[AS]

I would like to see limited depth charge amounts on destroyers. As you all probably know the ammount of depth charges a destroyer/escort had was limited, the depth charges dropped were counted by the U-Boat crews in that they noted down each one on a black board. This would be an interesting, tactically and realism-wise important feature with should be easy to implement.

Any comments?

Cheers, AS

[Teemu]

I don't think I've ever seen a subsim that wouldn't have had limited depth charges.

[oche]

I wouldn't care too much for quantity of DCs as i would for not having Surgical Laser Guided DCs Hits as in unmodified SH2 original game.

[AS]

Maybe you got me wrong here... I just wanted to say that DDs shouldn´t have an UNLIMITED amount of depth charges. So while your crew counts the depth charges already thrown down at you, the DDs is running out of depth charges. You know it and can respond. Easy to design, very realistic and effective for the gameplay. Destroyers throwing a lot in the beginning and throwing less and less in the long run, as they reportedly did in reality, would be icing to the cake.

And it would also be nice to have destroyers leaving you alone after a while as they have to catch up with their convoy. It was very common indeed to just force a detected U-Boat under water and then leaving it alone. The destroyers couldn´t always afford to waste too much time away from the cargo ships they had to protect.

Cheers, AS

[oche]

gotcha

[Nightowl]

I agree AS, I always wondered how they could possibly have such a large number of DC's dropping on me for hours, thought I would never survive. But on the other hand when you were playing Destroyer command, you had such a limited supply, that you had to be very careful not to waste them, and you also weren't so lucky in scoring (taking out) the sub you were depth charging.

[NeonSamurai]

Agreed, if i dont have unlimited torpedoes, they shouldnt get unlimited depth charges (and i dont want unlimited torpedoes).

It would be stupidly simple to add to the game, realistic, and give us better survival chances as the escorts cant follow us around for hours on end droping set after set after set of cans on our head. Im sure all us sh 2 vets have stories about that.. Like the time where i ended up sitting on the bottom watching these 2 dd's go round and round and round me droping cans for 6 hours, and then killed me when i got fed up and tried to sneak away.

[Sailor Steve]

Also agree. I play DC a lot, and during escort missions if I detect a Japanese sub I'll attack him until the convoy is far enough away that the sub is no longer a threat and then run back to my convoy and call it good. I'd do that even if I had unlimited depth charges. I'ts the proper way for a fighter pilot to escort bombers and it's the proper way for a destroyer to escort a convoy.

'twould be nice if the AI destroyers thought so, too.

[finchOU]

Remember that the goal of the escort was not to sink the sub. nessicarliy but to prevent it from damaging ships in the convoy, there for if they force the sub to submerge and ran it out of the convoy.....with out losing ships.......this was the determination of success.......if the U-boat was sunk......that was a bonus. It is not very realistic to think that a DD will stick with you leaving a Big convoy behind unless there are plenty of escorts to cover.

Speaking of DD's........i find it hard to believe that a DD would chug along like it was another ship in the convoy (same speed and direction). I remember in AOD that the DD's were always on different sector screens going in circles and doubling back......it may have been ecessive and not too realistic, but definitly more so then SH2. I dont know .....any thoughs on this???

[Henric Edwards]

[AS]

Speaking of DDs... after reading many books and articles from U-Boat commanders I´m under the impression that the destroyers` position normally wasn´t clearly to make out for the U-Boats and so I conclude they weren´t fixed but more or less randomly roaming up and down. Other than in most simulations, the U-Boats were often able to attack convoys without even seeing destroyers around. On the other hand, they often appeared to be more or less surprised by destroyers suddenly closing in while the U-Boat crew was engaged in attacking cargo ships. What strikes me the most is the fact that - again other than in all sims - the whole U-Boat war was fought in very close distance: torpedoes were mainly fired in less than 1000meters. Hardegen, the famous "Paukenschlag" captain, reportedly attacked ships within 500 meters. Destroyers were passed at nights within a rang of 300 meters without the destroyer taking any notice. Reportedly, some U-Boats used their electric engines on surface within a convoy in order to keep down their noise.

Other than in SH2, where the proportion is lousy, U-Boats were TINY compared to cargo ships, so they weren´t that easily seen on the surface, especially at nights they were almost invisible on the surface.

Even today the small German coast U-Boats are always in danger of being accidently rammed by other ships since their siluette is so small and hard to tell. There´s a reason why they are called U-BOATS, and not U-SHIPS.

Cheers, AS

[Oskar]