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I've had little luck with FAT or LUT torpedoes getting a hit after missing the target. Just one LUT so far, which circled and hit the same ship it missed. Few torpedoes miss to get a chance to do this, and I am usually not shooting from long range, outside the screen where these torpedoes would be most useful. If I end up playing with no crew solution help then these would increase in value. You have to be careful, too, because the loop distance, or the point at which the torpedo turns, can be lower than the current range to your target, causing the torpedo to turn just before it would have hit. The way I play this game at the moment, FAT and LUT fish are treated the same as standard T2 or T3 torpedoes.

U-998 did one more Black Pit patrol in western BE grid, putting down 63k and tripping the final phase of Black Pit to get a second milk cow. We also passed 1,000,000 budget on this hop. Nearly got nicked by an aircraft, a Halifax maybe, which must have been at the limit of its range this far out. After refit, we transferred to Bergen, leaving France on July 30, 1942 and arriving there nine days later. Shifted both cows to the arctic, and took an Arctic Convoys patrol far to the east, north of Murmansk. I can probably safely say I have never been assigned this grid in any sub sim before. AC3. Found nothing at all for two weeks, no convoys, no singles. Saw no aircraft. Nothing.

Finally a boat to the north started broadcasting beacon signals, and I homed in. This was a massive convoy, heavily escorted, southbound and inbound to Murmansk, so would be heavily loaded. Had to be forty ships, but I never got a count. Submerged ahead and let the formation come on. Just as we went to silent running and prepared to attack, another U-Boat launched the attack and the escorts turned to hunt him. This is why I nearly always intercept convoys with shadowers if I can. It feels like the AI boat(s) wait for the player to be in contact, and as long as you don't rush right in, will attack and draw off the escort. My tactic of submerging well ahead and letting the convoy overtake is perfect for this situation, as the merchants still come on, but the escort are now well astern.

Ended up shooting all of my torpedoes and hit maybe ten or twelve ships, including escorts. Some were disabled and I would come back to polish them off after the formation went over the hill. But then I started noticing how many U-Boats were here, at least five! It was a fantastic show. Between U-998 and the AI boats we must have sunk more than 20 ships, big ones too. As I doubled back to start cleaning up the cripples, the AI boats started putting them under with torpedoes dammit! Haha, such is war.

I should have had 100k, but was credited with 57k. This was a textbook wolfpack attack, and having AI boats in the sim is one of my favorite things about it. There were torpedoes being fired throughout the three or four hours the attack went on. You can hear when a torpedo is fired, it makes the same sound at the same volume as it does when firing your own fish, so it's easy to know when the AI boats are getting their attacks in. Every time I looked over the convoy with external cameras I noticed another ship listing and sinking. Distant depth charges of course are a captain's favorite thing. The escort for these Murmansk convoys is very strong, many destroyers, at least ten were in this one. But with so many boats to deal with they were mostly ineffective, and never found U-998. We were free to run around submerged at the van and re-load tubes and keep shooting at the merchants sailing past until all fish were expended. The convoy was so big, that after the first attacks it started to fragment and become scattered, and ended up covering a huge expanse of sea. The rear of the convoy was over the horizon from our position near the front, so the all those destroyers had a lot of water to cover.

Conditions were good for the submarine, with churning seas, which should provide ideal sonar conditions for attack, making submerged boats harder to locate and track. But does sea state in fact work this way in this sim? It was daylight, I timed my final approach for just after dawn so we would have the visibility range needed to get solutions on a mass of ships and get accurate shots off. When a convoy in UBOAT is attacked the merchants go through three phases in reaction. First, constant helming at slow speed, four or five knots. After a few minutes they begin to pick up speed to 7 or 8 knots and then look to romp, clipping along at 9 to 12 knots in a straight line. The final phase is a slow return to original cruising speed. Oftentimes this results in the convoy fragmenting, and some times divide in to two or more distinct sections on divergent courses. If I can, I try to pay attention to which way the majority of the escorts go. Sometimes they all go with one group, leaving a gaggle of four or six freighters sailing unescorted. With fish still aboard these are easy pickings. Run an end around and pick them off as they sail past.

This completed phase one of the Arctic Convoys objective. I wanted to come early, in summer 1942 to hopefully make these convoys a little easier to deal with, and to hopefully encounter solo ships, though the first patrol makes that look unlikely, at least this far east. These Murmansk convoys are no joke and I think our prospects against one without help from the AI are dim. So we will keep looking for beacon signals, and maybe we can repeat this success before next summer when things get even harder.

I've deployed to the Arctic in two other careers, but both were in 1944 and it's gotten harder by then. Maybe the 1942 arrival will pay dividends.

Nicely played Herr Kaleun! Yah the wolfpack phenomenon is interesting and I agree it really helps with keeping the escorts disorganized. All the better for us hunters! I'll be experimenting with the LUT torps with the larger convoys looks to me like amazing potential. Just one more day at home then traveling a few weeks.

My boat (U-201) and crew got transferred to Bergen for Arctic duty. It's November 1941, Barbarossa in effect...not sure I want to be there. Unfortunately for me, I had no available rep point to get a new order (I'd just spent a bunch on additional research- weird since I have the research HQ stuff on full auto, but the game still offers me a chance to select stuff when it's not busy building pens etc). Anyway, I love the sea state effects up there, and the length of the nights is better for surface attacks. Finished our first sector patrolling with nary a contact. BDU sends us a message since I hadn't headed back yet and orders us to seek a specific freighter to sink. Rendezvous with this massive convoy. Weather is nasty so I'm racing through the enemy columns seeking the ship I need to kill. No luck, another boat (U-623) got it. Get to the last row and realize all the escorts are at the back end- none in front and none along the sides. Go around and come in at the other side, torpedo and sink two C3 cargo ships, damage a tanker and, thankfully miss an American cargo ship (I've had my wrist slapped once already, back in early '41). No duds. Get chased by three corvettes and two destroyers. Took some damage but the boat held together at 160m and the enemy hunters only depth charged us for an hour. The repairs earned a IC1stclss for one of my newer engineers, a IC2 to another engineer. Radio officer also earned an IC1 for bravery saving three crew and medically caring for them. A bit of color with one of the ratings getting a message from BDU informing him his wife safely popped out a child. I really am enjoying this sim.

Excellent, reinforcements have arrived!

Good luck on the Arctic beat, Leaf. It's a stark and forbidding place. For what it is worth, neutrals sailing in convoy forfeit their neutrality and are fair game. Taking advantage of the AI boats drawing off the escort is the way, as you have done here. Good work.

U-998 followed Captain leaf's example, and over three more patrols we put under another 154k from these Arctic convoys. All were shadowed, we were brought in by beacon signals, and struck when the escort was distracted. That leaves U-998 on 211k out of the 250k required to complete the objective, so perhaps one more good convoy interception and it will be wrapped up. It is January, 1943

Targets on the northern patrol are hard to find, so far it has been these big, heavily escorted convoys, no singles at all. Lots of time spent searching. While doing so on one patrol we ranged farther west, and noticed Reykjavik actually sits in AE grid, so ships here would count for Arctic Convoys. Poked our nose in to the harbor and found a number of ships tied up. Put under 28k right there in the harbor at the quays, to help increase our tally and get closer to the objective. Feels kinda cheap, but whatever.

I must report that I lost my first milk cow, in grid AF9, sunk by the enemy.

I don't see that as cheap; tonnage is still tonnage (and is the ultimate means to the end goal Donitz and Raeder looked for- a knock out of the Allied mercantile shipping= no supplies getting through for sustaining the Allied war effort in Europe), and if the enemy is so cocky thinking they don't need to string anti-torpedo netting, or place anti-sub defences, then a skillful and cunning attack on their open port is an Admiralty problem. Nicely done, DB. Historically the fall season weather in the 1941 north Atlantic was absolutely nasty and played complete havoc with the sighting and attacking of the convoy streams. Gotta say the Arctic turns out to be a decent area to hunt in (at least in Nov/Dec 41). I've no idea if the sim models the historical weather though.

Well, that's it. It feels cheap because there is no defense. No patrols encountered, no guns turned out to sea lobbing shells at my boat surfaced 2 km away. No counterattack at all. It was night, but still. I'll take it, obviously, as it means maybe one less convoy attack in the end.

I've been noticing that thermoclines DO show if you are using the all seeing visibility eye -- I dropped below 200 meters yesterday and went 'invisible' to the escort above me. I think the American boats had a way of knowing this but the German boats did not? bathythermograph? OFC assumes you are running on silent..

On my way to Labrador ran across two warships steaming north in line astern formation. Got a little too careless and they detected me on the surface so I submerged and fired off two LUT at 3km. Both missed but as the destroyers began their search pattern so did my beautiful eels. On the second turn pattern the larger escort was hit. The remaining escort continued to search and I hit him wtih a snapshot at 400 meters. Lovely. Steaming west six hours later came across a small convoy under attach by one of our Wolves. The poor escort was nearly overwhelmed already and I watched one go down. I took out the remaining escort at the rear of the convoy and then the show really started. Heheheh.

One of the loading screens mentions this, so I guessed it must be modeled, but yeah, no way for German boats to measure this, at least with sensors or machinery, which, as you noted, the US boats had.

If it is visible on the detection meter (is that the visibility eye?) I'd be interested if anyone using it could discern any sort of pattern. Like, the shallowest I see one is 150 meters, and it seems I am nearly always below one at 210 meters, or whatever, it would be very interesting.

U-998 did one more patrol on the arctic front. It was still December '42, got a little ahead of myself there. Took an Arctic Convoys patrol close to Bergen, short one Milk Cow. Sniffed out a convoy heading northeast in the general direction of Bear Island, but no boat was broadcasting signals, but who knows when the next contact will be. You really have to be careful here, because there are so many escorts in the Murmansk convoys. They form a tight ring around the formation, so no matter where you strike from, at least one warship will be close. Trying to take advantage of the sheer size of these formations, I got ahead and pulled the plug amid the radar signals, at night and let them overtake, We threaded between the lead and starboard flank escort, with how wide this convoy was, that gap from the lead destroyer to the flank corvette was about 3km. That's a nice gap to penetrate the screen. I feel like i need to be at least 1.3km from an oncoming, un-alerted escort, even still and silent, to avoid them sniffing me out and pinging me. Any closer and it's a roll of the dice. So having a 3km gap allowed us to slip between them and the escort sailed on. We let the first two rows pass as we got in to the heart of the formation, spotted a fat T2 tanker and made that first target. Visibility was good, seas fairly calm so I could get solutions done on a number of ships around us. Shot the T2 from 1000 meters and it blew up as tankers seemingly always do.

Turned to head straight out the rear of the formation and alternated shots on each flank at the big freighters weaving past. Attacking from the center buys some time, forcing the escorts to negotiate their flock, giving us time for a couple quick reloads and shots. Hit five or six ships, but only a few went down immediately. Destroyer closing in fast, so went deep and popped a sonar decoy, which seemed to work. Popped it at 144m and went down to 244 meters. Twice the escort found us and dropped patterns. I don't know how I would survive these without the sonar man saying 'depth charges, very close!'. Because that's just enough to avoid in most cases, if we are already very deep, taking advantage of the VIIC/41 capability. At 250 meters, you're covering some ground at flank speed, and knock on wood, but that is enough to avoid this string anyway. We are kicking rudder too. Actually, my entire evasion when I am detected is constantly weaving. Never straight until I think they have lost me for the moment. Not only does this make your boat a hard target for depth charges, it makes it a very hard target for hedgehogs. Assuming those are being fired at us in the sim. I can't say for sure, but I've seen the mortars mounted so have to assume they are operational.

Popped another decoy at 250 meters while the charges were going off and turned 90 degrees at high speed until the charges subsided. Backed down to 1/3 and slipped away. For about 30 minutes we slinked away, until I thought it was safe to return to periscope depth and plan how we would put down the cripples. There were two listing freighters, each had warships standing next to them. It is convincing as rescue operations for sure. These warships are stationary and seemingly low alert. I had come up too early though, and a couple more escorts were not far off and searching. One destroyer passed a couple thousand yards to port, and then started carving a turn back towards our position. Got ready with an acoustic just in case.

Just then two VIIC came up astern, I guess making such a racket that the destroyer bee-lined right for them. We took advantage and got in position to put under the drifting freighters with torpedoes. One of the AI subs and the DD got in to a dance, chasing sterns like dogs chasing tails. Finally the sub got off a torpedo which blew the destroyer to bits. The two of them then occupied several more escorts and sank at least two of them, which left us to polish off the cargo ships (and the DD and corvette standing by them). With just one acoustic left at each end of the boat I slipped off to the quiet side, surfaced and ran off to report our successes to control. The arrival of the two AI boats was perfect. They stole none of my kills haha, and occupied and sank my biggest problems.

Back to Bergen on Christmas day, 1942. Needed 39 and got 45k in that attack. The T2 was clutch, 14,909 tons. That completes Arctic Convoys objective, and we have talked to the leading officer and requested a return to La Rochelle. Gave the crew three weeks off and will return to France in mid-January 1943. With pretty much all of my campaign plans completed, the goal now is to sink a battleship and a carrier. Need one of each, but they are very rare. I've spent a lot of time at sea in this game, in just about every theater and have found two carriers and zero battleships at sea. We will have a year and a half in France before being forced to relocate closer to Germany or in it.

These Murmansk convoys are the most heavily defended thing I've encountered in UBOAT. This objective should be very hard. U-998 arrived in Bergen in August and completed the campaign late December. Five patrols in all. And each of these attacks against these dangerous formations came off without a hitch almost entirely due to the AI U-Boats. Sank 257k on this front and took no damage at all. I am not sure I would even survive if all of the attacks were solo. So, yeah, look for beacon signals if you are playing dead is dead. And sometimes, like this last patrol, they arrive when you least expect them to.

U-998 got a taste of a solo Murmansk attack during the transfer to France. Went roundabout the British Isles, and as we turned south, approaching the northern coast of Ireland, we came across a Murmansk convoy heading north toward the Iceland/Faroes gap. I decided to see if we could hit anything so got in position outside the screen on the port quarter. Took a shot at a C3 in the leading row from 3800 meters. Fired two torpedoes separately at the same ship, then shot both bow acoustics, and turned to run away. The escort didn't sniff us out right away so I shot two more torpedoes and kept trying to gain separation. In all we hit three freighters and two escorts. Got credit for both warships and the C3.

By the time we returned to the scene there was no sign of any disabled ships, they had either gone down, or got underway, which is unlikely considering the state they were in when last observed. Found one more flush deck four-stacker which we had stopped with the stern acoustic, and put it under with a finishing shot.

This attack was at longer range than I normally do, but went very well, and this range helped to keep us from being detected. Tied up in France after seven days at sea. January 1943.

I must have meant to hit F8 for quick save but hit F12 for screenshot and just happened to have snapped the scene as U-998 penetrated the screen from ahead for the final Murmansk attack described above. The lead and starboard flank escorts are each visible here. We slipped inside and then spotted the T2 tanker we have locked up and are calculating a solution. An illustration of the commentary before

Steam is running a special promotion on this until 9/29 - 70% off!

I do believe I will partake...

Hey JC, how's things? Let us know what you think, and if you have any questions fire away. Good hunting.

I bought the game last night and will install it and check it out some time this week.

When you have completed workup, head to sea as we need reinforcements out here. Wolfpack

Hey DB - things just keep on keepin' on, if-you-know-what-I-mean-and-I-think-you-do!

I've been following this thread (as I tend to follow gameplay threads you start!), and I remember enjoying SH quite a bit. I figured I'd pick this up some time down the road when it was on a big blowout-type sale, but hey - 70%, can't go wrong with that right? I'll admit I was a bit surprised to see a recently released game go for this much of a discount, I had to double and triple check to make sure it was the right title!

That's quite a bargain, and not the first discount since release which was just a month ago. I paid full price during EA (only EA game I've ever bought) and have easily gotten my money's worth at 320 hours already. Great sub sim, or I think so anyway.

U-998 has done two more quick BE-grid patrols, no drama, no battleships, no carriers. April 1943

Did sink two Dido-class cruisers out of one of those convoys, but not what I'm looking for.

I just checked the game on Steam Charts and the reported player numbers explain the discount.

All time peak players on Steam: 7,201

Peak players in the last 24 hours: 2,563

Playing 25 minutes ago: 1,553


Those are some pretty sad numbers even for a niche naval sim.

Just goes to show not many people have good taste. Some game called Banana has 350k.

We must wear this proudly as it marks us out as sophisticated and having good judgement

Or it could be seen as player numbers like these aren't really enough to sustain a niche naval sim genre. Either way, I'm glad this sim was made and I look forward to exploring it soon.

Yeah, or that.

I don't have many tips for new skippers coming in to the U-Boat arm. But if there's anything you want to know, PM and JC, fire away.;

You'll want to do the training, which won't take long.

For a first career I'd suggest starting in U-48 out of Wilhelmshaven, but there are more choices if you want to do something else. Some skippers begin in the Type II, and I get it, but I think that is a better choice for career number 2. If you do want to start in a Type II, use the advice from earlier in this thread to begin on U-48, pay to downgrade to a Type IID. Otherwise you start on the obsolete IIA and then have to upgrade to a IID, and then finally to a Type VII

Wilhelmshaven is in a better spot than Kiel, easier to get in and out of so that's why I suggest this.

Good hunting