Game 462: Silent Service

Silent Service, being the first MicroProse sim designed first and foremost for the Commodore 64, represents a new era for Meier and Stealey. If previous hit F-15 Strike Eagle was a "simcade" title, Silent Service pushes the realism, historical accuracy, and attention to detail one notch further, and finds the niche between authenticity and accessibility that their military sims would target from here on.

This isn't the first WWII submarine sim I've covered - that would be 1984's GATO (by future MicroProse owner Spectrum Holobyte), whose blend of arcade and sim-like qualities left me unsatisfied with either aspect. F-15 fared better, though its poor frame rate kept me from giving it an unqualified recommendation. Silent Service's promise of real-life accuracy, though a bit hard to take at face value, initially made me apprehensive about this one. After playing it some, I can say that while it does have its friction points, this is a better game than GATO, with more tactical depth, more immersion, and more rewarding gameplay. The framerate is poor; the C64 isn't exactly a 3D dynamo, but for a slow-paced submarine sim, it's tolerable.

 

The manual, at 47 pages long, might be the biggest and most detailed for a game of this kind yet, and contains the usual background information, controls, and simulation specifications. Curiously, no specific submarine class is mentioned, but the ship you pilot seems to combine aspects of the Gato and Balao submarines, with gradual improvements depending on the date of the scenario selected.

 

Twelve scenarios presented in no particular order are included - a practice scenario made somewhat redundant by the next two (which respectively pit you against a helpless cargo ship and a nearly helpless convoy), six instant action scenarios presenting a variety of combat situations, and five patrols, in which you cruise the Pacific for weeks on end at an accelerated timescale until enemies are sighted and then carry out your attack (or evasive maneuvers if you're the one caught napping) on the standard scale.

We also have a number of difficulty options, independently selectable from one another - first there's a base skill level, which in typical Meier fashion, is chosen from one of four idiosyncratically-named settings, with Midshipman the recommended beginner level, Commander (3) the more or less intended experience, and Captain (4) for expert players. The manual offers no specifics on what the skill level actually does. Then there are seven "reality level" options, each toggleable on or off and making the simulation more difficult in a specific way - I found it most enjoyable to leave these at default, where convoys are unseen until within radar range and change course at intervals to throw off your torpedoes, but your torpedoes are never random duds, your radar is perfectly reliable, repairs at sea are possible, enemy destroyers disengage when they lose your trail, and you needn't calculate your torpedo shots' bow-angle offsets.

That last one seems like it might add to the game, and in a way it does - varying your angle offsets is the best way to fire torpedoes in a spread - but you really don't want to be doing trigonometry calculations in the heat of battle, and neither did real life submarine captains! Historically, they had onboard computers that would do this for them anyway.

The manual shows how to do angle-on-bow calculations, but if you have that turned on, the game hides your target's heading, making precise angle calculations impossible.

 

Regardless of settings and scenarios, your mission is always the same - maximize the tonnage destroyed with your ordinance, and don't let the destroyers spot you! You generally have the upper hand in terms of visibility; surface radar detects ships at 16,000 yards, and visual sightings by periscope at 10,000, which is just outside their ability to spot you under optimal conditions (daylight, clear skies, and you traveling at 10kn on the surface full side profile). But ship identification demands you get closer, and torpedo range closer still, which poses a challenge - you need to reduce your visibility to close in without being detected, and submersing will do that, but also cuts your maximum speed in half, drains your batteries fast, and to truly become invisible, you must dive beneath periscope depth and lose your vision. You really don't want to be chasing a convoy underwater! It's best to flank them from the side where they present as nice, wide targets, loose your volley, and dive before the escorts can retaliate, but the actual tactics you use will depend greatly on factors such as time of day, positions, ocean depth, convoy composition, and technology.

The scenarios are not presented in chronological order, but naval technology changes as the war progresses and is reflected by the date:

• From April 1943 onward, the Kaibokan escorts are deployed in greater numbers, and you can expect that every convoy will have at least one of them.
• From August 1943, submarines are constructed with double hulls and can withstand up to 425 feet of depth, at which you are pretty safe from depth charges.
• From September 1943, torpedoes become more reliable, though this has no effect ingame unless you have the dud torpedo option enabled.
• January 1944 introduces torpedoes with electric motors, which do not pinpoint the location of your submarine with bubble trails the way that the older diesel torpedoes do. However, they have shorter range and slower travel, requiring you to get even closer before loosing and lead more. Personally, I prefer the older ones.
• In July 1944, radar-equipped destroyers become more common than sonar-reliant Kaibokans, making it much riskier to approach on the surface, even at night.

 

The first time you load up the disk, a series of demo screens play. These can be skipped to improve the load times somewhat.

 

The entire Pacific is modeled and zoomable down to 200yd/px using fractal math

 

The conning tower is superfluous since all of the functional views are selectable with function keys.

Lots of gauges. Much of this information is presented on the status bar, but some of it isn't!

 

After some hours of practice, I played through each of the six instant action scenarios, in one go, to see how well I could score.

 

Mission 1 

A dead simple encounter. One cargo freighter at 6,000 yards, no escorts, and torpedoes of the quick and non-stealthy kind.

Black dot - my bow, white dot - enemy bow.

No need to be subtle about this. I go full throttle to 20kn, approach the target's lane at a nearly perpendicular angle, and fire at 2,000 yards.

This initial volley misses but my next one lands.

 Result: 3900 tonnage and a ranking of Ensign 2nd class.

 

Mission 2 

It's a submariner's jackpot; an unescorted convoy of four ships is in torpedo range and the nearest support is over 6 nautical miles away. They're alert and will be here in about a half hour (7.5 minutes realtime) but that's enough to wreck some havoc.

I move in a bit closer.

 

And fire on the defenseless convoy.

 

You have six forward-firing tubes and four aft, which is historically accurate but annoying here. It's not often that you have a target following you, unless it's an alerted destroyer, in which case your aft torpedoes are pretty useless. They're basically just four extra shots that you need to turn your sub around in order to launch. My initial spread of six sinks one ship and strikes another, so that's exactly what I do.

 

Showing the enemy my B.U.T.T. (Backwards-Utilizing Tracking Torpedoes)

Another sinks. Another takes hull damage. My chambers are empty, and there's no time to reload, but the survivors are taking in water and can barely move, so I close in and finish them off with the 4" deck gun, and retreat to warmer waters before the Kaibokan reaches firing range.

Result: 19800 tonnage and a ranking of Lieutenant 2nd class.

 

Mission 3

 

 

A nighttime hunt, late in the war. You'll be practically invisible against an unaware foe past 3,000 yards, and closer still if you keep a short profile, but you'll be blind underwater.

Primary target sighted

Undetected and close enough to ID the ships, but too far away to attack, I cruise at 14kn to get closer.

The Kaibokan escort is at the front, and the manual suggests catching the convoy from a soft angle, but I have another idea.

I plot a course head-on to the lone Kaibokan, frequently adjusting my rudder to maintain minimum profile. At night, I have a fighting chance against one.

No profile. I think it heard me.

 

At 1800 yards, I fire all six front-torpedos. The escort returns fire, but my ordinance sinks it and hits another ship, leaving me free to finish them off with my aft tubes and deck gun.

All tubes are spent but I can chase these whales all night, and practically do.

The deck gun has poor range, poor power, poor accuracy, poor coverage, and forget about stealthy kills, but it has lots of ammo!

 

Result: 20900 tonnage and a ranking of Lieutenant first class.

 

Mission 4 

 

The worst possible attack position is behind a convoy in daylight, and this scenario puts you there. Can't approach from behind - above water at chasing speeds they'll spot you and shell you well before you reach torpedo range, and below water you're too slow to close in.

The prescribed approach is an end-around maneuver. Dive, get just out of their visual range (and just within yours), then surface and try to gain on them by swimming parallel to their lane.

It's a difficult and risky maneuver, and requires some guesswork to anticipate the convoy's heading and speed. At 20kn and at parallel profile, you are maximally visible, so you have to stay at least 10,000 yards away. The map screen doesn't make it easy to assess your distance either; I really wish gridlines had been provided, but they are not.

If all goes well, you'll pull out ahead, undetected, and then have time to dive again and close into firing range at a perpendicular angle.

All did NOT go well. At least I didn't get seen while pursuing the convoy, but I miscalculated their heading, was overly cautious in keeping distance, and misjudged the attack point badly, reaching it much further out and taking much longer to get there than anticipated. Night fell, my periscope became useless, and I had to run silent and blind until my instincts told me they were close enough for me to surface and strike. When I did, my angle of attack was far from ideal; I basically surfaced right in front of them, aiming right down their bows, which provides them the highest chance of evasion, and affords the destroyers the most retaliatory readiness.

Due north of the convoy. They don't see me, but I don't have time or space to move into a better attack position.

 

They have two Kaibokans, two cargo ships, and a fifth ship which I can't identify.

I move in, loose at 4,000 yards, and pull away and keel hard to send them an aft-tube follow-up, but the first volley misses completely, and the escorts are closing in.

Not ideal!

 

In desperation, I fire everything I've got left and immediately dive.

 

This takes out one escort and grazes a ship behind it, but I can't continue this hunt.

Result: 2400 tonnage and a ranking of Ensign 4th class.

 

Mission 5 

It's another night mission, but this time the enemy has surface radar and a less vulnerable starting position. The prescription is a hit and run under the cover of night.

Dusk is actually an ideal time for this, because there's just enough light to use your periscope, but they won't spot it until you're in attack range. Still, their combination of radar and sonar won't make it easy to approach, and you don't have much time before the dark takes over.

They're heading more or less north. Smart thing would be to quietly steer east and wait. I head toward them instead.

Getting my bearing at sunset

As I get close enough to identify the ships, I see five, with one Kaibokan in front, and one valuable troop ship in the middle of the pack. The rest are cargo freighters.

At 2000 yards I loose the front torpedoes, half at the escort and half at the troop ship.

 They all miss.

With an escort closing in fast with depth charges hot and ready, I hastily submerge past periscope depth and throttle up a bit to avoid the impending blast. As it circles around, I quickly surface back to periscope depth and fart out my last torpedoes at the convoy behind me.

It's desperate, but this sinks the troop ship. Could do worse than that!

Result: 5400 tonnage and a ranking of Ensign 2nd class. 

 

Mission 6

This time the enemy has three escorts with surface radar. No shenanigans with the deck gun this time! The good news is that it's dusk, and you're closer to your target than you were in mission 5, so you have a bit more time for a nautical twilight periscope attack. The bad news is you will get spotted in seconds if you don't dive immediately.

Seriously, dive immediately. They have radar.

I approach at periscope depth. A destroyer is in the front of the pack, a troop ship is right behind it, a cargo ship behind that, and two Kaikoban in the second file.

I try to get closer without going too fast, but 7kn isn't enough to keep up; I increase to 10kn and try to home in on the troop ship, even as the Kaibokans close in. But in waiting to get closer, I lose my good angle.

I shoot my load at an unaware convoy from behind.

Nothing! And my rear-tube follow-up lands two hits but neither is sinking.

The good news is I'm still undetected. I consider tracking the convoy until my crew can reload, but this could take all night. And in the end I decide to cut my losses instead of pushing my luck.

Result: No tonnage, no rank.

 

There's still more game, but I'm not sure it would be all that interesting to cover each and every patrol scenario. And so I put this as a question to my readers - if I do only one war patrol, which should it be? Alternately, if anyone actually wants to see an AAR series of the entire Pacific War, I'll consider it.

• Brisbane, August 1942. The USS Growler patrols Formosa to disrupt critical Japanese shipping lanes.
• Fremantle, October 1942. The USS Seawolf goes on a trans-pacific island hop through the Makassar Strait, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Caroline Islands, Guam, Wake, and ends her voyage at Midway. Newly-available surface radar improves her ability to detect enemy ships.
• Fremantle, November 1943. The USS Bowfin launching from northwest Australia patrols Borneo, Java, the Philippines, and the South Chinese Sea, searching for targets of opportunity, now escorted more consistently than before, but improved magnetic torpedo detonators tip the advantage back to the allies.
• Midway, June 1944. With Japan's naval power shrinking fast, the USS Tang goes deep into the Yellow Sea between Japan and Korea. New electric torpedoes allow her to engage more stealthily, but at the cost of range and accuracy.
• Midway, October 1944. Late in the war, the USS Spadefish patrols the Yellow and East China Seas. Convoys are not typically seen far from Japan now, but escorts are more dangerous than ever with surface radar.