Torpedoes in WOS

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by Mowgli

I have had several dud torpedoes both electric and steam and have been increasing my torpedo man's skills to compensate.

That wont help much. The torpedoman's ability to effect "dud" percentage is quite unrealistic IMO and therefore it has been heavily reduced.

My 1st question is, do they become more reliable as the war progresses?

Yes...

In SH3 I liked to use torpedoes set to magnetic and set the depth just beneath the targets depth and so it made little difference to the angle of attack so long as the torpedo passed under the target and it was a very good tactic.

So my 2nd Question is this. Does this work in SH5 as I have tried several times and the torpedoes just pass under the vessel and carry on their merry way.

Yes, but try to use magnetic detonators only in calm seas because premature detonation chances will grow exponentially with wind speeds. Setting torpedo deeper and 24kn speed settings may help in this case.
Regarding torpedo depth settings... It's always better not to set torpedo depth more than ~0.5 m of designated ships draught because depths in TWoS are slightly randomized in order to simulate real life torpedo and ships behavior. Also, are you completely sure that those draught values from recognition manual are 100% correct?

3rd and final question. Should I be using magnetic or impact setting?

Impact of course, at least in the early stages of war...It is very well known fact that magnetic detonators were really unreliable and TWoS simulates this very well, regardless of what people have learned and experienced in SH3...

Don't forget that impact detonators require sharp impact angle in both horizontal and vertical plane.