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TIPS/TACTICS 101
OK, here goes. First of all I am basing everything on the stock game, patched to 1.4. There are too many variables on the mods to try and content with. I play on the generic "hard" setting, if you use any of the other settings you may have to adjust.
Over time I will try and post threads on specific aspects of the game, and I invite others to join in. For openers, just an assortment of odds and ends.
General Housekeeping:
1. This is not a first person shooter. If you expect to attack the Japanese Fleet with flags flying, guns blazing, the band playing on the deck, you will have a very short, unsatisfying career.
2. Although unsaid, the object is to survive as long as possible. Yes, it might be impressive to get sunk at the completion of a 100K ton war patrol. It's much better to have 6 patrols at 20K tons each (do the math).
3. Every skipper is going to play differently. And there are always exceptions to every rule. Everything I post is a suggestion I have found helpful. Obviously you can do what you want. The trick is to survive long enough to build up your own list of tactics that work for you.
4. Don't screw around with aircraft, they aren't worth that many points and they can sink you. Even if you don't get sunk, if they wound some of your crew that can come back to bite you in the butt later in the patrol. You have air search radar from day one, use it. Unless it is impossible to dive pull the plug and come back up later. If you have to stay on the surface, go as fast as you can and zig zag. Don't make yourself an easy target. Put the AA gun(s) on auto crew and concentrate on being as unpredictable as possible.
5. Assume that any contact is the enemy until you can prove otherwise. Just because you are close to a friendly port, it doesn't mean that the contact reported isn't the enemy.
6. Time Compression can hurt you. When a contact is reported you will notice that your computer slows down. There's a reason for this. If you kick it back up to a TC of 300K, or whatever you system can handle, don't be upset when the enemy fires 100 salvos in a split second and you are now scrap metal. It will also slow down if you are about to beach your boat. Cruising along at a high TC, suddenly your computer slows down. No contacts reported, the map is clear, if you are on the surface, go to the bridge and look through your binoculars. There's an island out there with your name on it.
7. Watch your fuel. Lane is working on a tutorial on this one, so I'll just say it ain't the star ship Enterprise, you can't rely on Impulse power when you can't use Warp drive anymore. Run out of fuel, you are screwed.
8. A refit will top off your fuel and reload torpedoes and gun ammo. It will NOT, repeat NOT fix any battle damage.
9. Unfortunately, no matter how close you get to the bottom, you can't hide from enemy sonar. Yes, in real life, the bottom bounce should distort enemy sonar enough so they can't pick you out, but in this game, it doesn't work.
10. Lastly, there are some bugs/gliches/screw-ups/oddities/mistakes that you will just have to live with until such time as Ubi patches them or a fellow skipper mods them out. It's just the way it is, you have to deal with it.
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A word on refits:
They will top off fuel and torpedo reserve slots.
They won't top off torpedo tubes.
Solution: Refit, then pull the torpedos in the reserve racks into the tubes, then refit again. This gives you a full load of torpedos, as well as a full tank of fuel.
Watch out for this one, it can come as a nasty surprise to find upon reaching your million mile away patrol zone that you only have 14 torpedos when you thought you had 24.
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SURFACE DECK GUN ATTACK
1. I always have my deck gun bow mounted, I just find it easier to control what's going on. If you prefer a stern mounting, some of these pointers will either not apply, or will need some modification.
2. If you manage to get later into the war, mount the 40mm guns when they become available. I have found them to be very effective in dealing with merchants and escorts.
3. You are going to have to get in fairly close (1500 yards or less), and I recommend that you operate the gun yourself. I prefer to use the open sight setting (the red aiming icon) much like using a rifle as opposed to using the sights and having to input range etc.
4. No matter how hard you try, you will almost never be able to destroy the gun or kill the crew so don't waste the time or ammo. Go for shots low into the hull, especially around the engine room (look for the stacks).
5. Surface attacks against escorted ships is just a bad idea, don't do it. Even a few shell hits can cause residual damage that can haunt you for the rest of your patrol.
6. As the war progresses you are much more likely to come up against armed merchant ships. In most cases they have one big gun mounted either on the bow or stern. Find out where the gun is and come in from the other direction. They can't shoot through their own superstructure. The smaller automatic weapons will not cause any damage to your boat, but it may injure or kill any crew on deck.
7. When you approach try and come in head-on. You boat is only about 30 feet across, it's about 250-300 feet long. Coming in head on makes you a much smaller target.
8. As I close the range I usually go to the bridge position and conn the ship from there. Observe where the enemy shells are landing. If two or three rounds have landed on one side of your boat, but have been getting closer and closer, it's a good idea to crank in some serious rudder to throw the gunners off. Stay on a straight line long enough, they will get the range and you will take a beating. You can also vary your speed to help throw them off.
9. You are faster than almost any merchant you come up against. Use the advantage. If it's a single ship avoid their big gun. If there are several merchants, pick an angle to attack one ship while keeping the others from firing at you (come in from the front or back of the line, not broadside where they can all fire at you).
10. When you do get in close, be careful you don't get rammed. Sometimes we get tunnel vision and forget what is going on around us. I've had to slam it into reverse more than once to keep from getting run over.
11. Choice of ammunition. I'm not really sure if there is any advantage in using one over the other. In reality, the escorts will have minimum armor at best, and the merchants none. Using that as a guide High Explosive (HE) should work as well as Armor Piercing (AP). I haven't been able to determine if the game models the blast effects of HE vs the penetration of an AP round on a target. If anyone has solid information on the subject I would defer to their information.
12. As you fire on your target hopefully at some point you will see fires start to break out on the vessel. You might want to slow down your rate of fire, or shift to another target at this point. With patch 1.4, if additional fires are breaking out, you've probably inflicted fatal damage.
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FUEL and BATTERIES
FUEL
There is nothing worse than running out of fuel before you reach your home port. Your career is in effect finished if you run out of diesel while out at sea. There are no tugs, you can't radio for help, there is no way to get home, period. US Fleet boats do not have oars or sails.
There are many factors affect fuel range. Each class of submarine has it's own set of built in range factors with the S Class having the shortest range. The following conditions affect the range of all classes. Some MODs make changes to the stock values, but the factors listed below are true for stock and most MODs.
1. Speed
a. The best fuel economy is found between 8 and 11 knots. In the stock game the ideal speed for maximum range is 10.95 knots. Mods alter this slightly so experiment a bit. Speeds above or below this speed increase fuel consumption.
b. Flank speed will result in the highest fuel consumption, so use it sparingly.
c. Slow speeds, below 8 knots, will also decrease your range. If you are low on fuel, heading home at 5 knots will use more fuel than 8 to 11 knots.
d. It is easier to set your speed with the knotmeter rather than the 1/3, 2/3 etc. Engine Telegraph. Click on the stem of the Engine Telegraph and it will change to the Knotmeter. See Picture below:
2. Battery Charging
a. When you are charging your batteries, you are running one of your engines at Flank speed to charge them. (You do not really have four engines in the game, you only have two.) During this time your fuel economy drops dramatically. To conserve fuel do not travel using batteries unless you have to. Just submerge and sit there until it is safe to travel on the surface.
b. Battery charging is automatic and unless you manually turn off battery charging, every time you surface ( see picture below) the crew will run the charger until the batteries are charged to 100%.
c. Damaged batteries will decrease your range by 2/3. See section 3. b.
3. Damage
a. Leaks. If your fuel tanks are damaged, head for home. Even if the crew "repairs" the damage you will still lose some fuel and only a return to base will completely repair your boat. A refit will NOT fix a leaky fuel tank.
b. Battery Damage. Your crew can not completely repair damage to your batteries and they will stop accepting a charge at something less than 100%. If this happens and your batteries will not charge to 100%, but your crew will not turn off the battery charger without your intervention. Battery charging is automatic and unless you manually turn it off, every time you surface, it will continue to use diesel at a very fast rate. Do this if your batteries are not charging to 100% or you will never get back to your home port.
BATTERIES
As with diesel fuel, you range with your batteries is affected by speed. Use the knotmeter to set your underwater speed rather than the Engine Telegraph. Different boat classes have different underwater ranges and different lengths of time to recharge, but in general the following rules apply to all classes. The slower you go, the longer your batteries will last.
At 1 knot or less you will probably run out of air before your batteries completely discharge.
At 2 knots you will easily make it from sunrise to sunset and in some classes 24 hours.
At 3 knots, generally less than 12 hours.
At 4 knots 6 to 8 hours depending on your boat class.
Above 4 knots the batteries discharge fairly quickly.
This post is also available in Word (.doc format) HERE
or .pdf format HERE
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I'm just a starter, but here's a few things I've picked up.
1 - Know where the bottom is! After sinking a battleship, I was trying to slink away and since I was undetected with no escorts near to me, I used time compression to speed my 1 knot escape along. Suddenly I'd get tons of damage out of nowhere and couldn't figure out how they were attacking me. I died. Repeatedly. And couldn't figure out why. Turns out that I was running into an ocean ridge. Dark blue is good, light blue is passable, be very careful of white. You often don't have any room below periscope depth.
2 - The contact report messages can be annoying, but pay attention to them. Or at least click them on the map. You can see patterns in where the nice juicy task force targets travel. Keep this in mind for your next patrols when your mission may take you near to them.
3 - Stern tubes are great. They save you from shooting your bow tubes! When possible, by time or unescorted targets, set up shots from your stern tubes so you aren't stuck with only stern shots left. I try to leave two or four fish in the back until I'm nearing the end of the patrol though. They are often useful to have as a final goodbye to a convoy or if you are being chased. Even if you don't hit, the swerve necessary to avoid it may help you escape.
4 - Edited for falseness
5 - Don't be afraid to ask. The manual is awful. The people here are a great source and don't seem to bite. Search first though. Often if you have a question, someone else has had it to and you may not have to wait for an answer.
Tambor, you seem to have a hiccup there in game requirements #2 and repeat some information.
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Senior Member
Great idea there!!!
Allright, here's some hints:
SUBMERGERD ATTACK
Sooner or later, you'll meet some enemy ships. It might be a lone merchant, a patrolling Destroyer, a convoy or, even better, a Task Force.
Usually, a gun fight isn't the best approach to choose: chances of being sunk or receiving heavy damage are ways too high. Deck gus should be used ONLY to finish off damaged ships, and only if you're sure they can't fire back at you (even if your target is a simple Merchant, this does NOT mean it's defenseless).
Being a submarine, you are far weaker than almost every other ships you might meet , BUT you have two great tactical advantages on your side: silence and surprise.
If you manage to strike your target without being spotted, probably you'll also manage to sneak away totally unscratched.
Silence and surprise: this should be your philosophy when approaching your target.
Another aspect you have to consider, is that while submerged you won't be able to move very fast (max speed is less than 10 knots), and your batteries get depleted quite quickly.
So, you should find an interception point, get there (surfaced) as fast as you can, then dive, be quiet, undetected, hit hard, and get the hell out of there.
It may seem tricky at first, but as soon as you get the hang of it, you'll do it quite smoothly.
So, let's see how the procedure might be:
1. A contact is reported. A first glance might tell you if it's worth the try or not (a contact 200 miles away, travelling fast and moving away from you, is NOT worthy).
2. You can use your map tools to estimate distance: point the ruler or compass on your sub and then trace a line towards the contact, and you'll have a good idea of how far the contact is.
3. Ok, you've picked a good contact: it's not very far away and it isn't moving too fast. You can plot an interception course.
4. If you haven't installed any mods, you'll see a little "tail" over the contact: it shows its course. So, with your ruler, draw a line overlapping this "tail", and extend it for several miles. The more precise you are, the better. Ok, now you have a projection of your target's path.
5. Now, you have to outrun your target (all ahead full should be enough in most cases) and reach a good interception point along its path before it arrives there. In a nutshell, you'll have to literally ambush your target. Your course should also be perpendicular to the contact's course.
Obviously, stay OUT of your target's sight (usually, a circle around your contact will show its range of sight... typically, merchants have a range of sight of approx 5 miles, warships might reach 10 miles or more)
6. Bear in mind that ships did usually zig-zag.
So, while you're running to the plotted interception point, your target may also change its course. Later in the war, your radar will help you to understand if the target has changed course or not. In the early months, tho, you should periodically check your hydrophones (by going to periscope depth) and try to understand if everything is running smooth or not: if you think that bearing and loudness of the sound match your esteem, probably the target hasn't changed course (you'll learn by experience here). All these screenshots have been taken using the Radar
7. Ok, you've reached your interception point. You should stop at a distance of approximatively 700 to 1000 yards from your target's path: thus, your torpedoes will have enough time to arm, and your target won't have (usually) enough time to avoid your torpedoes if they are spotted.
8. Dive (possibly below a thermal layer), rig for silent running, and wait patiently. From time to time, check your hydrophones to see if your target hasn't changed course, and undrestand WHAT your target is (different ships make different noises: with some experience, you'll undrestand if what you're listening to is a merchant, an escort or a capital ship)
9a. If you only hear merchant ships, head to periscope depth, perform quick scans with your periscope (don't keep it up for too long, or japs might see it and flee away), set up your torpedoes (depth, speed and detonator), eventually do little course/position adjustments and as soon as you have a good firing solution, give 'em hell (keep in mind that your target should be closer than 1000 yds, or else might easily dodge your torpedoes)!!
9b. If, on the other hand, you also hear warships (or if you ONLY hear warships), then you're facing an escorted convoy or task force!! In this case, your main concern are the escorting DDs. Usually you'll find one or two of them ahead of the convoy/TF, and one or two behind. Also the sides might be protected, so be careful!
9c. Dive as deep as you can, in order to remain undetected. As soon as the frontal escorting DDs have passed your position, go to periscope depth. In the meantime, check your hydrophones, to understand where ships are. You'll have to act very quickly in order to remain undetected as long as possible. As soon as your depth allows it (approx 80/90 ft), open your torpedo tubes. Perform a quick scan with your periscope, and pick your targets (the closer they are to you, the better, unless they're too close - if the distance is less than 450/500 feet, your torpedoes won't arm), and as soon as you're ready strike, and strike hard, because you won't have a second chance!
9d. Go deep and sneak away, because DDs will be as mad as angry wasps!! They'll be desperately looking for you, pinging and releasing depth charges. Dive as deep as you can, be as silent as possible (2, max 3 knots). Unluckly, there's not a golden rule. Let's say that if you're lucky and have performed everything well, chances are that DDs won't even know where you are, so you will easily sneak away. Some other times, things will be a little more tricky, and you'll have to work your way out a bit, using the environment at your advantage (sometimes, heading staright into the convoy/TF might be useful, because DDs will have much a harder time chasing and listening to you).
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