Still Learning My Way Around ‘Cold Waters’

Actual screenshot taken from a Quick Battle scenario I created. That is a Sverdlov-class Soviet light cruiser sailing out to escort a Soviet amphibious force. © 2017 Killerfish Games 

Well, as you know, I’ve been dividing my COVID-19 stay-at-home time between writing on my two blogs and entertaining myself as best I can without being online. This means that I’ve been getting back to reading on a more-or-less regular basis, which is something I have not done since Mom got sick in 2010 and endured five hellish years struggling with a long – and eventually futile – rehabilitation effort after back surgery and the devastating effects of dementia. Between dealing with the legal, financial, and emotional repercussions of Mom’s death in 2015 and the life changes that followed, I really haven’t made much of an effort to return to my old routine of reading something at least once a day.

I’ve also started gaming again, although I no longer do marathon sessions where I’ll start playing a game at 2 PM, go at it for 11 or 12 hours oblivious to everything else – and even skipping meals! – and then go to bed in the wee hours in the morning, sore and stiff all over after sitting in front of a computer without taking breaks or even stretching. No, Dear Reader, now I play responsibly, spending no more than 30-45 minutes on a game in one sitting.

The Sverdlov adrift and on fire after a UGM-84 Harpoon missile hit. © 2017 Killerfish Games 

Recently I bought a submarine simulation called Cold Waters, a spiritual successor to MicroProse Software’s 1988 classic Red Storm Rising, which itself was based on Tom Clancy’s best-selling novel of the same name. Developed by Adelaide, Australia-based game developer Killerfish Games and published in 2017, it was recently on sale at Steam for 50% of it’s $39.99 price. It’s been on my Steam Wishlist for about two years, so when I got the email about the sale, I immediately acted and bought it.

For the first few days, I mainly focused on the Training missions so that I could get my sea legs – so to speak – in Cold Waters. There are seven missions in this category, and each one focuses on a specific weapon system or tactical concept related to submarine warfare in the late 20^th Century. They are:

1.       Basic Torpedoes

2.       Wire-Guided Torpedoes

3.       Missiles

4.       Navigation

5.       Target Motion Analysis (TMA)

6.       Sensors & Masts

7.       Tactics and Damage

Well, I’ve tackled five of the seven; I still have to do the ones for Navigation and Tactics and Damage, but I already figured out how to steer and dive my boats, so I’ll get around to them soon. It’s not like Cold Waters will generate a Completion of Training Certificate, and since I learned submarine tactics playing Red Storm Rising and reading books on naval warfare in the early to late 1990s, it’s just pro forma at this point.

A People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Luda-class frigate in heavy seas at night. © 2017 Killerfish Games 

I have only completed – and barely, at that – the first real combat mission of Cold Waters. Killerfish Games calls it The Duel, cos that’s what it is, basically, a one-on-one duel between a Soviet sub and mine off the coast of Iceland. I’ve played it thrice, and my win-loss record is 1-2 in favor of the computer’s sub. I tried one against the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy  (PLAN) called Junks on Parade, but I got my head handed me on a silver platter; even though I managed to sink some of the PLAN warships in the scenario, the enemy always kills my sub way before I can sink enough enemy vessels.

A container ship caught in the midst of a naval battle. © 2017 Killerfish Games 

I do better in Quick Battles, which are single engagements in which I choose the adversary fleet, the year (you can only choose from 1968 and 1984 in the North Atlantic map and 2000 In the South China Sea one), the month, and the day. I can even choose time of day, sea state conditions, and other minutiae, including the strength of the thermocline or “layer.”

I usually fight battles against surface groups, though once I added a nuclear sub to the mix to make it more challenging. The enemy-controlled AI is competent, so even if you deliberately choose ships that are not exactly heavyweight champs, you can still get a bloody nose from angry destroyers and frigates when you dare attack amphibious landing forces or even the Kiev anti-submarine carrier.

Death of a warship! © 2017 Killerfish Games 

So far, I’ve managed to win 60% of my Quick Battles; the ones I’ve lost…well, let’s just say I underestimated the AI’s ability to come up with a good counterattack against me. I even sank the helicopter carrier Moskva and the all-gun cruiser Sverdlov – and I even defeated the mighty Kiev, although it took a bunch of Harpoon missiles to do that with. (You only get eight per mission, so it’s not like I had a lot of ‘em handy.)

Anyway, Cold Waters is clearly shaping up to be my favorite new game; partly because it has great graphics, but also because it is quite similar to Red Storm Rising.