It’s a very common, but mistaken, belief that I see frequently that range is only irrelevant when the track is 90°. Range is irrelevant as long as the gyro angle is zero, regardless of the approach angle. Remember, range is not a part of the calculation of pure lead angle:
Arcsin lead angle = target speed / torpedo speed * sin AOB
At different ranges, the triangle simply grows and shrinks, but the relationship of the sides remains the same, and so the lead angle remains the same.
In practice, as long as the gyro angle is within about 20° of your bow, range will pretty much not matter. This is easy to convince yourself of by simply playing with the TDC dials. For example, set the gyro angle to anywhere within 20° of your bow (by adjusting bearing), and then play with the range knob over the entire range of its throw and you will see that it hardly has any impact on the gyro angle. Now, turn the bearing until the gyro angle is large, like say 90. Now go back and play with the range again, and you will see it has a tremendous impact on gyro angle.
So in your case, when you’re making an approach, and you want to shoot at multiple ships, ideally you would point your boat such that, when you have to shoot at each one, the gyro angle is still within 20° of your bow. This makes range irrelevant as a source of error.
As a sidenote, the real S3 TDC took own course changes into account, unlike the game, which made maneuvering while firing possible. In our case, since we have to reset AOB every time we change course, it’s important to find a good attack course such that you can shoot at multiple targets without having to turn to optimize gyro angles.
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