The Hunt: An illustrated example of how to sink a ship

[NeonSamurai]

Looks right to me, i usualy add an aditional knot or 2 above the intercept speed to insure i get there ahead of the convoy, then i usualy submerge and listen myself for the convoy. If i dont hear them i head along the path the convoy was heading and listen for time to time untill i find them.

[P_Funk]

Finally I got it figured out. Read it a few dozen times and while atfirst it seemed ridiculously complicated its simple now. However sad news. I typed up my own concise version of the process, added a chart of which degrees correspond to the directions (ie. NNE and such) and then printed out Wazoo's tutorial. Then I went to load up Silent Hunter 3 with GW 1.1a and SH3 Cmdr istalled. Everything was just right. So it loads and what do I see? Major graphical corruption! My video cards chooses now to crap itself! So it seems as if my card is toast. Its now been underclocked so that I can run standard desktop stuff but I can't play any games... BLAST! So your beautiful stuff is now uselss to me for at least a few weeks... BOLLOCKS!

[Dantenoc]

Originally Posted by Darksun

I have created (a possibly flawed) shortcut version of the plotting intercept part of this post. Is this a correct summary of the procedure?

Yes, it is correct

For a post that only deals with the interception part you can look here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...ght=claren%27s

or simply read about it on the wiki

[MRchristian]

you know guys i was beating my head against the wall trying to figure out how to intercept my target and know wwith this new tool at my disposal i shall wreak havok and loose the doggs of war thank you very much for all you time and effort to help us all out

[IrishUboot]

Great stuff!

[Von Hinten]

Great post and thanks for the PDF guys. Good job!

[P_Funk]

Okay in the instructions it mentions the Convoy speed and tells us that of course it means about so fast. So I wanna know exactly what Slow Medium and Fast are. Which speeds in knots refer to these general terms?

[NeonSamurai]

Well from my expirence, slow is usualy 5 or 7 knots, medium is 10-12 knots, and fast is anything from 15 to over 30 (typicaly only warship task forces do 30 knots or better)

From my contacts.cfg file

[ContactSpeeds]
;less than each value means (in this order): stationary, slow, medium and fast speed ; over the last value means very fast speed
Merchant=0.1,8,12,35  ;[kts]
Warship=0.1,8,19,35   ;[kts] including uboats
Air=0.1,8,19,35       ;[kts]
Convoy=0.1,8,12,35    ;[kts]

What it meens is.. lets use the merchant as the example, its stationary speed is 0.1, its max "slow" speed is 8, its max "medium" speed is 12, and its max "fast" speed is 35.

So a ship can be going anywhere from 0.2 to 8kts and be considered traveling slow, from 8.1 to 12 is medium, and 12.1-35 is fast

[P_Funk]

Thanks a ton mate. Very helpful.

So in your experience what is the speed that I should expect a convoy labelled as Fast going at? I ask this only because unlike with Slow and Medium the difference between 15 and 30 knots kinda big when marking an intercept course.

[John Pancoast]

Thanks for the great aid.........but question. You stated you noticed you and the target would arrive at the intercept point at the same time.

How do you know what time the target will get there ? His est speed/distance to point ?

[Steeltrap]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

Thanks for the great aid.........but question. You stated you noticed you and the target would arrive at the intercept point at the same time.

How do you know what time the target will get there ? His est speed/distance to point ?

It's because this method solves for an intercept point using plots based on the same 'distance per kt of speed'. In essance you're solving:

"What course do I need to set so that the target and I arrive at the SAME POINT at the SAME TIME?"

Without going into the underlying trig, your intercept course will get you at YOUR speed to the same point the target will get at ITS speed in an identical amount of time - hence you will get there together. Plotted/calculated perfectly, you would actually collide.....:rotfl:

That's why the 'intercept speed x initial proportionality measure' circle is centred on the initial plot line for the target:
i.e. 1km per kt of speed of target = 6km line based on target's speed of 6kts
Hence, at an intercept speed of 12kts the 'proportionate circle' is a radius of 12 x 1 = 12kms, and this is centred on the point along the target plot 6km from initial plot point.

Hope that answered your question without making it more confusing!

[Harmsway!]

Great post.

Another technique to find the course to intercept is by using the Nomograph tool. What I do is plot a course for the contact ship by drawing a line from the contact along it's heading to some future position. Use the Nomograph to determine where it will be in so many hours. You may want to mark along the line 8, 12, 16 hours for example. Whatever makes most sense based on how far away you are.

Then plot a course for the sub to intercept the target anywhere along its course that looks within the time frame from the subs position. You will then see the time it takes to reach that point with your sub at a given speed. From there you can quickly adjust your heading and/or speed to intercept the target at the best point.

Now that you have stopped laughing. Yes this is nothing more then guessing. Yet this quick guess can rapidly be adjusted to find an accurate intercept point that is reachible in time.

Once you know where your target should be for any time on the clock, you then have the choice of when to make the attack, dusk, dawn, night, whatever. If I'm low on fish, for example, I might want to go for a night surface attack and interecpt the target later in the day. Maybe you want to be in deeper water. The point is you can choose an attack that is most favorable.

Also once the sub approaches within 10km of targets predicted position you can dive and listen for it. You must allow time for this though.

Are you still laughing. Well I can't remember the last time a contact slipped by me.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Steeltrap

It's because this method solves for an intercept point using plots based on the same 'distance per kt of speed'. In essance you're solving:

"What course do I need to set so that the target and I arrive at the SAME POINT at the SAME TIME?"

Without going into the underlying trig, your intercept course will get you at YOUR speed to the same point the target will get at ITS speed in an identical amount of time - hence you will get there together. Plotted/calculated perfectly, you would actually collide.....:rotfl:

That's why the 'intercept speed x initial proportionality measure' circle is centred on the initial plot line for the target:
i.e. 1km per kt of speed of target = 6km line based on target's speed of 6kts
Hence, at an intercept speed of 12kts the 'proportionate circle' is a radius of 12 x 1 = 12kms, and this is centred on the point along the target plot 6km from initial plot point.

Hope that answered your question without making it more confusing!

Great info. thanks ! Looks like I was making it harder than it actually is

So basically, since you always want to get to the intercept point before the target, you must always travel to that point at a greater speed than what you used as a reference when plotting the intercept point, correct ?

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Harmsway!

Great post.

Another technique to find the course to intercept is by using the Nomograph tool. What I do is plot a course for the contact ship by drawing a line from the contact along it's heading to some future position. Use the Nomograph to determine where it will be in so many hours. You may want to mark along the line 8, 12, 16 hours for example. Whatever makes most sense based on how far away you are.

Then plot a course for the sub to intercept the target anywhere along its course that looks within the time frame from the subs position. You will then see the time it takes to reach that point with your sub at a given speed. From there you can quickly adjust your heading and/or speed to intercept the target at the best point.

Now that you have stopped laughing. Yes this is nothing more then guessing. Yet this quick guess can rapidly be adjusted to find an accurate intercept point that is reachible in time.

Once you know where your target should be for any time on the clock, you then have the choice of when to make the attack, dusk, dawn, night, whatever. If I'm low on fish, for example, I might want to go for a night surface attack and interecpt the target later in the day. Maybe you want to be in deeper water. The point is you can choose an attack that is most favorable.

Also once the sub approaches within 10km of targets predicted position you can dive and listen for it. You must allow time for this though.

Are you still laughing. Well I can't remember the last time a contact slipped by me.

Makes sense, thanks !

[Lil Kaleun]

Great tutorials! Gotta try them out when I reach 100% realism. Till that time I prefer to stick to my previous (but still effective, somehow) method - Sail Where You Think You'll Meet Them.
Pretty the same as Harmsway's - pure guessing. But I also can't say I've ever missed a contact. Nice to know someone's thinking in a similar way.