Manual Targetting Satisfaction!

[Keelbuster]

Ooooh...man targetting can be so satisfying. Recently I've started playing 1x TC so that I can get some work done while I hunt. So there's a lot of dead time. But just now, I had a moment of total joy. My hydrophone operator rouses me from my bunk - warship screws - 180! I listen - theres a bunch! I turn 90 degrees to what i expect their course to be. They slowly go from 270 to 260, so I turn 180 degrees to an approach course. The screws get louder, so I come back up to PD and up-periscope. Task Force! 5 destroyers. I wonder - is it worth a shot? I've got virtually no information on these guys - just a rough course. My hydrophone operator says they're travelling at medium speed, but they look to be going faster. It's dusk, and the sea state is rough. I'm squinting at these destroyers, who luckily are passing at about 1.5 - 2km away. I see the flags...not italian (for I knew there was an italian task force in the area). That little square on the white background - British warships! So I wonder...let's just see if I can identify one and take a speed reading. I guess one to be a J&K class and I take a stadimeter reading. Rough AoB judgement (~95 port), and take a time estimate. 18kts. I focus on another ship, do the same - 16kts. I take an average - 17kts. Ok. Now what. Well, what the hell...in 1x TC, chances don't come too often, and these T1s are burning a hole in my hold. So I like up on the J&K, take a final stad reading, set for the shot 1400m, 90Port, 17kts. I Los! two Fast T1s at 3.5m depth, one for the bow, and one for amidships. Then I wait.

Boom! Got one! I raise the periscope - the J&K is burning at the bow! Amazing - it worked! Soon the fires go out as her bow dips, and she goes down with a torrent of secondary explosions. No chance for those poor boys in this sea, though. I'm thinking to myself - there - it was worth it - two T1s for 1700 tons. Then Boom! What? I raise scope again - another ship in the TF got hit by the second T1! OMG! Again, burning bow, and she quickly goes down that way. I check the log and she's a tribal class.

Man, the satisfaction I get from hits that are derived purely from the built in chronometer functionality and eyeballing the AoB...so so good.

[Platapus]

I agree. For the longest time I did not use manual targeting and had a lot of fun with the game. Then I decided to move up to wearing long pants and start manually targeting. I will never go back to automatic targeting. The satisfaction of manual targeting and the challenge of doing all that in battle makes this game for me.