Something you have to understand about the range. Range isn't a matter of how far the torpedo is set to travel. Range is one leg of a triangle used to compute the torpedo settings.
The only time range isn't a factor is a dead, bow-on or stern-on shot, with your angle of attack about zero degrees as well.
As an example (and the numbers are fictional, I haven't actually trigged them out) let us look at the following: say there is a ship traveling 10 knots, perpendicular to your heading (in other words, picture it moving from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock, with you at 6 o'clock and pointing at 12). At a range of 1,000 meters the torpedo has a gyro angle of 10 degrees at time of launch (remember the numbers are hypothetical). At a range of 2,000 meters it would need an angle of 20 degrees. That's because the path it travels will be twice as long at 2,000 meters as it is at 1,000 meters.
If you're trying to target ships in a convoy in different columns you definitely will have to compute the ranges to each one. For that matter, you need to do so even if they are in the same column.
Easiest method I've come up with for manual targeting multiple ships is to first determine speed as closely and as accurately as I possibly can. Until it hits the fan, what one ship's speed is in a convoy they all will be. Then I select which ones I'll be targeting, and preset my torpedoes speeds, depths and pistols for them. I'll track the 'deepest' one first (i.e. the one furthest away in the convoy) and compute its range then fire, then shift to target #2 next. That way, hopefully, all my torpedoes wind up on target about the same time, so there's little to no time for my subsequent targets to begin evasive manuevers.
|