PBEM / MBX Wargaming

Okay, Gulf Strike arrived yesterday, maybe even the day before, I've been away house sitting for a week. The game is in pristine condition, appeared to even have the original shrink wrapping on the package. Since I found it so late in the evening I only had time to page thru each of the booklets (the box was stuffed to the brim with supplements and counters and maps galore). Hopefully I'll spend some time with the game before Pete slaughters me and place my findings as a paper wargame novice in this thread.

https://discord.gg/t7pekGk in case anyone wants to join a fully public Harpoon 5 Multiplayer discord server. I can help you get to know Simplot2 and how to use it for double-blind games using the Discord channel. We have successfully used this method for both play by post (similar to PBEM style, submit orders, then update Simplot2 then show images then submit next turn orders) and real-time games. Discord offers both voice and video comms too for the realtime games or occasional "team" chats for Red or Blue teams.

Harpoon CPX Update Okay, the coin has been tossed and ... Dewayne has drawn the EU Peter has drawn the US You will each receive separate SITREP's and Order of Battle (OOB) information by private email. Your choices will be posted here later. Here's the basic premise of the scenario, which I've entitled "Terminus": Sometime in the not too distant future … The war in the Middle East during the past few weeks has been devastating, and has left military forces, political ties and civilian populations bruised and battered on all sides. One of the most tragic victims of the conflict has been the longstanding alliance between the United States and t…

Now that this is out, would anyone be interested in one using SimPlot 2? I'm not going to referee, but I'd be up for playing something.

Anyone interested in playing the Kola strike scenario from High Tide?

Ran through one mission of this campaign today, attacking Target #18, an Oil Refinery. The target area is defended by randomly drawn ZSU-23/4 and an SA-14 MANPAD. Pilots selected for the mission are: Veteran "Wraith" flying air cover with 2x AIM-7 and 2x AIM-7 and an ALQ-119(v) EW pod; Average "Griffen" flying air defense suppression with 2x AGM-65, 2x AIM-9, and an ALQ-119(v) EW pod; Skilled "Fox" and average "Bullseye" flying as the strikers with 2x Mk83, 2x AIM-9, and an ALQ-119(v) EW pod The Ingress Event Card drawn is "Bad Weather - Ground Clutter" which will require a -2 Air to Ground DRM from High Altitude. Wraith and Griffen approach the targe…

I chose the compsite squadron for this Cold War scenario with a di-emphasis of F/A-18, and in favor of F-14, A-6, and specialty naval aircraft. Veteran F-14 HotRod (Fast) Skilled F-14 Cash (Fast) Average F-14 Feather (Slow) Newbie F-14 Echo (Slow) Veteran A-6 Nova (Fast) Average A-6 Python (Slow) Average A-6 Pepper (Slow) Green A-6 Crabby (Slow) Average F-18 Wraith (Fast) Green F-18 Joker (Slow) Average EA-6B Jazz (Slow) Average E-2C Thunder (-) 1st Target randomly selected, Target 15 Fuel Depot midway along the Swedish-Finland border. Target causes -4 Weight Points and mission completion will cause +3 Stress Points. target consists of 2x Sites and 2x…

Here is a summary of a small Indian-Russian engagement started yesterday. It is not yet complete, but the Russian side needs to determine how to proceed from where it is now. Situation: Indian Ocean. INS Delhi (Type-15 DDG), and INS Rajput (Kashin- Mod DDG) are providing protection to INS Jalashva (former USS Trenton LPD) during movement from India to unnamed islands to the SW. A Russian naval force consisting of Admiral Chabanenko (Udaloy II DDG) and Burnyy (Sovremenny DDG) has been ordered to stop the Indian force from off-loading the LPD. The engagement starts out with Sea King Mk.42’s and Ka-27 Helix’s scouting out forward of their respective forces with a…

Hi folks, For some time now, HarpGamer has been toying with the idea of running a CPX wargame on our IRC channel using Harpoon Classic Gold as the engine. This is how it would work (at least, roughly): Essentially, we would assemble two teams of players. These teams will then choose their order of battle (ships, subs, planes, etc) from a list of available options, and describe how they want them deployed in the theater. A Harpoon Classic Gold scenario would then be constructed using the options and the deployments chosen by the teams. Then, at a convenient time or time(s), we run the scenario as a CPX wargame in real time on IRC, with the teams giving orde…

From the you did what file...I participated in a traditional game of Kriegsspiel with a number of enthusiaists located outside of Kansas City, MO, by way of a mode that could never have been envisioned when first written in the "dark days" following the final fall of Napolean, the internet. The multi-player game is umpired, and double blind. The scenario brief is extremely vague, and was played on the long fought over map centered on the City of Metz, along the Moselle River. We, RedFor, (consisting of me and the force commander, an army officer currently stationed in Hawaii) were told that we had cleared the enemy of our side of the river, and the river line was b…

Today's engagement was limited to the few data sheets that I had with me. A Ticonderoga Class CG took on one of its predecessors a Virginia class CGN. Hostilities had already been declared so both combatants were looking for action. Since VA had no embarked helo, and since time was of the essence, I did not launch any helos from the Tico. Both ships were on intercepting courses and at Long range, defined as 25-85nm apart - but arranged so that after the first movement turn they would be at 25nm. The VA was active while the Tico was passive. VA, shouting over here was only successful in getting itself passively detected by the Tico. Tico declares combat, and l…

The Marine Corps Gazette Tactical Decision Game Archive url has changed to TDG Archive. A number of them lend themselves very well to TacOps scale. There seemed to be a golden era in the mid to late 1990's. Every could foresee that MCA/MCG's decision to move the TDG's from the print magazine to their website would spell doom to the "program".

Well, against my better judgment, if folks are not interested in or otherwise willing to commit to my first, smaller scale wargame idea (detailed in this thread), then I will put forward my other idea for consideration. I am thinking of wargaming the June 1942 Battle of Midway, using the Command at Sea (CaS) rules and other MBX type umpiring efforts. It would also exploit the capabilities of the wonderfully useful CIC Warfare Plotter (shameless plug!). Though I have been toying with this idea for the better part of a year now, it would take a while to get it worked up, and would not likely be available before mid or late 2010. Right now, I'd just like to hear …

Pursuant to Brad's new MBX proposal, my current gaming plate is full: Gulf Strike Scenario 2 will be winding down over the next few weeks with my weeking gaming gang. Stephen's Mach2 Vampires is beginning to get interesting. Currently leading a flight of IDF Phantom II on an October 1973 airfield bombing run, being escorted by a pair of Mirage III's in a pbem involving 4-5 guys and the Clash of Arms Airpower rules. The defense is a handful of MiG-21's (I believe - haven't spotted the enemy yet and I'm only at 1000') and some hidden AAA assets. Not to mention, my personal gaming interests, currently a homebrewed quick modern land rules set, and LocknLoad'…

I've mentioned in Shore Leave that I would be using Avalanche Press's USN Plan Orange to do the operational part of their scenarios and use Naval Thunder Battleship Row to game out the tactical parts with a little more granularity. A Naval Thunder turn is about 4 minutes and each inch represents 500 yards. A quick step through this afternoon pitted IJN battleship Nagato vs USS Nevada (BB-36). Nagato's 16.1"/45's out range Nevada's 14"/45's so that at an arbitrary 35" (17,500yds) Nagato is firing at Medium Range (a +1 to hit) whereas Nevada is firing at Long Range (no mod). Nagato also has eight single tube 5"/40's that although can come to bear in this engagemen…

Anyone interested?

Shapeways New interest is being generated in modern miniatures. Some are being created in both 1:2400 and 1:6000, in particular 1:6000 Modern Chinese PLAN. I have a set of 1:6000 PLAN Type 052 DD, Type 054A FF and Type 071 Amphib with hovercraft. I'll try to post pics once I receive them and get them painted up. We'll see. There is also a 1:6000 Naval yahoo group for those interested. Designer is open to Dreadnaughts as well. 1:6000 Naval

Hello everyone. I am new to the forum and am wondering what aids there are for playing Harpoon/CaS/FG&DN by email. Back in the old days, I had programmed using Quick BASIC a game assist program to keep track of various platforms. It did quite a bit, allowing the game moderator to input the orders from the players and then generate search result reports for the players. It kept track of location, heading, speed, depth or altitude, sensor status, damage and also tracked the turns when missiles or torpedoes would strike. Sadly, I am no longer in possession of the program diskettes nor the energy or brain power to recreate it. Surely something similar could be d…

Currently on the table is an old gem called Air & Armor, by West End Games. It depicts NATO Brigades/Soviet Divisions, unit of maneuver is battalions, and regiments respectively. The system uses a "step" counter beneath a unit counter to depict anything from a company sized force, up to a nine step motorized rifle regiment. Oh, the fog of war. Time is two hours per turn First scenario I ran was Race for the Bridges. Soviet 20th Motorized Rifle Division racing through a screen of the West German 35th PzG Brigade, for theany undestroyed bridges across the Main river, in the vicinity of Wurtzburg. The Canadian 4th Brigade Combat Group arrives in turn 3 of 5 to …

Scenario found on pages 21-23 of Troubled Waters by Chris Carlson. Rules being used: Harpoon 4.1 Method being used: CIC Combat Plotter v1.0.5.4 I intend to use this message thread as an ongoing report of the Operation Praying Mantis scenario that I am attempting solo, using the H4.1 rules and Combat Plotter. As of right now, all of the H4.1 data forms are completed for each class of ship and aircraft present. All platforms have been in put with speed and heading (and altitude as appropriate). The only thing remaining is to complete the aircraft fuel burn rate for the KC-10 and SuWCAP, the latter being completed as an aggregate "group". I hope to accurately po…