'Twas Fiedler's installation guide ( http://www.donitzeliteflotilla.com/forum/index.php?topic=2838) that got me past my fear of the deep water of applying Silent Hunter 3 mods to my Steam version of (to my mind) much the best U-boat sim ever to go to virtual war. So I decided to take the plunge (sic) and go for a second install for the Grey Wolves mod (the first being for a stock game to which several individual mods have since been added). To check things out, having dabbled with a few of the many extra single missions included in Grey Wolves (GWX3 Gold, to be precise), I reckoned it was time to put properly to see and go for a career.

To parallel a career I've been running with U-802 in my first install, I decided to go for another one in a big Type IX boat operating with 2. U-Flotille out of Lorient in France, starting in 1941. This time I'm in a Type IXB - U-108 - rather than the later IXC/40 I got last time, so I didn't need to roll back to the early conning tower to get a more accurate boat for the period. Our patrol area is Marine Quadrat EJ19, which is near the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of West Africa.

Here we are about to leave our berth. GWX adds the ability to start some missions from a U-boat pen, but this evidently isn't one of them.



As we pull slowly away, I can see that there's a minesweeper up ahead, going our way. U-boats were generally escorted out of, and met coming back into, port and this welcome feature is evidently something else GWX adds.



Air cover is another welcome addition. It's in the form of a pair of Messerschmitt 109s buzzing around at low level.



Our berth falls away astern. The bridge watch is still relaxed, but they will soon be fully alert.



There's plenty of harbour traffic in GXW, like this moored destroyer...



...and this French-flagged steamer.



We turn to starboard after the minesweeper. At this stage, we're following a course I plotted, and not 'manually' formating on our consort.



As we pass the pens, someone down in the radio room is evidently busy working the direction finding kit, whose loop antenna is rotating continuously.



Further evidence of harbour traffic - or ex-harbour traffic, in this case - is the beached steamer visible over to port.



Up ahead, the minesweeper presses on and I alter course to port a little to pass between red and green channel marker buoys he seems to be trying to steer between. I also drop back on the revolutions so as to avoid running him down.



Nevertheless, that's what nearly happens after I increase speed again and distract myself using the F1 key help to find if there's a command to retract that DF loop - which there isn't. The watch officer's looking the wrong way but we manage to pass astern of the minesweeper.



Adieu, Lorient!



As we near the end of the channels out to open sea, our escort turns to port and leaves us to proceed on our own. After the near miss, I can't say I blame him for not hanging around longer than he must.



Here's that plotted course I mentioned. Thanks to ARB's widescreen mod and Tycho's patch, this displays fine on my 1920x1020 set-up. As you can see I'm liable to be in high rates of time compression for much of the voyage.



The French coast is soon fading into the horizon astern of us, as the last 'duty seagulls' bid us a noisy farewell.



So far, so good! Now, I just need to make it across the Bay of Biscay without being sunk by the RAF!

...to be continued!

Always love sub sims with the crowds on the dock when you leave. Good sailing, lima!

Thanks Rick! I certainly hope the crew of U-108 gets to see the crowds waiting when she slides back into dock after what will be a very long voyage.

It's April 1941 and with the aeroplane present but not the threat it later became, I decide to see if I can make it across Biscay entirely on the surface, even in daylight.



As you can see, conditions are calm but I'm not interrupted. Not by aircraft, anyway. In my non-GWX SH3 Type IX campaign, aircraft seem more likely but a nuisance rather than a threat, even in a slower-diving Type IX. Today, the interruptions are radio messages. These drop me out of time compression so mostly, I read them. Few are relevant to me but they do give the feeling of a war going on, all over the Atlantic.



Where does the radio man get those postcards? It's a wonder he can concentrate on anything.

I'm proceeding at halbe fahrt voraus all the way. GWX compensates, fuel-wise, for SH3's map being apparently slightly over-sized. Day turns to night as we complete our Biscay crossing safely.



Being on the surface means we receive messages the whole time.



The first message that's actually relevant to us is a report of a 'small, neutral' convoy well astern. GWX uses grey markers so you don't get the red enemy colour. Anyway I decide I'm not turning around to chase after reportedly neutral shipping.



A check of the crew reveals none of the red exclamation marks denoting people who need me to tell them to get a rest. It seems GWX's crew management system largely relieves the player of this tedious chore.



The next day, a ship is reported to our west, said to be heading north. Its grey marker lacks the convenient course pointer of stock SH3, but I decide to plot a dog-leg interception course with the second and last leg due south, towards (I hope!) my intended prey.



By the time I'm getting close to where he should be, the weather has worsened and it's dark. Happily, submerging for a hydrophone contact results in us picking up a steamer to our north-west. I turn after him and surface when the hydrophone operator reports him dead ahead. We then race into the darkness but see nothing. Another dive for a sound check results in no contacts this time. Lost him! Nothing for it but to press on, reading the radio reports as we go. This one is some ominous news from U-76, which was operating south of Iceland, last time I heard.



Finally, we're approaching our own patrol area...



...and reach it in daylight, with dull but decent conditions. I slow down as we settle into my usual zig-zag search pattern.



As this was so uneventful a post, I thought I might enliven it a bit by illustrating why I'm especially pleased with GWX Gold's additions to the aircraft and merchant shipping inventories.

In the air, the relatively limited-use Hurricane is still there, but there's now a decent section of maritime patrol aircraft with much improved 3d models and textures, including a rather wonderful little Anson...



...a Hudson...



...a Halifax...



...and a much better Sunderland.



On the US side, there's even a blimp!



Wow! The work's that's gone into GWX Gold is amazing!

I've hit the fifteen attachments limit so I'll illustrate some of the new or improved shipping in the next post.

...to be continued!

SH3 and mods drive me nuts. Sometimes they work other times they CTD just as the mission is finished loading. At times remembering the 4gig patch works other times makes no difference. I just can't work out why it works one time and not the next. Goes with Grey Wolves and LSH3 mod.

Spot on AAR, as always, 33lima! I don't have a lot of experience in the Type IX, so I will be interested to hear your experiences. I like the little touches that GWX adds to the vanilla install, including the escort out of the harbor and the occasional air patrols to protect you close to the coast. You will also have to deal with negative buoyancy whilst underwater and below standard. Enemy air activity should be a little more bothersome, with hunter-killer groups and a more aggressive AI, too.

Wodin, SH3 is indeed quite finicky, but generally speaking, I haven't seemed to have too many problems with CTD's. I'm no expert, but if you continue to have problems, let me know and we'll see if we can figure things out.

Thanks BuckeyeBob!

In my experience so far, the Type IX (reasonably enough) seems consistently to get the distant, and less heavily-trafficked, patrol areas so is probably less exciting career choice than the Type VIII. The extra eels and more powerful deck gun aren't proving much benefit, for want of targets! They're also much slower to get off the surface, as they should be.

In GWX Gold, U-108 has fortunately so far escaped air attack. In my other install, U-802 made it into 1942 and was continually having to dive to escape the planes!





Early days, but GWX3 Gold, with its single installer, has been stable so far, having carefully followed Fiedler's guide over on DEF to getting it working on a second Steam-based install. My other install, which was my first venture into modded SH3 - basically ARB widescreen + H.sie realism + the sub elements extracted from Fifi's LSH enhancement - was also entirely stable - until I tried out something the other day which started giving me CTDs. It seems stable again after I re-applied the mods exactly per each's instructions instead of 'winging it'.

Back at the front, pictures taken of U-108's adventures off the Cape Verde Islands have failed to develop properly (ie I forgot to turn on FRAPS, the equivalent of pressing the shutter release with the lens cap on).

What actually happened was...nothing. I zig-zagged my patrol area for a day and a half and made no contacts at all.

I turned back north, reporting the situation to BdU. They actually replied, to encourage me to try fresh pastures! I decided to try off the western approaches to Gibraltar. Then reconsidered. I really didn't want to come home with a full load of torpedoes. This seemed much less likely if I diverted further north and west - to the Western Approaches to the British Isles. That's where I've always found the richest pickings. If I could get there, and then stay there long enough...

The fuel I'd wasted seemed to be a possible obstacle. I don't know if its a GWX thing but my navigator consistently could not tell me my remaining range at my current speed. All I had was the LI's fuel status report and the map. Rather than take chances on my maths, I decided to use a definite GWX feature - refuelling from a clandestine supply ship. The nearest one was the Corrientes, just to the north, at the harbour of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, neutral Spanish territory. So that's where I went. Arriving in darkness so as not to give the game away, I had an interesting time navigating the last few miles to locate the Corrientes amongst the other moored shipping, while avoiding a collision with a Spanish tug what was manoeuvring offshore.

All went well. I recalled that I then had to exit (and save) the mission and choose to dock at the Corrientes as if it were my base. This I did. The surprise came when I reloaded the mission, to find out I was alongside the Corrientes, ready to depart - but in broad daylight! I didn't hang around and away we sailed, again dodging the tug which was pulling out of Las Palmas harbour as we left. I suppose I could have sneaked out submerged, if the depth of water permitted. But we'd been alongside the Corrientes in broad daylight for some time.

Saving and resuming the mission at this point took the virtual lens cap of my virtual camera!

The distant Corrientes is astern to the left as you look at this pic. Las Palmas is on the right.



I manoeuvred to pass astern of the tug, which you can see to starboard. This still left me plenty of sea room to port.



Adios, Las Palmas! Pity we had no opportunity for shore leave.



Here's the course I plotted up to the Western Approaches. I'll zig-zag some more up there if needed to find some shipping, despite this being a somewhat less safe place for a bigger U-boat.



The lookout's keeping a close watch on the Spaniard; better safe than sorry.



Time to put on a bit of speed and head north to whatever's waiting for us up there!

...to be continued!

Hopefully what's waiting for us in the Western Approaches will include less of the juicy but boring C2 and C3 'conveyor-belt-built' ships, and more of the new stuff that comes with GWX3 Gold, like these...













A nice cruiser wouldn't go amiss...



(anyone else spot the turrets 'borrowed' from a Hipper Class?)

...or even a battlecruiser...



...if she's not too well watched over by people like these...



We shall see, soon enough!

...to be continued!

Well, the good news is that the mostly-superior U-boats from Fifi's enhancement for Living Silent Hunter 2020 seem to be working when enabled into my GWX3 Gold install.





Issues noticed so far are that on the Type VIICs, the control room hatch to the radio shack and boss's berth is closed again. The permanently-raised DF loop is now permanently retracted, which is better than permanently raised. However, on boats with a late radar fit, the 'mattress' antenna retracts at right-angles to its slot on the bridge so protrudes either side. The solution is to raise it, which can be done, although it doesn't rotate any longer.





So U-108 is suddenly looking a lot more weathered.



Anyway, this is how she will appear in the following posts in this thread, short of a major mod disaster. In which case no biggie, as I can just disable the new mod and the GWX Gold boats are great in their own ways.

...to be continued!

Unfortunately, I had a second episode of ‘virtual lens cap left on virtual camera’. This time, I was trying to use OBS Studio to record some gameplay (beyond the 30 seconds that free FRAPS allows – my GTX580 doesn’t support NVidia’s Shadowplay). This either recorded sound only, or VLC played sound only. Result either way – no footage and, distracted, I failed to turn on FRAPS. So no screenshots, either.

What happened during this screenie-free period is like this. U-108 tries to intercept a reported single contact as she nears the Western Approaches. GWX’s removal of the handy course indicator on S3’s contact markers makes this more difficult - for me, anyway - and my attempt narrowly fails. Diving for a hydrophone check near the expected interception point produces a contact, but we can’t locate it after a chase on the surface. After diving again, it can no longer be heard. Even manning the hydrophones myself, which one source reported gives a greater detection radius that the average AI operator.

Meanwhile, the weather has deteriorated into a howling gale. All in all, I'm beginning to worry that I'll end up having to go home without so much as a single torpedo fired.

Suddenly, all that changes! A convoy is reported within fifty kilometres. It’s to the north-east, heading in that general direction. Beide machine, AK voraus! We race after it on the surface. Conditions there are stormy but skies are fairly clear. We see nothing, but an updated report from somewhere or other puts the convoy just to starboard of our track, now less than twenty kilometres away.

The hunt is resumed. We plough into waves which at times wash over the conning tower, submerging the bridge watch for long seconds – so long the diesels cut out and the sound man can briefly hear the screws of merchantmen up ahead, over a wide arc!

There they are, revealed to the ‘ship camera’ if invisible from the bridge - an impressive phalanx of shipping. Just like us, they’re pitching and rolling in the gale.





I’m on the bridge, staring ahead, revs slightly reduced. The thumping roar of our diesels is barely audible in the piercing scream and howl of the wind over a sea that’s alive with rolling waves which toss U-108 around like an oversized children’s toy.

Finally, sweeping the horizon with the binos and just before a look-out reports it, I see a distant smudge of smoke to starboard. Underneath are the upperworks of a ship.

That’s no merchantman – it’s a warship!

She looks like a frigate or corvette, maybe two thousand meters off. And she’s coming up on our port beam, closing steadily. Verdamt!



Alaaarm! Down into the cellar we go, the deck at a crazy angle, as we race to put 120 meters of water above our keel.



I throw in a sharp change of course as we go...



...then go onto silent running, and another course change.



Wasserbomben! The first depth charges pursue us into the depths. We put another burst of speed. and they explode noisily but harmlessly. A short wait then back to crepping away, rigged for silent running. I know that up there, the storm-tossed convoy is drawing away while I've been forced down and away. But for now, my priority is survival.

I'm edging away, just west of north. I'll stay on this course for as long as it takes for my pursuers either to mount another attack or lose me. My luck holds, though presenting a small, sterm-on profile to the escort probably helps. The sound man reports the warship is no longer audible, but he can hear a steamer off our starboard bow. We're still in business!



Still creeping and still submerged, I plot a dog-leg course to hook around the convoy on its port side.



Better I lose the convoy than my boat, though. I've no intention of either speeding up or coming up until I'm well clear.



Up above, the escort is still making depth charge attacks...



...but they fall well behind somewhere. I'm perfectly well aware that there's likely to be other escorts up there. Sure enough, there's a Flower class corvette...



...and another Black Swan class sloop, distinguishable by its different camouflage pattern.



But my plans are laid and I stick to them.

It's over an hour of real time before I feel safe to increase speed and come back up to periscope depth. A quick but careful sweep confirms we're clear, while the sound man reports no contacts for now.



Auftauchen! Surfaced, I can see that the horizon is clear, but I'm fairly sure the convoy is just out of sight off our starboard bow.

At this point, I realise that only one of my diesels is running. The right-hand one has evidently been de-clutched from the starboard prop shaft and is charging the batteries. That done, I soon have it running again, by giving the Chief the order for 'standard running'.



Now it's time to pile on the revs and locate that convoy again!



...to be continued!

The bridge watch is wisely in oilskins and sou'westers. The boat plunges wildly as we race after the convoy, the howling wind almost drowning out the rhythmic knocking rumble of the mighty diesels. I’ve already sent a contact report to BdU, despite the risk of being DF’ed (and the fact that the sim, unlike BdU, won't hold it against me if I don't report in).



Schiff gesichtet! There, off the port bow!



But it's another escort!



And she's turning steadily so as to intercept us. I give it a minute or so, to see is she holds her course. Which she does. We've been spotted, I have to assume.

I'm not in the mood to be passively depth-charged again. Trying to torpedo an escort is a risky business at the best of times, and a dangerous waste of effort in these seas. I decide to escape on the surface. Reportedly in a storm, a nominally slower U-boat with its finer lines and lower centre of gravity could outrun even a destroyer. Am I willing to risk my boat on 'reportedly'? Maybe not with a destroyer, but for a lesser escort...yes! I order maximum revolutions and begin to turn away. The escort alters course, too.



U-108 picks up speed and cuts through the waves like the sleek thoroughbred she is. The escort begins to slip away, below the undulating horizon.



I start edging back to port, after the convoy. I half expect the escort to re-appear ‘bow angle zero’, running us down, but as the seconds pass without incident, it’s becoming clear that we’ve eluded her.



Nothing much actually happened, but the last few minutes have been as exciting and immersive as any I remember in a subsim. The SH3+GWX sounds and visuals in particular brought the situation to life and for a few minutes, I WAS a U-boat captain racing to escape a deadly enemy in an Atlantic storm – one of those magic simming moments you long remember.

The senses are now dominated again by three things: the howling wind over the thumping diesel roar, the wild waters swirling on every side, and the motion of U-108, pitching and rolling.



I realise this is probably as good as a sense as I'll ever get, up there with 'Das Boot', of being on the bridge in command of a U-boat in an Atlantic gale. Another sim experience to remember!

Now, if we can just get eyes on that convoy!

...to be continued!

There she is again! That freighter with the pale stern! Off the port bow as we cut out to the right of the anticipated convoy's location.



The bad news is that there's an escort further out on that side.



For a while, I maintain my course and plan. Which is to hook ahead of the convoy on that side. I can soon see the steamer with the naked eye, but not the escort.



Thanks I think to a mission save - I'm not taking any chances with CTDs, not at this point in this mission! - the bridge watch is no longer in wet weather gear.



I read somewhere that when this happens, they'll be back in the proper garb is the F7/crew management screen is used to change the watch. For now, we plough on regardless.

A check through the U-boat Zeil Optic reveals we're looking at a tramp steamer at a range of nearly 4 kilometres.



At this point I decide to swap sides. There's definitely an escort to starboard. To port, I'm not certain. So I re-plot my course accordingly. Just far enough to put me on a roughly parallel track to the convoy. When I can see I'm on its flank, I can adjust my heading to keep it barely visible on the horizon as I race to get ahead.



There's still the thorny issue of the weather. I can but hope to maintain contact until it settles enough to give torpedo attacks a reasonable prospect of getting hits.

My bows swing to port as we come onto the new heading.



The bridge watch can't bee too comfortable in their denims, but now's not the time to fret over such things.



While it may kill the rotating DF loop and later radar antenna, Fifi's LSH3 enhancement pack does wonders for the boats otherwise. for oen thing, blocks on the jumping wire look as they should, not like little, angular pyramidal things.



Soon the merchantman is well off the starboard bow....



...and still visible with the naked eye. No escorts around...yet. Or the rest of the presumed convoy, for that matter.



But I know they're there, and now, I'm coming to get them, one way or another!



...to be continued!

By the way, at time of posting, Silent Hunter 3 is a steal on Steam, at just £1.07 for what's still one of the best sims money can buy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/15210/Silent_Hunter_III/

Oh, and here's the 30 seconds worth free FRAPS gave me of U-108 in the thick of the storm...



...and the same boat again, pre-Fifi version, in calmer waters with one of my favourites in the GWX Gold gramophone collection playing...

As reported on one of the SH3 forums, changing my bridge watch gives me a fresh shift in wet weather gear. It's just as well, for the conditions are showing no signs of letting up.



We slowly start to overhaul the convoy on our starboard side. It takes a while for to work it out, but what I seem to have on my hands is a couple of steamers straggling, to starboard...



...at least one escort, further out and ahead...



... with the rest in front, off my starboard bow, and out of sight at this stage.



I'm tempted to turn right and go for the stragglers. But in these seas, torpedoes are likely to miss. By pressing on I hope so see some improvement in the weather, or if not, rows of targets where if I don't hit one steamer, I might hit another on a more distant convoy column.



Another reason to delay my attack is that it will be getting dark soon.



My priority is to get the main body of the convoy within sight of my lookouts. Then I can gradually work into an attack position ahead or even abeam of it.



The stragglers fall astern as U-108 cuts through the heavy seas, still rolling and pitching violently.



Roll on, the hours of darkness!



...to be continued!

The sun slowly dips toward the western horizon.



Finally darkness descends. We race on, searching for the ships up ahead. In doing so, we suddenly see the indistinct form of one of the escorts off the starboard bow, rather close for comfort.



The enemy steams on, seemingly unaware we're here.



So I increase speed alter alter course to port. As I do so, the first ships of the convoy loom into sight.



At about the same time we notice another single ship, off to port. It's a Flower class corvette. I hesitate for a moment and then press on. We have an escort either side of us but we're going to try to slip between them then fall on the convoy from astern.



This is the starboard escort - a Black Swan class sloop, perhaps the same one who has already attacked us.



And here's what we've come all this way for, finally coming into sight.



At maximum revolutions, we aim to the left of the mass of shipping, edging slightly away from the closest escort, to starboard.



Things are about to get interesting!

...to be continued!

Exciting stuff! I am on pins and needles!

Have the wave heights reduced at all yet?

Great. SH 3 was , perhaps, the best of the Sub games.

Thanks guys. More than the best subsim, I reckon SH3 is still one of the very best sims you can play today.

As to the weather, I didn't check with the Obersteurmann, but if the wind and waves have died down, methinks it isn't by a whole lot! The bridge watch is still completely submerged, every so often.

As I race to grab the convoy by its tail, I cast anxious glances to left and right. The escorts on either side of me aren't holding a steady course, so it's not going to be immediately obviousi f one or other of them reacts to my presence. There's the one to port...



What's he up to? Water on the binos makes it harder to tell, but could he be turning away?



This is the plot just after 20:00. The small diamonds on either side are the escorts. Ahead, the merchantmen, whose starboard columns seem to have pretty well broken up in the gale.



I'm beginning to wish I'd waited till it was a bit darker, but the moon might come out then. My neck is already on the chopping block so it's a bit late to hold back. So on we go.

Now, what's that sloop to port up to? Coming straight at us, is the answer!



For a moment I freeze. Maybe he hasn't seen us and will even now turn away? Not a pup's chance. Alaaarm!

The big Type IX seems to be glued to the surface.



This looks like the end!

...to be continued!

Absolutley Brilliant Lima, i agree its one of the best sims around and still as atmospheric as it always was,so many brilliant sims to play...So little RL time to do so

fingers crossed you can escape from this one..Dive Dive, Dive !