Matrix Games Forums

That's just from the PM phase:

Holy Jebus..... Sending convoys to Oz is gonna be a pain now...

How did you get your aircraft to attack, my planes are on ASW and at best all they do is spot subs, havent had one in Australia attack one yet. And the waters are teeming with subs.

I think it has to do with experience. Once my groups had been there for a while and logged some flight time, I got a few attacks. Nothing yet what I got in UV however.

ORIGINAL: Hartley

That's just from the PM phase:

Doesn't anyone find this odd? I thought submarines operated submerged the majority of the time in enemy waters during daylight. I think we spot subs by air much too often.

I have yet to see anything that effective in my game... most of my sub sightings are by coastwatchers.

ORIGINAL: Tankerace

I have yet to see anything that effective in my game... most of my sub sightings are by coastwatchers.

Attacks are rare enough in my games but it is early. It's all the sub sightings I get. Subs submerge before dawn in enemy waters. SOP

Yeap. Charge batteries at night, submerge at or just before daybreak.

Depending on depth a sub is spottable from the air, depends on how high the aircraft is and the depth and color and sea state of the water.

Since most WW2 subs didnt dive deep it is possible to spot them from the air. Whether one would have the means to attack or not is another story )

well, it depends....

most german subs learned to dive deep to be not sighted by air...

but with the great barrier reef, i think any sub manouvering inside is death after detection. No room to escape, (i speak about deep sea and the change to escape out of this trap.

Submarine has to be at periscope depth to spot potential targets, which was to be around 5 - 6 meters below the sea level (if I am right)
This can be easely spoted by an airplane in clear waters and during good weather.
I read once that submarines during WWII, even submerged, were much easier to spot in Mediterranea than in Atlantic because of the clear waters...

Butsubs did not always run at periscope depth, they came up for scheduled peeks and relied on hydrophone contacts as well. Only ran on surface at night orin transit, at least until air search radar was fitted.

The general impression I've gathered of WWII sub operations is that remaining surfaced during daylight hours was the norm, and that submerging during daylight hours when no specific threat or target was present was the exception.

ORIGINAL: Wildhack

The general impression I've gathered of WWII sub operations is that remaining surfaced during daylight hours was the norm, and that submerging during daylight hours when no specific threat or target was present was the exception.

They stayed submerged primarily when in close proximity to enemy air bases...at least early in the war. Farther out, they ran on the surface. Depended on leaders,nationality, technology...tons of stuff. No biggie...justbugs me whenthe same sub is attacked on the surface multiple times a day. GET THE FRIG DOWN![8D]

[/quote]

They stayed submerged primarily when in close proximity to enemy air bases...at least early in the war. Farther out, they ran on the surface. Depended on leaders,nationality, technology...tons of stuff. No biggie...justbugs me whenthe same sub is attacked on the surface multiple times a day. GET THE FRIG DOWN![8D]
[/quote]

It doesn't bother me that a sub won't dive. Even a near-miss from a depth charge can damage a sub to the point that it would sink if it tried to dive. The crew could be trying to make emergency repairs.

I know some one is going to come back and say 'but the Sub wasn't damaged!'. This is one of the times that I let my inagination fill in for a gap in the game. This game is great and I am willing to let a few things slide.

It's my limited exprience that you need a combo of ASW patrol groups to spot, and naval attack/search groups to actually go after the subs.

Even SBDs on NA with 10% search will attack subs.

How much affect does the shallow water have? could this be a reason these subs are attacked more frequently? Easier to spot a sub at 100 feet against the sandy bottiom at 150 than if there was no seen bottom ?

When there are multiple subs in a single hex the spotting/attacking chances from the air go up by several orders of magnitude. In shallow water it's even worse.

You may want to notcie that many of the same subs were attacked by different planes which would be a logic issue with me as if you were spotted once you would tend to "lay low" for a while. Understanding this is a 12 hour turn I can be forgiving on this point though! LOL

If there are inside the great barrier reef they will be visible by air, its shallow clear water, not the best place to be in daylight. Perhaps shallow water reflect this.