General

In older game versions, when I was dealing with a CVBG, when I opened the Formation Editor, smaller air capable units (an FF with a LAMPS for example) would be listed in the units pane with their air assets listed as "Auto". CV air assets were just listed, and assigned sectors manually. Now I notice, the "Auto" notation no longer appears. Is this a change, or did I turn it off somehow? Using "Auto Formation Air Patrols" seems to have no effect.

The question seems to come up occassionally about refueling air craft (CAP units in particular) from tankers in formation about a base. I've attached a simple saved game tnk2bse1.hpq (from standard wespac battleset) to illustrate what I do, (I think it's pretty sneaky). the game opens with the CAP patrol out from baseAAa with insuffient fuel to get home. In formation patrol 140 nm away is a tanker AA01. "join" the base and the CAP patrol , 'move' the tanker from the bae to the fighter group and execute the "join". use 'alt' R to commence refuelling and wait for the request to split the tanker then send it home. set the CAP groups speed to send it back to its patrol poi…

I'm confident that this question has been answered in the past, but searches of the various folders did not come up with the answer. In practicing various strikes, I launched 3x strikers, and 2x prowlers, 1x S-3B Viking Tankers in support. I know the hotkey for forcing refuling is "alt+r". Im fairly certain that the refueler must be in the same group and the intended refuelees, so while they flew to the rendezvous point separately, I joined them. I then did the alt+r to no apparent effect. I tried it unsuccessfully with three aircraft types in the group, and then just two - the tanker and strikers - What would a typical refueling procedure look like in HCE? …

This is something I came across that might be of interest. From: http://navysite.de/cvn/cvw.htm It probably belongs in the FAQ thread, but I can't post there. I couldn't completely clean up the format, but I think it is understandable. The Air Wing compositions from 1943 to 1998 The charts below do not reflect the exact Air Wing composition they just give an approximate view of the most common compositions. In addition to the CVW a Fleet Tactical Support Squadron (VRC) Detachment consisting of 2 planes is embarked aboard the carrier. These detachments are not listed below. In the "additionally" – chart lists just the most often used squadrons. These are squ…

This is how I perceive things work: Assuming that the planes are on the human side. Part 1 1. A missile contact is acquired by AWACS or by other means. 2. Aircraft launches air-to-air missiles at incoming missile group. 3. A percentage of missiles are shot down. 4. Another set of air-to-air missiles are launched at the incoming missiles. 5. On the way to the incoming missiles contact is lost and the missile group turns into a yellow triangle. 6. After launch the air-to-air missiles track towards the incoming missiles base on the info from the radar that was detecting the missiles. 7. At the appropriate time the missiles do active and either find the c…

A blue player has 2x LR-SEAD and 4x GP loadout F/A-18D's, and 1x EA-6B and is planning on striking a an isolated Coastal Defense Bty defended by a lone SAM Bty. Is it best to keep all five aircraft as one group or are all of the unique attributes of these aircraft types/loadouts aggregated when employed as one group? My intent would be for the EA-6B to jam enemy radar, the SEAD to suppress the SAM, while the GP's hit the coastal defense bty. Thanks,

Hello all, I am trying to have several strikes arrive at the same TOT. I have the different speed and distances (multiaxis attack, you know) but I can't get my pilots to pull it out. Is there anyway to achieve this, or the evasion codes will forever impede it?

Lets take something like a P8 Poseidon, it will fly 'low' to drop sonar bouy, but in between bouy drops will it normally remain low or climb to a medium alt to gain a better theatre eyes view? Any one know what the usual practice is here? I'm thinking of altering the Toolbox ASW patrol for fixed wing ac to give better detection of surface vessel.

I just discovered a whole new way to lose aircraft in the game. I've been playtesting a scenario I wrote, set in the North Atlantic. I had just finished wiping out a SAG with carrier air when I got a Keyhole hit on an SSK near the Azores, and sent a pack of SV-22s to kill it. The SSK turned out to be a wolfpack, and halfway through the hunt my Ospreys started blowing up! So I sent an EA-18 out to look for the troublemaker, and much to my surprise, it found a wayward DDG from the SAG, run aground on one of the islands. I'm glad that the AI doesn't blithely sail *across* the land any more, but I have to admit that this particular consequence of that improvement hadn't reall…

I have encountered a situation where lowering my plane group altitude from Low to Vlow results in an immediate warning that my planes are detectable and that I should turn on my radar. I inadvertently have a near perfect example in a saved game. I was concerned that going to Vlow might crash planes from pilot error, so I saved the game before doing it. I would upload it as an attachment here, but the forum tells me I am not allowed to upload a file of this type -- it is "autosave.hpq". So I had to cheat a bit to get past your security. If you get rid of the " - Copy" part of the filename and change the file extension from "txt" to "hpq", it should work and y…

I just bought HCE, but I can not see animations, is this normal? I do not see helicopters that rise from the ship, and even the release of the missiles.

HarpGamer, in conjunction with Advanced Gaming Systems Inc (AGSI) and Matrix Games, is launching what we call the “HCE Challenge”. The Harpoon Commander’s Edition (HCE) Challenge will be, for all intents and purposes, a scenario design contest, the goals of which will include: • providing an interesting, enjoyable and potentially rewarding way to learn how to write scenarios for HCE; and • generating new and challenging scenarios for potential inclusion in the new official HCE BattleSets: Caribbean, South Atlantic, South Africa and the Middle East). The HCE Challenge will have a competitive aspect, and the “winners” will receive rewards which may include any …

Since everyone is screwing Tony, I figured I could too. Why do AI planes head north when their base is destroyed instead of looking for alternate airfields? BTW, is there a way to make a base more resilient?

I have been having varying results when it comes to the HCCE ASW Model. Through trial, error, and discussion, I now understanding that an aircraft such as a P-3C Orion must be selected in the main map, while also appearing in the smaller unit map, and the "." key be pressed on the numeric key pad. If all is working properly, a "box" representing the sonarbouy will appear on the unit map. I have run into a situation where the aircraft in question still has a quantity of sonarbouys, it is selected on the main map and depicted on the unit map, but when "." is pressed - nothing happens. The aircraft is at Low or VLow altitude and either cruise or loiter speed. Th…

It's possible to implement this? (Because code issues I think probably only in the long run): Hard-kill anti-torpedo defensive system apparently full deployed in USS George H Bush (and apparently the sensors and warning elements lacking the hard-kill elements in other five carriers, not very clear the article on this point): http://www.scout.com/military/warrior/story/1711759-us-carriers-deploy-new-torpedo-defense-system

Here are some modifiers to AirToAir combat (from paper rules): 1) +10 DATA If attacker is one or more levels above or below the target aircraft and if missile is not SnapUp/SnapDown. 2) +10 DATA if target is moving faster than 1000 knots. 3) 5 DATA when unmanned target. 4) 0 DATA when target is launching, landing or hovering. Which of them are active at HCE?

I have a relatively young computer (less than 2 years), 6 megs of RAM, and a 2.4 GHz 64 bit processor, yet some lots of scenarios run painfully slowly, even old ones. Right now I'm running the original battleset Gatekeeper scenario (as Blue), and time compression or not, it running maybe 5 times real-time regardless of the compression settings. Running Windows 7 Home Premium. I've run the various Windows diagnostics and the computer doesn't seem to be overburdened by anything else running at the same time.

Ive had alot of trouble detecting sams, and if i cant detect them i cant use SEAD strikes on them. Also i rarely see a plane avoid a missile, is there some tactics for using some ECM equipment? Or maybe the sams are inside bases or something?

Hi All, So I'm coming off what is for me a fairly successful run, the GIUK Convoy scenario. I have 8 merchant ships still alive, and have managed to sink a couple submarines as well as a surface group. Granted, firing a harpoon at a ship you can see visually is probably not a great idea. I was wondering if it might be any use sending my save game or message log to somebody to review how I'm doing. I'm not sure if it would be practical, I don't know how much state information the save format preserves. I've made observations in the other thread, and I don't have much to add to them just now. I think it's clear I labor under some pretty strong limitations, but within…

I just observed two magazines seemingly stalling to continue to reload mounts, although they had been performing properly through a number of reload cycles and still had magazine content. Has anyone else seen anything like this? Don