As we rapidly converged we discerned a VERY large target flanked by two smaller ones. This was shaping up to be a battleship or carrier with two destroyers in escort! What an opportunity!

From my previous experience with encounters of this type, I knew I had little chance of actually recording a kill unless I could both elude the escort and cripple the battleship, a tough run for a lone wolf. Still, it was worth the effort. Here was my plan of attack:

I would dive at about 2500 yards from the battleship or escort and lie dead ahead of the path of the battleship. At 800 yards I would loose all six of my front tubes set to depth of about 20 feet. I would use Mark 18 electric torps since speed was not an issue and I wanted to ensure contact and detonation.

Immediately after loosing my front tubes I would dive to 100 feet until I could hear the screws overhead. I would then rise and release my four rear tubes on the targets stearn in attempt to damage the propellers and engines. I would risk using Mark 14 torps for this purpose. With luck I could do enough damage to slow the battleship significantly.

With luck I managed to position myself very well, and as the battleship came into visible range I was surprised to see the Yamato, the SUPER battleship and pride of the Imperial Navy!! The escort worried me for a moment as one of them closed to within 1000 yards, but they continued across the frontal path of the Yamato without pause. When the battleship closed to within 800 yards I fired my spread. I had four hits by the time I lowered my scope.

The escort were thrown into a mild panic, I am sure! However, being directly under the target has some advantages in noise and mass distractions, and I was not detected. As I rose to periscope depth I noticed one escort heading almost directly for my position, but with my bow almost in line with his own, I was a small reflective target. I turned my attention to the Yamato, which was shedding some speed, though slowly. At least she had not managed to increase her revs!

I let fly with four Mark 14 steam torpedos at about 600 yards with the distance opening at about 12 knots. I had one premature detonation and three solid hits! This was lucky, since failure rate can exceed 50%. I now had two escorts searching frantically, and I went to 150 feet and began to make some evasive manouvers.

After about ten minutes of cat and mouse, I had reloaded tubes one and two and had a chance for a good shot at one escort. I took it, loosing only tube one at 550 yards with an electric torp. Contact and kill!! I was ecstatic as I broke surface with escort two heading away from me at more than 2400 yards. Doing a small end run as I picked up the battleship on radar, I proceeded to close at full speed.

By the time I was within 2500 yards of the Yamato, she was down to eleven knots and in a blaze of smoke and fire. Eight torps even on a ship of this size can do major damage! I now had three more tubes loaded and I dispatched them at 2200 yards still on the surface, though I had reduced my speed to match hers. (Too close to a ship of this power on the surface is a good way to find a watery grave!)

The night was still dark and the sea calm, though in the distance I could hear the shouts of sailors and the clanging of bells. The smell of smoke filled my nostrils, and occasionally I could hear a small explosion as something that shouldn't be exposed to flame made itself known.

I loosed two Mark 18s at the rear of the ship and turned hard right to line up for a bow shot. Both torps found their mark and new flames erupted from the hulking ship.

As I was about to loose my single bow shot I noticed that the huge ship was listing badly to port, and sure enough she was sinking! Her speed was down to 6 knots and her engines were no longer turning her screws... I had sunk the Yamato!!

I have also had some great fun by taking out the Narwhal or Tench class sub and utilizing stealth at night to take out destroyers with guns. If surface conditions are not excessively bad, one may surface at around 4000 yards heading away from a target like a destroyer at full speed, maintaining distance long enough to sink them before they can get within visual range of your small submarine!

The guns are really well modelled and quite easy to learn. You will find your hit rate quickly far exceeds the AUTO settings. My hit rate is easily over 80%. Have fun!

Version 1.1 and Mission Disk

Gameplay in SILENT HUNTER is solid and satisfying. On the SSI website is the SH 1.1 update. The self-extracting file will update your Silent Hunter game to v1.1. Essentially, this is the mission disk WITHOUT most of the new missions. The new features/fixes are these:

• Two Special Mission Types- Photo Recon, And Life Guard Duty.
• 
  This also adds a few new missions.
  
• •Sub Vs. Sub Combat.
• •Radio Logbook.
• •Enhanced Enemy Aircraft Attacks.
• •Submarine Anti-Air Routine.
• •Deception Option (Debris)
• •Improved Ship ID Book.
• •Night Time Lighting.
• •Creaking Sounds When Deep.
• •Improved Time Compression (up to x2048!).
• •New Report Dialog In Tactical Charts.
• •Improved Convoy AI When Under Attack.
• 
  *When the sub location is known the convoy will:
  a) turn away from the sub (evasive action)
  b) some of the convoy members will panic and separate from the convoy.
  
• the captains door no longer slams when your mouse cursor crosses it.

Bugs Corrected in v1.01/1.1:

1. Phantom ships appearing has been eliminated.
2. Excessive use of compressed air has been fixed.
3. Display problems in the chart screen have been reduced.
4. Erratic torpedo runs. (Note: Sometimes torps will still detonate without a message).
5. Patrol craft behavior in port not firing on sub. (Note: There is still erratic behavior by ships in harbor from time to time. Ships that are anchored will not react.)
6. Multiple crash bugs have been eliminated.
7. Hot Key problems fixed: While viewing ID Book at periscope screen the "T" key takes you to the torpedo controls and the "N" key brings up the navigation controls.

For those with 8 Megabytes of RAM, when there are many ships, contacts, and weapons being fired, in other words when things are getting very exciting, some of the sound effects may not play to conserve memory.

The patrol disk adds two new patrol zones: Malaysia includes Singapore and the southeastern portion of the Strait of Malacca. The Sulu Sea includes the southwestern edge of the Philippine Islands and northern Borneo.

There are fifteen new scenarios added. Without making the exhaustive list, I can say that in general the new scenarios are more difficult that the original clutch that came with the release, especially on the highest realism settings. Be warned!

In essence, what we have in Patrol disk one is more of the same. If you have enjoyed the original sim, you will enjoy the patrol disk. There are no new sub types, the list having been complete with the version one release.

Patrol disk two adds two more zones: the China Sea and Vietnam. Fifteen more scenarios are included as well as a scenario editor.

Silent Hunter remains a great simulation, with flexibility in spades and accessibility to anyone, regardless of experience in this kind of simulation: with great graphics, great sound, plenty of challenge, and lots of flex in realism settings. Now I wonder who will be the first to put this kind of simulation together with a more broad naval simulation. Wouldn't you love to go head to head in network mode with admirals on both sides in their fighting ships protecting convoys, and yourself in a wolf pack? Who knows, SSI or Microprose might already have it in the works!!