Let's commence Operation Monsun! (Update Q-7)

CHAPTER 3: DUD FOR THE DUD GOD!



I give out a few medals and promotions left over from our last patrol, glance at the list of aces and curse that wurstlover Herbert. I'm guessing we could overtake those couple of guys above us, and maybe even beat Prien.



We get ordered to the same place, though it's a little further south than last time. It should be a good place to intercept merchants going through the Gibraltar.



We haven't even left the neighborhood when a ship is spotted in the North sea.



The tonnage looks good and I'm liking that length. I order flank speed and we quicly overtake it.



I take its speed, aob and start tweaking our position for a fast 90 intercept.



The first one hits close to the middle so it explodes. Guess I wasted the next two.





Two duds! I've rarely seen steam torpedoes dud. I wasn't too close, definitely not closer than 800 meters, and the angle was between 60 and 120. But I guess it's still early in the war so the technology still sucks ass. I should really stop sending more than two torps at merchants so I could train myself to be ready for the real thing once they start bringing weapons and escorts.



At least the tonnage is okay, otherwise I'd be feeling butthurt right now.



We leave the English channel and encounter our next target somewhere off the coast of Portugal.



The usual procedure takes place, noting down its information, intercepting, but then...



...the bitch surprises me by speeding up to eight knots! Luckily, I notice something's wrong and take his speed then try to enter it into the TDC in the last moment. I screw up the gyro, so only one torpedo hits.





Two torpedoes miss, but the first one is yet again enough to take him down. I'm getting pissed off at myself. But don't worry, I'll repeat the same mistake several times in this patrol.



There we have it, a little closer to Spain. A passenger ship, very low tonnage, and yet... Something about it is tempting me. For one thing, it's Andhaira's current tonnage: it sucks. We need every easy target we can get before the happy times end. For another thing, this ship is actually speeding along at a very respectable 11 knots. Well, respectable for a merchant ship, at least. I want to see if I can intercept a fast target...







Three hits and one miss. It was a matter of honor. No merchant ship should be allowed to flaunt its fast engines like that. Overall, I'm content with my accuracy this time, though I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to have any torps left for the rich area I'm heading towards.



About a hundred kilometers from the center of our patrol point we encounter another lone merchant.







This time I only send three torps, but one of them still manages to dud.



The hits were not optimal, so it doesn't go down immediately. Instead we rise and watch its bow sink.



Yet another ship is spotted, very close to the position where we sunk the last one.



We lurk just under the surface, waiting for it to get closer. We've only got our rear torpedoes left.



It's a fast one, its speed almost ten knots. I set the speed dial, wait for the gyro to align itself, then LOS!



DAMN YOU PHILADELPHIA

I realize there's one more torp left in the front tube, which I didn't see because it was being reloaded, but I'm too pissed off right now to start repositioning. He starts weaving anyway, probably alerted by my shitty torps.



And also by us rising and shooting it to bits.



That's what you get for being a dick

We sail around a little more, looking for our last target. There's two more in the rear reserve tube, and that last one in the front.



We find a suitable target, the tonnage is good so I decide to make it our last one.







Another dud! Guess the impact angle got screwed up somehow. But that first hit was okay, so we help it along with a few hits from the deck gun.

The tonnage is looking pretty good for this patrol, so I decide to set course for home. We haven't left Gibraltar's neighborhood when suddenly we spot a ship.

Wait, did I say a ship?







I meant an entire fleet of merchant ships belching black smoke right in our faces.

Right now I'm kicking myself in the nuts for wasting all those torpedoes and thinking if I should try to do something with this last one I've got. It's daylight, though, so even if I managed to score a hit all five of those escorts would be on top of me, shoving depth charges down my throat.

Swallowing my pride, I dive and avoid them. We'll fight another day.

We score another merchant ship on the way home, and I think we gunned down one somewhere in the North sea.



The tonnage looks much more respectable this time around.



It's not a star and crescent, but we'll take it anyway.



oh hai down there Prien

Good to see this thread alive again, I like what you're doing Quilty !

Zee merchants zey must pay! Fire moar torpedoes for zee faterland, islam und sauerkraut!

CHAPTER 4: HERP THAT DERP, HERR KALEUN!

I've been having some issues with Operation Monsun, save games not loading, TDC not working (some dials can be used when the blue bulb is turned on, instead of off etc.), time of day not corresponding with the actual appearance of the game (i.e. it's 13:00 p.m. but it's ptch black outside) but after a few reloads and restarts it seems to have sorted itself out. Some of those bugs occurred during two patrols that are not included in here (because nothing happened, I just gunned some ships down), and one or two of them happened during this patrol, so I had to reload in the middle of an attack, completely screwing my calculations. It still worked out, though. Hopefully the game won't break down completely.





After those two undocumented patrols this is where we stand on the list.



We get sent west of Ireland. The next three patrol points are empty, then we meet a ship or two that we gun down because the weather is too terrible to try and torpedo them. I didn't feel like documenting that.



On the fifth patrol point I'm starting to think we're not going to see anything when we spot a destroyer in the distance. I can't see him, so I can't even guess his speed or range, but I'm guessing he's pretty close. In weather like this my dudes usually spot ships that are only under 3000 meters away from us.



After some maneuvering I manage to slip behind him. We haven't seen any other escorts, so maybe he's the only one on this flank if we're following a convoy. He seems to be going pretty slow, so it might not be a task force.



We dive and continue moving behind him to see what he's guarding.



I run into a cargo ship. I'm glad this isn't a task force.



Right now I'm not sure what to do. The smart thing would be to break off, shadow them until the weather clears, overtake them and then attack at nightfall, so that visibility decreases as I get more hits. But since this storm has been following me for what feels like weeks, and I'm tired of intercepting a day in advance all the time, I decide to try overtenemy's strategy of highly precise nigger shots.







Shit actually works better than expected. I decided to fire all four and sink this thing properly, because who knows when I'll get the chance to find anything else in this weather.



I lower the scope, and soon after that hear the pings. They've got me already.



Here we are listening to the pings. We listen to the motors running and it looks like there's more than one destroyer on us.



Here's one of them, running a little to the left of us. As I wait for the depth charges I hear a terrible grinding, scraping sound. Is someone running over us? But we've already submerged a few meters below periscope depth



OH DEAR JESUS GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME

I completely forgot I was running straight at that ship I'd sunk so now he's sinking on top us and pulling us down.



We manage to pull apart and I order flank speed ahead. We need to get out of this clusterfuck.

I succesfully evade the destroyers' sonar and we move towards our next target. Seems like we entered the columns at almost a perfect 90 angle, and since these merchants are pretty slow they're having a little trouble moving out of the prescribed columns and away from the carnage.



I choose this guy as my next target but he somehow evades the torpedo. Maybe I just set it to run too deep.



The torpedo passes the intended target and hits the ship behind it.

I forgot to take screenshots of all the duds that happened during this attack. I panicked a few times and fired at a very close range, wasting at least three torps. I think one or two were wasted on closing destroyers. They evaded them, of course.



I go looking for my next target but all the columns are in disarray. It's almost impossible to intercept at an angle that I can predict since they're zig-zagging. The above screenshot shows several destroyers searching for me



I start getting into position to intercept a merchant when this bastard appears out of nowhere, blocking my sight. I shit my pants and crash dive immediately.



After a few minutes of evading destroyers and their annoying pings I manage to run away and hide among a cluster of merchants. Above is one of them. The fog behind me is pretty thick so I'm thinking about surfacing and trying to use my deck gun. The torps are mostly spent, and the ones in the external reserve can only be accessed while I'm surfaced. Hopefully at least one torp will get loaded into the inner reserve chamber while I shoot at this dude.



Just sink already!



The ghost of patrols past appears on the right to block my sight and warn me there's a destroyer chasing us.



As we dive I take a shot at the destroyer. Something on his deck explodes but he lives.



There he is, burning but still runnning for us at full speed.



I decide enouh is enough. My deck gun isn't doing shit to these merchants so I'll just break contact, surface, relaod and attack later on. Above you can see the destroyer disappearing in the distance. None of the destroyers decide to chase me when I'm too far away from the merchants, which I find unusual.



Fast forward several hours and it's now completely dark. My guys report visual contact now and then, but I can't see anything.



I realize we had circled around the convoy and are actually back on the right flank where we started that first attack all those hours ago. I spot the merchant in the screenshot above and decide to go for him. I'm guessing we're on his right flank. I can't actually see anything, so I'm using the bearing to determine in which direction he's moving. Using the sonar and minimal visual clues I determine his distance approximately. We haven't been pinged yet, so I take my time. This one has to be done perfectly since after I shoot I'll only have enough torpedoes for one more ship. I'll also have a couple of rear torpedoes left, but I'll save those in case I need to defend myself during the escape.



He's moving very slowly so I have enough time to intercept almost perfectly.





Three torpedoes are used on this guy because I'm not taking any chances. I've had plenty of duds and misses during this attack so now I want my money back, bitches.



Making sure that we're not going in THAT particular direction, I start looking for my last target.



A single ping causes us to break down in tears right around this moment. It suddenly stops and doesn't resume. Huh.



We identify our last target. I still can't see anything so I run ahead until I can see him, determine where the hell he's going and then proceed to intercept. However, this one's going insane because of the explosions coming from the previous ship. He swerves left, then resumes his journey on a rough 45 bearing. I decide that's where I'll try to intercept. We reposition ourselves and wait, fully expecting him to change direction yet again. I realize I haven't even taken his speed, so I take a guess when I see him.



I get two hits and a miss, but that first one is enough to take him down instantly. Deciding that the attack was a success overall, I dive deep and quietly sneak out of the pandemonium going on above us. I hear depth charges in the distance, but by that time we're safely on the other flank of the convoy and on our way home.



On the way back I get cocky and stay surfaced all the time. This guy notices me.



The depth under keel is over 1000 meters so we manage to dive before he can drop his bomb.



Back at home, we hand in the summary of our patrol. Not too shabby for our first convoy attack, I'd say.



Oh thanks, but I already have one. Do you have anything in green?



That dick Prien has managed to rise above us. Not for long, Gunther!

Things are heating up, I see. Wish the pacific was this exciting.

Much better than my performance. Of course you didn't start in late 1942, or end hunting a convoy in shallow Iceland coast waters with horrible weather.

I suggest you try it because it makes everything more interesting.

A truly inane incident good sir M:

Yes I thought so too, a very codexian moment.

Wooow !!

The torpedo passes the intended target and hits the ship behind it.

Click to expand...

Thats like in the classic "Run silent, run deep" !

Man, I should totally watch that movie. Hope it's a good one.

Andhaira's influence seeps into the game, I see.

CHAPTER 5: ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A CONVOY

Operation Monsun continues to be annoying, CTD-ing now and then, displaying weird bugs like the tails of destroyes hovering above water etc. But so far no game-stopping bugs. Let's hope it stays that way.



It's September 1940 and we've been ordered NW of our current home port. We'll be covering 10 patrol points in total, with very little happening in most of those except the last two.



A swastika flutters on a nearby vessel as we leave the port.



The sea is mostly calm on our way to the patrol. The days are getting shorter so it's easier to evade aircraft.



I'm not sure if this was taken on the first patrol point or on one of the others, but we spot something and rush towards it.



There he is, good tonnage, we'll hunt him down. I'm being a bit more cautious lately because the merchants have started bringing guns, so I dive sooner than usual.



Having taken a rough reading of his aob I'm now waiting for him to get within range so I can take his speed.



He slowly reaches the desired gyro angle...



...I fire my torps...



...and get one hit. The other one's a dud. He doesn't appear to be carrying any guns so I deck gun him.



We're ordered to a new position.



A lone tanker is spotted. I rarely see tankers travelling alone, but I guess anything is possible this early in the war.



Seeing as I've been having bad luck with torpedoes set to impact (or maybe my skill of taking aob has been deteriorating), I set all four torps to magnetic. I'll be passing by a friendly port anyway so we'll have a chance to rearm.











Apart from this hit on a tanker, nothing much happens until we get posted near the Gibraltar. The news helps lift my spirits because so far it's been a terribly boring patrol, and the place where we're now heading to should be brimming with targets.



And what do you know, as soon as we start patrolling the area we spot a giant convoy.



As we start approaching them, I notice their escorts are a pretty standard two destroyers on flanks and a destroyer on each end. There may be more, though, so I decide to overtake them, submerge and observe them as they pass me by.





As I start overtaking the convoy I ask the crew to identify the closest merchant ships. Looks like there'll be some decent targets in there.



After intercepting I decide to sneak in between the two destroyers on the right flank. There's a large gap between them and they don't seem to be going faster than the rest of the convoy, which is 6 knots tops.



We're waiting for the convoy to get a little closer before sneaking in. In the meantime I'm taking the target's aob.

As the ships get nearer I notice they've changed course. Either that or I did something wrong when calculating their course. In any case, they're now getting too close to me. I realize this when the targets are already in the gyro 000 position. In the last moment I set two of the torps to magnetic.



The magnetic ones hit, but the other two are duds.



I order crash dive. We'll try to lose the escorts among the merchants. Hopefully some of them will get cut off from the escorts in the ensuing commotion. The pings start as we begin to sneak into the collapsing merchant column.



Oh, great, this thing took two torps, but it's not even slowing down.



Our current torpedo situation. As soon as the forward ones reload I order periscope depth. By turning left and right I've managed to lose the escorts. We haven't heard the pings for a few minutes now and the depth charges are exploding somewhere in the distance.



As the periscope emerges I notice this tanker. I'll never have the time to do my calculations correctly so I'll need a nigger shot. I'll just remember his draft and attempt to blow out his bottom with a magnetic torp.

As I'm frantically preparing the torpedo I hear the pings. They're far off from each other, but certainly increasing. I swivel the periscope to 180 and see the destroyer coming for us. However, he's zig-zagging and there's no way I can hit him. Instead, I notice a ship behind us and decide to just fire off a shot in its direction instead. It seems like it's moving across the destroyer's path so I'm hoping to immobilize it and create a barrier between myself and the escort.



I get a hit, and the ship starts to slow down.



By the time I've done that the tanker has moved on, so I just set the torpedo and send it in its general direction. There's a bunch of ships around it, so I'm bound to clip something. As you can see above, I succeeded.



I didn't hit the tanker, but I did blow out the bottom of the ship that got hit. I still haven't got any enemy ship destroyed messages, and I'm getting frustrated. I think I scored another hit that I didn't document, but nothing seems to be sinking.



I order a slow, quiet dive. We'll try to break contact, reload those external torpedoes and try again. However, just then I start getting pinged. I crash dive and turn left hard.



Here's the destroyer that's chasing us.



As we dive I take a peek at one of the ships we hit. It's still moving, of course.



The first escort gets joined by a friend, and now they're circling above us like a pair of sharks. We stop getting pinged, so I slow down the ship to reduce the ruckus we're making. They keep on circling and dropping charges. I do manage to slip by them eventually.



I take a look outside. The one with the ripped open bottom is still moving as well. Amazingly, he's actually doing around 5 knots, even though he's dragging his ass. These guys just don't sink.



The sun is setting by the time it finally decides to sink. Which means I've only got one confirmed kill out of this whole convoy. This is when I notice it's Christmas. Great gift, Santa, thanks.



There's nothing more I can do but try to escape, emerge, reload and continue the hunt. Most of the ships have moved on anyway, and the pings have stopped. I order periscope depth and notice a couple of flare illuminating the sky. As I move to inspect I discover that one of the merchants I hit is immobilized and one of the escorts is circling around it, keeping a watch.



Finally a bit of luck. It's a tanker. I evade the circling escort and move in for the kill.





I fire my last two torps at it and then break contact. I'm not feeling too good about this attack, but there's not much I can do at this point. I decide to head for the nearby port, rearm and continue the patrol.

I'd notified the command about the convoy, so the order to attack they'd sent is now complete. It's not much, but at least we won't have any unfinished business.



After rearming we continue cruising. A lone ship is spotted. I'm starting to enjoy these magnetic torps so I decide to vent my anger on this poor bastard.









Anoter ship is spotted. We've been sent north of Spain, but we still haven't left the Gibraltar area.







As we move on from the previous kill and head for next patrol point I receive a ship sighted message.



Turns out it's a destroyer, heading north. Night is falling and visibility is getting poorer, so I move in for a peek.



He's a got a friend as well. We're following a convoy. I turn on the external camera and have a look. I'm surprised to see the merchants in total disorder. Could this be the same convoy from before?



There's a juicy target nearby. He doesn't seem to be moving fast. The destroyers are moving in some crazy patterns, constantly changing direction. Seems like the whole convoy is still going mad from my last attack.



There's a burning escort near the tanker. It seems like he's dead in the water and the tanker is hiding next to it. I'm not sure what's happening here. Did I hit the escort before and not notice it? As I get nearer the tanker gets spooked and moves on.



I wait for the escorts to get lost in the surrounding fog. Then I emerge and start overtaking the tanker.



A destroyer closes in and runs parallel to the tanker, so I submerge again. It doesn't fire its guns, so I guess it didn't see me.





Despite the dive, I've managed to overtake the tanker by two hundred meters or so. I get two hits, but he keeps going. He's tipping to one side, though. I'm still submerged because of the circling escort, so I decide to fire off another torp in the tanker's stern.





That last one is enough to take it down. It sinks soon after.



I've spent too much time on the tanker so the rest of the convoy is long gone. I break contact and start overtaking it.



I circle around the convoy and approach its left flank. Visibility has a improved a bit, but it's still very foggy.



Of my two nigger shots only one hits, but it's a cool hit.



The torpedo has actually blown off the ship's propeller. I get pinged a couple of times, but the convoy is in such disarray that I successfully evade the escorts, pass under the immobilized ship and fire at it.







Another destroyed keel.



After this kill I decide it's time to leave this convoy alone. I've only got two rear torpedoes left and I'm not risking my life for another kill. We complete the tenth patrol and head home.



I forgot to screenshot the final list of tonnage, but we had around 53k tons. And this nice little medal.



The crew gets a lot of medals and promotions, as well as special abilities. They're actually getting pretty good.



Andhaira has risen above that annoying Prien guy, but now Otto takes the lead.

So many ships to sink so little torpedoes. Continue making the life of merchant ships hell!

Hey Hellraiser you LIAR, u need to REVIVE that DK thread AGAIN for I long to see the end of the game!!! FFS ur almost there!!!

Also, thanks for the update Quilty. Getting interesting, these big convoys.

It's in suspended animation. I'll defrost it soon

Do you ever get a better submarine ? Also, maybe a quick update showing your crew and their stats is in order?

CHAPTER 6: CONVOYS. CONVOYS NEVER CHANGE.



A slightly homoerotic photo to get us in the mood.



Before setting sail for our first patrol point I hand out a couple of medals left off from the last patrol. I'll be looking at my crew in more detail at the end of this patrol so I'll spare you that for now. As far as equipment goes, nothing new is available. And as far as new subs are concerned, I'm not sure if I'll be offered a new one any time soon, or at all. I don't know how OM models that part of the vanilla game. If I remember correctly, while playing the vanilla game I received a new sub with a Walter engine sometime in...1943? However, I think it only had forward torpedoes, which is handy in some situations, but can be detrimental when fleeing from a bad convoy assault.



We don't see much for a long, long time before finally spotting this beauty. It's got nice tonnage, so I decide to go for it. The weather's nice too, so I'll try the magnetic torpedoes this time.



I'm not sure if it's got any guns so I won't try deck gunning it. Merchants often carry guns in that elevated square-shaped portion in the rear, but it can be tricky to spot the gun at this distance.



He spots my periscope and starts to swerve, evading three of the torps, but the one that hits him is well-placed and rips his keel open.



Nothing else happens for a long time, and we get relocated to several different points on the map.



We spot this shitty thing somewhere west of England. Days are spent cruising around places that are usually packed with targets, but no luck.



Ah, but what is this? After days of crawling around in English fog, have we finally found a good target?



It's a destroyer, but since it's not moving very fast, I guess it could be part of a convoy.



Yep, there's the rest of the convoy. Hoping that the weather will stay clear and the water calm, I start intercepting. The convoy seems to be heading for the shallow part of the sea along the western English coast. We should try and hit them before they reach that far.



The destroyer is definitely circling on the flank of the convoy, but once or twice he gets a little too close for comfort, around 7000 meters, so I break contact for a little while. I'm pretty sure I know where they're going so it shouldn't be a big problem. We're very close to one of the English harbors, and most of the ships that pass in these waters are either coming from the harbor or going towards it.



As night begins to fall we get in place and wait for them to come closer.



We dive deep and run silent, waiting for the convoy to pass over us. I keep an eye on the sonar, making sure the destroyers aren't too close to us by the time we begin to surface.



I set the torpedoes as we rise. We'll try using the magnetic fuse in case the weather stayed the same. It was pretty calm last time we were on the surface. By the way, OM comes with the option to order your crew to tell you what the weather is like, but I often forget to do that. I0m not sure if it works while you're submerged.



After I reached periscope depth I chose a juicy-looking target, calculated the aob and fired as it reached my 350 bearing. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to document any of this because as I was setting the aob I started getting pinged. The screenshot above shows us diving fast as we receive a "Torpedo impact!" message.



Turns out one of the torpedoes struck the bow of the ship. After my last convoy attack I'm not expecting this ship to sink, or even slow down by much. A bad start, and now everyone knows we're here.

Despite us making a lot of noise as we dive, the destroyers keep losing track of our sub. I find it pretty easy to evade their pings. We soon reach periscope depth and locate a new target.







A single ship is sunk, but by now most of our torpedo tubes are either empty or in the process of being reloaded. This certainly isn't the high point of the Kriegsmarine.



I'm starting to think this whole attack was a mistake when we get an "Enemy ship destroyed" message. Must have been that ship I hit in the bow. Well, it's not a lot of tonnage, but it helps to lift our spirits.



We move away from the convoy, surface and begin reloading. I keep an eye on the convoy as we proceed to intercept them yet again.



By the time we've reloaded, moved ahead of the convoy and submerged, it's almost morning. Thankfully, the weather is still clear. The ship in the shot above is chosen to be the next target.





The ship explodes after the first impact or two, meaning that some of the torpedoes were a waste, but I'm glad we're at least starting to rack up points.



Miraculously, history repeats itself and we actually hit the ship behind our intended target. I don't know if it sinks or not, because we're getting pinged and we need to react fast.



I get ready to order a dive, intending to maneuver for a bit, but the pings stop almost immediately. We continue picking our targets.





We score a hit somewhere in that column, and the ship starts exploding. Strangely, up until this kill most of the ships were still moving in the prescribed columns, only occasionally shifting course and speeding up. However, now they go crazy, and I realize that with the amount of torpedoes I have available I have no chance to score any more proper kills. Nigger shots only work for me just after the first kill during a convoy attack, and right now I'm reluctant to start spending torpedoes on shots like that. We have no port nearby, so in case I meet any more ships I'll need the torpedoes that I have left.



On our way to the next patrol point a bomber flies over us but doesn't seem to notice our sub.



We cruise around for a little while, reloading and watching the weather worsen until we finally spot a couple of targets. It looks like another convoy. We do the same thing as before, speeding ahead, submerging, waiting for the convoy to pass over us and then going to periscope depth. At the back of the convoy I spot several nice targets.

We start getting pinged a lot, but never really see any escorts. Surprisingly, this convoy only has escorts on the flanks. The front and back are completely open. I choose a target, take its aob, and wait. Suddenly, a shell flies over the periscope and I get all flustered, screwing up the gyro.



I somehow manage to hit this thing and see it explode. However, more shots are seen passing over the periscope.



I immediately order a dive. We listen to the warship, all the while slowly crawling away from it. I spend an hour submerged, trying to lose the escort in the merchant columns. I waste no time after the pings stop and order periscope depth. The ships are increasing speed and we'll lose them if we don't act soon. After surfacing I start looking for that tanker I initially wanted to hit.



But what's this? One of the ships is burning, which might mean this is the same convoy I attacked a couple of days ago. I did score several hits that didn't lead to confirmed kills, so I guess this could be the same group.

Anyway, back to that tanker...









A wonderful ball of fire illuminating the night sky, we leave the scene of crime and continue looking for more targets. I notice a ship moving behind me, and into my 180 bearing. I'm guessing the angle is roughly 90 degrees so I fire my rear torpedoes.







That first attack on the convoy earlier in the patrol was pretty crappy, but at the moment things are looking good. We hear a ping or two now and then, but no depth charging occurs. The entire convoy is moving west so we run with it, mostly staying at periscope depth. Once the torpedoes are reloaded we find another target whose direction is a little more predictable.



I get a hit on it, wait for it to sink, but I get no confirmed kill. The depth under keel is getting smaller as the convoy approaches the western coast of England, so I decide enough is enough. We've got some decent tonnage from this convoy anyway. Time to pull out.



I watch the convoy disappear in the distance as we slowly break contact. We only have a few torpedoes left, and we'll need those if we stumble upon a target on a better location.



We spend some time cruising the patrol point in complete boredom.



Something is spotted on the horizon.



We follow the contact for a while, waiting for nightfall to inch a bit closer. Turns out it's another convoy.



I plot the convoy's course, then rush to overtake them. I'm not sure how many destroyers there are, but this time there are certainly one or two in front and at the back. As you can see, our batteries still haven't recovered completely, which means this will have to be a brief attack.



We're in position now, at periscope depth, waiting for them to come closer. Seems like we've evaded the forward escort.



This thing looks like an okay target. The tonnage is meh, but it's in a perfect position for me to take its aob. In addition to that, it seems like I'm on a rough 90 interept angle, so I won't have to move the sub.



I'm pretty sure I took its aob correctly. We're now waiting at a gyro 000 position, one finger on the trigger.



There's his bow on the far left of the screen, coming into our sights...





The first torpedo hits him in the bow, but the other two are duds. My intercept angle was probably wrong, but it's possible that the torpedoes got stuck on that ship you can see on the left, the one that moved in between me and the target. In any case, another attack seems to have gone balls up so I swivel the periscope to my 180 bearing, just to see what we have back there. I've found that merchants in one column will often fail to go completely crazy if a ship was sunk one or two columns away from them.



I'm right this time, and I decide to take a nigger shot since the ship has already passed my 180 bearing.



The ship catches fire, but we don't hang around to watch it disappear in the murky depths. I dive and hear the pings. We've had a lot of luck with escorts during this patrol, so I evade carefully, slowly dropping speed as we reach 100 meters. Having escaped the pings, I wait for the torpedoes to reload, then surface again. We've only got two rear torpedoes left, so we'll spend them on...



...this guy. One duds, but the one that hits him is enough to take him down.



After I get a confirmed kill I order a dive to 140 meters, then turn the sub around and wait for us to break contact.



We spend a few more days on this patrol point just so we can complete the mission, and then we head for home. On the way there we actually spot another convoy.



We're all out of torpedoes, so there's nothing to do but watch it sail past us. On the way home we dive once or twice due to aircraft, but nothing much happens.



Considering how bad most of our attacks went, this tonnage is pretty good. I was expecting it to be much lower.



We receive a medal for our hard work. It's not the one with the oak leaves, but I guess this time we didn't really deserve the highest honors anyway.





We get a bunch of new promotions. You can see golden arrows on the portraits in the second screenshot, which indicates the person that was promoted. Since my repair team has already been upgraded I spend a couple of promotions on the guys in the bow torpedo room, a couple on the guys that run the engines, and a few on the radio and stern torpedo guys.

As you can see, many of my guys already have some special abilities. You can see that a lot of them have the green cross on their portrait, which helps when healing injured guys. The ones with the green propeller help increase the speed, while the ones with the wrench help decrease the dive time. The one with the green deck gun on his portrait has been assigned to the deck gun because it increases his accuracy.



Here you can see all the medals earned during the patrol. I give most of them to the engine and torpedo guys in order to help boost their stats a little.



Officially,. we've done eight patrols, as you can see above. I've only documented six because two of them were quite boring, as I already mentioned.



Christ, this Kretschmer guy just can't be beaten.

CHAPTER 7: WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' TORPEDOES



Not that many people seem to be interested in this LP, but what the hell, I'll do another update. It's fun seeing what Andhaira can do. By the way, I've been trying out SH5 lately, and it not only works when you apply a ton of mods, but it's actually fun. I'll put more time into it and report back.

Anyway, it's May 1941, I don't have too much time for a long patrol, so let's keep it short and sweet.



It's a beautiful day outside, so let's go kill some helpless British merchants.



We sail toward our patrol point, encountering only a couple of trawlers. We let them be.



A target is spotted on the horizon. We follow it for a bit, just to make sure there are no escorts nearby.



OK, now this shouldn't be difficult. The weather is clear, there are no waves, and it's not escorted. I'm sure there's a way we can still fuck this up, though.



Wait for it, wait for it...









All three magnetic torpedoes explode, and all that mess happens right under its keel.



Well, that was an overkill.





Surprisingly, it doesn't stop moving for a while, but it does sink eventually.



We keep on going, but terrible weather slows us down. It will stay shitty throughout the patrol.



We get bogged down in a fog, which can be deadly. As you can see above, we stumble upon a corvette. Thankfully, it hasn't spotted us yet.



I tell the crew to keep approaching the target, just to make sure it's a convoy and not a task force. We're very close to them so we don't stay on the surface for long.



They seem to be coming straight at us. We submerge and start choosing targets.



This one looks good. I'm not entirely sure we're on a good intercept angle because it's difficult to tell in the fog, but at least that means we can get pretty close to the merchants without them spotting us.



I mash the "identify target" button like a madman because the waves keep interrupting the crew and I can't be sure I'm keeping an eye on the same target. They all look the same, there's another column overlapping the one containing the target ship, they're going relatively fast, so by the time the enormous waves pass over the periscope I'm not sure if I'm still following the target I initially wanted.



Just setting up my torpedoes...





We get some duds, but it goes down in flames after a hit. As I said, I was pretty unsure about that intercept angle. I don't have another attack planned out so I decide to dive.



As we dive, we start getting pinged. The escorts don't seem to be very smart in this period, so it's easy to escape just by making hard turns.



I hide and reload my torpedoes, all the while following the patrol right under them. We're making a lot noise going at full speed, but fuck it, they don't seem to notice.



The fourth torpedo is almost ready, so we slowly surface to take a peek at our surroundings. I spot a ship coming our way, so I quickly reposition, hoping it won't turn from its course.





All three torpedoes are spent on this guy, we get a dud, but it should be okay. I think we got a good hit right in the middle of his hull.



I don't have anything else to use on him, so I dive. No pings this time, though.



Let's see that damage now. Yep, looks good. We should get an enemy destroyed message pretty soon now.



Since no escorts seem to be interested in us, I go to periscope depth just to see if there's anything on our 180. We find this ship in front of us and another smaller one right on our rear. I forgot to take a picture of it because we had to shoot soon. No time to calculate anything, I just fired and got a good hit.





It was pretty small, so it blew up from a single torpedo.



This is the tonnage so far. I'm pretty satisfied with that. I getting all when all of a sudden I hear some frantic pinging. I try to turn, but I think we're getting surrounded by more than one destroyer. I immediately order a deep dive.



One or two depth charges blow up somewhere on our bow, damaging the bow torpedo room.



The damage to the crew is minimal. We soon reach around 140 meters and the pinging stops. I hear depth charging going on somewhere behind us. We seem to have escaped them. I make sure not to go full speed for a while.



I've had enough of the fog and this convoy, so I break contact. We'll find something else. This area is target rich anyway.



We run around west of Britain, not seeing much. Some bomber spots us and drops his load, but misses. Not by much, though. I run submerged the rest of that day.



The men retire below deck for an evening nap. The weather has finally cleared. The sea is a little choppy, but otherwise perfect for an attack. Sadly, we still don't see anything.



As soon as the weather turns utterly shitty, we spot another convoy. I can't even shadow them for long because they're heading for a shallow region. We'll have to attack now. That means torpedoes set to impact, and continuous fudging of the impact angle.



There they are. I get a little closer and come to the conclusion that must be the forward destroyer. I submerge, planning to let them pass over me.



Oh for fuck's sake. All those days spent jerking off on the surface, and I forgot to order the crew to reload from the external tubes. Do I really have to do everything on this godforsaken boat, guys?! So yeah, we're now attacking without any torpedoes loaded. I guess we needed a challenge, right?



Looks like the realoding will take hours, as usual, so I go to periscope depth to see if I can score some juicy tonnage with my rear torpedoes. I've been lucky with those so far. I start taking its aob when one of the forward torpedoes finished loading. The ship at the rear is moving slowly, so I swivel to 0 bearing just to check it out.



There's something there, I'm getting hungry for tonnage, so i go for it.





I get a single hit, but no confirmed kill. I got too cocky. The hit could have spooked the targets on my rear.



I choose one of the ships in the colulmn behind me, quickly take all the info, set the torps, and keep an eye on his course. Let's hope he doesn't get afraid of the escorts that are probably coming for us.







Success! Let's dive now. We're getting a ping here and a ping there, but nothing serious so far.



After some evasive action I set my sights on this beauty. He's surrounded with all the escorts that are still looking for us, so it won't be easy.



I get a solid hit, but not a kill. Tankers are usually pretty easy to kill, they explode from a well placed hit. This guy just turns and heads for his escort buddies. Looks like we're not getting him this time.



I go to external camera to check out the escorts, and I find this buggy thing lurching around. Hmm.



Having said goodbye to that tanker, me and my extremely sturdy AA gunner pass under another tanker, hoping to take it down with our rear torpedoes.



Okay, there it is, no let's do this right.



The first one is a hit, but still nothing sinks. The second fish duds. The impact angle was probably terrible. I didn't have time to calculate since we were starting to see shells passing over the periscope.

This whole attack was a complete failure from the get-go. Let's just break contact and head home. It won't be easy letting go of those damaged tankers, but I won't risk my neck for them.



On the way home this guy attempts to drop a bomb on us, but we dive deep just in time.



Limping back home, we find ourselves stuck in the middle of a storm, in the middle of a hostile convoy. I don't even know how we did this, but there are ship less than 4000 meters away from us. I dive and go see what's available. We had realoaded one more torpedo that wasn't available during the last attack, so maybe we can find a home for it.



My crew tells me there's something ahead of us. I can't see anything, but we do pick up sound contacts from multiple merchants. Ah fuck it, let's just fire a torpedo at them and see what happens. It's not like I'm in the mood to follow them for days.



Wat. We hit something.



Well that was a lucky shot. The sea erupts in loud, incessant pinging.



Depth charges everywhere! Luckily, nothing hits us. They hunt us for a long time, and only give up once we've put quite a distance between ourselves and the convoy.



We've done it again men. We're home!



A good tonnage. Those convoy attacks were pretty lousy, but in the end I think we did okay.



Are they just handing these out?





We get plenty of promotions and medals. Most are given to our torpedo guys. Maybe that'll help them reload faster.



A glorious day for captain Andhaira!

Hai, ya u get little response it seems, I have been a bit busy to follow but as for your game, it seems to be going rather well, did you have a lot of practice with the SH series ? When I tried it , it was pretty hard - and that without manual aim.

Is it possible to skip ahead in time to say 1943 ?

I hope you keep it going Quilty. Silent Hunter is good stuff, I never got into the Genre myself, but my father loved to play this game (don't remember which part of the series exactly, though he had a blast with it).

DwarvenFood said:

Hai, ya u get little response it seems, I have been a bit busy to follow but as for your game, it seems to be going rather well, did you have a lot of practice with the SH series ? When I tried it , it was pretty hard - and that without manual aim.

Is it possible to skip ahead in time to say 1943 ?

Click to expand...

I only got into it properly once overtenemy made this LP and got me hooked onto Operation Monsun. It's really not that hard with all the tools the mod gives you (the aob wheel etc, which might seem daunting, but it's quite accurate and useful), but taking the target's course can be a little time-consuming. It does feel like you're really hunting the target when you can't use map indicators, though it takes forever for me to get into position. I guess it's pretty nooby of me to keep insisting on a 90 intercept angle every time, but when you take into account that I miss and dud a lot, I need that angle to be as close to 90 as it can get.

I'll try and plow through 1941 so I can finally hit 1942. Maybe we'll see something interesting then. I don't think I can just switch over to 1943. Or the readers could simply suggest what they want me to do, attack a certain port (though the readme claims big ports should be avoided due to bugs), take part in some historical events, try to find a specific target...

At this rate everyone in the Kriegsmarine will use Iron Crosses as paperweights.

Always wondered about Operation Monsoon. Looks neat, so I'll guess I will give it a try. Nice LP so far!

SH5 had that obnoxious online DRM thing going on and was buggy as fuck. The game been improved since then?