the freighters at flank speed. It helps to know how to manually target and can do quick snap shots.

My rule of thumb is when they are weaving, take off about 2kts of their previous speed. And hit them when they present a 90ish degree angle to you from close range.

[mgcman69]

You need to get below 190 meters to evade the depth charges in the early years due to their maximum depth setting.
You can take a VIIB down to 200m without much problem. Any deeper and things will start to break over time.

as the war progresses, the depth charges can have deeper settings and you will have to go deeper to evade.

[Alex Paen (ljekio)]

Originally posted by mgcman69:

You need to get below 190 meters to evade the depth charges in the early years due to their maximum depth setting.
You can take a VIIB down to 200m without much problem. Any deeper and things will start to break over time.

as the war progresses, the depth charges can have deeper settings and you will have to go deeper to evade.

they shouldn't explode deeper than 91m until 1941, but not in this game, they have a mind of their own here

[Fox]

Attack the convoy at night and at surface, you are slower at periscope depth. Use electric engines so they can't ear you coming closer, don't get closer than 1.5 km. Launch torpedoes and start running away still with electric engines at max speed (don't wait for torpedos impacts). As soon the torpedos hit the targets the escorts will launch flares, engage diesel engines and run away as fast you can.