Weeks 2 & 3/Dec 41. Still learning the basics, no success due to a combination of bad dice (only three hits, all three duds) and misread rules (I was forfeiting the +1 TDC bonus during re-attacks), but I decide to take this as a 'player event' and continue. My commanders are rookies after all, surely everything is their fault!
Week 4/Dec 41. The 'Fall of Manila' war event deprives me of SARGO, scuttled. SALMON obtains the first torpedo hit, but the attacked vessel refuses to sink, and to add insult to injury SNAPPER vanishes without trace when returning to base.
Week 1/Jan 42. Early in the week THRESHER scores the first kill, a M5 in the Carolines. I am exhultant! The rest of the week however is most disappointing, only two other hits, ad both duds. I am now using three different 10-sided dice (the standard white, plus a red and a blue ones) to quicken throwings and to avoid being too mad at the white one. You surely have suffered the same curse: when you need low numbers, you get 8s and 9s; when you at last obtain a few hits, and you wish for some 8s and 9s... there come the low numbers, downgrading hits to duds. A torpedo with just a 10% possibility seems to miss every time, however you roll lots of '0' in the contact table! (twice I rolled double '0' causing sub-to-sub combat, but without success or loss).
Week 2/Jan 42. War event: Fall of Dutch East Indies. SAILFISH sinks one M3 in the South China Sea 1, two others are damaged by PIKE and NARWHAL. I must concentrate on areas near my bases, to reduce the number of weeks lost in transit.
Week 3/Jan 42. I am slowly gaining experience with the column/TDC placing, gaining more favourable positions. I no longer am lured by the possibility of multiple hits, and always fire a full salvo at the easiest target. Three ships (12,000 tons) sunk for my efforts, including an AO-5 for SAILFISH, the first boat to score for the second time, and one ship damaged.
Week 4/Jan 42. Things are really improving. Five ships (12,000 tons) sunk, and another damaged. TAMBOR scores the first double-success against an unescorted convoy in the Marianas, and SCULPIN sinks the first enemy man-o'-war when a DD 'lumbers in her way'. Sadly, the week ends with the loss of TRITON in combat in the Bonins.
Week 1/Feb 42. War Event 'The Hunt for Wounded Bear' throws away most of the efforts for the week. The only result in this wild chase is a ship damaged by SWORDFISH in the Bismarck Sea. In other areas, just one M1 sunk by SEAL.
Week 2/Feb 42. I take some more risks with attacking boats, but only three small ships (5000 tons) are sunk and I lose SKIPJACK to a counter-attack in the Philippine Sea. Several others are damaged.
Week 3/Feb 42. An all-out effort nets only four ships for 9000 tons, and incredibly the best success is obtained by an S-boat, S-36 sinks two ships from a small convoy in the Coral Sea. The cost is rather high: GRAMPUS is damaged in a counter-attack and is reported missing during the return trip.
No less than seven other subs incurre damage.
Week 4/Feb 42. The final week before the tonnage check is a complete fiasco. Few boats are in station due to the bottleneck in repair yards; only two ships are hit and both are duds! ComSubPac places his desk at the disposition of higher command.
Failing the first tonnage check, my campaign should have ended there, with the following results:
18 ships sunk for 47,000 tons (including a 2000-ton DD)
6 ships damaged for 20,000 tons
Top scorer: SAILFISH (3 ships for 11,000 tons)
4 subs sunk (two in combat, two missing) and 1 scuttled
However, I was looking forward to better subs and better torpedoes, and wanted to keep playing on, so I made use of a 'house rule' (or cheat, if you prefer it!) which gave me a second chance at the cost of limited reinforcements. I feel this is partly compensated by the wrong way in which I was playing the first two weeks (no +1 TDC bonus when re-attack).
Week 1/March 42. With less subs in patrol than last week, I score the best success of the campaign so far: 6 ships sunk for 19,000 tons. For the first time a ship has been damaged and then finished off in a re-attack. Some hits have been quite unexpected; luck has clearly changed for the best.
Week 2/March 42. Despite a War Event ('Battle of Midway') that throws everything in disarray, 4 ships are sunk for 18,000 tons, including a big transport of 10,000 (double-tonnage!) by SEARAVEN. Unfortunately big-scorer SCULPIN is lost in combat.
Week 3/March 42. Four ships sunk for 10,000 tons, another damaged. SAILFISH is well on her way to acedom, having sunk 4 vessels (13,000 tons).
Week 4/March 42. 'Double Ultra' war event. Five ships are sunk (14,000 tons) and 2 damaged.
Week 1/April 42. Four ships sunk (19,000 tons) including one 5000-tonner by old S-40, and 1 ship damaged. SAILFISH has sunk her fifth enemy ship. Betty bombers have been unusually active, forcing three subs to break-off approach, and damaging two of them.
