Topic: Anyone playing Silent Hunter III?

[Jack Morris]

I should have listened to Captain Stumpy but noooo, I got to click and go without reading the warnings that are below the download links, hahahahahahaha.

[Dallas]

So far I've played 2 of the training missions and it's alot of fun. Soon
Count Von Ron will rule the waves.   

[Jack Morris]

You will LOVE it big D!

I got REALLY lucky today on my patrol, It's bad enough having to go through the straights of Dover from Brest, France and cruise up the English coastline blowing up merchies. Then I'm thinking, hmmmmm, I got lots of torps left, fuel is about at 70, and the Flow is not too far away, so I say WTF, let's do it!

Going around the bend with the Flow not too far away I encounter a C-2 cargo and flower corvette, so I'm a cruising in with my periscope at the C-2 thinking it's dark, that is just a corvette (If I had a lot of gun rounds left, I would have reversed engines and duked it out). The lil flucker detects me, so I'm evading and doing the silent running thingy and a depth charge hits real close to my U-47 and WTF! Hardl any hull damage but the lil flucker destroys my rudders and my radio! He finally leaves and I try and try to turn thinking maybe they will use the propeller speeds to steer like the Bismark did, but noooo, I can only go straight forwards and backwards. So I'm like if, (a real big IF since I'm really close to England and am definitely in their air spotting and whatever ranges) I can reverse emergency and make it to Holland I should be good to go, I make it, and I mean I made it going through the outer island chains by a HAIR. Pulled right up to the coastline, ordered my men some dutch brew and ended the patrol! Funny thing is, they have not told me yet how my boat got to Brest again so quickly! 

[Jack Morris]

I did everything that Dracho said to make a pic for you guys, now what are the steps to put it in my post?

BTW Cayne, you really will not believe this one! 

[Jack Morris]

There is only one place in the world that has a port by a BIG ROCK with Big Guns! 

This mission is dedicated to SS Harald Vogler 82/50 KIA by enemy fire from an attacking aircraft as he valiantly manned the AA gun.

German intellignce now has up to date layout on Gibraltar! My biggest disappointment was the absence of capital ships, I guess the Med fleet is busy somewhere. 

[J. Carney]

EXCELLENT SHOT!!!

I've been trying to get into Gibralter since I got my first VIIB. Unfortunately for me, the Med fleet was always in... and all the escorts wer outside pulling security!

[Jack Morris]

Stay close to the coastline, silent run in if you can when you start getting near The Rock because there will be DDs from Hades out there, and once you are in it's gravy! That DD was just parked, then a coastal merchant was docked on the other side of port, then if you cruise the bay there might be other ships, I did and all I found was a T-3 Tanker. When I hit each ship only two DDs came in as I guess the bay can't be too crowded. The escorts are killer on the outside of the bay but for some reaon they don't act so smart in the bay, not like in the Flow. Maybe because the Flow has so many exits and entry points for ships to come and go and plenty of room to move?

[Brush Wolf]

On my next cruise after visiting Lock Ewe I thought that the crew needed a change of pace so I took them through the Irish Sea. While it was only a 38,000 ton patrol I am sure that I started at least a few ulcers in Whitehall. The first picture shows some of the spots we stopped to enjoy. There is nothing more beautiful than a burning ship on a calm moonlit night as you can see in the second picture. The final picture is of my last victim, a very tough C3 that took two torpedoes to stop it and a third, my very last one to finish him off.

[Jack Morris]

Nice patrol there Brush! What patch are you running? As you can see by my pic (Thanks dRacho and Stephen for teaching me the way to post a pic) I'm on the latest one, and while I love the details and stuff, the extra security around ports, etc... I've noticed one thing... The timeline is screwed the fluck up!  I'm in Feb 18, 1940, well before the heyday of 1942 (the biggest year in tonnage for the U-boats). I've noticed some missions seem to be predetermined, like the one I'm in now, they send me west of Port Ewe in the North Atlantic, I've a HUGE convoy to my left approaching at night, always the same course and tracking, so I set my U-47 up EVERY time in the proper areas and even go to periscope depth with periscope down and use the hydrophone to know when i should raise scope, and if I go beyond silent or raise my scope beyond just enough time to get a lookie, much less a solution to fire on ONE ship? Bam, bam! Enemy fire (There are about 8-12 merchies in formation plus 4 DD escorts), and no matter where I go those escorts always know. Also, I thought ok, I'll just leave the convoys alone and go after solo or now they like to travel in pairs sometimes merchies, well over half seemed to have deck guns now? I really like shooting the starflare and I can see another one far in the distance! Double your pleasure, double your fun? 

I have not enterd the Flow yet, I'm on my way in now when I saved today, but I can tell you one thing, it looks to have the security of Gibraltar or worse?

I love the new patch and will play it through, but if I keep noticing stuff I'm going to e-mail Ubisoft and let them now (gonna use Manitoba as a friend too so they start thinking "Man, those blokes at Dynaverse have a SH3 thread and are playtsting for us!" 

I forget who asked if we are playing "dead is dead?" I'm not, not when I have to micromanage my men (A big plus SH2 had over S3) and while I love the AI, it is really doing things now that do not fit in with the timeline. I also noticed when I did manage to attack that huge convoy, it does not I.D. neutrals anymore, I accidentally blew up an American tanker. I'v never blown up a neutral before, but I'm sure it deducts renown off your patrol?

Good luck and Good hunting, with new patch my days of an avg patrol 1-2 hours are OVER, I'm lucky to get one every 2-3 hours, and the Gibraltar project took me about 5 houras total as you know you can only go 8X when escorts are nea around you, and they abound in ports and other vital areas like Dover and staights of Gibraltar.

[Brush Wolf]

am running 1.4 Jack. I still get the neutral id on the map although I am running at 39% so that may have something to do with that. The escorts are very tenacious in the new patch however, they are not the uber one shot one kill that they were in SH2 which drove me away from the game.

The AI in 1.4 also seems to ratchet up when you are doing extra good. I was under air attack when my flak gunner pulled off a nice double although the game only gave credit for one and a few seconds after I took the first picture another plane pushed in close and put a 250 pounder on my aft deck killing my ace flak gunner. The destroyer in the second shot jumped me in a downpour and the first I knew about him was when the shells started falling so I dived and sent a pair his way with one hitting him in the stern putting him DIW although it took a third fish to finish him off. The third picture shows another destroyer going down while I am getting ready for a long range shot at a T3 tanker which went to the bottom shortly after I took the picture. After taking out another tanker a T2 and a small merchant the remaining escorts an armed trawler and a Flower class latched onto me and it took over an hour of game time to get away.

[Jack Morris]

That plane shot has got to be one of the coolest man! Too bad they still do not have that contest going at Ubisoft, eh? 

I got intop the flow and NADA, and I was so darned mad!  Where is this supposed British Royal Navy? All I see are DDs and escorts and merchies, God help them when we launch the Bismark!  Maybe then the capital ships will come out from drydock and fight! 

This is how desperate the crew of "The cock of The Rock" was at shooting something after I was returning from the Flow.

[Brush Wolf]

Something to remember Jack is that we are actually past the end of what became known as the "First Happy Time". The second will come at the end of 1941 and even without the later high tech equipment the Allies developed the British got pretty good at keeping most of the U-boats at bay.

[Jack Morris]

http://www.mikekemble.com/ww2/uboat.html

[Brush Wolf]

Good find, plus one. I still say that the British had gotten pretty good at keeping most of the U-boats away from the convoys though. The game shows the late 1940/ early 1941 anti-sub tactics very well. Wear the later and much better tactic of having one or maybe two escorts stay with a contact and force it to stay down the entire escort comes after you leaving the convoy wide open for another boat.

[Jack Morris]

I went on an excursion into Liverpool during a severe storm, thought there was nothing there after I cruised the bay, then on my way out after it cleared up and there to the left of liverpool in VERY SHALLOW water were 3 T-2 tankers just awaiting to be shot up or torpedoed. Best thing of all? No escorts enter the bay and there were only like 2 or 3 guarding the entrance perimeter! 40k plus tons and I'll be hunting others on my way back to Brest, still have 5 torps left! You can see my sub to the left, Liverpool does not have gun batteries, hehehehehehe.

[Brush Wolf]

Liverpool he says, hmmm. Here is the status report for my current patrol. BDU sent me into what I thought was the middle of nowhere in BE17. Apparently single ships have been thinking the same giving me a shooting gallery so BDU really does know what they are about.

[Jack Morris]

Hey, great patrol man! If it dries out you can always cruise elsewhere to spend those torps.  That's what I did when my designated area had nada in it and I cruised over to Liverpool. 

[Brush Wolf]

As soon as I get a good stern shot I will use one more torpedo so I can move the external one inside then I will be goo to go for just about anything.

[Brush Wolf]

Well, this is turning into a patrol from hell, for the British that is. I currently have eight torpedoes, 36 HE, and 20 starshell. The bag so far is one tanker and 10 cargo ships for 46,202 tons! They are even lining up as this picture shows. They must have thought that they were safer sailing in company and they were very wrong.

My wildest shot happened on the ship before the pair showed up. It was a very black night and I was running down a sighting from the stern that I had locked the UZO on so I could track the range and as I was going to increase the time compression I suddenly hear "Firing Tub One". Ah SH** there is a wasted torpedo I thought! I continued closing the range so I could use the deck gun as I had planned when all of a sudden I get the torpedo impact message followed shortly after by the enemy destroyed message. If you can't be good you can always be lucky.

[Brush Wolf]

Just finished up my twelfth patrol. The weather turned stormy so I was not able to use up my last HE and my last torpedo decided to be a dud. Oh well you can't get them all. I will let the pictures talk for themselves.