No NATO fleet in this title?
 

I didn't start the campaign yet but in encyclopedia of Cold Waters I didn't noticed ANY NATO vessels (destroyers, cruisers, carriers, planes ect.), just submarines only.

We are here alone?

No any missions to escort, protection, support of bigger battles?

It's a time of Follout and we are the chosen one or what? :03:

I think the NATO forces are abstracted and results of the war are extrapolated using your success (or lack thereof) of your efforts in the tasks you perform. I'm not sure about how though.

So all contacts are enemy here? No any surprise?
If yes it kills immersion I suppose.

Yeah every contact is a target right now. Would be nice to at least have some neutrals for realism.

Dead whales don't talk.

+1. :yeah:

Neutrals on the main map would be cool. But would neutrals really sail through the GIUK gap / Norwegian Sea area without an escort if this war was going on?

American submarines usually act by themselves, yeah? The LA was created in part to be fast enough to run point for carrier groups, as well, which would be fun. The Sturgeon could have trouble keeping up.

Anybody can feel free to correct me but in a lot of cases surface / sub-surface cooperation is vastly overstated compared to how things were "actually" done. I have no practical experience in this matter other that what I've read over the years. From my understanding, surface ships and submarines do not make the best of friends, at least not compared to how tightly a battle group / strike group operates, with the carrier providing air cover and the tin-cans offering air, surface and ASW defense.

Submarines, by comparison, when operating with or near friendly surface forces, communication is a problem (for the time period this game takes place in the short-ranged under-water telephone was basically it, other than that you had your radio mast for two-way comms or SLOT bouy and your painfully slow to receive ELF messages, not sure what type of new whiz-bang underwater datalinks they have out now, but I'd be surprised to learn they had anything like that in 84) and there are going to be under a constant worry of potential fratricide. This goes doubly for submarines operating together. Usually the way this is handled is that a sub would be assigned to a well-defined "patrol box" told not to deviate from this position, and friendly surface forces would be notified not to engage anything in that area. Basically this is WW2 ROE from the pacific.

Bottom line is that in the dark and mysterious world of underwater sounds, you don't want to be second guessing weather or not that contact you're getting ready to put a fish into is in fact your friend or not, because hesitation may be deadly.