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Let's play Silent Hunter 4: Operation Monsun...again!

Quilty

Magister
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
2,406
1R7Jcoj.jpg


So, instead of cluttering up the old thread about this SH4 mod, I decided to make a new one where I'll put reports of my patrols.

I've been playing SH5 for some time now, and though it has been improved, SH4 with the OM mod is the good, old, reliable beast I keep returning to every now and then. I'll be starting out in mid-1941 in order to reacquaint myself with the game, but things will heat up soon enough.

So, let's begin.

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We are ordered to patrol the mid-Atlantic, and on the way there we're continually harassed by attacks from the air. However, no merchant ships are encountered. We finish the first patrol point with no contacts, the second one (just SW of Iceland) is uneventful as well, and then we're ordered back to SE of Britain.

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Here we are, sailing back south.

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On the way there we occasionally submerge to check for sound contacts, and something large is heard in the rainy distance.

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It has a pretty huge spread, and it's moving slowly, which means it's probably a merchant convoy. We can hear several escorts as well.

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We start moving toward it at full speed while submerged, and soon enough we find ourselves surrounded by slow-moving contacts. However, it is some time before we actually make visual contact.

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Out of the gloom behind us emerges a tanker! It seems it has spotted us because it starts picking up speed, but we're too close for it to escape its fate.

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After some quick maneuvering, we shoot four torpedoes at it, two of which are duds, and two of which hit.

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At the same time one other tanker sneaks up on us, so we shoot our two rear torpedoes at it.

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If I remember correctly, both were hits, but so far neither of the two tankers is sinking, and at the same time we can hear the escorts approaching.

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I order a dive to 140 meters when we finally get a kill report on the first target.

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The tanker begins to sink, and I order silent running so we have a better chance of making it out alive.

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Since the other tanker is not sinking, I decide to disengage silent running, go back to periscope depth once the torpedoes are reloaded and try again. It's risky, since the escorts are nearby, but we need to try it.

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Two more torpedoes are wasted on this resistant tanker.

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Finally, it's time to dive again and hope that we've done enough damage this time.

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Luckily, we have, and the second tanker sinks.

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I'm quite satisfied with the total tonnage from this attack and decide to make my way out of the convoy. I'm not sure how many escorts are out there, but I've tested my luck enough.

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We keep an ear on the escorts and after a few hours make it out alive. The first patrol is not finished yet, and we have plenty of torpedoes left for another attack on a convoy, so I'll keep you updated.
 

Quilty

Magister
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
2,406
dXZbGlM.jpg


On our way to the next patrol point we are continually harassed by air attacks. So far we have suffered only minimal damage from bombs, but it's been close a few times.

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Soon we pick up a sound contact somewhere ahead of us, moving directly across our path. We try to move into position, and see something, but the fog is quite thick and the waves high.

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We spend far too much time trying to sneak into the convoy by moving around this destroyer, therefore losing precious time. In hindsight, instead of assaulting the convoy I should have found a way to plot its heading, but the only contact we could see was the above destroyer, and his movements were to erratic to use them for plotting the heading and the fog too thick to see any other, more reliable ships.

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Quite soon after we've "snuck" into the convoy the ships seem to notice our presence and begin speeding up and slowing down, making it very difficult to hit anything. I fire a spread of torpedoes at the above contact, but get no hits. After a reload, I fire another spread at a tanker, and only manage to clip his propeller. He continues going at full speed.

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After some time has passed, we get a notification saying the tanker's been sunk. Which is all fine and well, but we only managed to get one ship out of a very big convoy. Displeased with the whole ordeal, I break off contact and sail south towards home.

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And that's when our luck with air attacks runs out. We get pummeled by a plane, suffer severe damage and two casualties. Somehow we keep going, but it's not looking good.

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To make matters worse, our engines suddenly give out and we're dead in the water. What's even worse is that this happens at the very same moment we spot smoke on the horizon. Yes, we're sitting dead in the water in the path of a huge convoy. Soon the first escorts are upon us, and we duke it out on the surface, but not long afterwards the damage becomes too much and we sink one last time.

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A shitty little badge is all we get for our first patrol, three ships and a sacrifice for the fatherland. Oh well, wish us better luck next time. I'll definitely remember not to sail on the surface during daytime, even out on the ocean, far away from land.
 

overtenemy

Augur
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
293
I would like to point out that you can still dive with no engine. The actual diving mechanic of a submarine is to create negative buoyancy by flooding the ballast tanks with water. Naturally, when the U-Boat faces downward and the engines are engaged it will dive faster, but it's not technically required. If you dove immediately after being disabled and managed to get low, it is probable that you would have survived, technology and tactics being what they were in 1941. I don't believe the damages you sustained would've caused terminal flooding before the crew could fix it. Of course, the crew fixing things causes noise, so you never know...
 

Quilty

Magister
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
2,406
I actually tried that, but the stern of the uboat was too heavy and started dragging us to the bottom, so I blew the ballast tanks and surfaced again. By then it was too late to try any other fancy tricks.
 

titus

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Sep 28, 2011
Messages
1,719
Location
Romania
What settings are you using? Ever tried doing things manually(calculate torpedo angles, contacts, etc)?
 

Quilty

Magister
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
2,406
It's set to realistic (92%), apart from using the external camera to get some nice sinking shots. I always do things manually, as you can see from my previous let's plays in my signature. It's just that in this campaign I used a less cautious approach of invading the convoy and trying to sink ships from within.
 

Quilty

Magister
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
2,406
I've been feeling the call of the open sea for some time now, so here's another attempt at an Operation Monsun campaign.
I'll be starting out all over again at the beginning of the war since I haven't played in a very long time, and I need to practice doing manual plotting and targeting, so beginning in September 1939 will help me get back into the game without (hopefully) dying during the first patrol.

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Anyway, let's begin. We have been sent to patrol the sea west of Spain, and as soon as we arrive to our patrol grid, we receive a message about a convoy heading north toward us at around 7 knots. We move to intercept, and quite soon the hydrophone picks up a cluster of targets. It's foggy out, but we can see the outline of a relatively small convoy consisting of around ten or so ships.

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I decide to position myself so that the convoy passes over the submarine, but in hindsight I should have waited for sundown before commencing attack. It's safer to attack at night, especially if you plan to perform the attack from within the convoy and wish to avoid having ships spot your periscope. In any case, we waited for the convoy to approach us while sitting at 140 meters, and then came back up to periscope depth. On our stern we notice this merchant ship approaching at a decent angle, probably close to 90 degrees. I take a fast reading of its speed, which turns out to be 7 knots, just as the BdU told us, so I immediately decide to send two torpedoes at it before the chance passes.

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Only one torpedo is a hit, while the other one is a dud (actually, I think it missed the intended target and scored a dud against a ship behind the one we wanted to sink). We hit the merchant in the stern, which is not ideal, and it continues to sail. Infuriated at my sloppy work, I decide to linger for a while at periscope depth and see if I can spot any more interesting targets. As far as I could tell, there were only two destroyers escorting the convoy, so we should have some time before they locate us.

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I swing around and spot this merchant ship approaching our previous target, which still isn't sinking. There's no way I can calculate its course now that it might be zig-zagging, so I decide to rely on magnetic fuses and send two torpedoes at it. The sea is quite choppy, which might cause a premature detonation, but I realize this is the best chance we've got and press fire.

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Surprisingly, neither of the torpedoes detonates prematurely, and both are hits! The target is confirmed as destroyed soon after the impact, but as I inspect the result of our attack, enjoying the fireworks, I notice something behind the wreck...

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Seems like one of the escorts has finally decided to come see what all the fuss is about. I order silent running and dive to 140 meters immediately.

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As we dive down, we receive more good news: the first target is confirmed as destroyed. Not too shabby, considering how badly it all began.

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We evade the destroyers long enough to move out of the convoy and surface a few kilometers away from them. The crew watch the escorts illuminating the sky with flares, and we decide not to attack again because the convoy simply won't stop zig-zagging. Perhaps we'll find a more convenient target.

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Not soon after we leave the damaged escort we notice something else on the horizon. A single, unescorted ship. We begin approaching it to plot its course.

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We've intercepted it at a favorable angle, and now continue taking its range, heading and speed. It seems to be heading roughly north, around 350, and its speed is almost exactly 5 knots. Seems like a good occasion for a textbook attack.

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As you can see in the image above, the red line extending towards the north indicates the ship's heading, which means that we happened to intercept the ship at an almost perfect angle, so we merely need to adjust our position to make it a clean fast 90 attack.

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The waves are still fairly high, so I decide against trying our luck further and set the torpedoes to impact. This seems like a big target, so just to be sure it sinks, I send three torpedoes at it. Far too many, really, but for some reason I had a bad feeling about it.

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Needlessly, as it turns out. The ship is confirmed as destroyed after the first torpedo hits, so the next two are merely for show.

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We resurface to send our late friend down to the depths of the sea. Oh, and it only now occurs to me to check the flag. As far as I could tell, it was a Dutch merchant, but since Operation Monsun makes it so that there are no neutral ships (which means it's down to the player to make the decision), I explain the attack as just another part of the preparations for the super secret German invasion of the Netherlands that's coming in 1940.

That's all for now, let me know if you want it to be more detailed, more info about plotting, fewer screenshots, etc. Also, tell me if you've been playing OM, would love to hear people's impressions of the mod if there's anyone still playing.
 
Last edited:

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
I found that if I fire my torpedos from ~45 degrees forward into a convoy, I get as many hits as if I get close and fire at individual ships (this is usually from 90 degrees). But there's less risk for my boat, and I can even make second attacks.

From 45° the ratio is close to 50% hits. If you look at a convoy, ships cover a certain fraction of the horizon. I principle that fraction is also the chance to hit.
 

Quilty

Magister
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
2,406
That's an interesting approach, I'll have to try that. Though I must admit it surprises me that that type of attack can be successful at that angle since in my experience even carefully prepared 90 degree attacks sometimes end in a dud. However, if you rely on a nice magnetic torpedo set to detonate just under the keel, I don't see why it wouldn't work... Thanks for the suggestion!
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
Duds are only such a problem in 1939 and up to mid 1940. Of course some will always go off but you have the advantage that you can dive, reload and possibly fire a second salvo.
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
I still love this moment when I enounter a convoy, turn all Diesels to full power, and this music starts ..

 

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