Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks--Techniques, tactics, tutorials, videos

[Rockin Robbins]

Well, we're giving the old WernerSobe thread the old heave ho and starting a new tactics thread. Of course we're still going to feature all of Werner's great work and maybe repost some of his best stuff here. All links will be preserved, and since they will lead to Werner's thread, all that great material will continue to help all the great skippers at SUBSIM. This first post will contain all the tactics links I can cobble up. If anyone else has some that were left out PM me and we'll get them included. Here we go with Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks, Mark I:

US Navy Links:
The Fleet Type Submarine Online
The Submarine Commander's Handbook
The Submarine Torpedo Fire Control Manual
Torpedo Data Computer, Mark III

WernerSobe links:
Basic TDC/PK course
Advanced TDC/PK course
Sonar Only Manual Targeting

Aaronblood's Links:
MoBo: Electronic Maneuvering Board and Dead Reckoning Tracker

Rockin Robbins' links:
Map Charting Tools Tutorial
The Dick O'Kane Manual Targeting Video
The Dick O'Kane Sonar Only (by God!!!) Video
Dick O'Kane Convoy Attack Follies Video
Rockin Robbins' Auto Targeting Video
Nisgeis' and Rockin Robbins' John P Cromwell Targeting
Printable 3x5 Crib Cards for Above Techniques
Further Explanation of the 3 Main Attack Method Families

Tale's links:
Convoy Multi-targeting Video #1
Convoy Multi-targeting Video #2
Radar Approach Video Tutorial

Rocks'n'Shoal's links:
Constant Bearing Technique with TDC thread

Edit: 8/14/09
And a very important and useful part of Subsim history:
Legion's Noob Guide


Edit: 10/22/09
From the guy who started it all, gutted:
Solution Solver 1.3
The sound you hear is me munching on my words "I believe in attack methods using only in-game tools: no external calculators, no alt-tabbing out of the game for external software, nothing that would damage your immersion into the submarine." YUM! This tool is so useful that it cannot be ignored. You'll be glad to kill the immersion a little and astounded at the sophistication and ease of use of this software torpedo fire control tool.

Edit: 12/15/09
Ducimus link:
SH3 & SH4 "Uber" AI Explained
This is a detailed explanation of how escort sonar works and how to handle your submarine to give you maximum advantage. It also explains how the enemy AI works so your strategy can actually work FOR you instead of being counterproductive. This work is of vital importance to any player of SH3 or SH4 especially if running Brand X in 3 or TMO in 4.

Whew! What a collection! Do we have enough yet? NO! But I'm just trying to get everyone I've promised inclusion in this thread together in the same place. Sure wish we could just insert this at the beginning of the thread before Werner's first post so the latest greatest links would be where everyone is looking. Most will just see the broken links and abandon all hope, when the help they need is right here on page 10. But, that can't be helped. Enjoy!

[banjo]

Excellent

[Church SUBSIM]

These videos took me from frustrated to highly capable. One of the most valuable links on these forums

Thanks for taking the time to make them and share them.

[Rockin Robbins]

Werner's videos made me a sub skipper. Part and parcel of this thread is to keep his advice alive and helping people. That will include copying his best posts to this thread. We have been accumulating more and more people interested in tactics and techniques with the ability to write clearly understandable tutorials and make great videos.

Our aim isn't to brag or impress you with our sub handling, it's to make YOU able to brag and impress US with YOUR sub handling. So if you've checked out some of the materials and have great stories to share about your success, those stories are welcome here alongside the tutorial stuff. Our aim is to encourage people and let them know that they CAN do this stuff and your success stories are an important part of that.

And remember, there are always several right ways to get the job done! The successful skipper is the one whose bag holds the most tricks so he can pick the best one out for a given situation. Don't let yourself get caught in a rut and do the same thing over and over. Try something new and learn it so you can pull it out when a target calls its name! The more techniques you master the more successful you will be.

One thing that I recommend is that everyone read the Submarine Torpedo Fire Control Manual, a 1946 publication of the US Navy. To start off, just read it through without trying to dissect it or letting it intimidate you. Bookmark it for future reference. We will try to use language from that manual in our tutorials so if you have a question you can just say "that sounds familiar" and look it up. That way we can all speak the same language and won't have to reinvent the wheel in sub lingo. And you can see for yourself that the Dick O'Kane procedure or the John P Cromwell method are nothing really new, just adaptations of real submarine tactics to Silent Hunter.

[AVGWarhawk]

I started fooling with these RR. They work well. Nice job. I like the crib sheets that are printable. Yes, just another trick in the bag!

[Rockin Robbins]

Yes, I was messing around with an Ubuntu Linux program that brought back the old CorelDRAW! days. I found that it would do everything I remembered and for free! So I cobbled up those flash cards. It's nice to have something small enough to hold in your hand to help you remember the steps for the different procedures.

Watch for more of those in the future, which I hope contains a new power supply for my game computer. Thanks for setting us up with this sticky thread. We're going to maintain lots of links back to Werner's thread so all that great material isn't lost, but we'll be able to keep the #1 post in the new thread updated with all the great stuff we're expecting from people we don't even know yet.

[Alky]

Your links are much appreciated. I'm a total noob and have looked at a couple of the videos and I can see the links will be a huge help in getting me going in SH4, thank you.

[AVGWarhawk]

Watching these now makes you realize just what your geometry and Trig teachers were attempting to teach you.

[Rockin Robbins]

I just thought this morning I would post the pic I received from gutted just over a year ago that started me on all this craziness in my specialty of constant bearing longitudinal spread attacks. This really shows why, in this family of attack methods, range cancels out of the equation and simply doesn't matter:



The blue line is your course, the green line represents your shoot bearing. As the target crosses the shoot bearing, no matter what his range, he gets tagged. Neat, huh? This is the diagram that started my slow slide into insanity!:rotfl:

[reallydedpoet]

Great idea, well done


RDP

[Fincuan]

What RR's pic illustrates holds true anytime the gyro angle is zero, which was something I had a hard time believing until I drew it in MoBo:

Torpedo track angle 45 degrees


TTA 90


TTA 120

[Hmuda]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

I just thought this morning I would post the pic I received from gutted just over a year ago that started me on all this craziness in my specialty of constant bearing longitudinal spread attacks. This really shows why, in this family of attack methods, range cancels out of the equation and simply doesn't matter:

The blue line is your course, the green line represents your shoot bearing. As the target crosses the shoot bearing, no matter what his range, he gets tagged. Neat, huh? This is the diagram that started my slow slide into insanity!:rotfl:

Heh, funny that I was once attemting something similar, but the targets were too close in bearing so I only managed to hit one of them (the rest of the torps meant for the other guy hit the first one as it stoped too quickly.

Although, the targets' watch-crew would have to be pretty blind not to see the torps meant for their neightbours passing in front of them.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Fincuan

What RR's pic illustrates holds true anytime the gyro angle is zero, which was something I had a hard time believing until I drew it in MoBo:

Great stuff, Fincuan. And that's why in post #1 one of my new items is a direct link to MoBo. MoBo was the place John P Cromwell was developed. When I come out with my rules of thumb, for instance the AoB in the John P Cromwell technique is 45 minus the lead angle, those are derived in MoBo. He might never appear in the thread, but aaronblood, author of MoBo is a huge part of all my attack techniques, even if my oversimplification drives him crazy!:rotfl:

Aaronblood loves fine nuances and really hates it when I throw them overboard to the fishies in the quest for simplicity.

[aaronblood]

FYI, I'll probably release the next MoBo update on Jan 31st. (on my birthday, BTW )

[Rockin Robbins]

Yahooooooooo!!! I presume the link above will still work? If not, please get with me to make sure that my link stays current. For a submariner, MoBo replaces the number 42 as the answer to life, death, the universe and everything.