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.
