[Wulfgar]

I wanted to send to you, a younger, current player in the genre, and former IW captain, my observations on Iron Wolves looking back and hoping forward. If we start a conversation in various forums besides this one, it will be important to me because new development/programming could be inspired and this concept further perfected. I have a designer/programmer friend in England who might entertain a clone of the first game with some more modern visual/graphic enhancements.
My background briefly prior to playing IW involved 50 years as a child with AH UBoat, and all the board military wargame simulations land and sea until the 1990's. The naval part with exceptions of original UBoat Bismarck, Midway, and strategic naval warfare development etc. etc. This was valuable and wonderful but I always wanted to captain a submarine which cannot be done on a board. IW was a miracle of elegant design, very realistic combats, simple but not simplistic mechanics(an art in game development) e.g. you don't have to tell crew members to fire a a torpedo, send a message, etc. etc.). As the captain you controlled everything, instantaneously by performing the action. The torpedo and ranged fire combats were extremely tight and elegant, with definite judgments of range, movement direction, and speed done by your ability as an archer, or thrower. This is distinct and much less cumbersome, time consuming and micro managed ala calculations you actually perform to arm, direct, depth, etc. the overall calculus of fire. This is tedious once you are exposed to real players who are using their optics, judgment and wiles to sink a great Corvette captain firing his Hedgehogs with the same judgment calls. True mano mano tests. You attacked convoys as teams, so cool, and this attracted the opposite faction(I was Red we fought Blue--some of the readers may have been misguided if they were Blue in my time). and those combats with the responding ships and mates who were opponents was a blast. You really got to respect dangerous opponents. I personally captained Heavy Submarine, (my pal in Hvy Subs was Bosche we were a team; and I was (gulp) an Admiral for Red, which shows you the ineptitude of promotions. Regarding expertise with boats, the creativity was widespread, as certain Captains who commanded Covettes, Destroyers; beside subs; were forces to be reckoned with. These were subtle skills which others could not perform so well. Folks like Mako and many others, ran standard subs with their advantages/disadvantages like maestros(see summary of all ships on this IW Link) This appeared to be a beer and pretzel game because the mechanics were so intuitive and smooth, (however you did control a great many things like depth, speed, direction firing ranges and direction and of course luck to survive and the order of these was critical).

I must say, hitting a charging Destroyer with a torpedo you fired slightly beforehand, at the critical time, as it is literally charging over you with a barrage of Depth Charges; you at 20m their DC setting 50m, and watching the basteed blow up visually through your telescope is a moment in time you will not forget. Those moments are the essence of the games we play, we dream about them, and they are made possible by the meticulous arrangement of game play mechanics and the minimalist attention to logistics and side actions. You had limitless torpedoes. You needed them. The constant action assumed you did everything else you did not actually command. Last but not least the Islands, which you shelled, took terrible losses at times but bombed to submission and now became your color, your faction. This helped in the consequent battles as you sometimes dragged a pursuer into your own guns and their demise. Just an example. The sinking of convoys, who were constantly sailing in this game, and opponents ships; and the Island batteries gives you points to buy Destroyers, Light Cruisers, many other ships. This introduces an infinity of possibilities and combinations as these ships are recruited and fight another faction etc. I apologize for the length of this but I got going and I am a staggering old man.