I will carry on the fight in your absence. The plan to upgrade my boat worked a treat, completing three ATO missions and swapping to the new VIIC/41 U-998 in December 1940. We then shifted bases to La Rochelle, about one day's cruise south. Did two Southern Routes patrols, which were frustrating as usual, just a parade of neutrals. In two patrols we sank but one British freighter in our assigned grid. It is now March, 1941. At the end of the last patrol we came across a T2 tanker in BD grid clipping along at 14 knots, flying Argentinian flags. Suspecting a deception I shot two torpedoes and she blew sky high. In the debrief it was said that it was an American ship flying a false flag and there was no reprimand, even though the US is not at war yet. But blockade-runners are fair game I guess, even if you don't board and sniff out the deception. Can't board tankers anyway. For 14,000 tons I'd take the rep hit anyway, whatever it is.
To achieve anything in this game you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster — Stirling Moss
What are the basics needed to upgrade to the VIIC/41 ? I have a ton of points but apparently not the right ones... I'm currently in December, 1941. Hmmm looks like I need to complete one more mission in the ATO ... OR... take on the Enigma recovery.
If you're already in a VIIC, then you just need another blueprint, which can come from a number of objectives. Third phase of ATO, Black Pit, Battle of the Med among them. ATO is the fastest I think, after Tonnage War, three special missions is all it takes and it begins earlier than Black Pit does. I ended up doing all five phases of ATO, all weather stations and agent insertions. Enigma recovery does not award a blueprint, but you may have meant something else. It does award a skill though I think.
U-998 conducts a weather station mission near Iceland, April 1941
To achieve anything in this game you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster — Stirling Moss
That had happened to me in my last patrol out of Brest, and that's what spurred my move to La Rochelle in this campaign. It was the first patrol in U-998 with the better flak arrangement, including a quad twenty on the winter garden. I just went ahead emergency, plotted a course out of port and we just ripped away with the flak guns, shooting down two, but burning up all of our 1500 rounds barely out of port. Port defense AA took out the rest I guess. At twenty knots we were kicking the rudder over as the planes swooped down to release their depth charges which would sail overhead and splash down to port or starboard and explode, showering the boat with water but not doing much damage to us. Some damage done but all repaired once we reached the open sea.
In my first career, building pens put an end to these raids. I expect to be safe from them when tied up, but they also just stopped happening either coming in or out of port. Could be coincidence I guess. Just built the two France pens in summer 1941 in current campaign, and about time too.
If you used the blueprint from Tonnage war to get the VIIC, then Atlantic Theater Operations and Black Pit are next in line, unless you want to transfer to the Med. Last Stand awards one too, but that doesn't start until 1943.
ATO are special missions, long range aside from the agent insertion in Ireland. If I were to do this again, I'd stay in Wilhelmshaven until doing three ATO missions to get the blueprint, since the missions are mostly in the arctic, and closer to the North Sea bases. Better yet, Bergen, but it's so far from the good night clubs. After completing three of these a blueprint is awarded and you can upgrade to the VIIC/41. You can keep backing out to the quartermaster if you don't like the boat number until you roll one you like.
Black Pit starts in mid-1941 so you can do that instead, which is how I got it in my first career. Phase 2 nets the blueprint and I think that is 100k tons sunk, in BE, BD, AL and AK grids. Any trade ship sunk in that square counts, even if the mission was not a Black Pit mission. So for example you can do the Labrador mission or whatever, and any ships you sink along the way in the right grids will tally toward Black Pit. In this career I wanted to see how early I could get the /41, which was December of 1940 with ATO, and could have been earlier. But I prefer Black Pit from a gameplay perspective. Anti-shipping patrols in the mid-Atlantic is more my style. But the special missions are good to mix in. I had not finished ATO in the first run, and have done now.
The VIIC/41 is excellent. I evaded destruction earlier by diving to 274 meters, which is nice, and the flak arrangement is great from the time you get it, until summer of 1943 when it becomes too perilous to remain surfaced. I pretty much always dive the boat when an aircraft is sighted, or trips the Cross, regardless.
To achieve anything in this game you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster — Stirling Moss
Im on the mission in the Arctic where the Luftwaffe jhas photographed a structure on Hoppen Island and I go to check it out. I'm supposed to sight it with UZO or scope.. I've been around the entire island once and no sighting. Anyone played this one?
Yes I did that one two days ago. There is a hut you need to spot through the UZO and then fire a warning shot with your deck gun. You then meet with the Russian occupant who tells you of other people to the north. You then need to find that hut and shoot another round with your deck gun and do another meeting, I believe, to finish the mission. It was daylight and clear when I did it and the huts were easy to spot from about 2 km off shore. It's very close to the initial marker so no need to sail around the island. Well until you need to find the other one, but that's just a short distance to the north.
To achieve anything in this game you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster — Stirling Moss
Hmmm so I seem to have located the hut but all I get is that green target circle I cant actually SEE the hut even from half a km. And nothing lets me click on the circle or otherwise issue an order to go ashore. I'm stuck Ill have to abandon this mission I think. A TON of complaints on this mission in the Steam forum.. I tried waving my UZO around, even got out of my chair and waved!
Waving it around was the thing that worked for me, sort of like I do when trying to get it to lock on a ship on the horizon. Just took a few seconds. I hope you get it to work so you can clear it, and maybe get your new boat. Maybe you need to be even closer? Good luck, that's a long way to go to have it not work.
To achieve anything in this game you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster — Stirling Moss
Patrol 18 U-201 KK W.Schulz cmd TypeVIIC Sector BE2-BE5 Dec 1940
LOG (excerpts)
15 Dec 40 1830h Slipped lines and left Brest, all hands accounted for. Boat reprovisioned. Little fruit available, vegetables already poorly. Will monitor. KH 1stOff
18 Dec 40 0100h reached patrol sector, few contacts, weather poor. Visibility schiesse. WS cmd
19 Dec 40 1940h Enigma message, decoded. Orders to seek Empire Audacity and sink her before she reaches Liverpool. General coordinates of convoy given. Will attempt to intercept. WS cmd
20 Dec 40 0200h Hydrophone located several screws WNW of us. Possibly the correct convoy. Course laid in. KH 1stOff
21 Dec 40 1030h After action report messaged to BDU. We caught the enemy convoy at 0010h, maneuvered into the midst of the 30+ ships. Killed HMCS Snowflake (corvette) who stumbled on us. Torpedoed and sank SS Bloody Marsh (US tanker, 14947 tons, delivering oil to Englanders so fair game) at 0503h. Launched rear torpedo at a cargo ship, dud x1. Forward tubes reloaded. Star shells fired by enemy escorts. Located EmpAudacity, fired a two torpedo spread, both duds. Fired the 88mm at the enemy, trying to disable their engine room. Deck became too hot as we were subject to naval cannon and oerlikons. Fired one torpedo at closing enemy destroyer, missed, likely due to hurried solution. Flank speed to the middle rear of convoy, more starshells. Diesels damaged, slowed to half. Enemy corvettes and destroyers now closing. Damaged to hull repaired, dive valves repaired. My engineers saved us. Crash dove to 95m, checked integrity. Small leaks, men repairing. Hydrophone indicated overhead propellors, ordered silent running, electric motors at 1. Torpedo tubes inoperable but leaks stopped. Depth charging began. Minor damage, no one panicking, but we are a very veteran crew. Took her down to 115m. Deeper to 135m. 145m. All stop. Silence. Then the overhead screws and splashes. Boat was jostled but nothing burst!. Ordered rudder full port, flank speed as the explosions hammered the sea above us. Then yanked the boat to starboard. As explosions died away we went All Stop. Screws further east, depth charging to the east of us. Hydrophone estimates at least 3000m distance. Sat still and silent for another two hours. Screws faded. Periscope depth, sea around us empty. Surfaced at 0940h. Crew busy cleaning and repairing. Radioed FDU. Course laid in for West, away from convoy, then home. Torpedo tubes need port repair. WS cmd
23 Dec 40- 2330h Made port. Reports given, repairs underway. Weber (Chief ING) awarded IC1st for heroic actions saving U 201. Crew sent to Bavaria for much needed R&R, WS cmd.
Currently simming; GHPC, Tank Squad, Panzer Elite, and one train sim: Run 8. Trying to escape Tarkov, and roaming around in Incursion' Red River.
Also, Strat-O-Matic basketball season replay 2024 NBA season (Go Raptors! table-top version...with real dice) Gimme da rock!
"Once again we have failed to die."-- old naval toast
13 Jan 41 2000h As we left Brest at 1830h the air raid sirens erupted. The RAF were bombing the harbor. Went to decks awash but then went to periscope depth to avoid the aerial menaces. Several depth charges were dropped near us to no effect. Surfaced at 1900h and made way quickly into Bay of Biscay. No damage. WS cmd (yeah, decks awash at top speed is kinda dumb...I realized we were putting a giant bright foam trail for anyone to see...derp).
14 Jan 41 0800h aerial attack while running on surface just after sunrise. Crash dove to 90m. Surfaced after an hour, enemy aircraft no where to be seen. KH 1stOff.
16 Jan 41 0900h BDU, via Enigma, ordered us to a new sector. Route determined. Course set. KH 1st Off
17 Jan 41 2130h Hydrophone located potential target outside patrol sector. Will hunt. KH 1st Off
19 Jan 41 1600h Located convoy enroute to Liverpool at 0015h. Course mapped in, surfaced and ran at flank in attempt to attack the columns from the starboard side. The escorts are bunched on the otherside searching for another U-boat (U-100). Located a close freighter and began an attack run. Identified as the Empire Rhodes (2991 grt). Spread shot of two eels. One hit, one dud. Enemy slid under at 0135h, unable to attend life boats. SS Cairndale, a C3 tanker (11204 grt), took three torpedo hits but would not sink. Enemy escorts attracted again by U-100. Manned our gun and set fire to the enemy tanker. Sank rapidly. Rescued nine enemy sailors. Had to crash dive to 130m as enemy air suddenly appeared and began attacking us. The aircraft had spotted us while we were taking on the oil soaked sailors.. Bridge watch noted a destroyer headed our way. More depth charges against U-100, created lots of noise and we got away at full speed. At 1530h FDU ordered us home to replenish. WS cmd.
22 Jan 41 2000h Tied up in Brest. Refueling and replenisihing. PoW's handed over to Kreigsmarine. Hoffman indicated several Gestapo were present. Ill-tidings. WS cmd
Knight's Cross awarded to KK Schulz.
Currently simming; GHPC, Tank Squad, Panzer Elite, and one train sim: Run 8. Trying to escape Tarkov, and roaming around in Incursion' Red River.
Also, Strat-O-Matic basketball season replay 2024 NBA season (Go Raptors! table-top version...with real dice) Gimme da rock!
"Once again we have failed to die."-- old naval toast
08 April, 1942 – U-96 -- XOs Log. The Norwegian Sea
The winds are icy, our boat cold all the time. The sweaters help, of course, but no one is ever really warm unless in their bunk. Still based in Bergen we are learning to live with the cold. The wind and waves are endless here in the North.
After receiving our orders our sixth patrol from Bergen is far north in the Norwegian Sea. The darkness stretches for many hours this far north, and by now we feel like creatures of the darkness. Boredom stretches for hours, and then suddenly nothing is fast enough. This night proved the truth again. Nearly 40 hours of silence and suddenly we received a message to intercept a ship carrying an important radar technology to Russia. We adjusted course immediately and felt the diesels straining. Finally, six hours later the hydrophone station picked up multiple targets steaming east.
As we closed to visual range there was a massive explosion just beyond our vision. Immediately the horizon filled with starshells. One of our wolves has scored a kill! Excited to be part of a shared engagement, we steamed south on the surface to prepare an interception on the path of the convoy. We stopped at 1.5km in the darkness and waited.
Less than 40 minutes later we sighted the two lead escorts. Less than a minute passed before another ship took a hit, this one in our visual range and more or less center in the convoy. Immediately both the lead escorts put on steam and headed WSW to search for the intruder. The entire front half of the convoy was unguarded! As we prepared our solution on two freighters we wondered what the night would bring. Moments later our eels were away and made impact on both ships. One broke in two and sunk quickly while the other foundered and the crew filled the life boats. As we adjusted our position and prepared two more solutions, a massive explosion to the west of our position and a destroyer escort was disabled.
And now our targeting sites were rich with targets. We prepared a snapshot on the furthest freighter while we finished careful solutions for two near ships. Four eels away, two in salvo at the farther target, then 60 seconds later two at the nearest. The impact came almost simultaneously on two ships, but the one was a dud. Then moments later the third ship was hit. Both ships were sinking and we sent a fresh eel at the remaining target. A minute later she was hit in the engine room and a massive explosion took the rear of the ship apart. She went down quickly as our crew labored with all their might to reload all four tubes. In the moments as we waited I assessed the carnage all around us. Our friend had taken the pressure off of us with his kills. We counted at least five. We ourselves had taken down five ships, and we would hope for two more. Half the convoy was lost and hundreds of sailors would die this night. I felt slightly ill. But this was war, it was us or them . Still there was no sign of escorts. We had five eels left and would use them all. But in all the excitement I noted an escort had come within 4km and was still moving obliquely toward us. We waited for two more freighters, now weaving their way toward us, to approach within 2.5km
Three more eels away, two at the far ship and one at the near. I called for half ahead and turned west in the same direction of the convoy, and away from approaching escort. A minute later one ship was hit and sinking and the other was hit and disabled. Suddenly starshells overhead, but the escort ship had turned away. We were safe! But wait – the sinking ship was shooting at us! His shots went wild until a single one hit the conning tower as we raced away at 15 knots. The captain went over the side! Stopping meant suicide and in this icy, dark water we might never find him.
An hour later as we slowed and assessed the damage I was wild with anger and grief. I talked to the crew. Should we return and sink the damaged ships, that are limping along and probably without escort? We had sunk seven ships, and incredible night: but we could add two more, one with our last torpedo and one with our cannon. As one they agreed, we destroy what we can to honor our captain.
We steamed eastward at full speed. 90 minutes later we were approaching the rear path of the convoy, with the nearest escort out of our visual range to the east. We sighted the first limping freighter moments later and in ten minutes were within 2km and let fly with out last eel. The impact broke her in two and she was gone. We located the second freighter limping at 4 knots to the west, and charted a course in parallel. Twenty minutes later we plotted an intercept and prepared our best officer on the deck gun. The sea was nearly calm and there was no moon. We should be able to finish our work without danger.
Silently I prayed, not for victory, but for a quick death for the sailors who were already doomed. Victory I left in the hands of God, whose children I would destroy to protect my country. God help me and God help my enemy!
Our radio officer made 3 excellent shots in quick succession, with the third adding a large hole at the waterline. Quickly the crew lowered the lifeboats and as the ship went down, three lifeboats were left floating in the dark in the frigid Norwegian sea.
As we steamed south and assessed the nights work, we estimated nearly 60,000 tons. Our captain, wherever his soul had fled, would be proud, and we would continue his work for the Fatherland until our turn came and we met our fate in the cold, heartless sea.
I've been bouncing back and forth between two careers, U-998 in France in the fall of 1941 and U-327 in the Med in summer 1943. The two boats are identical aside from the paint, same type, same upgrades, same wooden decks.
It's all going well in both. I am hunting the few achievements I have yet to get. Need one more carrier in convoy. Need a battleship at sea too, I have yet to see one in nearly 275 hours, and anyway, that achievement may not actually work. In the U-998 career I will get the War Chest one for having 1m budget since I went with easy economy in order to get it. Sitting on 750k in 1941. Fresh Air I have yet to get. This is the last hidden achievement, and I know about it because one of you guys got it. And the one for sinking an entire convoy, which I'm not sure if it works right.
I have ordered new parts to give my box a makeover, and when they get installed I should see a massive improvement in performance. UBOAT is probably the first game that I'm not really happy with how it runs since I built this box four years ago.
To achieve anything in this game you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster — Stirling Moss
Building a new box is fun though! I'm sure it will be great. I need to start looking at new peripherals, as I'm hoping to pick up the MS flight sim 2024 in November. My old gear is wobbly and sad lol. Currently using a 'ready-made' that I picked up just pre-pandemic as grfx cards were just not available thanks to the crypto people. I don't mind it, but it was the first readymade I'd used since the very early 2000's (Dell). Have built mine in the years after that.
Have fun!!
Currently simming; GHPC, Tank Squad, Panzer Elite, and one train sim: Run 8. Trying to escape Tarkov, and roaming around in Incursion' Red River.
Also, Strat-O-Matic basketball season replay 2024 NBA season (Go Raptors! table-top version...with real dice) Gimme da rock!
"Once again we have failed to die."-- old naval toast
CPU -- Ryzen 7 7800X3D. GPU -- 4070 Ti Super 16 GB. Mainboard -- X670E chipset, vendor TBD. Storage -- Keeping my OS SSD, and adding a 2TB SSD and a 4 TB mechanical drive.
I built nearly the same system back in May. Same CPU.
Went with 4070S but not Ti because of pricing at the time.
ASUS B650F WiFi, 2x Samsung 980 Pro EVO on board. No other SATA because having both on board can limit the transfer rate of the M.2
Debated PSU for a while but got a good deal on the Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 850 Gold.
Experimented with two coolers, and went with DeepCool AK400, its more than you will ever need and its quiet and easy to install.
Both the CPU and GPU are really amazing, and you are right that the GPU is a cool running chip. Running the old 3060 my office got warm way too fast, big change now.
As for CPU, I actually installed the first cooler wrong on first try so it was not quite touching the CPU and ran the system for 5 minutes that way with no damage. I think the CPU hit 70C. Amazingly efficient.
Obviously, this system is fantastic for FS2020 and will be the same with FS2024 which was my main time sucker this past year next to IL2
UBoat is one of the lesser optimized games I have run. Even on this system with 32GB - and these M2 drives are incredibly fast - I get pauses when loading explosions if there are a lot of ships in the picture.
Good to hear. This is a popular combination it seems. F4UDash also built his using the same or similar components.
The Ryzen CPU really stood out to me when doing my research. I feel like this was clearly the best option for me. The numbers show a significant heat and power advantage with this one over comparable Intel CPUs. Plus the gaming performance is top notch and I don't care at all about productivity, video editing and that sort of stuff, so it was a clear choice in the end. I waffled on the chipset, B650 and X670. The difference in price wasn't enough for me to back off for the B650. Probably more than I need, but has PCI 5.0 so maybe down the line I will benefit from this decision.
The video card is completely out of character. The 4060 Ti is more my style, considering its placement in the hierarchy. But I decided to splurge
Splurge is a funny word.
Like I said in the other thread I could have saved $500 with a more conservative mainboard and video card, but whatever.
It's always a little daunting making these decisions. There are entirely too many options with the most minor of differences, or naming conventions, and wading through them and feeling confident in the final choices is not that easy to do. But I feel good about the ones I made here.
To achieve anything in this game you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster — Stirling Moss
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