Best way to escape torpedoes? And other questions...

[Ludwig van Hursh]

So I bought Cold Waters yesterday and have been enjoying it thus far, I am not familiar with modern submarine tactics as apposed to those of WW2 Fleetboats and U-boats, but I think I'm getting the hang of it....maybe.

So my main question is how do I escape torpedoes that are locked on or close enough to lock on.

Last night I was in the USS Narwhal and was able to hunt down a Soviet Charlie II, managing to sink it with a lucky shot from a torpedo whose wire was cut due to some sudden aggressive maneuvering I had to do in order o evade a torpedo fired back at me. I turned about from a course of approximately 270 to 090 and went to flank speed to keep the distance open and dropped a noise maker and threw out a few knuckles as was shown in the tutorial. Once the torpedo was no longer locked on I turned to about 135 and dive down to 600 feet then went silent.

The torpedo circled a few times and then locked on again and kept following me and I couldn't shake it, dropping over a dozen noise makers and going all over the place that I can't remember what my course and depths were. At one point the torpedo passed probably 20 feet under the boat. Finally the torpedo lost contact and self destructed.

Now like I said I'm new and not used to the modern sub techniques, but is there a better way to avoid torpedoes that doesn't require so many noise makers dropped and the risk of being detected by other enemies, I was lucky it was only one sub?

Oh and as a minor follow-on question, is the sonar scan screen with all the lines as shown in the game realistic to real submarine sonar?

[dannavy85]

Hey Ludwig! Welcome to the Silent Service!

There are many evasion tactics to use, the first being a pre-emptive deployment of a MOSS shot when you suspect an enemy submarine is close or you have a positive "solid" on the adversary....

You should shoot your MOSS then diverge your course 30 degrees max to port or stb and raise or lower your own boat 200 feet. During this time you should be under silent running.

Your objective is to close on the adversary in the tail or in his baffles (Bow on to his screw / propeller) and shoot your torpedo with the weapon sensor off until it is as close to him as possible where you activate the weapon then turn on the sensors...giving him little time to react and use countermeasures.

Torpedo evasion is all about speed and "swing", radical changes in direction and depth with good use of sound decoys to throw off the enemy's weapon. When you evade a torpedo...you want to get the hell out of of dodge and put as much distance between that weapon and you as possible because it will start to turn and attempt to re-aquire you.

Best bet in tactics is full power, full planes, full rudder and hard 90 degree changes in direction with wild swings in depths up to 400 feet up or down. The best way to practice is in the navigation training mission...coming up with scenarios on your own and practicing how you'll deal with them.

Another tip....DO NOT pursue surface targets before submarines. Submarines for you pose the primary threat, surface targets can wait.

If you want to chat more? This old salty squid's locker is open.

[dannavy85]

Oh and as a minor follow-on question, is the sonar scan screen with all the lines as shown in the game realistic to real submarine sonar?

Yes it is.

[Ludwig van Hursh]

Originally Posted by dannavy85

Hey Ludwig! Welcome to the Silent Service!

There are many evasion tactics to use, the first being a pre-emptive deployment of a MOSS shot when you suspect an enemy submarine is close or you have a positive "solid" on the adversary....

You should shoot your MOSS then diverge your course 30 degrees max to port or stb and raise or lower your own boat 200 feet. During this time you should be under silent running.

Your objective is to close on the adversary in the tail or in his baffles (Bow on to his screw / propeller) and shoot your torpedo with the weapon sensor off until it is as close to him as possible where you activate the weapon then turn on the sensors...giving him little time to react and use countermeasures.

Torpedo evasion is all about speed and "swing", radical changes in direction and depth with good use of sound decoys to throw off the enemy's weapon. When you evade a torpedo...you want to get the hell out of of dodge and put as much distance between that weapon and you as possible because it will start to turn and attempt to re-aquire you.

Best bet in tactics is full power, full planes, full rudder and hard 90 degree changes in direction with wild swings in depths up to 400 feet up or down. The best way to practice is in the navigation training mission...coming up with scenarios on your own and practicing how you'll deal with them.

Another tip....DO NOT pursue surface targets before submarines. Submarines for you pose the primary threat, surface targets can wait.

If you want to chat more? This old salty squid's locker is open.

Thanks for the info!

I started catching on a bit naturally with wild maneuvers to escape, but that MOSS thing I didn't know that was a type of decoy, must not have read closely enough, which will help.

[FPSchazly]

Hello! There's a difference between evading torpedoes that are heading towards you and torpedoes that are locked on to you. For torpedoes that are locked on to you, I agree with dannavy85. Do a lot of full rudders, full rise/dives, and flank speed to evade torpedoes. Drop a lot of counter measures and the torpedoes can get stuck in your counter measure field while you get away.

Here's my advice for avoiding torpedo acquisitions in the first place. For inbound torpedoes that have not locked on yet and that are straight running torpedoes (i.e., enemy sub/surface ship shot a torpedo at you, not air dropped), you want to run at an angle that is about +/- 45 degrees from the torpedo's course. So if the torpedo is coming at you with a course of 90 (your bearing to the torpedo would be 270), you ideally want to run at a course of 45 or 135. This maximizes the distance you put between you and the torpedo while minimizing your active sonar cross-section to the torpedo's seeker (assuming it's an active and not a passive torpedo). Think of this technique like a train on the tracks. The best way to avoid the train is not to run from the train straight away down the tracks but to simply step off the tracks (avoid the torpedo in the first place).

If you're stalking an opponent and you get the first shot off like with a baffles shot or are otherwise undetected, I like to immediately transition to "smart evasion". This is just like avoiding a torpedo in the previous example by running at an angle but at a slower speed like 15 knots or so. If and when return fire comes your way, they'll likely shoot their torpedoes down the angle of your torpedoes so by having evaded smartly, you will already be away from the launch point and thus avoided their incoming. Now, once the enemy fires, and based on the angles, ranges, and other environmental factors, you can then judge whether the example 15 knots is a good evasion speed or whether you should increase speed (mostly based on range to the target). If you're within a few thousand yards, it's almost always best to go flank at this point, especially if the enemy has very good torpedoes.

Hope this helps and good hunting!

[SpeedyPC]

Thanks for you're interesting feedback @dannavy85 and @FPSchazly

[dannavy85]

Originally Posted by FPSchazly

Hello! There's a difference between evading torpedoes that are heading towards you and torpedoes that are locked on to you. For torpedoes that are locked on to you, I agree with dannavy85. Do a lot of full rudders, full rise/dives, and flank speed to evade torpedoes. Drop a lot of counter measures and the torpedoes can get stuck in your counter measure field while you get away.

Here's my advice for avoiding torpedo acquisitions in the first place. For inbound torpedoes that have not locked on yet and that are straight running torpedoes (i.e., enemy sub/surface ship shot a torpedo at you, not air dropped), you want to run at an angle that is about +/- 45 degrees from the torpedo's course. So if the torpedo is coming at you with a course of 90 (your bearing to the torpedo would be 270), you ideally want to run at a course of 45 or 135. This maximizes the distance you put between you and the torpedo while minimizing your active sonar cross-section to the torpedo's seeker (assuming it's an active and not a passive torpedo). Think of this technique like a train on the tracks. The best way to avoid the train is not to run from the train straight away down the tracks but to simply step off the tracks (avoid the torpedo in the first place).

If you're stalking an opponent and you get the first shot off like with a baffles shot or are otherwise undetected, I like to immediately transition to "smart evasion". This is just like avoiding a torpedo in the previous example by running at an angle but at a slower speed like 15 knots or so. If and when return fire comes your way, they'll likely shoot their torpedoes down the angle of your torpedoes so by having evaded smartly, you will already be away from the launch point and thus avoided their incoming. Now, once the enemy fires, and based on the angles, ranges, and other environmental factors, you can then judge whether the example 15 knots is a good evasion speed or whether you should increase speed (mostly based on range to the target). If you're within a few thousand yards, it's almost always best to go flank at this point, especially if the enemy has very good torpedoes.

Hope this helps and good hunting!

Excellently put!

[Ludwig van Hursh]

Originally Posted by FPSchazly

Hello! There's a difference between evading torpedoes that are heading towards you and torpedoes that are locked on to you. For torpedoes that are locked on to you, I agree with dannavy85. Do a lot of full rudders, full rise/dives, and flank speed to evade torpedoes. Drop a lot of counter measures and the torpedoes can get stuck in your counter measure field while you get away.

Here's my advice for avoiding torpedo acquisitions in the first place. For inbound torpedoes that have not locked on yet and that are straight running torpedoes (i.e., enemy sub/surface ship shot a torpedo at you, not air dropped), you want to run at an angle that is about +/- 45 degrees from the torpedo's course. So if the torpedo is coming at you with a course of 90 (your bearing to the torpedo would be 270), you ideally want to run at a course of 45 or 135. This maximizes the distance you put between you and the torpedo while minimizing your active sonar cross-section to the torpedo's seeker (assuming it's an active and not a passive torpedo). Think of this technique like a train on the tracks. The best way to avoid the train is not to run from the train straight away down the tracks but to simply step off the tracks (avoid the torpedo in the first place).

If you're stalking an opponent and you get the first shot off like with a baffles shot or are otherwise undetected, I like to immediately transition to "smart evasion". This is just like avoiding a torpedo in the previous example by running at an angle but at a slower speed like 15 knots or so. If and when return fire comes your way, they'll likely shoot their torpedoes down the angle of your torpedoes so by having evaded smartly, you will already be away from the launch point and thus avoided their incoming. Now, once the enemy fires, and based on the angles, ranges, and other environmental factors, you can then judge whether the example 15 knots is a good evasion speed or whether you should increase speed (mostly based on range to the target). If you're within a few thousand yards, it's almost always best to go flank at this point, especially if the enemy has very good torpedoes.

Hope this helps and good hunting!

I actually figured the evasion of unlocked torpedoes by accident the other night and did that exact thing you mentioned! But I am glad to see that this was the correct thing to do and will practice it more. I think the main thing that I need to get better at is predicting what I think the potential enemy submarine is doing and knowing if they can detect me as well.

Like I said before I am much more used to the WW2 style of play in Silent Hunter where I have way more time to prepare and track targets with much slower play in general. This I have found it can go from slow to suddenly there is a enemy Alfa within 800 yards of in seconds and you need to have an escape plan real quick lol.

Thanks for all the help guy!

[dannavy85]

With guided torpedoes, homing torpedoes...the other trick is timing...when to turn sharply and downwards or upwards to escape the seeker output of the weapon. You must turn almost 150 to 170 degrees and move up or down to get out of the seeker cone, turning 90 degrees or less to it will not work.