I finally managed to finish Flak Artillery exam in Naval Academy, while using GWX 3.0
 

For anyone who doesn't know, when you have GWX 3.0 Gold installed, and you're trying to pass Flak Artillery exam in Naval Academy, it's incredibly hard.

In Vanilla version of Silent Hunter 3, the planes are just flying targets for your flak gunner, but in GWX, all 10 aircrafts are actively trying to bomb your U-boat to pieces. There is also a glitch, where the planes start either colliding or shooting at each other eventually, which means you don't get credit for those downed planes.

5 downed planes will give you a passing grade.

I must have tried doing this exam close to ten times, but every time my U-boat was destroyed in the end. I tried different strategies from Subsim forums, but nothing seemed to work. So how did manage to get Excellent grade? Here it is.

Set your Rudder immediately to 35 degrees (i.e. 90 degrees) and speed to Ahead flank. Order the Watch Officer to Man the flak gun, and order the flak gunner to Fire at medium range, Target any aircraft, Engage closing targets, and Fire at will!

You will most likely have to replace a couple of dead flak gunners and do some repairs. You should be able to start picking off Swordfish planes one by one, and lastly the three Hurricane fighters to finish off the exam. If you're lucky and fast, most of the planes won't collide with each other and you get credit for shooting them down. The planes will also run out of ammo at some point, so the exam gets easier after the shocking barrage at the beginning. I shot down 8/10 planes, since 2 collided with each other, but it was enough for Excellent grade.

I hope these instructions can help some other stubborn commanders, who just have to finish Naval Academy before starting career. Though, if you don't want to suffer, I suggest completing the Naval Academy before installing GWX.

:Kaleun_Cheers:

The lesson learned is that U-Boats are horrible at fighting off planes. Your first reaction is to dive ASAP.

Good job on your successful completion.

Thanks!

Yeah, definitely. It's a losing battle trying to fight them off in normal situations.

I did try diving as a strategy during my many attempts of Flak Artillery exam, but it didn't work for me.

Every time I tried to crash dive after hitting a plane with flak, I was bombed beyond repair before reaching sufficient depth.

Hopefully, I never have to resort to flak artillery again, after I start my career.

Is that an additional mod to GWX?

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/ima...aleun_Wink.gif
https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=220643

I always let my crew members do the Flak shooting ... for the Deck Gun, I seem to have a better hand at it, than they do ...

So THAT'S why it's so hard GWX. lol. I keep coming back for another try (been playing years and never bothered taking the Naval Academy Exams until now) so it's half past midnight and I've spent the best part of my day off work trying to get this done. I'm going back in. NOW!!!
Wish me luck. :Kaleun_Cheers:

1:04am. DONE IT. Thanks a lot buddy. I owe you a pint.

Congratulations, Kapitänleutnant Gad (or whatever your rank is)!

Yeah, this exam was really tricky. I can now vividly remember my frustration again.

I'm happy that my instructions were helpful. I totally forgot I wrote these in my elation of victory. I might have gotten the inspiration from some obscure YouTube tutorial, so I won't take full credit.

I'm taking a bit of a hiatus from SH3 myself - last time I played was a few years ago, when I was still on my second patrol. It was very successful as I had over 20k GRT with a couple of torpedoes still left. Gotta finish that patrol one of these days, and continue my career.

Sincerely yours,

Oblt.z.S. von Pek

P.S. I'm not retired, just taking a long vacation. :Kaleun_Wink: