Another, often overlooked thing if you want to play realistic:

Use G7e Torpedoes
The U Boats mostly used electric torpedoes, since it was believed that the disadvantages of slower speed and lower range are outweighed by the Torp not leaving a line of bubbles on the surface that points straight back to the sub.
I keep a few steam torps on board but try to use them only at nighttime.
Also, electrical torpedoes could not be stored in the external reserves, since they require constant maintenance. Therefore you should always load Steam torpedoes into those.

BTW, Bstanko, what UI Mod are you using?

Could you make a video on how to do a proper night time surface attack?
I do not know how to get the range to target with the UZO

@Tonci...
Thanks for that about the electric.

I'm using SH5 Enhanced. I turned off most of the hud for immersion through the options selector.

Now I have to get my depth from command room gauges. I use speech recognition so I dont need the dive buttons on the left. If I want to know fuel or battery levels, I get a report from the chief icon. My heading bar at the bottom is set to closed so if I need to see where My boat is going I just click it open, there were several compasses in the boat, so I would believe getting a heading was easy for a captain.

Also my TDC dials are set to off in the scope. I open them only when needed.

Sorry, I meant the optics. They look different from what is in the WoS mod

It’s emtgulfs “periscope rework v1.7” you also need the aspect ratio mod to go with it. Both located in downloads.

GUESSTIMATIONS, AND WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT

You are on the surface during a clear beautiful day.

Your watch officers yells down that smoke is on the horizon. You ask for the range and he tells you 12km.

After making a quick observations, the ship is a gray blob, which you cannot identify, making out an AOB, or even speed impossible.

You know you have to dive, or risk it seeing you and zig zag away.

Once we dive we are presented with new issues. First, no watch officer to give a range!

The target is currently headed towards you, and will eventually be in a position where you cannot attack it because of our slow speed. So you have to act quick in preparation.

Hydrophone tracking is not ideal because we can see the target. The periscope is more accurate.

We need to plot the ship to define it's course, determine an attack angle, prepare the attack run, and most importantly... know when we are too close.

Guesstimate! That's right. We watch a lot of videos, and read tutorials that always show a nav map that looks more like a chalkboard in Albert Einsteins office.

We do not need this. That stress is overrated and you can do more with less.

Pick a mast height. Most freighters average a 26-32 meter mast height. I usually choose 30 because it is an easier number for mental math. While the range of the ship may be off, it will be off consistently enough to plot a course on the map with a 4 bearing method. With this information, we can set an attack angle.

Pick a speed. Once underwater, our hydrophone operator gives us a lot of information! He tells us if the ship is slow, medium, or fast speed.

When you press E and bring up your speed table, at the top it labels as example: Slow speed is as high as 8 knots. Pick 8 knots and use that as a way of charting your target. I always pick the highest knot in whatever speed the hydrophone operator calls out. I would rather plot a faster ship (which is actually slow) and get my boat in position early, than plot a slow ship (actually fast), and ruin a chance to attack it because it passed me by.

Pre-set your AOB. regardless of what direction the ship is going, or it's AOB, I set up for a fast 90 or 45 degree attack. I then make adjustments as I get closer.

Why is guesstimation important? If you read any book the Aces, they all had one thing in common... They eliminated error from their solutions! They approached very close to their targets. But more importantly, we are setting our boat up for an attack early. When the ship gets in range to identify, we can then make more subtle adjustments without going crazy!

So true ! Many seem to like to make things more complicated than need be for some reason.
Myself, I just eyeball the speed via bow wake and aob; neither are difficult with only a little practice/experience.
And the reticles in the Hitman's optics (sh3) I use make getting the range very simple, quick, and easy.

@John Pancoast...
Thank you. I love the fact so many new people are getting into this game. But with so many videos and techniques, it can be overwhelming to set up an attack run.

I swear I thought I saw someone computing calculus during a run once!

It’s not complicated once we establish a consistent procedure.

Don’t over think it!

One of my favorite commanders was Peter Cremer of U-333.

Badly damaged, he lost his UZO pedestal, both periscopes, and a TDC locked into place only allowing a weird gyro angle.

He went on to attack and sink several more ships in operation drumbeat by taping binoculars on the mangled bridge.

He had to guesstimate everything!

Yep. Besides, the point of an attack at least convoy-wise, should be as little time as possible in the convoy's and escorts presence. Besides it's simplicity, that's why I like to eyeball speed and aob; it's quick.
Hard to be quick if one is doing Einstein's chalkboard besides the fact that in real life, more than one person would be involved.

"Ability to do the job with the resources at hand......."

Great Thread
 

This is a great thread. Thanks for all the tips and points on immersion. I was in U-32 off the coast of the UK at night. My wife comes into the room where I have a blanket over my head as I could see nothing as it was overcast. I'm sure she thought I was watching p*rn or something.

I now have a note book where I do my target solution calculations. I find that helps a lot. I don't know about immersion but it helps immensely as the ranges and bearing called to the XO don't go into the event log.

I have written various programmes that test my ability to calculate True bearing from relative bearing + heading.

On scopes, I keep the scope up for a minimum amount of time.

I also use OpenSeaMap to plot course. Not realistic, but I don't have a set of charts available.

After the separate thread on CelNav, I might try and do that again... but I do love Real Navigation. First time I played WoS and made it to Kiel it was an accomplishment in itself!

One thing that really helped me (and I am still quite a noobie I think) is someone once posted a comment saying that you had to *think* like a U-Boat commander. Once I made that transition it has become much easier: being cunning, taking careful risks, thinking about the where ships are going etc.

I’m glad this thread helped! Being an immersion player I go to great lengths to gain realism. I even use a very good REAL mechanical stop watch! Forces me to not use TC during an attack since doing so renders the watch useless!

These techniques make torpedoing that ship just a little more worth it.

Have fun!

Bstanko6,

I tried your saving method where you delete the auto save and then save my game progress. And then I hit continue career but all of my navigational marks are not saved like you were talking about. Am I doing something wrong?

Lanzfeld... do you have Wolves of Steel? It works for me. It may act differently non the version you have.

I have TWoS 2.2.12.

Yes I have the latest version of wolves of steel. I continue my campaign after deleting the auto save and saving my current progress and when i launch the game none of my navigation marks are there.