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[Erkki]

Okay, here we go!

Ooh, I'll take a weapons officer, please!

I'll take the motherflipping flak.

The petty officer with medical skills is unimportant right? I'll have him.

Also, does that make him ship's doctor?

I'll handle Navigation if you don't mind. Monkeyhead has already picked the Chief Mechanic, and I can't handle the responsibility of Chief Engineer.

(Also, posting to watch)

I'll take a crewman. any officer.

You playing with SH3 commander? because that might transfer some of us out randomly

Oh, can I be someone with a cool job that wont need to be consulted too often? Like a gunner or something?

If Mithras doesn't have dibs yet, I'll take Watch Officer.
-J-

MonkeyHead: Chief Mechanic Oberfähnrich Erwin Schaefer
Burn Pies: Weapons Officer Oberfähnrich Adolf Kessler
Stworca: No men with the flak skill yet, but I'll promote your guy first: Bootsmann Ewald Hessler
Mithras: Bootsmann Adalbert Lüders
USEC: Navigation Officer Oberfähnrich Franz Linke-Stier
warhammer: (one of the 3) torpedo loading & maintenance specialist Bootsmann Walter Haas
thobal: I'll give you a petty officer still: radist/sonar operator Bootsmann Peter Weller
Jarod Cain: Watch Officer Oberfähnrich Wolfgang Eisenholtz

Claims closed for now!



At the opmimum speed of 8 knots, it should take about 5 days to get to the East coast of Britain... If we fail to find any prey, the initial plan is to relocate somewhere along the West or North-West coast of Scotland.

Navigation officer: find out how much longer it would take to go around the very northern most tip of Britain at a safe distance compared to dashing or sneaking through the strait near the coast. Surface speed is 8 knots(up to 15, is night short enough?), optimum speed submerged is 3 knots, I think. The Kaleun has a good reason to not want to stick his nose anywhere near Scapa Flow during daylight hours or in good weather.

[USEC_OFFICER]

I'll need some time with a real map, but off-the-cuff calculations indicate that going around Scapa Flow is probably the faster choice, unless you want to make a surface dash through the strait that is. However, that might change depending on what constitutes a safe distance from the coast, or if the Shetland Islands constitute the northern most point of Britain. If you can give me an idea of how far from the coast we need to be, then I can do some better calculations and find the fastest course.

[Fishbreath]

Definitely posting to watch this.

[Erkki]

Played the first 10 days of the patrol(and I have a save on day 3) before the game CTD's near Hebrides... I was about 15 seconds from saving again. 

Better luck next time... AAR report with screenshots coming as soon as the patrol actually gets somewhere without the game crashing.

[Jarod Cain]

Good luck man.
-J-

[Erkki]

Patrol 1

U-46 departher from its home base, Kiel, September 11 1939. Ordered to patrol in AN52 on the Eastern coast of Britain, her Kaleun decided this would be both waste of time and dangerous, as the British would likely move all but the most necessary shipping elsewhere from the vulnerable East coast, which would probably also be mined.

Decision was made to head directly to the West coast of Britain. The Channel would be dangerous to pass, so the Northern route was chosen.


September 11 1939, 17.40: U-46 leaves her pier and departs from Kiel, Germany. Weather is clear.

----

September 14, 13.58: Ship sighted!!! U-46 is near the Norwegian coast on its way to West. This ship is a lone merchant or coastal tanker and is traveling alone. Clearly Norwegian coastal traffic, neutral to Germany and not a target to the U-46.




No alarm was sounded as the ship travels far and most likely was never aware of U-46's presence.

[Erkki]

September 17 1939

U-46 is now NW to the Shetland Islands. Weather has changes slightly to the worse, now wind is 4m/s and there are some waves. Still good though and visibility is OK.

Late in the evening:

20.37: Ship sighted, dead ahead!!

It seems to be heading straight towards. No lights... This near to Britain its a valid target, and it doesnt have its lights on. Battle stations!!!


Stabsbootsmann Hugo Baltz and his team man the deck gun!


U-46 approaches at full speed of 15 knots. At a distance of about 2000 meters, the ship sights us and starts to zig-zag!


Deck gun opens fire! 3 first shots miss... The waves rock the submarine so aiming is pretty difficult. The Kaleun orders U-46 to close in!


Another hit! Hitting above the waterline usually doesnt do much if theres nothing burning or explosive aboard... This is pretty much waste of ammo unless the engine room, defensive weapons or etc. are hit. It might take over a hundred 88mm hits to sink a ship if it doesnt catch fire well enough to burn it to the waterline, or if something aboard doesnt explode. Hitting just below the waterline is much more productive!


This close we can ID the ship: a Danish merchant. Sorry boys, but this close to Britain you're a valid target! Where we you coming from any way?


For some reason the pictures of her going down miss... Maybe someone ordered them to be burned later? (TBH no idea what happened, I'm 100% sure I pressed the correct button in Fraps... There were pretty pictures of men in lifeboats and the ship going down stern first with big explosions(ammo on board?) and bodies floating in the water. The ship left just lifeboats, bodies, some wreckage and diesel oil floating:


28 88mm cannon shells were used. The BdU is informed:


BdU replies:


Thats a long way to paddle/row for the survivors... But at least not hopeless!


M14X, right? Thats what the crew ID'd it... Tonnage doesnt match exactly, but there was some cargo aboard, plus there are no ships matching that exact tonnage. Fog of war...


September 18: Sunrise in the North Sea

[BishopX]

You're awesome Erkki!

I vote that you try and run the channel at least one in the game. Early war is probably easier than late war...

[Erkki]

You're awesome Erkki!

I vote that you try and run the channel at least one in the game. Early war is probably easier than late war...

Yeah, but SH III tends to CTD there, even if one sticks close to either shore to keep nearby objects at minimum... Especially Dover is a murder to my laptop. I think the GWX mod also adds more mine fields in the Channel and even more ships and warship patrols near ports. The Channel is a nasty, nasty place for a submariner to be.


----


Looks like the save is corrupted and we'll need to start again. I'll try to manually edit the save file to find out whats wrong with it but its not looking good. I made sure there were no contacts or land nearby when I saved, but it still CTDs at the end of the loading when the game should initialize the 3d world. This has never happened before, maybe the mods I use have made the game too heavy for my crappy laptop? Bah. 

Should we try again with a fresh SH III install + mods(instead of the current ragtag half-hand-assembled and notepad-edited thing), or try some other game? I have a feeling that the modded SH III might be juust too much for my laptop. Game runs smoothly, but getting there takes 5min + and often a second try. 



PS. Of the games that work in AARs I have Age of Wonders(the first and original), Shogun: Total War Warlord's Edition(IMHO the best Total War series game out-of-the-box, together with the original Medieval), Master of Orion 2(needs a trick or 2 to make it work in 64 bit environment again, but I've done it before), and Heroes III Complete.

[Sheb]

I'd say try a lighter install of SH III. It really did look good.

[Stworca]

Shogun: Total War Warlord's Edition(IMHO the best Total War series game out-of-the-box, together with the original Medieval)

We cannot be friends anymore.   

SH series are generally unstable, and overheat most laptops. The main problem comes when you multiply the speed flow - which is mandatory - too much. The effects are often seen after reloading the game, and since without fast-forward the game would take months to finish, it's unavoidable.

[Erkki]

I'd say try a lighter install of SH III. It really did look good.

Okay, I'll give it a try. I can live without the modded "v. 1,6b" .exe, but I want the merchant fleet mod and GWX. I think I'll start another AAR thread and this time do at least the first patrol without roleplay crew claims.

Shogun: Total War Warlord's Edition(IMHO the best Total War series game out-of-the-box, together with the original Medieval)

We cannot be friends anymore.   

SH series are generally unstable, and overheat most laptops. The main problem comes when you multiply the speed flow - which is mandatory - too much. The effects are often seen after reloading the game, and since without fast-forward the game would take months to finish, it's unavoidable.

Shogun rocks! Taken some time to get used to the graphics(a headache can be close) but it still is the best of them IMHO. Aggressive AI that actually flanks with more than 1 unit(which it doesnt do in later, unmodded, TWs) and that is actually competitive in the strategic map without cheating(provice-based strat map does help it somewhat, but at least it doesnt send its units to die one at a time and in obvious choke points it could go around, like in later TWs, Rome and onwards).

[Erkki]

I've fiddled with the game for some time now and it at least seems to be working OK now. Today I played the first actual patrol and even found and pursued 2 contacts in rough weather... Then I probably mis-pressed some buttons and the game minimized to desktop, and I was unable to bring it up again. Bah.

I'll try again when I have the time to.

[Anvilfolk]

Wow, that game just does not want to be played :\

It being December 7th and all that, I would go ahead and suggest SH IV, in case that is an option. The expansion makes it lighter on the computer. I have a relatively crappy computer and can run it OKish. But I think you're more of an ETO guy

[Stworca]

SH IV is boring as all **** though.