[AirHippo]

All right, I'll say it first: I'm no naval expert. I'm an undergrad studying military history, and I have a special love for naval history, but my understanding of the depths of submarine warfare is, at best, minimal. I was, until a year or so ago, a keen Sub Command player; the advent especially of SCX, and SCU's Sub Changer, added a good two years' life to the game. I finally came across DW in an exchange shop in Manchester, and, seized by the promise of similar experience with a Kilo to boot for a mere eight quid, laid my grubby mitts on the game, took it home and installed it.

Now let me also say that I like DW. It seems to have a lot going for it; the ships and submarines certainly seem to... move more realistically, the new station in the conning tower is a nifty plus, and the new sub (I very seldom play as the US, by the way) is entertaining. However, that's where things really begin to go wrong. See, I just can't seem to get my head around the way DW works. Let me also say, before I start, that I apologise if this is in the wrong place.

Allow me to give you an example. A mission named "rough riders" sees my Kilo sitting pretty much bang in the path of a US CVBG. I'm pottering along at a depth of 216m, well below the layer, which lies at 100m or so. The sea is high - state 4 or 5, I'd say - but there's no rain, and there's about 2,000m or water beneath the keel. Not ideal conditions, but not appalling, either. A quick glance at the Truth (because it's fun to watch happenings while you wait for things to liven up round your own end) reveals a Seawolf barrelling towards me, some 25km distant, at about 35 knots. Of course, I don't know this, so my Kilo keeps ambling along, with the as-yet unknown Seawolf passing gradually through the arc of her cylindrical array. Finally, my own sonar finally gets the hint that the Seawolf is there, and my auto-crew duly mark her down. About 11km away, somewhere off my starboard bow, is something new.

Using the logic I almost always employ - if it's that close, and it's not using its active sonar (or not at the right frequency), it's most likely a submarine, I provisionally call it "some kind of sub". In it comes, still doing around 25 knots. Thinking that it might be wise to make sure he gets within range of my torpedoes (because previous experience has shown me that Russian torpedoes' sonars are about as much use as a chocolate teapot), I stop engines and drift. All is quiet as my TMA crew plot the sub's approach. The time approaches. And then, something odd happens.

About 5,000m from me, the Seawolf suddenly smells something. Quite how is a mystery, since he had accelerated to 35 knots a moment previously (and I'm pretty sure that even a Seawolf can't be confident of remaining undetected at that speed, so steaming away when you think there's another boat out there is surely not quite the normal approach for the AI to take). At any rate, he slows right down. My sonar suddenly loses him. The only thing for it is to shoot and hope. Off go two TEST-71Ms down the last known bearing. Back at me comes first one, then two ADCAPs. ****. Down to 300 metres and onto flank speed, turning perpendicular to the torps and putting down a pair of decoys, sends one cannoning off in the wrong direction and another circling the decoys - of course, not that I know this at 20 knots. The pinging stops, and my boat slows down - to find another ADCAP screaming in. THis time, it's curtains - my Kilo is soon at the bottom of the Med. Fair enougbh, I think; but how did he find me in the first place? Why did my own pair of TEST-71Ms miss so comprehensively at a range of about 3,000 metres?

So what am I doing wrong? How did that Seawolf suddenly detect my near-silent boat? Why are Russian torpedoes apparently incapable of hitting their targets? Am I just dense? Any answers will be very happily appreciated, because this is just one example of a host that have had me tearing my hair out - that's without even going into tales of Ticos which don't notice you when you're practically inspecting the props and carving "I love Claire" into the hull, but will quite happily pop three torps at you 10 miles away, or one famous incident where my helmsman evidently got a little tipsy and steered my precious Akula round in circles at 35 knots despite all attempts to make it turn the opposite way!