General

Attached is a pdf link in which there is a section devoted to discussing the operations the Argentine Type 209 SS "San Luis" during the Falklands War of 1982. Some take aways, aside from their technical fire control problems: Maneuvering to ranges of of 10,000 and 5,000 yards (5nm and 2.5nm respectively) for a torpedo attack. That is would take about 6.5 minutes for impact at the longer range. That both of his attacks apparently went undetected as they were not attacked in response. That these operations were conducted approximately 800nm from their home port of Mar del Plata. Find document here.

Once sonar contact has been established, Rule 4.4.2 Maintaining Contact requires the detecting player to re-roll each subsequent turn, with a +15% modifier, in order to determine is sonar contact is maintained. The +15% modifier will last for 4 consecutive tactical turns after contact is lost. After the first sonar contact has been established, the detecting player may roll to attempt to classify the contact. Let's say the detecting player rolls well and classifies his contact by ship/sub class. In subsequent turns, he both loses and regains sonar contact with the same ship - does the detecting player have to re-classify? Given the above, the loss of a classifi…

In the example on page 6-22 of the Harpoon 4.1 rules, the optically directed British Mk 4 20mm has its “to-hit” chance halved because the A-4 it’s attacking is at V Low altitude. But on page 6-21 under the description of the Optical mode states that “Optical systems are all seaskimmer capable.” In the defense gun modifiers it states: “Sea skimming targets (in the V Low altitude band), reduce hit chance by 1/2, unless the gun system is listed as ‘sea skimmer capable.’” So if all optical guns are sea skimmer capable, why does the Mk 4 in the example get its “to-hit” chance reduced by half?

In coordination with my own testing of the New Trilogy Air Rules, I went beyond simple dogfights and cobbled together a old soviet-style attack on a battle group. In this case a squadron of 12x MiG-29 (4x R-77, 2x R-73) is attempting to sweep away opposition for a squadron of 12x Su-34, in the ASuW role. I made a number of assumptions: that the carrier's E-2C (high altitude) APS-138 would detect the "small" incoming MiG's (high altitude) @ 130nm. that at least 4x F/A-18C would be vectored in to intercept. that with the guidance of the E-2C, the F/A-18C's would get the "long range drop" on the MiG's with 1x AIM-120 per F/A-18C being launched first, at rela…

I have the original H4 rules, would it be worth my money to upgrade to H4.1?

The most recent Naval Sitrep (#31 I believe) has the Admiraty Trilogy's new air rules. I read through them and studied the examples last night, and look to run through some harpoon era air engagements over the next few days. Has anyone else read or tried these yet?

Anyone seen this new collectible miniature game called Axis & Allies: War at Sea? I don't think it's been released yet but the mini's look good: http://boards.avalonhill.com/showthread.php?t=16684 http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/aam/waratsea Having read through the quick start rules it looks like movement is confined to those overlapping boxes like on Axis and Allies; not sure much real tactical thought can go into a movement system like that, but I'd probably give it a chance. In other news, my copy of Harpoon 4 arrived today w/ South Atlantic War!

Hey guys my BM's were cleaning out the chart drawer today, rather than throw them all out I figured y'all might want them for some H4 scenarios...unfortunately they're mostly harbor and approach charts, but you can always add a zero and make up a new scale. Good news is I've got lots of duplicates, great for double-blind scenarios. All charts are brand new, uncorrected. Let me know what you want and I'll ship to you...just pay for the shipping and a couple bucks for my time. I'll also trade charts for painted naval miniatures, I'm trying to start a collection (just purchased Harpoon 4 paper rules!) and I'll never have the time or dexterity to paint my own. ) Ma…

I was perusing Sea of Dragons last night and decided to take a general scenario theme and udate the platforms since that annex is close, if not 10 years old. It will be a PRC/ROC engagement. A PRC amphibious task force of 5x Yuting II Class Large Landing Ships headed to Taiwan, fairly heavily escorted by 1x Type 052C Luyang II DDG, 1x Project 956E Sovremennyy DDG, 2x Type 054 Jiangkai FFG's. This force will "hopefully" be detected by a Knox (2x) or Perry (1x) FFG tripwire, backed up by an E-2C just in case. The cleanup hitters will be 2x Kidd class DD and an on call 4x plane flight of Mirage 2000. The ROC forces are expected to have a tough time and will be …

In H4, an Arleigh Burke Class DDG Flt IIA has a F&A(64)1 Mk41 VLS and F&A(32)1 Mk41 VLS with the capability to carry and fire combinations of SM2MR Block III or IV, Tomahawk, VL ASROC, and Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM in packs of 4 in each individual VLS tube. While everything can be explained as mission specific, what would a typical/notional loadout be? Thanks

From: NBC Nightly News Report "The U.S. military said Tuesday that the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived off Somalia’s coast and launched intelligence-gathering missions over Somalia. Three other U.S. warships were conducting anti-terror operations." How would the "intelligence-gathering missions over x" be represented in H4 terms. What sensors would be relied upon most. I can remember in the beginning of A Bridge Too Far when the low-altitude, streaking photo recon plane taking pictures missed the panzers hiding under trees. I also can think of platforms like the predominantly high-altitude MiG-25R. Would it be correct to assume that due to…

here Mission The Joint Direct Attack Munition is a guidance tail kit that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurate, adverse weather "smart" munitions. With the addition of a new tail section that contains an inertial navigational system and a global positioning system guidance control unit, JDAM improves the accuracy of unguided, general purpose bombs in any weather condition. JDAM is a joint U.S. Air Force and Department of Navy program. Features JDAM is a guided air-to-surface weapon that uses either the 2,000-pound BLU-109/MK 84, the 1,000-pound BLU-110/MK 83 or the 500-pound BLU-111/MK 82 warhead as the payload. JDAM enables employment of acc…

Would the AN/AAS-38 Nite Hawk FLIR targeting pod take up a hardpoint, in place of another weapon, when completing an F/A-18 data forms? Thanks

Now that the F-14's have been retired, how has this effected the typical make up of the carrier air wing? The H4.1 data annex lists examples of air wings circa 1996. Is it as simple as doubling the F/A-18? If so, what is the breakdown between the F/A-18C/D's and the F/A-18E/F's? Thanks, Pete

Courtesy of PeterG on the A_Willing_Foe group. "First 3 batteries in line 5 km FEBA, last 2 batteries 10 km FEBA, each battery is 15 km apart. Batteries are organized in line, shallow V, diamond or box with launchers 100-750 m apart depending on terrain. Diamond seems more common with 4 launchers and Straight Flush is in the middle of the launchers." Thanks Peter.

Began a test scenario of a "veteran" USMC BLT+ attacking a "competant" Iranian Revolutionary Guards Infantry Brigade on a map of the greater New Bern, NC area. See general map here. The game starts with Opfor with an infantry battalion in the vicinity of Cove City, SApring Hope, and New Bern itself. The artillery battalion is in the vicinity of Chip. The armored reconnaissance company is screening to the south centered on Pollacksville. The USMC forces are conducting an advance to contact with a BLT OBJ 1 being the airfield at New Bern and with the MEU OBJ A being Washington. First turn, an LAR Company with a 155mm battery in DS engaged an Opfor Armored Reconn…

Here is an elementary question for resolving combat with the Ground Combat System - NOTE: I have never been accused of being a mathlete and last night "worse". Once the opposing forces ratings are calculated and modified, the instructions advise you to divide your rating by the opponent's and then the opponent's rating by yours to come up with simple odds. Each player rolls the D6 secretly and applies the result to himself. Last night I totaled up the the two forces found in HNR2003 and after doing the calculations the results were something to the effect of US 2.2 and Iranian 0.46. When I then take these figures to the Combat Results Table, I believe that I …

Stratsims LLC presents the CIC Warfare Plotter, a Windows tool that can aid your paper wargames. Originally developed to help develop rules for the upcoming Stratsims CIC sim, the program has value in H4 as well as a means to place units on the map, move the units according to their heading, speed, and time increment. Find more details, a demo, and purchase link at: http://www.stratsims.com/CIC_MP01.asp Stratsims is headed by five gentlemen from Harpoon Classic Gold's team, including the four founders of HarpGamer itself. We are striving to create a warfare game/sim that we've always wanted, incorporating many of the desires of those who assist us along th…

Interesting . Per Air War South Atlantic, p.84, at the close of 04 May 1982. “The loss of the Sea Harrier at goose Green caused further change to the Task Force’s operations. Never again were these precious aircraft to be hazarded in low-level attack missions involving flights over well-defended targets. From now on, when atacks on ground targets were required, the Sea Harriers would either bomb from a high altitude or use toss bombing methods, which were less risky but also far less accurate.” Was this lesson unlearned by forces in place to defend against the never to occur Warsaw Pact attack in western Europe and again in Kuwait/Iraq during the 1991 war?

Wow, now that the LCS escorted convoy (another thread) has defeated the exocet strike, the convoy is now continuing on its way to its destination. The mine group's actions, suicide boats and the possibly most important Kilo SS will come into play. In order to get the SS into the fight, it needs to speed up. This began my concern for its safety in doing so; how will cruising effect the Kilo's detectability? I ran a quick exercise. Here is what I have determined after a quick look: The submerged Kilo max's out at 10kts submerged. The optional ALQ-22 sonar carried by the LCS is a dipping sonar requiring the platform to be hovering/dead in the water. Even if i…