Posted March 04, 2020 by Dragonom
Now we will learn how to fire torpedoes:
1) This is again a practice mission. Start the game with the Practice button. We will fire our first torpedoes while we are surfaced. So make sure your submarine is surfaced by pressing the Surface button (or the R key).
2) Firing torpedoes is more technical than cannons. You must adjust the violet range and the violet needles. If you look around the violet range, you will see two violet needle shaped (narrow triangle) figures, one showing the front direction and the other showing the rear direction of your submarine.
3) By adjusting your throttle, rudder (with A S D W keys or the green buttons) turn your submarine towards a desired target ship and the violet needle will rotate. Also adjust the violet range (with Page Up, Page Down, Home keys or the violet buttons) and bring the needle very close to a target.
4) On one of the violet buttons, you will see the range written in meters. Pay attention to the range and keep in mind that torpedoes have a range around 3000 meters. This range will be even less if the target is moving away.
5) When the needle is near the target, press the dark grey button (which write F18:0' or F17:0' etc. as your torpedoes count down) or press the U key to fire a front torpedo. You may luckily hit a target if the torpedo gets near the target. There are better techniques coming next.
6) The best technique is about exploiting the white line shown on the target which is the path predictor. The white line near the target shows where the target will be when the torpedo reaches the violet needle's tip. So it is best to fire a torpedo when the needle's tip and the far end (the end further away from the target) of the white line meet (or get very close).
7) More advanced: Torpedoes will deflect a little and chase the target when they get close. Exploiting this feature, you can fire the first torpedo very precisely to hit on the head and the second slightly off (by 2 to 5 degrees) and let it deflect so it can hit from the side (which will destabilize the ship and make it sink easier).
8) Even more advanced: If two ship are on the same line and you want to hit the further one, you can adjust your range close to the further one which will help bypassing the closer ship. You can use this technique to fluctuate convoys.
9) Same techniques are applied for the rear torpedoes with the rear needle. You need to press the dark grey button which writes R18:0' R17:0' etc. or press the M button to fire a rear torpedo.
So far, we have done only practice against unarmed ships. The real missions are much more complex.