Summary

The wired torpedoes of Cold Waters, based on real life torpedoes, are a truly dangerous beast. A brief history of toropedoes leads us to the versatile and deadly ones that exist. Advantages, limitations and tricks will be reviewed. By the end you will be able to carry out a long range grasping pincer attack.

A brief history of torpedoes

Torpedoes can give one a strange love. In the beginning a torpedoe meant an underwater explosive. What we today would call a mine. Getting them to the enemy meant dumping them off the side. Next the early subs would lash them on mean nasty sticks. The sub would propel itself up to the ship, hope to hook on the explosive then energeticly be elsewhere before the hull shattering kaboom. This process is a lot simpler if the torpedo contains its own propulsion. It is this self propelled underwater explosive we call the torpedo.

Going on into World War Two they made fancy mechanical computers like the TDC of the Americain fleet boats. That was needed because those early torps could turn once from their launch direction onto an attack direction. Well hopefully onto the attack direction and not back in the launching boat. Still there was the problem of angles and range with more distance between torps requiring a 'spread' to be fired. The spread used up the subs ammunition supply at two to six times the rate to get hits.

In Germany they came up with the idea with an acoustic homing torpedoe. This would mean it was now a self homing torpedo. This worked only briefly because a Canadian realized what was happening and tied junk off the back. The acoustic torp now went for that sound source making a wreck of the junk.

The process of getting the explosion to the desired location became part of the quiet arms race. The quieter the boat the harder to hit it. The quieter a torp could listen the better it could find a target. The quiet was quite the do. Someone decided it would be great if the sub could keep control of the torp to steer it onto target, change depth or prevent it from hitting themselves. What a fine chap that was.

Today's torps, meaning those in Cold Water, are mostly the wire controlled type. Earlier boats might have to use the non-wired torps which are entirely different fish to swim.

Lesson 1: Keeping the wire

First off you need to keep the wire. You keep the wire by not breaking it. Simple logic. The wire in Cold Waters is broken by any of the following: if you order the wire cut; if you reload the tube; a random chance at launch; a random chance every so often the torp swims; if you point the sub to far from the torp (currently 60 degrees); if you go to fast or the torp has gone far away. Most of this comes from there being a wire coming off a spool in the tube and/or on the torp. Its flexible but it has to be thin to have so much of it.

Think of driving a car with a fishing pole stuck out a window. The line from the fishing pole is tied on to a motorcyle. The motorcycle can race around alot while the car can only drive a little. Too much motion and that thin wire breaks. Oh, and for added fun the motorcycle is racing around trying to ram into somebody else's car that is trying to avoid being hit. Good times. Good times.

Lesson 2: Limited number of wires

Each type of sub can only support so many wires at once.

Community member Waervyn did a guide with some of the data brought up
http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=945445462

Its comes to the sub class and the number of possible wires:
Los Angeles = 4
Narwhal, Permit, Sturgeon = 2
Skipjack = 1

Lesson 3: Underwater death drone

With the wire connected the torpedo is a lethal death drone. It is as scary as a shark with a laser beam. What its laser, or rather sonar, can see it can find. What it can find it can chew. Today in the 2010s we are pretty familiar with remote controlled flyers that have gone from child's toy to part of the military complex. The difference between men and boys is the size of their toys.

As a drone the torpedo has the following characteristics:
= less expensive than the lives on your submarine
= can look ahead for you
= faster than your sub
= can sink ships and subs
= hopefully sinks them before they can put weapons toward you
= can miss a target and realize it needs to resume searching
= make itself seen so the enemy thinks you are someplace else
= work with other sensors or torps to triangulate an enemy's position

and oh yes... if things go wrong an unwired torpedo can sink you as well. Watch out for that.

That brings us to the wired-man's mantras:

Use the wire, live by the wire.

and

Lost wires sink subs.

Lesson 4: Pros and cons between torpedoes and missiles

As well as torpedoes the subs in Cold Waters carry missiles. Methods for using, and surviving using, missiles is covered in another guide I've made. Here we will talk about the differences between the two types.

Storage efficiency:
In battle conditions accounting for misses, enemy counters and so forth the torpedoes are by far more efficient. They come in around a 66% to 80% probability kill per torpedoe. Missiles come around 33% to 66%. As a rough guide we can say you will two missiles to sink the same target as one torpedo. Notice that didn't say 'do the same job' because there are things each can do the other can't.

Distance factor:
Missiles are way faster than torpedoes. That means they can get over to enemy ships much faster than the torps. Missiles also have a much longer range. When you consider targets might be sailing away at 30+ knots a 40 knot torp is going to end up travelling a much longer way to get on target. That is assuming the target doesn't outlast the torpedo. It can happen in Cold Water that a sub or ship will out distance your torpedo. The torpedo in a chase situation is also going to take time which may lead to other things happening in that time. Missiles flying in the air have ranges of over 100,000 yards so they can just about fly anywhere on the Cold Waters tactical map. Which is really great at getting those escaping ships.

Short range is for torpedoes:
Missiles need to pop up and activate in a process that uses 8,000 yards (in Cold Waters). Torpedoes are rocking it almost immediately out of the tube. Russian ships have rocket barrage units with ranges like 6,000 yards or less and lots of folks have depth charges. There will come times when someone is coming in close to punish you with the power of the moon. Here you need to fire a torpedo. It will probably be a snap shot where the wire breaks or it will break soon as you should be getting ready to steer and swerve like an anime girl at the octopus aquarium. Torpedoes are your last line of counter-attack. Missiles can't do it.

Torpedoes do tricks:
With the wire on the torp there are a variety of special tricks you can do. I'll get into these shortly. Missiles on the other hand are like eggs and birds tossed into the sky with a "fly be free". Some will go off to glorious deeds and others will fall flat onto the kitchen counter. Which is which depends only partly how you setup the missiles. The rest is out of your hands. The wired torpedoes. Ah, now there is a yo-yo you can walk the dog with. Dog leg that is.

Torpedo trick: Walking the dog leg

A dog leg is to send the torpedo off on a course prior to its attack approach. Why would you do that? Well there is a habit of enemies sending their own torps in the direction a torp comes at them. True story. In fact prior to dog-leg wired torpedoes it was a pretty decent approach.

While making the dog leg be sure to keep in mind the angle on your bow to the torpedo. To much angle the wire breaks. When the wire breaks the torpedo will head off on a search pattern, which being in the middle of the dogleg, is likely to be nowhere useful. We'll call the allowed angle to keep the connection the "wire angle" which at the time of this writing is sixty (60) degrees.

To get this start first note the bearing to the target and the target's direction. Estimate where the target would be if you were to fire in a straight attack without the dogleg. Point your bow to one side of the straight attack while still keeping the straight attack line within the wire angle.

Do your pre-launch checks. Speed to keep the wire is 20 knots or less with 5 knots best towed array sonar use to track the target. Check the torpedo settings for sonar mode: passive is fine against surface vessels and you may or may not want active for subs. The subs search pattern is usually going to be straight as the turn left/right make it harder to do other wire tricks. Lastly the depth setting should be up for surface ships and usually down for subs.

In case the wire breaks on launch the torpedo as if doing a straight attack. We do this in case the wire breaks. At least this way a free torpedo will have some use. Once the torpedo has started off with the wire intact you now reset the waypoint off to one side. This still needs to be in your wire angle.

One of the errors that happens in using dog legs is forgetting to keep making sure the torp is in the wire angle. Depending on how your boat, the target and the dog-leg are set up it is possible for the current wire angle to be exceed. This of course breaks the wire in that annoying no where useful direction.

Usually you will want to use time compression. Just be sure to keep watching the wire angle limitations.

Once the torpedo has gone a few thousand yards or farther you turn the torpedo to intercept the target. This is done by moving the waypoint. So during this whole dog leg maneuver the torpedo has not been activated to start seeking. It is keeping it as quiet as possible. Lets call turning the torpedo from the dog leg to the target the "attack run". Depending on when you want a search to start on the attack run is when you activate the torpedo (in Cold Waters select the tube and hit 4).

Enemy counter attacks and searches based on the torpedo's attack run direction should be far away from your submarine. This is espicially important if you have a cook who makes brownies. He'll live longer.

Torpedo trick: Torpedo Triangulation

There he is! - Cartoon hunting dog.

The modern torpedo has its own sensor systems. When the torpedo has a target it heads toward it. If you draw a line from the torpedo it will cross where your own sonar crew is estimating the direction. The intersection is a very reliable indicator of where the target is.

The actual location might not be where the target is displayed on the tactical map. Why? Cold Waters displays on the tactical map where your submarine (and crew) think it is. Currently the extra input from torpedo triangulation does not appear to be included. In those games with a more complicated Target Motion Analysis (TMA) the player could shift the believed location to benefit from toropedo triangulation. Cold Waters is more accessible in part because it made the design decision not to have that all the downsides and difficulties of a player managed TMA.

A brief note on why this works:
Short answer:
The torpedo has its own sensor and its closer.

Long answer:
Your sub has massively bigger sonar gear and more computing power but its farther away.
(Did that help?)
But why does the range matter?
The square law applies to light and sound. It says that if you double the distance you cut in four the energy density recieved. (2 x 2 = 4). The reverse is also true. So if your sub is 16,000 yards away by the time a torpedo is 1,000 yards away it is 16 times closer. The torpedo is recieving 16 x 16 = 256 times the energy density. That means the sensor could be 256 times smaller than your sub and be just as good. If the torp sensor is say just 100 times smaller it actually has a better reception (x2.56 the sub).
In addition the farther away you are the more the vertical dimension and thermal gradients of the water come into play. Consider that as the torpedo reduces the range it is so shifting its depth to match the target. This furhter reduces the vertical and thermal affects. To better understand that read the game manual, search the internet or attend a sonar course.

Torpedo trick: Parallel search

<sing> Me and you and you and me <hums> so happy together.

A wired torpedo is very dangerous. Operated in pairs they are the bringers of destiny. The first dual wire torpedo tactic is a parallel search. This trick is a tactic a good start to using them in pairs.

Setup to launch them in a dog leg. Afte a few seconds fire the second on the same dog leg. Now let time pass. If all goes well then turn them toward the target zone on the same heading. However they are space apart. This creates a larger search zone. Generally it is beneficial to overlap the zones rather than having a gap. Thus you get a search area of x1.75 or more of a one torpedo search.

A downside is you just fired two torpedoes rather than one. If you are engaging a group of vessels, like an ampibious landing group, you will need more than one torpedo anyway.

A benefit of this is if for any number of reasons the wire breaks on one torpedo the other one might still be on the wire.

The parallel search also sets things up for a dual torpedo triangulation.

Torpedo trick: Dual torpedo triangulation

aka: the hounds of hell.

We've already talked about torpedo triangulation with one torpedo and your sub. If not familiar with that it would be a good idea to read over that section.

With two wired torpedoes once one has detected the target you can steer the other on as well. Now you will soon have triangulation between just the torpedoes. The different directions are hared for the target to evade.

An interesting thing happens with the wire still on both. It becomes possible to know when one has missed and steer the miss back on target. You know a miss has occured if the near torpedo has past far across the bow of the far torpedo. In earlier games, without the 3d of Cold Waters, this was a way to know the miss occured while still very close to the target.

If the target is killed by one of the torpedoes you have the option to steer away the other torp. This lets you set up to use it to attack a second target.

Torpedo trick: Dual sensor modes

aka Dr Jeykll and Mister Hyde

Between the 'doctor' and the 'mister' there is no place to hide.

With two torpedoes in an area you also have the option to set one on active and on passive. Each has certain advantages and disadvantages in searching for a target.

The active is more accurate but may be more affected by defensive actions like knuckles*. The active is heard much farther away. The active torpedo inspires the target to accelerate.

A faster target is noisier making it easier prey for the passive torpedo while the target's own sonars are degraded so will only hear the passive torp when its closer.

A slow target is more likely to be caught in the search pattern of the active torpedo. As the controller of the wires you can make pattern searches happen such as linear bar sweeps or expanding spirals.

For extra fun with the wires you can switch the torps between active and passive. This keeps toggling the threat and response needs of the target vessel. What was once the way to escape a passive, by being quiet, is now an active sonar rush away area and vice versa.

(* I'm not 100% sure the differences in defenses for active passive seekers are in Cold Waters but am under that impression)

Torpedo trick: Side strike

Were those you're defenses?

In the progression of arms offense and defense compete. Our sub uses defenses like noise makers and knuckles. The targets do to. Knowing that we can take action to make the defenses irrelevant. Which should creep you out a little as it means your defenses could become irrevelant too.

When a target starts to evade the natural course of events move toward a tail chase. The attacking torpedo ends up on the tail of the target. Defenses like noisemakers and knuckles being placed (or made) aft are more effective in breaking up the tail chase.

Well, we have wire controls on the torpedo. Cold Waters also gives us a 3d view of the attack. The use of the 3d view makes me ponder whether this is a realistic method, one that is under development or one that is possible with a professional submariner's ability to visualize the engagement.

What we are going to do is use our control of the wired torpedo and 3d view to sidestep the defenses, wave to the nice target then slam it with a side strike.


During the final approach of your torp
= Select your wire guided torpedo.
= Switch to the 3d mode.
= As the target turns to make it a tail chase steer the torpedo slightly to the side
= Keep in mind what you have seen on the tactical maps of the width of the torp scanning zone
= Keep the torpedo to the side with its sonar zone off the tail but possibly on the front part of the target
= As this goes on your torpedo will come alongside the target
= Imagine the target's crew looking out non-existant windows to your torpedo
= Imagine the torpedo's guidance gnome waving to them
= Say "Hellllloooo"
= One your torpedo is alongside the midship the aft dropped noisemakers and rear properllor made knuckles are useless.
= Now turn your torpedo in to slam them on the side.

In order to do this effectively I highly recommend cuztomizing the controls for torpedo guidance and camera control. I use the number pad for torpedo and arrow keys for the camera. Unlike the default settings I swapped some left<>right and up<>down to what made sense for me. A few trial runs on different configurations should get it working right for you.

I have heard some expressions on whether it is better to hit a sub in the side or aft. The experiments in Cold Waters have a very high kill rate for a side hit.

There is a high satisfaction level to giving a wave to the screen and saying "Hellllloooo" just before you drive the torpedo home.

Torpedo trick: Grasping Pincers

The danger of a crusty crab lays in how it can cut you with the right while slicing you with the left.

The pincer tactic draws on many of the principles discussed. It is used when you have an important target at long range which is dangerous or difficult to engage. An example is a boomer (SSBN) hiding in a bastion. It was this sort of mission I developed this in earlier games. For Cold Waters the implementation is modified to account for the needed wire angle.

The procedure steps:
= Fire two torpedoes on widely different dog legs
= Turn them to close on the target area
= Activate the torps as one active and one passive
= Search the target area by manually steering the torpedoes
= The presence of the torpedo may inspire the distant/quiet target to get noisy in evasive moves.
= Using the dual torpedo triangulation you can improve your chances of a hit
= You happily stay far out at long range hopefully never fired on so if it missed you can try it again.

The process begins at longer ranges with a low target resolution. In fact you could do begin this without a definite contact. For example if there is an ice pack overhead meaning there is no civilian ships around. If there was their breaking the ice would so easily be heard. You can also use this to attack subs in enemy zones such as the bastions SSBN like to be in. For the bastions there might be an attack sub lurking near the gate but all the guard hears is your dog-leg torpedoes.

A place not to use this is where there is a high probability of civilian or allied traffic. There are chances the torpedoes will have locked onto one of them and not the threatening target.

One thing to keep in mind is the overall torpedo range. You use a lot of range doing the dog legs and more on closing to the target area. Also there can be limites to how long the wire is. In real life it is shorter than the range of torpedo. If someone knows if or what Cold Waters has for a wire range do let us know.

Being able to conduct a grasping pincers attack shows an advanced knowledge of wire guided torpedoes.

Closing remarks

By having gone through the guide you have seen how dangerous wire guided torpedoes are. We have focused on the Cold Waters implementation including a few step by step instructions. Torpedoes are your primary and most reliable weapon system.

For a discussion on missiles you can see my other guide here:
http://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=956445120

May you sail out and home again

Brygun