
                    >>>>  Aces of the Deep  <<<<
                   World War II Beneath the Waves

                      Review by John M. Hebert

   "Nun was, Herr Oberleutnant?"

   You let go of the periscope's handles, shrug and reply quietly, 
"Zerstoerer."

   All that planning and time spent carefully sliding under the convoy, 
then coming to periscope depth just after midnight, right in its middle.

   "Amerikaner?"

   You take another careful look. "Nein. Englander."

   "Scheisse." Unteroffizier Bringmann's clenched-teeth exclamation is 
not unexpected. The British are much more experienced than the 
Americans. It is, after all, only the 17th of February, 1942.

   You can try to tough it out, hoping the surface ships around you will 
confuse the British ASDIC. Or you can dive deeper, turning to present as 
small a target as possible and hoping to escape his notice. You can feel 
a small trickle of sweat between your shoulder blades.

   "Ja, Herr Oberleutnant; nun was?"

   Don't you just hate that, when a writer throws in a bunch of quotes 
in a foreign language and then doesn't bother to translate it? Fear not: 
the first sentence was obviously a question -- what now, Lieutenant? He 
replied with the information that the object of his observation was a 
destroyer, always an ugly surprise to a submariner. American? was the 
hope. But it was not to be: No. English. Non-commissioned officer 
Bringmann then said "Golly," or something like that.

   On the other hand, if you understood all of that without much effort, 
you might want to toggle Dynamix's "Aces of the Deep" so that crew 
verbal reports are in German. That would lend authenticity to what is 
already a sometimes gut-wrenching simulation.

   My den happens to be in a corner of the basement, so I'm already 
"below sea level" when beginning. A little fine-tuning of the lights and 
my world consists of the mouse, the keyboard and the screen. In the 
process of evaluating this simulation, I've learned to hate destroyers.

   After choosing one of nine historical missions (plus a tutorial), you 
can then proceed to establish the "reality of the day," several 
adjustments of parameters such as the type of U-boat, the crew's 
experience, whether the other side has air cover and/or escorts, etc. 
Don't like the weather? Change it. That rocking motion when you're on 
the bridge give you a case of the queasies? Fix it for calm sea.

   Wouldn't it be nice if you could fiddle with your reality level in 
daily life? Wow; establish things so the boss will stay away while 
you're trying to get things done. Adjust meetings so you can't be 
attacked.

   Anyway, in addition to the historical missions, you can choose either 
a convoy or warship encounter -- again with all those variables you can 
use to alter current reality.

   One of the most important variables is the time of the war. Allied 
technology and tactics improved steadily. Germany's progress wasn't 
nearly as great. And of course the Allies had the "Ultra Secret": they 
had decoded the Germans' Enigma cipher machines. No wonder that by the 
end of the war the total German U-boat crew losses were 76%. Sixty-nine 
percent were killed in action.

   Thus, if you choose a "career" path for a continuing simulation, you 
had better be good. You had better be careful. Let's face it -- you had 
better also be lucky. When those Allied destroyers are swooping 
overhead, with their propellers beating out the words "get you, get you, 
get you" and the stench of diesel fumes and sweat still hanging in the 
close air, part of you (see also: pucker factor) may wish you hadn't 
decided to be so realistic. At least you can save a game when on the 
career path. The single missions you either complete, get sunk or 
captured, or abort.

   Two hints: pay attention to the time-compression ratio. It's handy to 
avoid that portion of reality, so that you're not spending all night 
stealthily approaching a convoy, but it can cause you grief if you 
forget it's been set. A target could whoosh by at apparent warp speed, 
especially if it's a 30-knot warship. Forget the ratio and you could 
either end up with a destroyer through your conning tower or wearing a 
depth-charge like some sort of pendant because you didn't have time to 
react to the threat.

   When you start getting serious about it, buy a clear plastic, 360-
degree protractor. It's invaluable for plotting interceptions. Believe 
me, if you get the angles wrong and don't speed up you may very well be 
outrun by a warship. At best this is embarrassing. At worst, your spouse 
may have just arrived to see why it is lately you've taken to wearing 
that old military cap backward and tend to speak with a slight accent. 
"You let a lucrative target like that just get away?" Nobody needs that 
much reality in one dose.

   For the truly dedicated, you can also purchase the Aces of the Deep 
Expansion Disk. This give you six missions in the Mediterranean Sea, a 
couple of new gauges and some new torpedoes. Well, there is also the 
Type XXI submarine, which is much better than anything the Germans had 
during the war. It can effectively launch torpedoes from greater than 
periscope depth, has active sonar and some radar. First deployed in 
April, 1945, the Type XXI was entirely too late to have any effect on 
the real war. However, you are allowed to use it as early as January 
1943 -- provided your career has lasted (see "survived") that long.

   Dynamix has a good product here, one that people still sailing along 
with a 386DX-33 with a 3.5-inch floppy drive can use.

   Also, Herr Oberleutnant, nun was? 

{Aces of the Deep: Dynamix, dist. by Sierra On-Line, Inc., 3380 146th 
Place S.E., Suite 300, Bellevue, WA 98007, (800) 757-7707 or (206) 649-
9800; $54.95 on CD or floppy disk. REQUIRES: a 386SX or better system 
with hard drive and VGA.}

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