[Shadow]

So after a good but rather straightforward run on the USS Atlanta (Los Angeles class) in 1984, I went back in time to tackle something far trickier: a Realistic campaign in 1968 aboard the USS Snook (Skipjack class).

My impression after succeeding on my first mission (stop an invasion force headed for Oslo) was that everything's going to take longer, as positioning (and patience) is much more important and your armament's only really effective at point-blank ranges, compared to '84.

My second mission takes me to shut down a Soviet wolfpack operating in the vicinity of the Denmark Strait: confusingly enough, not anywhere near Denmark. For my first attempt at the mission, I noobishly picked the 20 KY starting engagement range option, and it was frankly impossible to find two lone subs at that range, having gotten the impression the Skipjack's sonar isn't very good at all.

For the second attempt I picked 10 KY, which was better but still pretty tough as the Novembers only appeared in my sonar during their occasional cavitating (they seem to like to accelerate to 26 kts and blast away with their active in short-ish bursts). And oh how I swore at the Mk 37. You really need to be within spitting distance or at the very least in the target's baffles to have any chance of landing a hit: not only is it slow (and painfully so before activation, at 20 measly knots), its acquisition range is pitiful. So is its acquisition cone, it seemed, given how the Novembers within the 45-degree front arc of the torpedo still managed to sprint away undetected by its active sonar.

So a first torpedo split the duo and each sub ran way in opposite directions. I directed the Snook after one, and thought I had fired a 37 from a good enough position almost directly behind one of the Novembers. I turned around to look for the second one, trusting my torpedo. But it eventually missed. Before long, I had lost both Soviets from my sonar, and wasted two good torpedoes. Well, "good" being a very generous figure of speech.

At that point, after something like an hour chasing those punks, I was willing to go flank after one, taking advantage of the baffles. The Skipjack's advantage is after all her speed. But the problem is I'd have been entirely blind, and the Novembers wouldn't easily reappear on my sensors even in optimal, ultra quiet conditions. So I gave up.

Any tips?

I felt more frustrated than threatened, at times pondering just making a lot of noise, if only to get my targets' attention. Is there a lower engagement distance than 10 KY? 5? It'd seem that'd be the only viable option in a sub-to-sub engagement being a fairly primitive hunter with even more primitive weapons.

On the other hand, while I get SSBNs/SSGNs or commando-carrying diesels being evasive by default, I'd think attack subs could be more aggressive if presented with a threat. The Novembers should've tried to search around the vector of the torpedoes they evaded, instead of just drifting away. But well, their primary mission was interdicting NATO convoys, so...