Back in the water!

[Nefaro]

However, naval warfare basic concepts for gamers is probably harder to find than other genres like air and ground combat.

Yeah.  The same thing that prevents some people from "getting into" the Harpoon games, too.   You kinda need some knowledge about hi-tech naval warfare and the systems used  in it. 

[MarkShot]

I just had an amazing under sea duel between myself (688i) and an Akula.  You may ask, how do I know all of what follows.  Well, there is a simple replay facility in the game which will show you what really happened versus what you thought was happening.  Fights in nuke boats is a lot about intuition and faith, since while the action is in progress you'll never know for sure, but for the fact that you are not dead yet.  Notice that this shoot out takes almost two hours to play out.

+0:22 - I made contact with an Akula 5NM South.

However, the Akula IDed me first.

+0:33 - the Akula let lose with ASW rockets which drop short range circling torpedoes.

I immediately shot off two active decoys shallow, turned to the NW rang a flank bell and went down to crush depth.  I fired a spread of 3 fish down the launch bearing.  However, the RTE (run to enable) was simply a guess and two short by a factor of three.  Even if I had a solid solution on the Akula, given its range of almost 5NM I would have needed to wire guide to score a kill.  But it gave the Akula something to do.  Knowing that my SONAR would wash out as I ran for my life at 35KTS, I immediated cut the wire on Fish 1-3 and began reloading tubes.

Foretunately for me, the Akula did not have an accurate solution, its SUBROCs landed 3NM to the North.  Two far to pick me up as they circled, but I still ran anyway for anyway for a good 15 minutes.

+0:48 - The Akula (now 10NM SE) was well aware that my fish had passed behind it slowed and began tracking me.  It launched another spread of SUBROCs.

+0:51 - These SUBROCs landed about 2NM to my South.  I immediately drop active decoys and pivoted to the NE and continued at flank.  The SUBROCs began their harmless spinning.  Again I fired a fish down what I thought was the Akula's bearing due South.  Totally, incorrect.  However, the launch provoked another volley of SUBROCs right down the bearing which the Akula detected my snapshot.  Of course, its detection and my actual position was separated by 5NM.  Again it wasn't even close.  I drop active decoys, privoted again and ran to the NE.  The Akula is now maybe 13NM to my SE.  Its been moving fairly slow mostly and I have been opening range at Flank bell.

+1:06 - Active intercepts are quiet and I slow to a quiet 3KTS to see what is going on.  The Akula is now 15NM to the SE and we have both lost contact.  I slowly head SSE hoping to restablish contact.  I don't put the Akula bow on, since it would be in my towed array's blind spot.  The TA is my most sensitive sensor, and if I hope to have any chance of winning this engagement I will have to shot first.  In the meantime, the Akula heads NW towards my last known position.

+1:33 - I have a NB (Narrow Band) contact to the SE.  I don't have a full ID (finger print on the Akula), but given the location, the 50HZ low frequency electrical power and basic plant noise, I know I got it.  The Akula is about 8NM away.  I make sure that I get the Akula on DEMON.  This shows the shaft rotation and will allow me to know precisely its speed.  This will have two main usages.  First, it tells you if have your fish on target, since you will see the screw turns jump very rapidly.  Second, it allows you to wire guide your fish to an intercept even at very long range.  You can use it with SONAR to build an incremental solution based on the initial base solution.

+1:40 - I launch a snapshot spread of two fish down the bearing with a 10 degree spread.  The Akula is 8NM away.  I have no idea where it is, but my deduction is 10NM and so I set the RTE.

+1:42 - Almost immediately the Akula detects my launch and deploys active counter measures.  It turns ENE and runs at flank.  I don't have a decent solution, but I know that I got the upper hand by watching DEMON and seeing it hit 35KTS.  It's now totally defensive.  I continue SSW at 8KTS hoping to build a better solution.

+1:47 - The Akula slows as my fish pass to 2-3NM behind it to the South.  It launches its own fish.  But I now have a solution on it accurate to about a 0.25NM.  My fish are still wire guided and much closer than its war shot which is 10NM away.  I wire guide my fish and turn them to the NE.

+1:49 - The Akula drops decoys and it is clear on DEMON that it is once again running scared.  I am very close now.

+1:53 - Now with the very accurate solution and DEMON I am able to go to the TMA station every two minutes and incrementally adjust my solution.  And by so doing, I either pre-enable the fish to turn them or I know that all is fine and they smell blood in the water.  The Akula's fish is now 4NM away and tracking to pass behind me.

+1:55 - I am now convinced that my fish have the Akula for the final kill.  It seems prudent now to cut the wire and reload Tubes #1 and #2 (15 minutes).  Additionally, it's time to deploy countermeasures and go to Flank SE to make sure that the Akula's fish don't pick me up.

+2:00 - A loud explosion and the sound of crumpling bulk heads, the Akula heads down to the ocean floor never to surface again.  It's fish is now 4NM behind me heading the wrong way, but I don't know that.  I just know that nothing is tracking.

+2:15 - I slow from 35KTS to 6KTS.  All is quiet and I secure from general quarters.

[MarkShot]

What a replay looks like:



BTW, is anyone following this besides Mr. Harpoon, Herman Humm?

[Nefaro]

Don't forget me!

I enjoy AARs for games I like.  I don't see many detailed ones for DW like this so I'm all ears.  8)

I've loaded up DW a couple times in the past year, but so many new games.. haven't put the time back into it yet. 

EDIT:  There's also the issue of the LWAMI mod messing up some of the vanilla missions & campaigns due to the different detection capabilities & other things.  While I had given some of the old SC missions a once-over with fixes for the DWX mod in the past, there was a lot more work to do with the DW ones for LWAMI since each mission is basically multiple different controllable units - each with it's own whole mission in a different spot.  It was more mission adjustments than I wanted to mess with.  :-[

[MarkShot]

It's too bad that the www.subsim.com community for SC/DW is all but dead.  Of course, then I can I post here as Captain Head Up His *SS, and everyone thinks I know what I am doing!  :)

[MarkShot]

BTW, all my DW reports are with DW 1.04 and LWAMI 3.11.

[Nefaro]

Have you tried that Russian mod that puts all the extra playable boats in, and uses LWAMI as a base? 

I d/l'd the multiple parts and got it installed but it kept crashing on me IIRC.  :(   Was very sad.

[MarkShot]

I know I could design some really great dynamic missions with the DW Editor given its power, but I would rather play than program.  Sadly, a lot of the scenarios that are available are pure cr*p.  Totally, ridiculous missions like risk your $1B sub to take out a low value target in 100ft of water where a sea gull could spot and sink you with a t*rd.  And I and not just talking about community scenarios.  Some of this nonsense is from Sonalysts.  Then, of course, there are always the missions with logical bugs or no clear indication of how your are supposed to achieve them.

This is one of the things that have always kept me from enjoying what is a game with great mechanics, but often is a disappointing experience when actually playing.

[MarkShot]

That's RA?  Effectively, the analog of SCXIIc/SCU?  No, I haven't.  LWAMI is fine for now.  I am just a novice.  Also, all the scenarios I collected from Subguru seem designed for DW 1.04 and/or LWAMI.  Not Alfa Tau or RA.

What good is a cool mod if there is no content?

[Nefaro]

That's RA?  Effectively, the analog of SCXIIc/SCU?  No, I haven't.  LWAMI is fine for now.  I am just a novice.  Also, all the scenarios I collected from Subguru seem designed for DW 1.04 and/or LWAMI.  Not Alfa Tau or RA.

What good is a cool mod if there is no content?

I supposed that if RA ran okay, I would possibly take the time to make a scenario or two or three.  But it didn't for me.  Crash-o-rama-matic.  There's always the random scenario generator, but it's just pretty much the same ambush scenario over & over so it falls short of what we'd hoped it could come up with.  Still, there's a fair amount of user-created scenarios out there for vanilla and LWAMI, and some of them are fun. 

I still have as yet to master the Perry and have only kinda freewheeled a few scenarios with the ASW aircraft, doing my own makeshift buoy triangulation and manual attack runs with them (which seemed to work rather well actually).

[LongBlade]

BTW, is anyone following this besides Mr. Harpoon, Herman Humm?

Yes. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

[Herman Hum]

BTW, is anyone following this besides Mr. Harpoon, Herman Hum?

I always like to know how a player thinks and what goes through his mind.  I find all naval AARs worthwhile.  :)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

It's good stuff.  Keep at it.  makes me want to reinstall DW and get back into it.  I only ever played with the P3.  Took me ages just to get comfortable with that platform and and the sonar options.  I never did get the hang of the TMA thingie.

[Herman Hum]

I never figured out that Sum of Dot-Error method.  (or something like that).

[jomni]

That sub duel is a very nice narrative just like a Tom Clancy book.

Naval combat, especially subs combat, is unique because there are hardly any visual cues due to the range and visibility constraints (underwater).  It all boils down to sensors and how you read them.   Air and ground combat rely on visual cues more often than other sensors.  Air combat has radars to help you engage enemies beyond visual range but engagements usually still closes in to visual range.