Quote:
Originally Posted by wutzthedeal
One mistake I am making is predicting an accurate course for the target. I think they're moving way faster than I thought they would be because when I get there, nothing is there. But that's just going to require more reading and videos.
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Welcome aboard Air Force
Although I haven't been out on a SH4 career/mission lately, I've used "real world" techniques in SH3 and SH4 that work well in the sim environment.
When you're trying to lay out the track of a convoy, task group, or a single merchant, based on a contact report, keep in mind that the course of the contact is given using a simplified Nautical Compass Card (16 points instead of the full 32-point compass). So, the course given (e.g., SW) is actually as much as 11.25 degrees different from "true" SW.
To plot a useful search pattern for intercepting that contact, you can draw a triangle based on the boundaries of the reported course ("SW" = 225 degrees true, plus/minus 11.25 degrees, adding "farthest-on" arcs along the given course, based on the speed of the contact. IIRC the speeds given in contact reports are "slow" (<7kts), "medium" (7-9kts) and "fast" (>9kts for merchant vessels but usually much faster [18-25knots] for warships).
A zig-zagging contact doesn't seem to screw-up that technique, as far as I've seen anyway; it appears that the contact reports provide the Base Course of the convoy/task group.
I hope this helps you out a bit..."Find 'em...chase 'em...sink 'em!"