Things I learned as a complete DW Newbie

[OneShot]

This was originally written by Kozure

Selected my very first mission, the MH-60 demo. Trying the helo vs. sub first is nice because there isn't much likelihood of you being attacked, so you can just concentrate on reading the sonar. I tuned the pre-dropped VLAD buoys and listened for contacts. Nothing but commercial traffic. On a hunch, I headed to the east-north-east side of the goal line and started dropping buoys in a rough line pattern. On one of my buoy passes, I got a contact. Analyzing it came up with a Victor sound signature. I dropped a few more buoys to narrow the search, then when I thought I was close, I stopped to dip the dipping sonar. I didn't realize that the dipping sonar can be lowered to various depths... I only thought it was an in/out affair. I was wondering why it was taking so long to stop deploying. It was only when I saw the depth return on the dipping sonar readout that I realized what was going on.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #1
Dipping sonar can be raised/lowered to various depths. This can help you get beneath the thermal layer. I got a very clear contact with the dipping sonar, so I switched to active. A clean contact. I marked and classified it as the hostile Victor. Then I got excited and started to fly off to get a good approach for my torpedo.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #2
You will rip off your dipping sonar if you get excited and try to fly off before retracting it from 400'+ deep.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #3
If your dipping sonar is your only active contact source, drop an active buoy (DICASS) before you retract, so that you can then use that source when you do retract. I had ripped off my dipping sonar, and because I had gone active, the Victor went really quiet. I lost my contact. I tried to reacquire and it took me a while, but eventually I had hot buoys again SW of my original contact. While flying around, I got a very unexpected MAD contact. I stopped and dropped a torpedo right away. I got lucky. The hit was almost instant, and I had won the scenario. Afterwords, I realized just how lucky I had been... I hadn't programmed the torpedo.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #4
Program your torpedo before you fire them, or use the TACCO autocrew to engage.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #5
Remembering to use your MAD effectively can save your bacon. I was feeling pretty pumped, so I decided to try out a new platform. I started the SOSUS Handover scenario, flying the P-3C. This was harder. My first time out, in about an hour real time and five hours or so game time, I had nothing, and I kept on losing contact (out of range) with my buoys when I was not too far away. I decided that I was doing something wrong. I was frustrated, since it seemed ridiculous to lose contact with a buoy when you're only 10nm away. Finally it clicked that if I was at MAD altitude all the time, that might cause reception problems for signals from the buoys. I popped up to 600, then 12000 feet. Much better. All my buoys were readable.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #6
Aircraft altitude affects how far away you receive signals from your buoys. The higher you are, the greater the range at which you will receive remote signals from your sonobuoys. After a few more virtual hours of flying, I had bupkiss. I realized I had screwed up somewhere, so I restarted the mission. This time, on my initial run in with buoys, I dropped a BT buoy first.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #7
Drop a BT buoy first to determine depth of the thermal layer when you're searching in a specific area. On the second time around, I remembered the markable range circles in the navigation screen and marked likely distances from the SOSUS trip lines at minimum (5kts) and maximum (33kts) speeds. Since 2 hours had passed since the contacts were made, I marked circles at 10nm and 66nm from the centre of the tripline in question. I confined my search to the area between those range circles. Better luck this time; I had a hot buoy on my third drop (BT, DIFAR-D, DIFAR-S). I circled around and narrowed the search, getting directional fixes. On one pass, I got a MAD contact, so I dropped a torpedo again. Again, I forgot to program the torp! D'oh!

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #8(#4)
Program your torpedo before you fire them, or use the TACCO autocrew to engage. REMEMBER, stupid! The torp missed horribly. I tried going active with some DICASS buoys, but I had lost him. After a hour or two of more fruitless searching (and getting on 2 AM) I decided I had lost my opportunity.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #8
Only go active when you're really, really sure and you're ready to engage (bomb doors open, weapon programmed, etc.) Reading the manual again this morning on the way into work, I realized I should have been using VLAD buoys on the initial search, then DIFAR and DICASS on the final passes. I had misinterpreted the different capabilities of the buoys.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #9
Use VLAD buoys to setup your search envelope, then DIFAR to narrow it. Use DICASS in the immediate vicinity of a possible contact. Read page 5-13 of the manual carefully. Know the difference in capabilities of your buoys. Great, great game. Tense and challenging. I can see how it would not be for everyone, but man it felt good to get that Victor on the first time around. I'm going to have another go at the SOSUS handover tonight, then move on up to a frigate.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #10
The manual and the sheer volume of stuff you have to play with can be daunting. Read the manual, watch the tutorials, but then jump in. You can only learn by doing. It's actually easier than you might think.

[OneShot]

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #11
Dangerous Waters is fun and very addictive. I replayed the SOSUS handover last night learning from my rookie mistakes on the previous four attempts.

Another few things I learned:

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #12
Area and range circles are your friend. I used them extensively on my final try on the SOSUS handover mission and did very well as a result. Set 7 nm area circles around your sonobuoys, and a 7nm (or 14nm) range circle aroung your plane. Use the circles to ensure your buoys have adequate, overlapping coverage. I had two SOSUS trips at scenario start this time, so I went to the northernmost first. I assumed a cruising speed for the Akulas of between 5 and 20 knots and placed the circles appropriately (2:30 @ 5kts = 12.5nm, 2:30 @ 20kts = 50 nm. I set up the VLAD buoy pattern about halfway and expanded to the edge of the possible area. This time I had to wait a little
longer in real time (2-3 mins), but I got a contact and narrowed the search with DIFARS. With two hot buoys pointing the way, I dropped a DICASS right in the general area where it looked like it was and got a good clean signature. A VLAS and a DIFAR buoy triangulated the position, and the DICASS confirmed. I programmed the Mk50 with a circle search pattern, a 270 degree runout brg, and a 200yd RTE. Running along one of the contact vectors toward the assumed location, I got a MAD contact . I dropped the fish and set the DICASS, which was less than 1nm away, to active. Clear return on the pings. The torp acquired, and then almost all of the VLADs in the detection pattern when hot - the Akula was running south-east at full speed. I prepped another torp with a snake search, a 135 degree runout and a 0yd RTE. The first fish was in hot pursuit, but it looked like it wasn't going to go the distance. I angled in and dropped the second torp, and prepped the third. The first DICASS was still giving me good returns.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #13
Check your bomb-bay load-out. You can only select one configuration. The very first time I tried this scenario, I clicked on a few of the bomb-bay configs and left it on the one with one torpedo pylon and two (or three, I forget) mine pylons. As a result, I only had two torps for the whole scenario. For this scenario, I had remembered to click the right configuration, and had the max complement of 8 torps. With two fish in the water, I felt pretty confident. The first torpedo ran out, but the second found the mark. Scratch one Akula-I improved. Knowing how difficult it was to find subs in an Orion when you don't have a good idea of where to start, I thought the hunt for the second would be tough (and it was). Since the first Akula had been 25nm out from the SOSUS line at 2h30m after detection, I assumed both boats were cruising at 10kts. It was going to take me 30mins to fly down to the second search area (handy info from the DDI waypoint), so I put my first ring at 30nm out from the SOSUS trip, and the second at 45nm. I laid a lot of VLADs, and I was still cruising around waiting when the first line that I had laid winked out 2 hours after I had put them in the water.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #14
I had read it in the manual, but it's useful to remember; your buoys are only good for 2 hours. I wasn't sure if I had laid the line short or long, so I set up another ring (42nm out from SOSUS) behind the outermost search ring (35nm out), then went back to relay the first (30nm), just in case. Just as the last buoy in the first ring was about to go, I got a contact on my second ring. I beelined it there and laid a triangle of VLADs around the 7nm area circle I drew around that buoy. No dice. I waited.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #15
Be patient. Sometimes just as you're about to give up on a lead, you'll get something. Often your instincts are correct. While I waited, I had set up a number of other VLAD buoys and was down to launching my internal store buoys. I was going to have to restock or start using DIFARs if this kept up, but I was confident I was in the right area. Sure enough, the Akula reappeared SW of the original hot buoy. I dropped some DIFARs and got signatures and bearings. I prepped a torp for a circle search with a 500 yd RTE and a 235 degree runout. I dropped to MAD height and flew toward the triangulated position. I got the MAD warning, so I dropped the torp and a DICASS. This time the fish got the Akula on the first go - I didn't have to go active with the DICASS. Mission success! I received the much-appreciated "BZ" from HQ and headed for home with two Akula-I improved silhouettes stamped on the side.

I finished "Dirty Atoll" and "Contact Madness" last night. Spoilers in the description, so if you haven' t played these scenarios and don't want to know their plot, stop reading.

Dirty Atoll - my first time out in a FFG.
THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #16
The FFG seems very complex at first blush. Fortunately, Bikini Atoll is a good scenario to learn the ropes. If you want to learn the basics (manoeuvring, radar, helo ops, sonar) for the FFG, try this scenario first. I manoeuvred to the two radiation reading points, while at the same time launching an ASUW equipped helo. I got some odd passive towed array contacts, so I sent the helo to investigate with a VLAD, but the buoy only returned a cacaphony of noise.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #17
Dropping sonobuoys in an area with a multitude of civilian traffic is like trying to listen to your friend with laryngitis at a rock concert. I had signatures, but many overlapped. It looked like if I wanted more specific contacts, I'd have to radiate. I flipped on the air search and surface search radar, and went active omnidirection on the hull sonar. Now I was the loud one. The radar picked up contacts quickly. There were so many, I decided to autocrew the radar and use the binocs with LLTV to confirm sightings. Pretty soon I had a pretty good picture of the surrounding waters, so I ordered 15kts to the first reading location. On the way, I noticed that the water was going to get shallow, so I reeled in the towed array. I'm actually not sure if that was necessary, but it seemed like a wise move. First reading taken. I was close enough to the shore and in shallow waters, so I didn't want to risk waypoints to turn the ship. I switched to the bridge view, reversed engines, ordered full left rudder and backed her out in a slow arcing turn.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #18
Driving the FFG manually is fun. Once I was clear enough of the shallows and the shore, I set for 15 kts and set my waypoints to the next location. At the same time, my helo was buzzing around. For some reason, I couldn't figure out how to get radar info from the helo. I checked out the manual and found the info on REMRO on page 7-51.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #19
To get radar information from your helo, sync your helo (ASTAC station), turn on your helo's radar (ASTAC station) and then click on REMRO at the Weapons Coordinator Station. With my ship radar and the helo's radar, I had a great view of the water around me. Most of the time I wouldn't radiate so much, but this was supposedly a milk run, right? Cruising to and stopping at the second reading point was a breeze.

[OneShot]

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #20
To avoid overshooting area specific goals like a reading point or a mooring, reduce speed gradually as you approach. The message from HQ said steam to Tahiti for liberty, so I set up the waypoints to that island paradise (honestly - I thought there would be a complication that way) and made turns for 15kts, and recalled the helo. Almost immediately after I noticed two fast moving radar contacts. For some reason, my radar operator classified them as surface contacts. They seemed to be moving way too quickly for surface ships (200+ kts) so I was worried and scrambled to read the section about using the SM-2s. Fortunately, I remembered that they were probably the UN inspection team, so I relaxed and watched them come in for a landing. Then I got the messages about the terrorists. I whirled the ship around and made flank speed for the north side of the island. I tried to launch the helo, but had technical problems (posted in the technical forum). As a result, I kept the helo on the deck and boned up on my gun control reading, as I steamed at flank around the island.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #21
The FFG guns only fire to port and starboard, with a 25-30 degree no fire arc to bow and stern. Plan your gun approach accordingly. I picked the merchant ship up on binocs before I got a clean read on radar, so I marked it visually, and waited for a better radar return. I went to Weapons Control and turned off hold fire. I hooked the terrorist freighter and sent a round down range. I jumped up to the port wing bridge and watched the fall of shot. It was long, but not by much. I adjusted the range in weapons control by -100yds and fired again. Jumped back to the port wing.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #22
Jumping between the appropriate (left/right) bridge binoc position and the weapons control will result in better shot correction. I got lucky: a hit on the second shot. I waited. If that cargo ship was carrying radioactive material, I didn't want to sink it or blow it sky high. It kept on cruising. I guess the terrorists were dedicated. A third round (the second to hit) crippled the ship (100% damage). I got the congratulatory note from HQ. Mission success. I guess HQ didn't care about uranium on the ocean floor... *shrug*

My first run in a Seawolf. This is an ideal scenario if you need to learn the stations and how to handle a sub. There are all sorts of contacts to identify and track.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #23
Sometimes the easy way is the best way. I don't know how you gents did it, but I just stayed on the surface the whole time and spotted and classified tracks with the periscope and radar, and confirmed by listening on DEMON. I know this isn't how you would do it in a combat situation, but this scenario is a great way to practice range estimation with the stadiameter and AOB guesses. It's also good to practice with the radar and active sonar in a situation where it won't result in a torpedo up your wazoo.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #24
Read the section on using the periscope/stadiameter carefully. For some reason, I missed the part about having to take a picture of the target before comparing it in the stadiameter. I took a picture of my first track for fun, and then did the range estimation in the stad, but on my second sighting, I was confused that the first picture was still there. I thought it was a graphic glitch or something. Nope. You have to take a new picture of every contact you want to range. Stupid, I know, but I missed it the first time around.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #25
Civilian traffic is really annoying. Yes, yes, everyone knows this. I just want to say it again. Easy scenario, but fantastic for learning how to handle the 'Wolf.
African Bees Nest Once again - spoilers. Don't read if you don't want to know. As soon as I took a look around from the bridge in the dock facilities, I knew that it would be tricky getting underway. I thought I should take it slow, but not too slow - they were going to mine that river mouth! I tried backing it out at 1/3 and using the APUs to supplement.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #26
If you're in a situation where you need to use the APUs, you shouldn't use the main engine. One dinged-up and blackened frigate later, I restarted the scenario and tried backing it out again, this time only with APUs. I got her out, but with 67% damage (somehow) so I decided that I should give it one more shot.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #27
The APUs are tricky. Experiment with them carefully. If you want them to push your ship in a specific direction, point the arrows in that direction. From my reading of the manual, I thought that you pointed the arrows of the APUs in the direction that you wanted the propellors to be pointed in - that is, the direction of thrust. As it happens, that's exactly the opposite of what you should do. I'm not sure if that's a result of me reading the manual wrong (probably) or the manual being unclear (possibly), but the long and the short of it is, be careful with the APUs. One of the reasons I was doing so poorly the first two tries was that I was pointing the APUs in the exact opposite directions I should have had them pointed in.

PS: More things I learned as a newbie: I just tried it now. I checked this against page 7-11 in the manual - "...the directional dial is used to aim the propeller in the desired direction. The arrow on the directional dial points in the direction of thrust." To me, this means that thrust is applied in that direction, and thus the ship moves in the opposite direction (laws of physics and all that). I see now that you could read line differently to mean that you are thrusting to move the ship in that direction, rather than away from. I guess that comes from playing space sims like "Orbiter". My mistake.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #28
Remember to raise your APUs before engaging the engine. I was so excited about actually getting underway out of the docks, that I forgot about raising the APUs. They were damaged as a result. Fortunately, I didn't think I'd need them for the rest of the scenario. As soon as the scenario started, I had a Strike Helo warming up. I launched it a little while after getting underway at full speed (I had a date with the open sea sometime before 1830h). Using the binocs, surface radar and the REMRO info from the helo, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on around me all the time. I saw contacts on radar and confirmed their alliance them on visual. Since it was a target-rich environment, I left the EW and sonar stations on autocrew and concentrated on the bridge, ASTAC, weapons coordinator and radar.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #29
Practice with your Mk75 in this scenario. It's a great time to hone your targeting skills. The gun radar is very good but against small, rapidly moving targets, it needs a little "nudge" by using the range and bearing fine tuning. The first blue boghammar was easy to deal with. Strangely, one 76mm shell didn't kill it outright, though it did make it burn pretty well. I put a second shell into the hulk and sunk it. The second wave of two was pretty much expected, so I tried to assign the helo to take one out with a Hellfire, since I had time.

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #30
The helo cannot target boghammars (or apparently, any surface ship) with Hellfires. Dang. OK, two fast moving boats with a 76mm autocannon. Got one, but the second was too close for comfort by the time I dealt with the first. .50 cal for you!

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #31
The .50 is immensely satifying to use. After getting through the second and the third ambush in a similar fashion (remember about the firing arc of your Mk75 when you approach a blind corner), I had arrived at the river mouth and with plenty of time to spare heading for open water. Just to be safe I turned on the HF sonar (apparently good for mines and the like). Suddenly there were two blue boghammars heading for me hidden behind three white boghammars. "Fine" I shrugged, and engaged them with 76mm, firing over the heads of the whites. I had dispatched the first and was working on the second, when I noticed that the white boghammars were on a collision course with me, and weren't swerving. I changed course, but it was too late. One of the white boghammars rammed me. I finished the rest of the scenario (and the final four blue boat assault) with no other damage other than what I sustained from the "accidental" ramming (and my forgotten APUs)

THING I LEARNED AS A DW NEWBIE #32
Friendly collision avoidance AI is not always very good. I failed the mission for letting an ostensibly "friendly" AI craft ram me. *shrug* If a friendly boat-captain can't slow/stop or avoid an allied or neutral frigate which is engaged with hostiles, then I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about Gambian naval training. I replayed the scenario one last time and managed to avoid being rammed by anyone - friendly or enemy. Mission success. Woo hoo! Now on to Gulf Breakout! (I've actually played the Taiwanese and Kilo Demo as well since playing the scenario described in this AAR, but the Gulf is more exciting).