Played out my 4th mission as a U-boat commander on full realism today, went like this...

U-48 departed Wilhelmshaven bound for a patrol in search of convoys near the Rockall Banks. In order to conserve fuel for the voyage the trip to the patrol grid took about a week.

U-48 was blessed with good weather until passing the Shetlands where i encountered a heavily escorted carrier task force. They were moving much to fast for me to make an attack.

shortly thereafter the sea went to raging like an angry beast. Rain started pouring down in buckets, visibility dropped to nearly nothing. U-48 was an unwelcome guest roaming the waters of the royal navy and it was as if mother nature herself knew it. Patrolling on the surface would be foolish given these conditions. Diving time for a Type VII U-boat is about 27 seconds in ideal conditions... when a destroyer parts the fog only a hundred yards in front of your boat you have substantially less than 27 seconds to do anything to save your crew.

I would stay submerged for about a day, then surface under cover of darkness to recharge the batteries and replenish the oxygen reserve. It was a dangerous way to gamble, trolling along on the surface in the driving rain and dense fog. Your only hope is that one of the watchmen will spot a mast as you crest the next swell.

Upon reaching the patrol area, there was a lone sonar contact, propeller sounds, closing on our position. I plotted an intercept course and proceeded to the expected point of contact. the ship was close, the thumping of her screws were practically vibrating the U-boat. I raised the scope to take a look. The seas were still very high. As the boat rocked back and forth under the waves the lense of the periscope would blur over with water and then dry over clean. the only image that would ever be revealed that afternoon was rain on top of more rain. I cant shoot at a ship that i cannot see. You have to get the bearings on the target in full realism. you have to use the scope's range finder to determine the range, then calculate the speed, the angle on bow, and then shoot. Its a process that can take several minutes just to sink one ship! No attack is going to happen in weather like that however.

after spending a few days patrolling the assigned grid without results I decided to plot a course towards the south, and patrol the shallower waters off the cost of southern Ireland.

En route one of the lookouts spotted a ship moving slowly across the horizon through the light of the full moon. Though the sea's were still rough, the weather was clear, and visibility good. I maneuvered the U-boat so that the target would cross our bow at a 90 degree angle. given the hight of the sea state i opted for a surface attack. The ship was identified as an Ammunition ship sailing under royal colors. a well placed hit would surely result in a very impressive explosion if the boat was loaded with the desired cargo. I ordered creeping speed and approached the slow moving ship to within 900 yards and opened tubes 2 and 3. I fired a 3 degree spread. the torpedoes found the hull of the ammunition ship but appeared to do little more than ignite a few small fires on her deck. "Damn... must be sailing empty." i thought... just then a thunderous explosion lifted the entire midsection of the stricken ship from the water and cracked her keel in two. her main masts collapsed and several life boats, crates and even men were seen flying overboard in the bright light of a fireball nearly as large as the ship itself as it erupted from the boat. the crew erupted into cheers. U-48 sailed on towards richer hunting grounds off the southwestern coast of Ireland.

a few days later another sound contact was made... and the weather favored an attack. i moved in for a closer look at the target it was a tanker riding very low in the water. i was on the surface not an hour or so before sunset, but the ship must have spotted me anyway. It beamed its bright searchlight onto the sub, and immediately turned on its harbor lights and pointed its remaining lights at its mainmast... the light revealed the American Flag... the U.S. wasnt in the war yet... not formally anyway. a neutral ship worth a lot of tonnage and loaded with the lifeblood of the U.K. but valuable or not it would have to be passed up.

The patrol continued for several days. the only other ships sighted were fishing boats, tugs, trawlers and a few sailing yachts. none of those worth the ammunition or a torpedo. The fuel reserves were now down to 40 percent. I could make the return voyage back to the north by passing the Shetlands again then hug the Norwegian coastline and down through the north sea back to Germany... or i could move with stealth through the English channel. submerged by day, surfaced by night conserving the fuel for the long trek home. Shallow water to a submarine is a death trap. If the allies havnt mined the channel already there would be any number of Destroyers, Destroyer escorts, armed trawlers and PT boats sailing in criss cross patterns with little more on their minds than finding an off guard U-boat. Everything in my gut told me to avoid the channel, but my navigation officer advised that the journey back to even the nearest home port would leave us dangerously low on fuel reserves. and that largely depended on a smooth sea state for the estimates on fuel consumption. The north Atlantic is notoriously rough so - against my intuition i chose the Channel route.

Intense, very intense! 

wow sounds like a great game. a MP game of SH:3 like that would be awesome.

the standalone version of the game is great.

the gray wolves expansion mod (free download) makes it an entirely new game altogether.

scalable realism means that you can roam the ocean for a couple of days running everywhere at flank speed killing hundreds of ships... or you can put it on full real and roam the ocean for a month and a half in the game and run across a convoy or two only managing to sink a handful of merchants or you might even run across a couple of battleships being escorted by 7 or 8 destroyers.

but if you play on full real, and the firing solutions have to be right i can promise you that when you run across that battleship as you view him through the periscope calculating your solution your heart will be pounding. When you score the hits on him it will be rewarding and when you are subsequently being hunted down by his escorts it can be terrifying.

there is a multi-player option for some single missions but you have to download the patch from Ubisoft for the game to work properly on multi-player i suppose you could play a MP campaign together but on MP there is NO time acceleration so you have to play in real time - so unless you dont have anything to do for a couple of weeks go for it.

lots of videos on YouTube of SH3 in action both with and without mods - check them out if you get a chance.

I just reinstalled it and started playing it again, I never got into it before... decided my first campaign (career) would be on 0% realism to get the hang of it, 9 patrols later and 4 ships sunk... (15 hours of playing) I am really loving it.... sounds like a great mod, I may get it!

Gunny

if you want the mod to work properly you have to uninstall the game entirely, then do a clean install, then patch to version 1.4b BEFORE you update the game with the gray wolves expansion mod. You should be aware that the mod is petty labor intensive for the average system too.

If you can get it to work the mod is like a brand new game.

When you leave port the area is alive with fishing boats, warships, and civilian vessels you even get an escort that will lead you about 40 miles out to sea for anti aircraft protection and to guide you past your own minefields and anti sub nets.

the submarines behavior in heavy seas has been modified to react more realistically like you might see on the movie Das Boot. the pitching and rolling of the sub is a bit more "violent".

If you patrol peace time areas most of the cargo ships will have all of the windows lit up with navigation lights on.

certain areas close to scholes or reefs will have stationary lightships at anchor.

once in a blue moon in some areas you can hear marine life on the hydrophones.

historically accurate milk cow subs will be on station for the Atlantic crossing to the U.S. in 1942 - 1943.

Several new ai ships were added. Like the Iowa class battleship, several new British warships and realistic cammo paint schemes, several new Italian warships with realistic cammo paint schemes.

I even was attacked by - but evaded and then sank a U.S. gato class submarine!!!

More airplanes.

new main menu look and music, new loading screens, new crew endurance, new texture skins for ships and torpedoes etc.

dont be surprised if you hear a battle on the hydrophone and move to check it out and it is a group of your own AI u-boats slugging it out with a convoy!!!

and the gramophone has tons of period songs in mp3 format to play during your patrol, from German Marches to Glenn miller.

and a ton of more neat stuff i cant take the time to mention here.

if you can update all your drivers, and you have a computer that can make the game work well, clean install Silent Hunter 3, patch to 1.4b (make sure it is the right 1/4b patch because there is one for the DVD version English and one for the download version English) after you have done all of that then download the multi part mod called "gray wolves X" or "gray wolves expansion pack" and follow the installation instructions carefully.

good luck.

ok hope im not violating anything by linkng to another site....

but did you buy the U.S. DVD version of the game at the store?

or did you buy it from the web site and download it?

Step one, completely remove Silent Hunter 3 and all of it's components from your computer

Step two, re-install Silent Hunter 3 and get it configured the way you like

step three, go here http://www.silent-hunteriii.com/uk/updates.php and download the correct patch version.

then find the gray wolves expansion mod

the patch should be a self installing patch and shouldnt give you any problems

Okay this has got to be the best mod for a game EVER! SH3 stock was cool once you get the learning curve.... after adding the sea wolves mod? all I can say is wow....... Get it!!!!!!!

Gunny