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Thank you bubbalou, this information is valuable! I will try to implement these factors into my patrols. I am glad to know that the notepad is not imperative for a torpedo to hit. I invest a fair amount of time to the game and i know i will feel rewarded when i get the hang of it.
When i am ready to shoot, how can i determine the speed of the torpedo? Usually, i set it to fast. When a new question arises, i won't hesitate to ask.
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NP, it's just trigonometry, you know - triangles and stuff. As GWX's manual puts it:
A target (―T‖) on course ―C‖ at speed ―S‖ is at range ―R‖ on bearing ―B‖ from a U-boat (―U‖). At what time and bearing must the U-boat launch a torpedo at speed ―T‖ to intercept the Target?
Sounds crazy, but it's more simple than it looks. The key that unlocks the puzzle is the target's speed, which is why standing still and nailing those marks is perhaps the most important part.
You know one leg of the triangle - your desired
bearing (keep it +/- 20 degrees of 0 for best results), so that's one line. Once you know the target's course, you know where both lines intersect. That's the
range. It's actually usually the least important, because if the magnetic detonator - or the impact trigger - feels a boat along the way, it will explode.
You know that
the degrees of any triangle must add up to 180 degrees. Remember that from school? Me neither.
So, bust out the protractor and measure along his course to you - call it #1. Take that number and add it to the
bearing you wanna shoot the target at - call it #2. Subtract that from 180 and the remainder is therefore the
Angle on Bow - call it... well, AoB.
Plug in the speed. This makes or breaks the calculation, because it relies on a metric formula. You can be off by a bit, but the further you are from the target, the more exact this all must be. So while you're waiting to shoot - check: Are my lines straight? Do they pass through the marks properly? Did I get the angle right?
Now that you've drawn your triangle of doom, as long as you nail how fast they get to your intersect point correctly (and you don't have a dud), that should be auf wiedersehn when you (OPEN THE DOORS, any second wasted screws with the math) push the magic button
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Speeds are a question of circumstance. Consider that you can get a full 12.5km out of a T1 on slow, but only 5km on fast. (and 7.5km on medium). The good news, no matter what your game plan is, the TDC will automatically adjust the torpedo gyro for your math, independently. But ask yourself - what's going to happen in the next few minutes?
Speed is actually
not your friend. First of all, think about that part where you're waiting for the result - you're actually buying more time for yourself to move if you set a slow torpedo. Second, if you're going for a magnetic shot, you'd want the torpedo to spend the most time underneath the ship as you can. Third, by the end stages of the war you're detected at obscene distances by radar, so that 12.5km looks really appealing.
Now, warships are slippery and like to turn a bunch, which makes them a better target for fast torpedoes if you're not confident of their next move. You have more "room for error" regardless with your doodles and scribbles with a faster torpedo over a slow one.
But the benefits of "slow" is why getting good at doing things by hand is more beneficial to you in the long run. Trust me, once you nail your first target by hand,
you'll never go back to WO "point and click" warfare. The sense of double - no triple checking the math while waiting for the target approach zero hour, the sweat of pulling the trigger, the elation at watching your hard work sink a monster... that's the game.
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And a ProTip from the Useful Tips section:
"If you're being -or about to be- chased by a destroyer, here's a simple Bugs Bunny trick. Now this doesn't work with multiple destroyers, but...
Dive to periscope depth and do a complete 180 to him. Go flank, load torpedoes, make all the noise you can - they'll beeline for you.
Fire your aft tube at 180 degrees with the target AoB set to 0, and your torpedo set to magnetic detonation. Boom. Problem solved
"