[Sarge McSarge]

Just finished my most recent patrol and broke the 100,000 mark. More luck than skill.
106,000 VIIB 1940 54%

Sarge

[Ula Jolly]

[Sarge McSarge]

AAF ???

[TreverSlyFox]

29th Patrol on transfer to 7th Flotilla St. Nazaire from 2nd Flotilla Wilhemshaven. Patrol Area BB94 April 29, 1942 to May 20, 1942 Type IXC at about 50% Realism.

From previous Patrols in CA38 from 2nd Flotilla I found the Passenger Liner lanes out of New York/Boston area on a 45 degree line from about BC77 to BE36. My last patrol in 2nd Flotilla (28th Patrol) was 11 ships totaling 213,045 tons.

My last Patrol (the 1st in 7th Flotilla) the 29th patrol totaled 242,184 tons in 11 ships. I actually got tired of sinking Passenger Liners and had to save at least 8 torps before I even got to my assigned patrol area of BB94. I passed up at least 5 more Passenger Liners on the way in and passed up at least 6 more on the way out as I had decided to hunt Convoys in NE BF and SE AL.

I use 2 T-1 G7a torps set for 6m depth, impact pistol and aim right under the stack. In general, the first torp blows up the ship but I always use 2 just to be sure at just under 1000 meters and about 2-6 degrees off of 90 degrees. I try to set up at 95 degrees to her line of travel so I don't have the "Torpedo Bounce" problem.

They always run at 15 Kts and I have run into 2 running about 1 hour apart on the same course line. The 2 general course lines are only about 25-30Km apart so I just run down the center of them and when I get a "Radio contact report" I start to run 1000m off the line she's in and wait til she's sighted by my watch crew or I get a Hydrophone contact.

Hunting Passenger Liners is so easy that they should be only 5,000 tons so it's harder to rack up the tonnage. My last 2 patrols I've received 5 Gold Crosses eace patrol to hand out, I think I've only got 5 or 6 Seamen that don't have them now.

At 90-100% realism it shouldn't be a problem breaking 100,000 tons hunting Passenger Liners.

[Type941]

does the realism level affect the number of liners you meet?? Care to share the rout you hunt?

[TreverSlyFox]

Type 941,

Don't know if the Realism Level affects the number of ships the AI tosses out, it might. The actual Passenger Liner Travel Lanes are fairly easy to find, it'll just take some time on a patrol.

In BC77/78 There is a tip of shallow water sticking out, in BC77 about middle of the grid draw a line to the middle of grid BE36. Now sit back at about 512 TC and watch the radio reports come in and any ship shown heading to BE36 along that line is most likely a passenger liner if it shows a speed of FAST. Now keep refining that course line as radio reports come in later showing the same ship. You'll find out that there are 2 lanes about 30 Km apart that the passenger liners usually take.

Once you have those 2 lanes identified just plot a course from BE36 to BC77 BETWEEN those 2 lanes. Or if you don't want to waste a lot of fuel if your Patrol area isn't near them just plot a course between them in BE36 and sit and wait at the western edge of BE36 or in BE35.

The line runs through just about middle of BC 77 to 92, BD 49 to 64 and BE 28 to 36. I have the old grid map from AOD that shows all the grid numbers. If you drew a line from the middle of BC77 to BE36 you'ed be pretty close with just that base line I think.

AT 90-100% realism it would be a lot harder to fine without the "Map Updates" but I think just the base line would get you close enough. Once you find one Passenger liner there will be more following that lane and course he's on and another parallel lane within 30Km NNW or SSE depending on which lane he's in.

Once I found the lanes I sunk 8 Passenger liners in a week of travel down the lanes to CA38 and all were sunk before BC77, I actually STOPPED shooting or I'ed been out of torps before I got to my Patrol Area of CA38.

Lots of luck.

[Tullaian]

The tonnages here show that even at 100% realism, the game still leans towards the Uboat (obviously since it is a game).

Total Decorations Awarded to Uboat force for duration of war.

Diamonds Winners (2)
Swords Winners (5)
Oak Leaves Winners (29)
Knights Cross Winners (144)

An ace was anyone with over 50,000 tons of kills and very few ever got past 200,000 for their entire careers so single patrols for 180,000+ were somewhat unlikely.

Early in the war you can pretty much sink ships with impunity since there aren't any escorts to speak of and you can just sit around on the convoy lines to pick off C2s and 3s and rack up some huge totals especially if you are selective and refuse to engage small ships (pretty sure that was a no-no for real captains ).

I think a better question to ask is with what mods since clearly operating under RuB and IC to eliminate all the fat single unguarded merchants changes the ability to sink large numbers a lot more than just difficulty since a lone C3 on 1% difficulty is just as easy to sink at 100%.

[andy_311]

152k
still got 3 fish left and miles from port
realism 33%

[SkvyWvr]

113,000, 50%, almost all Liberty and T-3s, All between Cuba and Dominica, early '42.

[Keelbuster]

Since I started playing 100% realism with man targetting (but w/stabilized scope), NYGM TW, I've maxed at 58k in VIIB. That was from hunting lone cargos in the channel. I've yet to get out to the open atlantic where the real convoys are, and I expect to push a bit higher when i hit the liners/T3s. Dud torpedoes really cut your winnings. Not to mention the NYGM flotation scheme. Most of my other patrols were in the 20s.

Kb

[BehroozWolf]

<i>"since a lone C3 on 1% difficulty is just as easy to sink at 100%."</i>

...only if you can surface to use the deck gun, and you have the deck gun firing interval on the default. Put the reload time up over 30 seconds, and you'll see a lot of unfriendlies showing up before you can sink a C3 with the deck gun alone... even when there isn't already a destroyer cruising 5km away.

Also, without targeting assistance, any kind of screwup can convert an easy torpedo kill to a dud or miss.

Correct TDC settings, but you were rushed to get that fast 90 shot and forgot to adjust the depth or trigger setting? Oops, that was a dud/bounced off/missed close enough to notice! Now you've got one or two fewer torpedoes and a dodging C3 at 15+kts, heading away from you.

Switched torps and forgot to completely update the settings for TDC? Oops, missed!

Oh. I forgot to switch out of automatic mode on the TDC, and my fast 90 shot is now 11.5 degrees off.

Heavy fog and stormy weather with 200m visibility? Gonna take some serious observation and plotting to hit something you can't *see* when you have to do the observation and plotting yourself.

I play on 100% realism, with higher deck gun reload times from SH3Cmdr. I also end up having to reload a lot, 'cause even with the perfect setup, it's easy to miss a shot by forgetting to click one button. When I'm on, I can take two C3s and a T3 in one volley in a convoy. When I'm off, I miss the first shot on a lone C3 and then rush to take the next two and don't manage to sink anything.

Reloading any time I make a really bone-headed targeting mistake, my best patrol so far is about 88,000 tons on 100% difficulty.

Admittedly, for true 100% realism, I shouldn't use Google Calculator to calculate speeds based on my observations.

"7.7 km / 34 minutes in knots"

Try it

[Heibges]

about 66K, 7 ships including 5 tankers

92% Realism (External Cam for screenshots)
No WO Assistance
Spring 1943
Type VII
RuB 1.45
Hollywood Damage and Crew Model
Realism Rules from Uboat Commanders Handbook
1. Fan Shooting at all targets. No single torpedoes.
2. Only do soundchecks at dawn and dusk. Locate targets by patrolling on the surface.

In 1/3 of my patrols I usually see no targets, and return to port empty-handed.

[tbarak]

I finally got my first 100K (104K) mission the other day. It's my first campaign, ~60% realism, May '42 with a type VIIC. Great mission, not too many ships sunk since I only shoot at T2s or higher, like T3s, passenger liners and big fighting ships.

Some highlights if you care;

Was attacked by 12 Sunderlands at one time! Managed to shoot two of them down.

I was at around 80K tonnage with one eel left and about 40 HE rounds plus star shells. Spotted lone T2, fired a single electric under the keel from abeam, good weather, day, from 450 metres. The T2 broke up and sank almost instantly!

At 90K tonnage total, just 40 HE shells left (plus flak and star shells). Do I try to find a T3 or two smaller ships to make the 100K? Low on diesel. Spotted lone, unarmed small tanker, good weather, decided to attack with gun. Sunk small tanker with 22 shells left.

Immediately after came across 2 C3s, both with bow guns sailing very close together. Submerge, they sailed directly over top of us, popped up 90 metres dead astern of rear C3 and opened fire with cannon. Other C3 maneuvers to fire but I'm positioned behind the rear C3 so no shells impact us. Have to use star shells to finish off the C3 while my flak gunners down allied planes diving above us. I'm positioned such that the C3 we sank didn't get a single cannon shot off. Bee-line it for home, made port safely, finally achieving the vaunted 100K tonnage on a single mission with out loss of a single man. Woohoo!!!

[sober]

CAPTAIN'S LOG

Date and Time
Grid
Occurrences

01 Mar 1942
2315 Patrol 1
U-124, 10th Flotilla
Left at: March 1, 1942, 23:15
From: Lorient
Mission Orders: Patrol grid ED98
11 Mar 1942
0144 CF 86 Ship sunk! S.S. Malayan Prince (Large Tanker), 7655 tons
0148 CF 86 Ship sunk! S.S. Pensilva (Medium Tanker), 6644 tons
0149 CF 86 Ship sunk! S.S. Tiiu (Medium Cargo), 4961 tons
0354 CF 86 Ship sunk! S.S. Anu (Medium Cargo), 4372 tons
1526 CF 88 Ship sunk! S.S. Towner (Tramp Steamer), 2589 tons
1604 CF 88 Ship sunk! S.S. Arbiter (Large Cargo), 5512 tons
09 Apr 1942
1134 DN 47 Ship sunk! S.S. Rincon Hills (Small Merchant), 3960 tons
1142 DN 47 Ship sunk! S.S. President Adams (Large Cargo), 6755 tons
1144 Patrol results
Crew losses: 0
Ships sunk: 8
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonage: 42448 tons

BACK

[Saukko]

I looked the logs of my current careers, and this was the highest.

92 %
Type VIIC
October -41
91974 tons

Heh, hull integrity was 80 % after that patrol.