Sub Hunting

[hellfire272]

I've spent most of the day playing the Campaign Arctic Gauntlet. I've really been enjoying it so far, But for the love of god, I'm growing beyond frustrated at how Broken (OP) Subs seem to be. I had to replay a mission 4 times because even while operating spaced at 1/3 speed, in a massive grid of Sonobouys spaced at 10NM intervals, with 4 Choppers performing combs with the magnetic detectors, The Enemy Subs and their torpedoes never once, ever, were detected. Not even a noise. IDK what Im doing wrong, but im sick of my ships randomly exploding from a threat I never see, and can't seem to detect, even when doing all of the correct things, according to all of the videos and tutorials I've watched and read. Can someone please enlighten me as to what Im doing wrong, or is this an issue a lot of others seem to have?

[Wenatchee Willie]

I used to lay out grid patterns, obsessed with it. But lately I've come to rely more on towed arrays, both those the subs carry, and the ones on certain ships. The subs are especially sneaky and can hear a long ways away. Then when I get a contact I try and have an SH-3 close by to drop a sonobuoy right on top of him. When it lights up the sub's exact position I drop 1 or 2 torps on his head.

Also, I didn't know until recently that when you do use one of the pre-made patterns you can
drag the pink dots to make any pattern you want.

[Lanzfeld]

Two things come to mind here.

1. Try to space sonobouys no more than 5 miles apart, not 10.

2. REMEMBER, in this game, when the dropping aircraft is more than 15 miles from sonobouy it CANNOT monitor it. Keep the dropping plane or helo close.

and yes the red subs in this game are much quieter than they were IRL. Devs love that Russian bias.

[gustavonds]

I used sonobuoys dropped by a chopper and was able to pick up the sub contact.

[hellfire272]

I was using the towed arrays too though! It never even once pinged a single noise, on any of my runs.

Wait a minute. hang on. Where does it say that it cannot be monitored more than 15 miles away? This is complete news to me.

[Lanzfeld]

Yes not sure if it that way IRL but in game you MUST stay within 15 miles or you lose the signal. Click on the sonobouy when you are farther than 15 and it tells you you must get within 15nm.

It makes a nice long sonobouy line from your P-3's pointless.

[hellfire272]

Originally posted by Lanzfeld:

Yes not sure if it that way IRL but in game you MUST stay within 15 miles or you lose the signal. Click on the sonobouy when you are farther than 15 and it tells you you must get within 15nm.

It makes a nice long sonobouy line from your P-3's pointless.

O.O Mother of God.

Well thank you sir! That might just be the answer to my problems, I had no idea that was a thing. =D

Is it any ASW aircraft? or can only the one that dropped the Bouy receive its signals?

[Lanzfeld]

I think it has to be the dropping aircraft. Not 100% sure though.

[whatdoesthisbuttondo?]

Originally posted by Lanzfeld:

Two things come to mind here.

1. Try to space sonobouys no more than 5 miles apart, not 10.

2. REMEMBER, in this game, when the dropping aircraft is more than 15 miles from sonobouy it CANNOT monitor it. Keep the dropping plane or helo close.

and yes the red subs in this game are much quieter than they were IRL. Devs love that Russian bias.

Try to hunt for US subs in the game and then come back with that Russian bias nonsense, lol.

[Lanzfeld]

US subs were much quieter than Russian subs in this era.

[whatdoesthisbuttondo?]

Originally posted by Lanzfeld:

US subs were much quieter than Russian subs in this era.

They are quiet enough in the game so that you can literally get your dipping sonar tangled in their sails and still not hear them.

[Gunnyhighway]

https://youtu.be/4cdTTePHeOo?si=nEeQcQpkGXpokOPy

[Maiskolben]

Pact and NATO seem to handle subs differently. In both cases it is helpfull to get shot at and detect the topedos with time to spare. Then you can roughly anticipate where it was launched from.

NATO:
If you know the rough direction you could use helos + sonarbuoy to make a line. Torpedos are way easier to detect than subs and are moving linear. If you backtrack 2+ torpedos you know where to put more buoys and you should have enough time to move out of the way.

PACT:
They have these nice grenate launchers that can kill torps. Just let them shoot at you, destroy them and saturate the area with topedos if possible.

[Trien]

Originally posted by Wenatchee Willie:

I used to lay out grid patterns, obsessed with it. But lately I've come to rely more on towed arrays, both those the subs carry, and the ones on certain ships. The subs are especially sneaky and can hear a long ways away. Then when I get a contact I try and have an SH-3 close by to drop a sonobuoy right on top of him. When it lights up the sub's exact position I drop 1 or 2 torps on his head.

Also, I didn't know until recently that when you do use one of the pre-made patterns you can
drag the pink dots to make any pattern you want.

pre made patterns??

[Lanzfeld]

3 pre made patterns.

Hold control and right click for one.
Hold alt and right click for another.
Hold control AND alt and right click for third (largest).

[Cladecq]

Originally posted by Lanzfeld:

I think it has to be the dropping aircraft. Not 100% sure though.

No it isn't. Any aircraft and ships can read ANY buoys. Just test it.
And I verified than you CAN have buoy signals beyond 15NM, just going to 1000ft height.

Anyway, you don't really care about this, because, if there is someting the buoy can catch in its area, he will do WAY before the helo or even the plane will be out of his range.
So, the "blabla" about : you don't have to do a sonobuoy pattern longer than 15 is pure BS...
I used to find and kill so many subs with a 40 to 50 NM pattern I just know people who say that don't know a thing about it.