"The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril." ­ W.S.Churchill, The Second World War TM 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Installing Silent Hunter® III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Uninstalling Silent Hunter III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Running the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 INTRODUCTION August 1939. The Second World War is about to begin. The grey wolves, the U-boats of the German Kriegsmarine, take to the sea. There will be war in the Atlantic. The goal ­ to cut England's lifelines. Six years later, the war ends, and Germany lays in ruins. The U-boat fleet is all but wiped out, 30,000 of its 40,000 men having died at sea. Still, fighting hard but fair, they had accomplished success beyond all expectations and out of proportion to their strength. At some points during the war, they had come close to bringing the British Empire to its knees. On the Allied side, the cost of victory has been even higher. More than 30,000 merchant seamen have been lost in this struggle, along with many thousands of servicemen from all branches of the military. About 20 million tons of merchant tonnage lie under the sea. And the emotional cost of the war has been even greater. Yet, this is also a time of explosive technological development. Allied antisubmarine defenses have discovered how to defend against the U-boat and submarine warfare in general. But the real breakthrough is taking place in Germany. Having just entered operational service, yet never used in actual combat, the revolutionary Type XXI U-boat is a prototype for post-war submarine development in the world's major naval fleets. This, alone, is testimony to the high level of professionalism and experience of the U-boat force and the engineers behind them. This game pays homage to everyone ­ Allied or Axis ­ who served at sea during the crucial years of World War II. GAME MODES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Naval Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Single Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Mission Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Career Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Multiplayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 COMMANDING THE U-BOAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Main Player Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Moving Around the U-Boat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Station Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Officers Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Conducting Torpedo attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 U-BOAT, VEHICLES, AND WEAPON DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Silent Hunter III U-Boats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Type II U-Boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Type VII U-Boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 The Type IX U-Boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 The Type XXI U-Boat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Torpedo Armaments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Deck Guns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Machine Guns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 U-BOAT THREATS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Escorts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Aircraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Warships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Merchants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Enemy Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 ASW Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 TECHNICAL SUPPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 2 3 GETTING STARTED This section will help you get started playing Silent Hunter III. Even if you are an experienced sub simmer and a veteran of the previous Silent Hunter titles, we recommend reading this section. GAME MODES NAVAL ACADEMY The Naval Academy menu gives you access to a set of five tutorials. Each tutorial focuses on a set of aspects of the game: SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Supported OS: Windows® XP/2000 Processor: Pentium® III 1.4 GHz or AMD AthlonTM 1.4 GHz or faster (Pentium IV 2.0 GHz or AMD Athlon 2.0GHz or faster recommended) RAM: 512 MB (1 GB recommended) Video Card: 64 MB DirectX® 9-compliant graphics card (128 MB DirectX 9compliant card recommended) (see supported list*) Sound Card: DirectX 9-compliant PCI card DirectX Version: DirectX 9 or later (included on disc) DVD-ROM: 4x DVD-ROM drive or faster (DVD-ROM only) Hard Drive Space: 2 GB *Supported Cards at Time of Release NVIDIA® GeForceTM 3/4/FX series with the exception of MX series cards ATI® RadeonTM 8500/9000 family cards or newer These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game. Additional chipsets may be supported after release. For an up-to-date list of supported chipsets, please visit the FAQ for this game on our support website at: http://support.ubi.com. NOTICE: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives. · Navigation Course: U-boat direction control. U-boat speed control. U-boat dive controls. · Naval Artillery Course: - Deck gun aiming. - Deck gun ammo management. · Flak Artillery Course: - Flak gun aiming. · Torpedoes Course: - Periscope use. - Torpedo tubes management. - Torpedo attacks. · Convoy Attack Course: - Positioning in submersion. - Target priority. - Detection avoidance. INSTALLING SILENT HUNTER III Silent Hunter III must be installed before you can run the game. To install, insert the Silent Hunter III DVD and wait for the launch screen to appear. Click Install and follow the instructions as they appear. If you have auto-run disabled, you may launch the installer manually. Choose Windows Explorer from the Programs submenu on your Windows Start menu. Choose the Silent Hunter III DVD icon to display the files located on the DVD. Look for Setup.exe among those files and double-click it to run the installer. UNINSTALLING SILENT HUNTER III To uninstall the game, select Uninstall from the Silent Hunter Start menu item. You can also choose Settings from the Windows Start menu and select Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs, left-click on Silent Hunter III, and click on the Add/Remove button. The game and all its components are then removed from your system, except for your saved games. Note that each tutorial is playable as a training or exam session. Each tutorial played as an exam session will grant you a result of pass or fail, with a quality evaluation. You can retry a tutorial even after failing it. Only the best results per tutorial are recorded. NOTE: Graduating all the tutorials will give you bonus renown when you start the Career mode! RUNNING THE GAME From the Start menu, select: Programs: Silent Hunter III: Silent Hunter III. The intro video will play, after which the Main Menu will appear. From the Main Menu you can access all of the game's features. See the sections further into the manual for details. 4 5 SINGLE MISSIONS The Single Missions menu gives you access to individual missions and historical scenarios. From this screen, you will also launch new missions created with the game's Mission Editor or downloaded from the Internet. CAREER MODE The core of Silent Hunter III is the Career mode. The game uses a dynamic, random campaign engine based on historical reality. Every time you play, you can have a unique career. Career Renown As a measure of your performance, after each patrol you will earn "renown" for achieving objectives and destroying enemy units. Your renown will accumulate as you play through Career mode. You can use your renown to gain access to better U-boat types, improved equipment, or new crew members. NOTE: If your renown reaches negative values, your career may suddenly end! Career Timeline The career timeline will evolve from the moment you start your career. The time spent on patrol will add to the time you spend on base. Between patrols, you will spend time performing a number of actions: repairing a damaged U-boat after a patrol, changing the type of U-boat, or upgrading a system. You will spend a minimum of two weeks (of game time) on base between patrols. NOTE: No matter when you start your career, the war will always end in May of 1945! The menu consists of two main parts: · The list in the upper right corner shows the available missions. · The left side of the screen displays a short description of the currently selected mission. If you want to play the mission with a different U-boat model than the one selected by the mission maker, use the scrolling list provided on the lower portion of the screen. Career Options Starting a New Career While the campaign has random elements, you can customize some things to your liking. By selecting a start year and initial flotilla assignment, you will change what type of U-boat you will start the campaign on, the theater of operation, and even the nature of the warfare you will conduct. THE MISSION EDITOR Should you want more than the single missions included with the game, the first solution is to use the mission generator. If something more complex is what you're looking for, try the Mission Editor ­ included as a separate executable within the game. You can use the Mission Editor either to create a new mission from scratch, or to edit the campaign data for the dynamic campaign. Make sure you back up anything you edit, though, or you may end up with an unusable install of the game. Single missions also use the dynamic campaign engine; therefore you do not need to worry about filling the ocean with ships. The game engine will do that, and do it with historical accuracy. Full documentation for the Mission Editor is available on the game DVD. Starting Year You can start the campaign at any time between 1939 and 1943. The later you start your campaign, the more challenging the enemy will be. 6 7 Starting Flotilla This choice will determine the operational base and the type of U-boat you will be assigned. · 1st Flotilla ­ 1939: U-Boat Type IIA ­ 1940: U-Boat Type IID ­ 1941: U-Boat Type VIIB ­ 1942: U-Boat Type VIIC · 2nd Flotilla ­ 1940: U-Boat Type VIIB ­ 1941: U-Boat Type IXB ­ 1942: U-Boat Type IXC · 7th Flotilla ­ 1939: U-Boat Type IIA ­ 1940: U-Boat Type IID ­ 1941: U-Boat Type VIIB ­ 1942: U-Boat Type VIIC ­ 1943: U-Boat Type IXC · 10th Flotilla ­ 1942: U-Boat Type IXB ­ 1943: U-Boat Type IXC · 11th Flotilla ­ 1942: U-Boat Type VIIC ­ 1943: U-Boat Type VIIC/41 · 29th Flotilla ­ 1941: U-Boat Type VIIB ­ 1942: U-Boat Type VIIB ­ 1943: U-Boat Type VIIC U-Boat Options This menu will allow you acces ...