General

Running tests on GIUK 2 Gauntlet. An old familiar scenario. NATO has an OHP frigate + a Type 22/2 FF + 2 merchants. Included are 2 x Lynx + 2 x Seahawk. Russians get 1 x Victor 2, 2 x Nanuchka, 6 x MiG-23. So my ships are driving along, minding their own business, at 15 kn. Suddenly we detect a bunch of torpedos incoming. The 22/2 is the target. It detaches and runs away at 30 kn. The OHP slows down to 5 kn. We launch 2 helos and start searching. Good sonar circle on the OHP (15 nm radius at this speed), lotta sonobuoys in play. When the torps are 4 nm away from the OHP, and fully detected, and still headed for the 22/2, suddenly the OHP just sinks!!! …

The scenario is GIUK 2 Gauntlet. NATO has 2 FF, 2 merchants and must run the gauntlet of 1 sub, 2 x Nanuchka 3, and 6 attack jets. What's of interest here is how well the 2 Lynx available do against the Nanuchkas. Although it might have been simpler to set up a clean new scenario, I just ran this one down to the critical point, saved the file, and re-ran multiple times from that point. Now, there were several serious anomalies in that game, but the parts of interest seemed to run OK. There are 2 parts to this. First, I attacked from behind the Nanuchkas with one Lynx, and then from the front with the other one. The Nanuchkas are in column, about 5 nm apart…

I'm curious whether having multiple torpedoes in the water concurrently has any effect on the probability of any of them getting a hit. The reason I ask is that I've noticed that if I have multiple ASW assets attacking an AI sub and they launch torpedos before previous torpedos have hit or expired - or even just one platform, if it fires multiple times before its first shot hits or expires - then none of the torpedos will ever hit, and rarely even achieve near-misses. In comparison, if I deny further shots until the current shot is "done", then I see a noticably higher rate of hits and near-misses. So, I'm wondering if having excess torpedos running around somehow d…

I have been looking at the WestPac Middleweights scenario. I can't say for sure, but I think the computer (N or S Korea) gets Rafales. We have lots of good AEW planes, and lots of planes with 40 nm AMRAAMs, but the Rafale is hard to detect AND it has 54 nm AA missiles. Any suggestions on how to deal with this menace? And how in the heck did either Korea get Rafales anyway?

Hey: After playing the Ultimate edition a few times, I have come to one of two possible conclusions (somewhat related): 1) I suck or 2) The computer rocks. For example. 3 Flankers vs 6 Tornados. I'm protecting an E-3 and in no mood for playing so I let the Flankers have it: 9 SkyFlashes, or three per flanker on average. The flankers, being the argumentative buggers that they are, answer with four radar missiles themselves. Now to my mind, 3 missiles per aircraft is pretty good odds. Yet somehow the flankers get 100% hit rate and all bar one of my missiles miss, the flankers go off and retreat with a mission well done, drinking Vodka all the way back (no statist…

In real life, you're supposed to drive ships with random zig-zags added to the course. Does this have any advantage in Harpoon? If not, it would be really tedious to put them in, given that the scale of a leg relative to the overall travel distances is quite small.

Hello, a stupid question so forgive me please! I see in the scenarios area of the downloads many scenarios that are part of a series but there are only the last ones; for example in the WESTPAC the scenario FIGHT! (PART 5 OF 5) is in the list but the other 4 parts are missing. Do you know where I can find these oldest svcenarios? Thanks in advance! Roberto

I tried to play the scenario "Kodak Moment" from the 2003 IPOG set but I saved it and stopped because I don't understand how to fulfill the victory conditions. It says to do "photo recon" of three ground forces. You can see the 3 ground forces on the map like they are bases (they are there before you even put any planes up). But I don't see any way of doing "photo recon". I have 2 search planes, 2 kiowa helos that could never reach, and 2 JSTARS. None of them can target the ground forces to do any type of "photo recon" mission, and just flying the JSTARS directly over the ground locations had no effect. Is this just BS in the orders and there is no such thing as …

Just tried opening up the IRC chat with both xchat and the Java portal....both are down....did someone trip over the plug?

Would someone please explain the actual goings-on relating to "stopping" the HCE game via setting to Zero Sec time compression and via the "Pause" menu item? In particular: 1. Do these methods have any different effects on the game? 2. Do they affect other system resources differently? 3. Does the game continue to "run" in any way that is significant to game events while in either of these "stopped" modes? 4. Is there anything else relating to the use of these "stop" methods that might be useful for the player to know about? I'm also curious if there is any other means for "stopping" the game in some effectively paused and resumable state (other than sa…

One thing that has puzzled me for a long time is the following situation regarding detection - and then loss of detection - of AI groups: Many times (maybe all times?) if the player has any sort of AEW/EW resources - or even other air groups - aloft (even if they are well beyond their radar ranges), the Staff Assistant will advise that the launch of such-and-such AI air group has been detected by such-and-such (player's) air group. However, said AI air group often is not seen again until it moves well within the radar range of some player's air or surface group. My question is two-part: First, how is it possible for the player's air groups to detect these launch…

I wonder if someone can give a definite answer to this question. Probably it has already been answered, and it may well have been asked by me before, because it's the sort of thing I would ask, but I don't remember. When a weapon is launched, does it head for where the target IS, or where the target IS GOING TO BE? Ditto for when the weapon is moving. May depend on the type of weapon.

Hello! Situation: I have an airfield where are present both ground (and air) attack aircraft and tankers aircraft. The target is over the attack group range so it needs the support of the tankers and this is my question: the tankers should be launched as a part of the attack group, or it better to to launch them before and to station them loitering in a convenient location and make the attack group joining, refueling and splitting from them? Thanks! Roberto

Hi everybody, I'm an old Harpoon fan (I must have one of the first CD versions in Italy, I guess) and just a while ago I purchased HCE, willing to refresh my strategic competences :-) Now that I have some time to play again, I would like some enlightenment about the program and its new logic: 1) which is the best fuel efficency altitude for each plane? Is it still the default altitude it starts flying at when is launched? Is there a standard rule about it? 2) what does that "little lightning" symbol sometimes appearing on some of the planes means? 3) why the old air-to-ground attack "launch all and run home" logic is not working anymore? I see the logic is now "launc…

I've been playing Harpoon on my Netbook and while it is playable it can bog down sometimes which I put down to the pretty poor 1.6Ghz Atom processor in my Compaq Netbook. I've been looking at "trading up" to an Acer Travelmate 8371 which has a 1.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor which is slower 1 core v 1 core but dual core is basically 2.8 Ghz, so I was wondering if Harpoon would actually utilise two cores?

Does time compression (T/C) affect the PH or probability of detection in any material way? Every so often I notice something that makes it seem that having the time set to 10 secs or faster (or increasing the T/C to 10 Sec or greater during an encounter) alters the probabilities of certain events rather noticably - although I've really never been able to pin this down. Is there any reason why running the game "fast" would make it less likely for a missile, torpedo, etc. to score a hit... or make it less likely for a Sonabouy to detect a sub... or make it more likely for an air group to run out of fuel (as due to a delayed BINGO advisement, etc.)... or make detections…

Specifically in the WestPac "Backyard" scenario, I quite frequently observe a minor oddity (that apparently has no adverse effect on game play) but may be some sort of indication of something getting hosed up. What happens every so often is that after a tanker a/c completes its refuelling and after the Split-off dialog has been approved, it displays the dialog for selecting the base for the tanker to return to - but the mileage to the first base (or bases, in some cases) is grossly incorrect. Yet in other instances, it seems to be correct. I'm attaching a game-save here, captured at the point that refueling was just started on Blue air group AWA. As this progres…

This is a question that's bugged me for a long time, but apparently never enough to make me remember to ask it - until now: I've noticed that certain types of ordnance apparently will not hit anything unless the launching group's radars are left on. This includes, but probably is not limited to, the AGM-130s, the Popeyes, and the "TV Bombs". I assumed this was some sort of modeling of the need for target-designation, yet there are a few puzzling things about that theory: First, it doesn't seem to matter whether the target stays within the range of the aircraft's radar - or, for that matter, whether the target is ever within the range of the radar... it just matt…

I'm wanting to do a short series of scenarios as ECM, SEAD and related operations with instructive orders. I need confirmation/ further comment on some ECM stuff. My summary is : Offensive ECM has (in the loadout window of the carrying unit) Target = Radar, Range > 0 (and not "Horizon") It reduces the likelihood of enemy radar picking up any aircraft in the effective area of the ECM . Defensive ECM has Target=Radar, Range =0. It only reduces the likelihood of enemy radar picking up the unit carrying the ECM. Jammers have a Range = horizon and reduce the likelihood of enemy missile hits on the carrying unit. Question: Can "Jammers" have Targets other t…

Was reading in Shattered Sword a description of the mechanics of putting together a Japanese carrier strike in 1942. I had never realized that you needed to warm up a radial engine for about 15 minutes before it was safe to take off. Was wondering: 1) Do you needed to warm up a jet engine?, and 2) if so, for how long? Also, got me wondering, how many aircraft can a catapult launch how quickly? Figured you guys might know.