Silent Hunter III....

Silent Hunter III is a game you can really have a lot of fun with. A good part of the game are the anywhere save points (bar when in combat). A save before an engagement can let you 'test the waters' so to speak; And to push the limits and see what you can try and get away with. Or aim for perfection. When all fails you can then revert to that last save and act like nothing happened.
It's handy to save and then do a convoy attack, do the attack and then save once it's done. You can reload and redo this process and keep the best run save. That really is gaming the system and it's a lot of 'work'; But if there's fun and motivation then why not.

The last two patrols, getting back into the game this year have been plagued by allied air-power.

More now than I remember from 'back in the day'. While it's good/enjoyable/doable to defend yourself against one or two planes; once you get spotted it's like you face off with waves if ever increasing reinforcement numbers. Now the A.I. isn't the best but in large numbers they are a pain. My preferred defence is to dive to periscope and quietly move on. However given the amount of attacks and my 'aggravation' at those planes I wanted to see how I could push things.

Very defendable as it turns out but at the cost of hull.......

A Casual Carebear Gamer

Time to reload.....

Silent Hunter III....

This latest 'getting back into the game' patrol is proving to be constant bad weather with the added bonus of my sub tripping over all the shipping in the Atlantic.

Bad weather, poor visibility and a target is something I can live with.

Spotter planes/bombers in good weather are things I wish I could avoid more; But I've still been getting to defend well against them. How dare they try and stop my speedy charge into the Atlantic!

Just about halfway to the designated patrol area and I'd already used up all but 3 fore and 2 aft torpedoes. With that I sent a patrol/contact report and was told to return to base.

Mission done early; Something else I can also live with.

The return journey saw more shipping, which used up the last torpedoes.

If only I had some more...... Target rich environment indeed.

No torps doesn't mean no kills. The main deck gun.

I do recall using the deck gun quiet a lot in the past. Even when I had torpedoes. Another relearning curve for dealing with (mainly smaller) ships. Still fun to use, but far from being on par with the way I was 'back in the day'.

Thinking back now I'm sure I went out of my way to use the deck gun on coastal shipping.

After that the return to base was uneventful.... Not even planes.

Patrol 21 done.

That cluster in the BE grid really is the place to be.

All in all a good return to the game. My need for a sub sim reconfirms this game is great. Makes me want to go back and do research on the follow up games... SH 4 and 5.... Maybe even.... modded!!

Or just do another patrol now that I'm reacquainted with SH3 and can adjust some settings etc.

Silent Hunter III....

After my last Cold Waters and UBOAT posts I needed a submarine fix. It was surprisingly easy to get back into Silent Hunter III since I've not played it in a while. Some minor relearning and I set off on a patrol. Late war with a fully seasoned crew (20+ patrols) and the best of the best sub(for it's time). An original campaign save from when I got the game originally in 2005. A good playthrough that started at the start of the war. Plenty of large convoy memories.

Being late(ish) war I got bombed at the dock, again just off the coast of France (based in port at Brest).

And two more times as I headed into the Atlantic.

Both of those last times were peeving me off so I didn't submerge and got to defend well with some kills.

Time then to get back on course.

However trying to make up time in bad weather to get the patrol area I was to rushed and got surprised from behind(all the double entendres!)

It was a 'bit' of a shock to swing around, wondering where that damage came from.... Did we collide with something?!?  Yea there was a collision... from a destroyers shells.

Getting shelled, rammed and depth charged is never a good thing.

I wouldn't say I panicked but I did enter into a mad minute of maneuvers and launching torpedoes.

Thankfully the maneuvering and the large returning curve of the destroyer allowed me to get two hits that ended the day well.

Some repairs later and back underway I dropped a save and left the game. Still a gem of a game 15 years later. Back to that patrol sooner rather than later. That journey(game and patrol) goes on!

Ye olde captured footage....

Silent Hunter 3, a great game, a classic. I've been hunting(pun intended) for a game as good ever since. Two are on my wishlist UBoat & Wolfpack; While the third is proving that complexity is in the eye of the beholder. I purchased Cold Waters some time ago. It ticks all the box's for me but is missing the easy to get into factor. I need to give this game more time but there always seems to be something else easier to do.....

Silent Hunter III:

A Casual Carebear

UBoot....

UBoot (BOOT?) is new but I've never played any similar board game. Then again I'm not that big into board games so that shouldn't come as a surprise but the PC version does look interesting. Described as "a survival sandbox with crew management mechanics" It reminds me alot of Silent Hunter III. Maybe that's just the uboat setting and micromanagement.

A game I'll be keeping an eye on for sure...