(Continued from page 7)

Meanwhile, you on the other hand are going to give the attacker a choice.  Firing on the transport begets a free broadside from you.  Often times you can annoy the attacker causing them to break off and go after you.  Draw them as far away from the transport as you can.  Taunting helps feel free to hurl insults at your opponent as fast as you can, but keep them friendly this is after all a game between friends.
What if he ignores you figuring he can take whatever you dish out while he pounds the transport below the waves.  At this point all you can do is get back in the screening position if you decided that ahead of time that you are willing to lose your ship to save the escort.  Don't be afraid to make hard turns to evade and lots of them.  Sure it make take longer to complete the convoy run, but if you deny opportunities to be hit its worth it.  Also keep you and your transport as far away from the Attacking ships skipper as you can.  Some clubs declare on shore to be Allied only and the other to be Axis only in terms of where the skippers may stand, while controlling their ships.  Depth perception makes it hard to get hits far away, especially if you are actually hiding the transport behind your ship.
And what if two ships are attacking.  First fire your radar and intel guys (if your Axis your can shot or keel haul them), because you shouldn't have launched to begin with.  Next, quickly judge the skills of the attackers and defend against the better of the two.  Let the convoy skipper work on avoiding the other.  They will attempt to get the transport and you in the infamous Oreo cookie position.  If this happens plan to hit the brakes as described above and have the transport head for the shoreline.  Then take up a screening position.
Speaking of hugging the coast.  A convoy should always start it's lap by immediately going to the enemies side of pond first.  You can normally get a quarter to half pond length head-start before the enemy spots you.  Go as straight and fast as you can and as soon as you round the farside of the course have the transport quickly hug your shore.  Make the enemy battle as far away as possible.
Almost forgot.  Offensive tactics against escorts.  So you are that mean, evil, pirate that is going to send that cute cuddly transport, skippered by a 10 year old to her grave?  I love it!  You should fly a jolly roger as I do.  First, keep an eye out for the initial launch.  Get your ship on the water nearly as fast as they do.  If you got the escort out-gunned you can go out with a few holes unpatched, just make sure you have ammo, CO2 and battery power.  If there are multiple convoy ships going for that three ship bonus go for the largest, least maneuverable one first.  Get along side and fire at will.  If there is an escort and you think you can take him pound on him first, but don't let him draw you away from the transports.  If he doesn't have the stomach to slug it out chances are you'll be chasing him all over the pond while the transport complete their run.  Keep him tied to the transports.  If he gives you a free shot take it and remember it only take about 4 holes below to overwhelm a transports pump.  If she starts pumping hard immediately after a hard volley chances are she won't last more than two minutes.  If she's far from port ignore the transport and go after another one.  If she seems to be keeping up with the damage and not settling you may need to come back and finish it off.