It's also worth keeping in mind that manual targeting is as much an art as science. It's not about getting all the numbers to line up perfectly, it's about getting a "pretty good" solution quickly and make up for any inaccuracies in it by either firing a spread or leaving yourself time to re-calculate.
The very first thing about it is that you want to solve most of the problems with firing solutions by not relying on the accuracy of the solution too much in the first place, but instead making up for any potential error by getting yourself into a good position before you even fire. That means either a position where a fast-90 method would work, or by matching the target's speed and heading at a distance before engaging, or by simply being close enough. You can also get a lot of mileage from not over-relying on the TDC - for example, most of the shots I actually take with "manual" targeting are just snapshots of pairs of torpedoes that I fire on 0 bearing (which eliminates any wonkiness you get from torpedoes having to turn towards the target) at below 1000m by simply guesstimating the target's speed. Most of those shots hit easily.
But yes, basically it's a mix of learning to get yourself into a good position, and learning to guess well.
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There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers.
-Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart)
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