[I'm goin' down]

Because we are in the Pacific bringing the fight to the enemy (regs. prohibit identification of my location), none of you know that very early in my brief career (unfortunately, my crew and boat were "thrown" into battle with minimal training due to the attack at Pearl), Rockin Robbins gave it a boost with some great advice. My boat, myself and the Silent Service will be forever indebted. Between his video tutorials on automatic and manual targeting which saved our lives at the outset of the war and led to successful missions, and his coded e-mail advice, my boat is "begining" to find some (and I do not use that word lightly) success.

The four "aspects" (pun intended) of the game that I have found most difficult are 1. Patience (there is nothing worse than setting up for the "perfect shot" for an hour or more only to be sunk by an escort before a torpedoe is launched). 2. Setting up for the shot and finding out that you failed to set the mission for manual TDC. 3. Getting the aspect ratio and range incorrect, thus ruining the probability of torpedoe impact. 4. Getting jammimadrid's small tools mod to work properly. (I am working on it).

The most laughable part is when your torpedoes miss the intended target but strike and sink a more valuable target that is further away.

Having said that, I play the stock game, using manual TDC, realistic repair time, ship bobbing up and down in the water, event camera operating, camera operating, and map contacts on. I need a little more practice before I run on limited fuel, batteries, etc. and set for realisitic reload.

My advice to new players is to try and hunt unescorted freighters in the beginning. They usually travel alone or in groups of two or three ships. This provides the best opportunity to set up for a successful shot. Try to avoid destroyer escorts until you have mastered automatic targeting and had some success with manual targeting. If you don't, you will spend many hours at the computer and walk away frustrated. If your torpedoes miss at least you have time to salvage the attack by surfacing and using the deck gun to sink the bastard(s), which provides some emotional relief and renown.

Going after large convoys is dangerous because of destroyer escorts, and hunting combat ships in task forces presents the dual problem of avoiding escorts and scoring multiple hits on the chosen warship to disable or sink it, a risky proposition in any scenario as I have discovered the hard way. However, mastering manual targeting appears to be the pathway to delving into to the finer and more difficult aspects of this complex game.

Having said that, I want to emphasize that Hitman's tutorial is an excellent piece of work. I have printed it and keep a copy within arm's length during operations in case SCAF proves inaccurate. The SCAF mod can be found in the mods workshop forum. I also like the realistic sinking mod, Environmental 5.0, and jammimadrid's green lights mod for the HUD display.

Have to go! We are a day ahead of all you stateside folks and the cooks managed to bring several turkeys onboard, so I have ordered an early Thankgiving dinner complete with all of the fixings and Pumpkin pie, since we have been notified of a of a large convoy a day away and expect to be at Battle Stations on Thursday.:p