Overview
I am no pro at SH4, but I’ve picked up tips over the course of my playtime (from sources such as subsim.com, Rockin Robbins’ youtube videos, and Capt-n-scurvy’s high realism tutorial [http://archive.org/details/Capt-n-scurvysSilentHunter4HighRealismTutorial]), and this is generally how I sink enemy merchants who stumble into my path (without the stadimeter). While I’m sure there are better ways to do things, I think and hope that some folks who are new and/or have troubles with certain aspects of manual targeting will find something useful here.Don’t hesitate to let me know if I’m dead-wrong on something, etc. Better screenshots and explanations are forthcoming, by the way.Good luck out there, and give ’em hell.
Where to?
Found an enemy ship? Set up a firing solution. Go to your chart, and figure out which way she’s going. Select the ruler, and draw a line through the center of the ship, adjusting it until she’s following it as closely as possible. Zoom out, and extend the line a good distance away, beyond the point at which you plan to attack. Use the tool helper to keep your line as close to the ship’s center as possible while zoomed out.
Full speed ahead!
Now that you know where the enemy is going to be, go and get into position. At maximum speed, get well ahead of the ship so that you have plenty of time to set up an ambush. Be sure to stay out of sight–keep at least 5000 yards or so away. When you are well ahead of the target, get just within about 1000 yards away from the line, approaching at a 90 degree angle. You should probably go to periscope depth at or before this point, depending on how much of a lead you have on your prey.
How fast?
Whip out your chronometer/stopwatch. With the marker, put an X on the target’s current position, and start the timer. After three minutes have passed, mark the ship’s new position, and put away your watch. Center the compass tool on the first mark, and drag a circle outward until it intersects the second. Look at your measurment: If the distance between the marks is 800 yards, your target is traveling at about 8 knots; if 1000, 10 knots, and so forth. Put the speed into the TDC.
How far?
Using your marker, put an X somewhere on the line within the 1000 yard radius. Using your ruler, measure the distance between this mark and the center of your boat. Do your best to enter this number into your range finder (it need not be exact). When the target reaches the mark, you can turn on the position keeper, but leave it off for now.
Angle on Bow
Draw a line through the center of your sub, roughly parallel to the one which marks your target’s course. With the protractor, trace along this new line up to your boat, and then out to the mark you used to measure the range. Enter the angle into the TDC. Important: If using vanilla, be sure to click the red button (it will have a tooltip that says, “Send AOB to TDC”) twice. Just do it.
What’s that?
When she’s getting close, look through your periscope, and pull up the recognition manual. Do your best to identify the ship, taking note of the draft, and hit the check mark. Set your torpedoes to high speed and contact/influence (if possible), and set their depth to five feet (give or take) below the target’s draft. Don’t forget to open your torpedo tubes. You will probably only need to fire one or two (you can finish her off with the deck gun on the surface if you have to).
Wait for it…
When the target reaches the mark you set up, go to your battle map and turn on the position keeper (hit the round button on the bottom right). With your periscope up, make sure the white line is pretty close to the ship, and follows along with it. If it isn’t, you likely need to hurry up and adjust your range or AOB.
Silent but deadly
Wait for it… wait for it… fire (but don’t wait until the target is directly in front of you, or past the center of your 1000 yard radius). I fired four torpedoes in this image, just for ships and giggles.
Oops… did I do that?
