Best use of ASW

[montesaurus]

Is it easier to protect your ships by placing ASW ships in the actual convoy/fleet, or do you get better protection by having an ASW group trail your fleets? Thanks.

[Sredni]

Put ASW ships within the convoy. I found that if I had a convoy of say tankers and then a dedicated ASW group following them around that subs would often hit the convoy and then get away without the asw group engaging. If you have ASW ships in a convoy itself they will prevent a lot of attacks from occurring, and the ones that do occur they will (almost) always get their shots in on the sub afterward.

If you have high value targets like CV's it's almost worth it to have ASW in their task force as well as a dedicated ASW TF following them around.

[montesaurus]

Thanks for the advice!

[BigBadWolf]

Isn't it better to have convoy following ASW TF? Can,t remember exactly, but there was some discussion on the forum regarding game mechanics and subs reacting to the TF that first enters the hex.

[Smeulders]

That's correct and it makes real life sense as well. A convoy following ASW would mean the ASW sweeps the travel route for subs before the convoy passes, the other way around and the ASW can't really do much for the convoy.

Also, if you are short of escorts, then you should only put them in the convoy. Close protection will prevent more attacks. If you want to kill subs ASW groups are probably more effective though, as they aren't limited by the duty to protect the other ships.

[HansBolter]

I find that I have way, way too many convoys to be able to provide ASW escorts to them all, either within the transport TFs or leading them as seperate ASW TFs.

What I have noticed is that subs tend to cluster around major embarkation and debarkation ports much more than plying the shipping lanes in mid-ocean. What I tend to do is maintain a group of ASW capable escorts at both ends and escort transport TFs through the sub concentrations at both ends, but without escorting the transports for the entire trip.

I also form ASW and local minsweeping TFs with everything that can be used for them and send them out beating the waves around the ports. With a combination of ineffective early air ASW and a few ASW TFs around major hubs you can at least keep the subs DL levels high even if you aren't sinking them.

The reason I send out local minesweeping TFs is because AMc's while having a minor ASW capability cannot be placed in ASW TFs. While patrolling for local minesweeping missions they become targets for the subs, increase the subs DL and will even respond with an ASW attack after being attacked by the subs. These ships don't appear to be good for much else so I get what use I can out of them for ASW purposes. The more ships beating the waves around the ports the better chance I have of keeping the subs spotted so I can adjust the patrol patterns of the real ASW TFs to go after them.

Use all the assets you can bring to bear.

[pmath]

While I agree having ASW TF lead is preferable to having it follow, it can be problematic if merchants are slow and can't keep up. The other tactic is to plot sightings to approximate enemy sub patrol zones and set air asw arcs comb w/ asw TF to hunt in the area.

[Smeulders]

ASW should slow down to allow the convoy to keep up. At most they should end the turn one hex apart.