[jgbishop]

Hi guys. I'm as new as it gets to the Silent Hunter series, and to submarine simulations in general. Years ago I played a little "Aces of the Deep", but that's my only submarine gaming experience (and there wasn't much at that). I just recently picked up SH4, and I must confess that I am completely lost.

I fired up the game and tried out "Submarine School" but found it pretty cryptic and mostly unhelpful. After some guessing as to what I needed to do, I successfully navigated to the specified location (training mission 1), I shot down a bunch of planes and blew up a ship (training mission 2), and I sunk a ship with a torpedo and some blind luck (training mission 3). Now I'm on training mission 4 where I need to sink 10,000 tons of merchant ships, all of which are being escorted. For the life of me, I can't figure out what to do.

Every time I try to engage the convoy, the escorts track me down and damage my ship beyond all repair. I'm running fairly deep (90 to 110 feet) and slow (ahead 1/3), so how do they find me so easily?

Are there any reliable resources for a newbie like myself to learn how to play this game? I want to enjoy this game as much as I do everything else I play, but I'm really having a hard time learning what to do.

Any help, tips, or pointers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
-- Jonah