1st. section contains interviews from SW members regarding 688I simulation


RADM Boats CINCPAC*
- Laying on the bottom, or as deep as possible and go to all stop and just use my sensors- never fire first unless you are totally sure of your target, other wise you just give your position away- when attacking, always use as much or more firepower as needed, if one torp will work, then two is even better, at least one active and the rest passive, running both shallow and deep, use the active to herd or drive your quarry to the passives, better to use too much than too little. - basically just stay 90 deg realitive to the incoming and drop a decoy and then change depth, pretty standard stuff. -For easy kill just chase him toward an oil rig :).......full text here


RDML Paul CTO SSN*
-I basically try to avoid enemy fire and then present myself in front of the indefensible enemy who has nothing to do while waiting for the reloads.-Personally, I find that if I kill the other guy first, I have many more chances of staying alive even if he has 4 torps on my tail. Maybe it's psychological. That is not to say you should neglect your defensive duties...But I'm on the aggressive side, always. -I think most people who have dove with me a few times know all too well how I dive :) All I can suggest is keep closing the distance so that if something fails (for instance, the first weapon exchange is evaded by both sides), you are in an advantageous position for 'round 2'. -I use pretty standard evasion methods...almost never the reverse evasion, and rarely the e-blow. I treat passives much like actives and basically the whole of my evasion is based on CM behaviour. Study it! -No standard way to do easy kill, but basically, know who it is you are diving against and judge your tactics accordingly........full text here


Captain Tortilla 16 TO*
-It depends from my opponent, if he is good or not. In a war dive with the other guy at 15nm, and not enough time to search the whole map, I prefer to ping and have his exact position. I know that in the most cases they take a course 90° right or left from my bearing, so I fire active/passive combination to the right and left. I don/t believe that my opponent fire then four torps with the same course, probably he make a fingerfire, so I at flank out of the area, if he is on a distance on which he can/t hear me. But not for long time, then when his torps passed my or are passing me I put a course direct to him, and fire again. This is one I have used in a war dive, and I won. The other way if I have sonar contact, then I only fire first two torps, and try to evade his ones with cms, and then go closer and fire again. -The best way is to go away from the torps, but going away you will lose the control over the situation and have it more difficult to sink the enemy sub. I think my best way to stay alive is, to make sure that my torps are first on his boat as his torps on mine, on this way he must start evasion maneuvers and can/t control his torps, and I can concentrate me on drive my torps into his sub, that is an important advantage, also to stay alive. -Be in sonar distance to have a good TMA and drive the torps to the target, but if i/m in sonar distance then I must think he has also a track on me, so I must try to get the torps on the shortest way to him. Sometimes I use on my torps a "ceiling" and "floor" depth. For example: on a active passive combination I put on the active a ceiling of 500F and on the passive a floor of 500F. now if the enemy is deep and by evading the active used e-blow, then the passive will probably hit him. the advantage is that the enemy waste a lot of cms thinking that the torp will hit him, but it didn/t. or I can put on a active a floor of 200F, and if he comes up, then the torp hit him. important is to have a second torp which can move in all depth, for the case that the guy don/t will rise up. -I try to do what I can in a hot situation. normally I go with 20kn, put the enemy trope behind me, then I fire 2-4cms, wait a second, turn 90° and watch in the towed array where the torp goes, this works. if the torps is coming to close then I do the same, but I press the emergency blow valve and go to flank speed. -An easy kill is only possible if the opponent don/t know where you are and hasn/t much experience about evasive maneuvers. if you can be stealth, fire on him, stay stealth, and don/t lose his track, then you have good chances on a easy kill........full text here


VADM Gutsy 12th FCO*
-Hmm... my favorite tactic in a dive. I'll have to give you a generalized answer for this question as I simply do not have a favorite tactic. the word tactic in itself implies a sort of pattern or specifc orientation and and if anything, I try not to act in a pattern or specific orientation. If I were to try and sum up my 'tactics' in 1 word then it would be deception. Given 2 words I add misdirection to that.-Well, I would say that the best way to stay alive in a dive is to never give the other guy a clear shot at you. Everything you do can serve to localize you for the other guy, so considering that, assess what your actions offer up to the bad guy. For example, you managed to find someone and yet remain anonymous. Right off the bat you know that when you launch your attack, the bad guy stands a good chance of hearing the torpedo launch after which he will most certainly fire a snapshot counter-attack, especially if you remain on the same side of the layer as he is and launch that attack. Now, let us suppose that you actually snuck across the layer and launched your attack then successfully cleared the area or datum. You're back on the same side of the layer as the bad guy refining your TMA solution. The bad guy finally detects your inbound attack and counterfires but down the wrong bearing. Caught up in the heat of the moment and the intense desire to sink the bad guy but good, you throw two more torpedoes into the mix, but this time, you forgot to cross the layer. Oops, the bad guy hears this 'mistake' of yours and instantly launches another pair down this new bearing or if he had already launched 4, directs 2 to cover this new datum. Just like that, you just gave him another chance to sink you... for free.- I would say that it would be wise to consider all the things you could do to give the other guy a datum to fire on, and then, figure out a way to deny those things to him until you so choose. -My specific attack strategy would be to keep the other guy occupied and on the run once I start the attack. It's easier to deny the other guy information on your whereabouts if you can keep him running. At flank he can't hear/see, he can't ping, and he can't tell how many more weapons you got out there. Sometimes I'll dog-leg the approach of an attack, sometimes I won't. I will always stagger torpedo speeds though. One torpedo will always be 5 knots slower then the other. I do this to prevent them from being destroyed by the same set of countermeasures. He may evade one but then the other(s) are right behind it closing. Watch your reloads! Once the wire is cut on a weapon, take those few seconds to reload it. When you reattack, don't forget to deny your prey data on your boat. -My first and primary evasion tactic is simple. Avoid being shot at... directly. If I receive counterfire, I take time to determine inbound course. If i'm threatened then it's basic... clear datum. In my experience, with the way our scenarios are layed out today, most attacks are 'guesses' or in other words, counterfire on a the TIW report your opponent got from his sonar crew. These are relatively easy to avoid. Another thing I do is to put myself on the side of the layer opposite of the torpedo. This lessens the ability of the torpedo to see me. Clear datum, clear datum, clear datum. ADM Homer made the word datum into a nifty acronym which sums it up into a nutshell. DATUM or Dude, About Time U Moved. If all the above fails and the torpedo acquires you I have only the following advice... learn to use your countermeasures and watch your speed when deploying them. -LOL! I don't think there are any easy kills. Besides, I don't do the sinking, my torpedoes do. If the torpedoes could speak, I think they'd say, "Just put me in the right place and let me do my job... and oh, while your at it, get the hell out of Dodge!" On the other hand, one could define an 'easy kill' as a kill gained without one having to evade any inbound, or sinking the lot without expending a single countermeasure. If I were to define it as such, then I would say, review the above to learn how to get an 'easy kill'........full text here


~RDML Donw JrAdm*
For starters...staying alive by any means possible....but....if I were to pick my favorite tactic....maybe not my BEST favorite...I do not think I would want that disclosed...but...a 4 fish finger fire...seperating the fish from between 3 to 4 miles ..followed by an active ping when the fish are in the general vacinity of my prey...is sometimes quite effictive...but of course..that all depends on the tactical situation...with several players involved...that has many drawbacks...not worth the expense. Well..with a good layer present...trying to stay on the opposite side is always helpful for evasion and the aproach. The Hammer and anvil is one of my favorite torpedo sends hehe.......full text here


~RDML Money COSDCNO* :
i don't thinkk i really have a favorite tactic. each dive is different and requires me to try and adjust my tactics to those conditions. Such as is this a 1 on 1 or multipe FFA, a good hunt or a knife fight, is my opponent a new diver or an old salt who may see some of my 'tricks'....there are just so many variables in a dive that its hard to carry over the same tactics from one dive to another. But in the end after thinking about it, I guess the dogleg torp is the thing I favor over anything else.not get hit by a torp. :-) but seriously...try to stay out of your opponents sensors. If you can use the sound environment and read the sonar screen properly, you can stay just on the edge of his sound envelope and try to work up a good solution while he doesn't see you..of course usually if you see him he can see you :-).....there are several tactics from the blue book that everyone knows about and uses, sometimes even adjusting to their own tastes. Like I said a minute ago the dogleg seems to be the most popular because it helps hide your bearing and I think 90% of the divers out there employ it most of the time.....One thing I like to do is send 2 torps on either side of a bearing, about 10 degrees apart. That will cover him running at 10 kts or 20 kts perpendicular to the bearing and if he speeds up or dumps CM I can steer the 2 on the other side of the bearing into him. Of course I usually only use that on TIW's :-)...I try to keep an eye on the torp in HFS and mainly just try to get out of the way. I've had torps pass within 500yds doing that, but more often than not it seems that I get hit during silent evasion. If I see it lock onto me, I mainly just hit flank and dump CMs while turning every now and then until it either hits me or my CM. Like the blue book evasion......and staying across the layer, HFS is great for figureing out which side of the layer a torp is on. Something for a knife fight, fire 3 slow torps, 40 kts, and just follow right behind them, the other guy seems 4 big green blobs and thinks 4 torps, while you can just steer your torps into him from HFS :-).....I don't think there is an easy kill in a normal dive because you have to find him there. Unless he is just running along at flank not paying attention trying to close distance to you (I'm guilty of that, lol).......full text here


~RDML Labo DTS/JAG* :
Backwards evasion sir is a favorite tactic, you can see torps incoming at you....not really worry about Ta, you still have another ta and the spherical array to detect them, and if its on close quarters that will be done at once. To go at slow speed near the tjermal layer scouting both layers and wait for the other to show up, is a good way to stay alive. Well, an attack strategy is when you detect the sub if you have 4 torps there is a good combination a finger fire putting two actives in the flank, the actives will make the sub move; when your passives will be there..just move the actives to force the sub to move when your passives run near the contact..switcing on the actives on flanks at same time or switiching on and off multiple times..he will move to be out of the active cones and the passive will notice that move. Evade whenyou have incoming torpedos at your location,change layers and run at 40 knots on 90? ofthe torps incoming for 4 minutes then stop and listen,that if you detect them on about 8 or 10 miles away...if not go shallow and try to see the torpedos incoming on your radar when they get on the shallows you will see it, but at this time you can be detected by the esm.
Knife fights?... to be near him, shoot a passive deep shallow active combo,at 55 and 50 knots,then the passive will be near the sub and the active away, then you switch on active and it will sounds as it is away and the guy will move out of the zome while the passive is going after him. Normal dives scouting both layers at slow speed 3 knots if the layes is at 300 stay at 297 with one ta at 2600 m and the other at 700 so you have both layers coivered with the arrays...then slowly scout for the guy...if you hear a torp shoot ,send a finger fire with 2 passives and 2 actives and go away from the zone while you approach to the contact to determine his location.....full text here


~LCDR Foca 16th XO*:
Well my favorite tactic in an dive is try make anything that the enemy can't imagine, is try make surprises, so i can easily control the situation. Since i play 688i and SC i can say SC is much more fun to aply tactics than 688i because you can use akula missiles to trace a tactic like block the enemy way and use 65cm to hunt him. There are lot of tactics i really don't know which one i can call favorite :).....The best way to stay alive in the dive is never control the tactical control over your opponent. you must always take ahead on what he is thinking and trying make....I like to fire a combo where the passive is behind the active (some yards)...so when the enemy think he evaded the active,,, and evade in almost all cases,,, he didn't saw the passive behind the active and that make me happy :)......Well the evasive don't have much secrets. isn't my best evasive maneuvers but i like evade going towards to the torpedo if full turn in the right time and cms dropped. In 688i my favorite evasive is going back :) is good because you keep all the time the torpedo in HF so you can know if he is going to cms or not.....It isn't easy get a kill but the best way in get a very good TMA that allow you know where the enemy is and his course so you can steer the torpedoes to him........full text here


ADM WallBanger DCNO SSN*
When I can figure out where the opponent might be, I like to send a dog leg slow combo of 2 torps and come in from the opposite side. When the opponent gets TIW, he will figure you out in an opposite direction, maybe shoot back in that direction and will probably evade your way :)....a good way to stay alive is with Situation awareness... know where those traces on you sonar are going and act accordingly... let your opponent give up his position before you do...Well, a specific attack strategy..Already did with that dog leg attack :)... you can even use a double dog leg and at one point, your opponent will get TIW from 2 different directions. 90 degrees from eachother. Evasion.. That can be very different depending on the bottom, the sea state, thermocline, etc... The main thing is to try to get out of the cone asap without using CMs, hence the situation awareness I was talking about earlier. Know where those torps are going before deciding wich way to turn. Using the botto slop if there is one is also a very good way to ground your opponents's torps. Again, many factors need to be analized. I do not believe there is a recipie for an easy kill :). I think that there is no such thing as an easy kill... You die if you make an error, or you lack knowledge, training and/or practice. And even sometimes, when you do every thing right, you might die anyway. It might seem an easy kill if your opponent shoots and stays on station and waits for your return fire... but then, he made a crucial error. That is why you get a kill in such case.........full text here



2nd. section contains interviews on Sub Command simulation.


RDMLFish3rdCTG1/SC*
I think I dont have a special tactic. It very much depends on the circumstances. Terrain, opponent, surface shipping, one versus one, or more, etcetera etcetera. I always lean very heavily on UUV's. Especially, for evasion If one torps comes myway, I follow it with TA and UUV. It will try to lead your course, I launch a decoy and turn away. But it will not always work, because I make mistakes not that the tactic is wrong. Again it depends on the skills of your opponent. I shoot them in a V formation, one on both side of the enemy, with a passive in the middle, and then steer them accordingly the evasion course the enemy sub make. Narrowband frequency akula 50.125.320.1125.1886 seawolf 60.125.320 etcetera, but i never see more than one line. I always chance frequency to 300. When you see two or more lines in NB the sub is very near or cavitating.......full text here


CAPT Sparks 3rdFC CTO SS*
-Use the terrain for hunting and hiding. -Attack is best defence. In SC frequently change speed and course to mislead auto TMA of your opponent.-In SC donnot fire too much torps at a time, this makes easier for opponent to evade and makes hard for yr own sonar to hold clear picture. Enable yr torps on opponent frontdoor and donnot enable too early.-I try to avoid evasion by clearing datum before torps get close. -There are no easy kills, each game is different. If ther would be easy kills then the game is no enjoy anymore........full text here