Sinking Battleships with GWX

[zosX]

I got back to playing SH3 and started a new career. This may be the most addicting subsim ever with SH4 up there as well. So on my 3rd patrol in a Type II, I run across a massive convoy with a Revenge Class battleship in the center. I lucked out and found a gap and fired all three remaining torpedoes in a spread from 3km out. Depth was set to about 10m as I wanted it to hit well below the waterline and didn't know what would be best. I dropped the scope and somehow all three hit. Looking again it was completely engulfed in flames and listing. I tried to shadow the convoy, but since it was daylight they spotted me when I surfaced (stupid, stupid). Water depth was only about 70m, so I got down to the bottom and managed to eventually shake 2 destroyers. The battleship sailed away. Bummer. I think its time to upgrade. :)

[the dark knight]

What I found works best, is to send 2 under the keel, one under the forward powder magazine, one under the rear powder magazine. Then I will dispatch one or two into the side, just under the armor belt, and above the torpedo blisters. The magazine hits will usually cause the ship to stop, or catch fire, and the two in the side will cause it to turn turtle. I do not know if the torpedo blisters are modeled in game, but in real life, a low hit would not hurt a capital ship. :salute:

[GoldenRivet]

3 torpedoes should have holed the battleship enough to cause crippling damage or to sink her in GWX.

I have found that it is best to fire at least 3 or 4 fish at a large battleship. If you are at very close range, a magnetic trigger about a meter or two under the keel is a good one to throw in among all the impact fish.

This will either completely destroy the battleship or it will cause enough damage to slow it to a limping 4 or 5 knots.

Once the escorts sail onto the horizon, this is slow enough speed that you could easily keep pace with the battleship while surfaced in the darkness and finish her off after reloading if needed.

I think 3 - 4 shots is pretty realistic.

The HMS Royal Oak was sunk at anchor with 4 hits from U-47's torpedoes... she was sent to the bottom within 25 minutes of the first shot being fired.

[Gerald]

3-4 fish,do the trick..in order to get them down "normal".

[Jimbuna]

Ships also have random 'sweet spots' ammo magazines and fuel bunkers, hitting one of them can often mean one eel will do the trick.

[GoldenRivet]

Ships also have random 'sweet spots' ammo magazines and fuel bunkers, hitting one of them can often mean one eel will do the trick.

Under the number two turret generally works for me. Seems to light off the main magazine and that tends to be all she wrote... I'll add though, very very accurate shots of this sort are generally more difficult the further from the target you are. If possible, get inside of 1500 meters for this tight of a shot

[Jimbuna]

Under the number two turret generally works for me. Seems to light off the main magazine and that tends to be all she wrote... I'll add though, very very accurate shots of this sort are generally more difficult the further from the target you are. If possible, get inside of 1500 meters for this tight of a shot

Rgr that.

[zosX]

It was listing about 10 degrees or more and clearly had problems maintaining a straight line. The bridge was completely engulfed in flames. I couldn't follow it for long because I was jumped pretty quickly when I surfaced. I thought I was further behind the pack, but surfaced right next to them. I crash dove and drastically changed course. My batteries were nearly flat at that point due to running up to the convoy at flank, so I only had ahead slow and not much water below me to use. I had been trapped by a destroyer early on in my second patrol in extremely shallow water and there was no escape really possible. This time I had a much easier time evading them. I just kept changing depth (deeper, deeper) and course and after a while they seemed to have lost my position. I popped up to the surface after they finally left, but the convoy was long gone and running in the same direction at flank didn't turn them up again. It didn't matter as I was out of torpedoes anyways. I think if I could have stuck near the convoy and observed the battleship, it would have likely sunk. What's the error on the early torpedoes? Is it 5m too deep or is it 6 feet (2m)? You get a message early on saying that it is 6 feet, which is odd, because the germans didn't use feet. Also, what is the best place to hit capital class ships? Doesn't the armor just extend below the waterline or does it go to the bottom of the ship? I would have tried placing torpedoes towards the magazine, but given the range and angle, I felt a tight spread would maximize my chances of hitting the battleship. I saved before I attacked the convoy, so maybe I will try running this again. I didn't expect all 3 torpedoes to make contact, yet alone explode, so I was pretty dumbfounded when the ship seemed to have no problems staying upright with three huge holes in the sides. I'll have to try the magnetic detonators next.

[the dark knight]

To answer some questions;

1. on average, the main armor belt on average would extend between 1m-2m underwater to prevent underwater shell hits from piercing the ship. Beneath that should be a thing called a torpedo blister (or bulges) that extends to the double hull under the ship. This area was lightly armored, or not at all, but around 2-3m behind the outside of the bulge was an armored bulkhead. The space in between could flood, and acted like spaced armor on a tank to keep a torpedo from blasting a hole in the main hull. The torpedo bulges were sacrificial. I am not sure if these are accurately modeled in SHIII or GWX. This is the Bismarck's protection scheme, and all armor is red in this graphic. As you can see, Bismarck had a citadel that was water tight from the outer hull of the ship and protected by torpedo bulges. (hence why most experts say there is no way the British sank her, and the evidence on the sea floor shows she was scuttled) Most modern Battleships and some carriers used an underwater protection scheme like this:

http://www.kbismarck.com/proteccion7.gif

2. Best place to hit is between A-B main turrets or just under B turret. As you can see in the graphic, the powder is stored under the turrets. In british warships the powder is stored lower in the hull. The British also used cordite, and pure cordite is unstable. This haunted the HMS Hood against the Bismarck when Bismarck lit the hood's powder magazines on fire. This same flaw was exploited by the Germans in WWI at Jutland, causing the British to have 3 battle cruisers explode due to magazines exploding. If you send your torpedo's 1 meter under the keel with magnetic pistols, you can cause a powder magazine to explode. If you send one under the engine rooms, they will flood, and she will come to a stop. Holes in the side are easier to patch than holes on the keel, and holes in the keel will give you more flooding.

There are some scenarios in single missions where you can practice sinking capital ships, and try different ways of attacking.

[the dark knight]

Another thing I just thought of, when you have the ship locked up in the scope, click the word ship in the top right corner of the attack scope. This will bring up the ship recognition guide, and the exact ship you are locked onto. The guide will tell you displacement as well as the draft of the ship. (how deep the hull goes under water) If the ship has a draft of say, 9.8M set your torpedoes manually to a depth of 10.8-11M deep. :salute:

[Sailor Steve]

To answer some questions;
Very good explanations, and very nice drawings, but you make some assertions I must challenge, even at the risk of derailing the thread. Of course I could argue that you already did that by bringing up the sidenotes in the first place.

1. on average, the main armor belt on average would extend between 1m-2m underwater to prevent underwater shell hits from piercing the ship. Beneath that should be a thing called a torpedo blister (or bulges) that extends to the double hull under the ship. This area was lightly armored, or not at all, but around 2-3m behind the outside of the bulge was an armored bulkhead.
This bulkhead was also very light, designed only to keep splinters from the outer hull and the torpedo itself from going through. In the case of Yamato one torpedo was observed to go through the hole already made by another. It almost certainly detonated against this splinter bulkhead and caused major damage and flooding.

The space in between could flood, and acted like spaced armor on a tank to keep a torpedo from blasting a hole in the main hull. The torpedo bulges were sacrificial. I am not sure if these are accurately modeled in SHIII or GWX.
Quite true. In fact one type of protection scheme had the bulges already flooded, so there could be no water coming in to cause offside flooding.

(hence why most experts say there is no way the British sank her, and the evidence on the sea floor shows she was scuttled)
Those experts say the torpedoes did not deliver the hoped-for coup-de-gras. But they also say that she certainly would have sunk within the day. Both torpedoes and scuttling were attempts to prevent the other side from salvaging the ship and scoring a moral victory. British shellfire certainly did sink Bismarck. Or to put it more accurately, destroyed her.


This same flaw was exploited by the Germans in WWI at Jutland, causing the British to have 3 battle cruisers explode due to magazines exploding.
The main difference is that all three battlecruisers at Jutland took turret hits, which would not have flashed down to the magazines if they had not adopted the procedure of locking the anti-flash doors open to increase the rate of fire. It's fairly certain that none of them took penetrating magazine hits.

If you send your torpedo's 1 meter under the keel with magnetic pistols, you can cause a powder magazine to explode.
Is there any evidence that a submarine torpedo ever did that to a battleship? Most of the sinkings I'm aware of were due to fires spreading to the magazine long after the original strike. I believe the game has it completely wrong there.

Oh, and a side-note: The plural is "torpedoes". :sunny:

[Jimbuna]

Well...trying to keep everything within game terms:

http://s24.postimg.org/a24v6v21x/Untitled.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

http://s23.postimg.org/ixjy5rm57/Untitled2.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

[the dark knight]

Very good explanations, and very nice drawings, but you make some assertions I must challenge, even at the risk of derailing the thread. Of course I could argue that you already did that by bringing up the sidenotes in the first place.


This bulkhead was also very light, designed only to keep splinters from the outer hull and the torpedo itself from going through. In the case of Yamato one torpedo was observed to go through the hole already made by another. It almost certainly detonated against this splinter bulkhead and caused major damage and flooding.


Quite true. In fact one type of protection scheme had the bulges already flooded, so there could be no water coming in to cause offside flooding.


Those experts say the torpedoes did not deliver the hoped-for coup-de-gras. But they also say that she certainly would have sunk within the day. Both torpedoes and scuttling were attempts to prevent the other side from salvaging the ship and scoring a moral victory. British shellfire certainly did sink Bismarck. Or to put it more accurately, destroyed her.



The main difference is that all three battlecruisers at Jutland took turret hits, which would not have flashed down to the magazines if they had not adopted the procedure of locking the anti-flash doors open to increase the rate of fire. It's fairly certain that none of them took penetrating magazine hits.


Is there any evidence that a submarine torpedo ever did that to a battleship? Most of the sinkings I'm aware of were due to fires spreading to the magazine long after the original strike. I believe the game has it completely wrong there.

Oh, and a side-note: The plural is "torpedoes". :sunny:

Okay, I should have said in theory with the underwater protection systems and how they were supposed to work. I doubt they are modeled in game anyway. :)

In real life, no. I have never seen any evidence that torpedoes could cause magazines to explode. However, it seems to work in SHIII. The game is completely wrong.

I could have sworn I had read (and maybe the book I am thinking of was wrong, or I am ms-remembering), said that the British Battlecruisers took penetrating hits to the roofs from plunging fire, and this allowed the shell to hit the ammo. Like I said, it was a long time ago, and I could very well be wrong. It is all good!

In a way, yes. I will agree the British did cause the circumstances to unfold to force the scuttling of Bismarck. You could make the argument that they sank her due to those circumstances. :salute:

[Sailor Steve]

I could have sworn I had read (and maybe the book I am thinking of was wrong, or I am ms-remembering), said that the British Battlecruisers took penetrating hits to the roofs from plunging fire, and this allowed the shell to hit the ammo. Like I said, it was a long time ago, and I could very well be wrong. It is all good!
Or you could very well be right. Since the magazines were under the turrets it's kind of hard to tell what did happen. The only evidence the sources I've read cite is that all three were seen to take turret hits.

In a way, yes. I will agree the British did cause the circumstances to unfold to force the scuttling of Bismarck. You could make the argument that they sank her due to those circumstances. :salute:
Here is what I think is the best documentary ever made on the subject. Baron von Mullenheim-Rechber, the ranking survivor of Bismarck, addressed the controversy with one of my favorite quotes of all time: "You can say to both sides 'Yes. You sank the Bismarck'."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RZIw--L0vQ

[gi_dan2987]

Capital ships have lots of armor. I typically say one eel per 3000-5000 tons for unarmored merchants. The fat ladies you should double blast (Put one below the conning tower, and one under the smoke stack, or one just ahead of the smoke stack, and one just behind the stack). If it's a large merchant or whale factory ship or any other massive ocean going merchant, use three fish evenly spread. Shot location does help!

Want to know how not only to hit your target every time, but pick and choose with confidence WHERE on the target ship you're going to hit? Use the fixed wire formula. It has worked wonders with me. There's nothing fancy about it, you set up for 90AOB, and the way this works, range is not a factor (though attempt to be within 500-1500 meters for a larger margin of error in case the speed estimate is a little off. Being closer gives you wiggle room).

First, set up 90AOB to the target. When the target is nearing the bow of your boat (000 degrees relative bearing, don't wait too long. He must not cross your bow yet or then you'll have to take a range reading for a gyro shot), stop moving your sub, set the crosshair at a point just ahead of his bow. When his bow starts to pass your vertical reticle, start the stop watch. Use this time to set up your torps and what not if you have not already done so.

Locate the ship in the manual, and calculate his length in meters with this formula

((Ship length in meters) * (1.94)) / (Time in seconds) = Ship speed in knots.

1.94 is the conversion constant. I don't know how or why it works, but it does.

At this point since you've set up your torps and AOB, all you need to do is set speed, turn TDC back on, and move your scope until gyro reaches 000. readjust AOB as necessary.

The torpedoes will now impact exactly where your vertical crosshair is. Wait for the ship to pass your crosshair, and begin launching eels when the various "soft spots" of the ship begin to cross.

On a capital ship, I give her the full salvo. It's going to take every one, trust me. Capital ships are no joke, but if you can put one under, that's tens of thousands of tons and a sure promotion back home! I put one fish under the bow guns, one right under the conning tower, one under the stacks to finish the engines, and one under the stern guns.

With the conning tower gone, they can't radio for help, and with the engines gone they're dead in the water to be finished later if needed. Taking out the main guns is obvious. A ship that is stationary and defenseless without a radio or command center is a sunk ship indeed.

The spread of the hits will cause massive flooding on one side, causing the ship to capsize, and the rest of the necessary flooding will take place at this point. It could take hours or days for a capital ship to capitulate, especially with GWX3 awesome damage model and realistic sinking mechanics.

Try that out, and if you have any questions, help is aplenty in this Subsim Navy.

P.S. This method works wonders for attacking convoys.

Happy Hunting :salute:

[the dark knight]

Or you could very well be right. Since the magazines were under the turrets it's kind of hard to tell what did happen. The only evidence the sources I've read cite is that all three were seen to take turret hits.


Here is what I think is the best documentary ever made on the subject. Baron von Mullenheim-Rechber, the ranking survivor of Bismarck, addressed the controversy with one of my favorite quotes of all time: "You can say to both sides 'Yes. You sank the Bismarck'."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RZIw--L0vQ

That is a good one, and one of my favorites as well. :up:

You could be right about Jutland as well.

Back on topic, the closer you can get, the better off you will be. One convoy I got in front of had the HMS Rodney in the middle. I got myself into position where Rodney would pass 600m in front of me. I went silent, all stop and kept to scope down. At the last possible second, I raised the scope, made last minute adjustments and fired at the Rodney. I found this will prevent them from seeing the bubble trails (if using the G7a).

[Sailor Steve]

Back on topic
Thank you. I fear my penchant for answering anything that draws my attention gets more threads derailed than it should. Especially when I don't have anything to add to the thread proper.

My apologies to zosX.

[gi_dan2987]

I found this will prevent them from seeing the bubble trails (if using the G7a).

Aren't the TII electric torps supposed to have their magnetic pistol and internal depth keeping mechanisms fixed after the Norway campaign? So anytime after the spring of 1940 electrics are the way to go, unless you need the range or speed of the steam torps of course. I like to switch it up. If I have time to set up properly for a shot, I use electrics. If I need to blast off a fast one, I switch to steam. I guess it's just preference. What torps do you like to use and in what order?

Somebody should start a thread on the different types of SH3 torpedoes, their dates of availability, and uses/capabilities.

[Sailor Steve]

Aren't the TII electric torps supposed to have their magnetic pistol and internal depth keeping mechanisms fixed after the Norway campaign? So anytime after the spring of 1940 electrics are the way to go, unless you need the range or speed of the steam torps of course.
In real life all magnetic pistols were removed in 1940. They weren't replaced until December 1942.

The short version:
http://www.uboataces.com/articles-wooden-torpedoes.shtml

The best version:
http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1599&context=etd

[gi_dan2987]

In real life all magnetic pistols were removed in 1940. They weren't replaced until December 1942.

Well right now I'm in the middle of 1940. I don't normally use magnetic as I do find them to detonate way too early. I had that happen out of a spread of 4 eels against an ammunition ship. 2 were launched magnetic and 2 launched for impact. The magnetic ones exploded prematurely, and the impact ones were the only ones that hit. The ship limped home under the cover of destroyer escorts. For historical purposes I'll stick only with impact until December 1942.

Excellent reading by the way. I just finished the intro.

[zosX]

Too much to reply to here directly. First of all thank you all. I could spend days just reading through threads here. The historical information you people present is pretty darned amazing. Thanks so much for the post on the battleships and their weak spots with the handy chart. I took everyone's advice to heart and reran my attack. The waters were exceptionally calm so I tried some magnetic fuses. I decided that if I could get one to hit in a weak spot the whole ship should go down pretty much instantly. I set depth to 10m and all three torpedoes hit at a range of 4300m. I used a 2-3 degree spread to keep my pattern tight. Bagging a battleship yielded and instant promotion and a decent amount of renown, but still not enough to upgrade to a VII(!!). I mean really? I just sank a battleship and I don't get an instant boat upgrade from fleet command from my type II? Bummer.

PS. feel free to derail any thread I start. I love the excursions into historical accuracy!

The HMS Revenge doesn't look so good...
http://i.imgur.com/vNiDnxT.jpg

[zosX]

BTW, this was my first capital ship I've ever sunk in SH3. The thrill of watching that BB slide into the water was indescribable.

[gi_dan2987]

The HMS Revenge doesn't look so good...

Just the fact that you wiped out the Revenge is a feat in itself!

The fact that you did it at OVER 4,000 meters is another

The fact that you did it in a Type II just blows my mind.

Tell me? Did you use the fixed wire method as I explained? If so, I told ya it's simple and effective! Accept no substitute! If you didn't, please explain in detail how you executed this attack. I have never in my years of playing SH3 EVER sunk the Revenge, much less ANY capital ship. I've damaged a couple, but never actually got a kill.

Excellent job skipper! :arrgh!:


P.S. About the whole promotion thing.. We're talking about a whole new command here. U-boats are not cheap, and the good ones only go to the skippers who can perform. Either request a transfer to a flotilla that uses the larger boats, or put in your tonnage until you can request one.

Oh and Welcome Aboard!

[Jimbuna]

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/8636/cdw.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/856/cdw.gif/)

[gi_dan2987]

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/8636/cdw.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/856/cdw.gif/)

Oh stock SH3, you truly are NOT missed by this Grey Wolves fan! :yep:

[Jimbuna]

Oh stock SH3, you truly are NOT missed by this Grey Wolves fan! :yep:

LOL :)

[gi_dan2987]

LOL :)

Stock SH3 was sort of like a rusty old Camaro sitting in a barn. She had no tires, dings in the body, and an engine beyond repair.

The SH3 Modding community took this heap of garbage and turned it into a totally restored Camaro, complete with glass packs.

It truly is like driving a restored hot rod. Nothing beats the feel of a classic! :up:

[Jimbuna]

Stock SH3 was sort of like a rusty old Camaro sitting in a barn. She had no tires, dings in the body, and an engine beyond repair.

The SH3 Modding community took this heap of garbage and turned it into a totally restored Camaro, complete with glass packs.

It truly is like driving a restored hot rod. Nothing beats the feel of a classic! :up:

No arguments there then http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/8636/cdw.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/856/cdw.gif/)

[zosX]

I'm a cheater. I had my weapons officer calculate a plot for me. I love subsims, but never found calculating solutions for torpedoes all that much fun. Especially when you you have a destroyer barreling down on you. I played mostly fleet boat sims over the years, so I grew accustomed to having a TDC calculating firing solutions for you. I play with everything on realistic except for torpedo firing solutions. I also leave the external camera enabled, because its fun to fly around and watch the action. I did break radio silence to report my success. Their reply: The first round is on us when you return to port. The funny thing was that the destroyers didn't even break from the convoy to search for me. Those early british escorts aren't too aggressive are they? Another nice thing: setting the depth low and using magnetic fuses allowed me to run my torpedoes right under any ships in my line of fire. So from 1940 on they quit using magnetic fuses historically? Bummer. They work well in calm seas.

[gi_dan2987]

I'm a cheater. I had my weapons officer calculate a plot for me.

BOO! :03: jk. Everybody has their way of doing things, some like it more arcade, some like it more sim. I like mine sim all the way, so everything is 100% realism, plus I hold myself to realistic historic parameters for example:

1. Not raising the scope while going faster than 2 knots submerged (historically the water pressure would bend the scope shaft if you went any faster, causing it to jam in the up position, something that's not modeled in SH3).

2. I travel the "great circle" routes when doing long voyages, but SH3 is designed for traveling on a "loxodrome", which is actually a longer distance on the earth's curved surface, but on a flat map, loxodromes are shorter.

3. I don't use magnetic detonators from mid-1940 until the end of 1942, as historically they were removed from service to be re-engineered due to their high failure rate.

4. I consider each and every torpedo very expensive (as they were), and as a result, Kaleuns were careful in their targeting to ensure a hit each time. Obviously combat dictates the situation, but Kaleuns would rarely if ever fire "willy nilly" as I'm sure many who play this game do. A Kaleun who returned to port time and again with empty tubes and little to no tonnage would find himself out of a job before long. The German high command took this very seriously! Torpedoes were approximately 50,000 Reichmarks a piece! So I am careful as to how many torps I fire at a ship. I figure one torp per every 5,000 tons. If that doesn't work, use the deck gun. But ONLY use another torp as a coup de gras if it's obvious she's not going to sink, and when surfacing is out of the question.

5. I only carry steamers in my external tubes, and I always have a solid mix of steam and electrics in my main hold, as it was historically.

As you can tell, I'm an insane hardcore player, but it makes the kills that much more rewarding.

I love subsims, but never found calculating solutions for torpedoes all that much fun.

It's not that difficult once you get the hang of it and hone your skills. Practice makes perfect, like with anything.

Those early british escorts aren't too aggressive are they?

Early war they still had limited resources to attack subs, and ASW tactics were still in their early stages. The British escorts weren't so much lacking aggression as they were lacking cohesion on an attack. By 1944 though, they pretty much had it down to such a science, that if you tried a conventional convoy attack they would have you sunk before you could even get close enough to shoot!

So from 1940 on they quit using magnetic fuses historically? Bummer. They work well in calm seas.

As they're designed to do lol. Throw in a nice north Atlantic chop, and you might find impact pistols to be a little more reliable.

[Sailor Steve]

BTW, this was my first capital ship I've ever sunk in SH3. The thrill of watching that BB slide into the water was indescribable.
I've been playing SH3 for almost nine years now, and I've never even been close to a battleship except in single missions, and I've never sunk one.

I'm a cheater. I had my weapons officer calculate a plot for me. I love subsims, but never found calculating solutions for torpedoes all that much fun.
I have manual targeting set, but I also use the WE Assistance. My math is less than useless, and I'm happy to pretend. Then again I've been playing subsims for twenty-six years and I'm a little jaded.

[gi_dan2987]

Then again I've been playing subsims for twenty-six years and I'm a little jaded.

We're all nerds in our own way Steve :88)

I was always the guy who played the Close Combat series and Sid Meier's Gettysburg. Original battleship for the PC! Oh man, the memories.

[Sailor Steve]

Sid Meier to me always meant the original Silent Service and Pirates.

[gi_dan2987]

Sid Meier to me always meant the original Silent Service and Pirates.

Or what about leisure suit larry?

[Admiral Halsey]

Sid Meier to me always meant the original Silent Service and Pirates.

First thing that pops into my head when I hear his name is Railroad Tycoon.

[Sailor Steve]

Or what about leisure suit larry?
:yep: I remember Larry fondly. :sunny:

Except he wasn't by Sid Meier, but Al Lowe.

First thing that pops into my head when I hear his name is Railroad Tycoon.
I hate that game...but only because I've never been any good at it. The word "terrible" comes to mind.

[Admiral Halsey]

:I hate that game...but only because I've never been any good at it. The word "terrible" comes to mind.

I'm not that good either but I love it.

[Jimbuna]

I'm a cheater. I had my weapons officer calculate a plot for me. I love subsims, but never found calculating solutions for torpedoes all that much fun. Especially when you you have a destroyer barreling down on you. I played mostly fleet boat sims over the years, so I grew accustomed to having a TDC calculating firing solutions for you. I play with everything on realistic except for torpedo firing solutions. I also leave the external camera enabled, because its fun to fly around and watch the action. I did break radio silence to report my success. Their reply: The first round is on us when you return to port. The funny thing was that the destroyers didn't even break from the convoy to search for me. Those early british escorts aren't too aggressive are they? Another nice thing: setting the depth low and using magnetic fuses allowed me to run my torpedoes right under any ships in my line of fire. So from 1940 on they quit using magnetic fuses historically? Bummer. They work well in calm seas.

You play the sim the way you get the most enjoyment...simple as http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/8636/cdw.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/856/cdw.gif/)