Scenario Design & Discussion

File Name: GIU2 File Submitter: Palex80 File Submitted: 12 Jul 2015 File Category: GIUK This is the second scenario in the series. PRELUDE: The conflict between the ECON-India-Arab coalition in the summer of 2019 was the first event in a cascade that was to follow. Although the coalition managed to oust US forces from Pakistan, that success was only short-lived. The American counterattack using submarine launched cruise missiles and long-range bomber strikes out of Diego Garcia severely gutted the recovering Arab forces and rendered most of the oil terminals useless. The following CIA-backed insurgency in the Middle East brought the newly elected Arab gove…

File Name: Exercise Dynamic Mongoose 2017. 26 June-8 July 2017. Historical Training Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 01 Aug 2017 File Category: GIUK Exercise Dynamic Mongoose 2017. 26 June-8 July 2017. Historical Training Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for GIUK Gap Battleset and the HCDB2-170714 new standard 1980-2025 Platform Database. This scenario is designed with the Advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/NATO side or from the Red/NATO side. You should play a few times first the Blue side to avoid spoilers, and…

File Name: IND1 File Submitter: Palex80 File Submitted: 12 Jul 2015 File Category: IOPG This is the first scenario in the series. PRELUDE: Following the fall of the Saddam Hussein Regime in early 2002 the situation in the Middle East has become highly unstable. The Islamic State (IS) managed to overthrow the Iraqi government in 2016 and then spread the insurgency into the neighboring countries of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Forced to act, in order to protect their interests and oil supply, the United States (US) invaded Iraq again in 2017 and also installed strong military presence in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Although the threat of IS was practically destroyed…

I played this scenario as BLUE (USA) This is quite a big scenario! At the beginning your forces are more or less surrounded by RED bases, ships and aircraft. The assets in Thailand can be ignored, I couldn't find any use for them, only 3B2s are available at Guam and quite far off in the beginning. What was a bit frustrating is the fact that many of my Super Hornets on the Stennis were not outfitted with desirable outloads. I only had 4 aircraft fit out in "Intercept" role. I launched two Hawkeyes and pretty soon dozens of chinese aircraft started coming in from multiple vectors. I immediately readied two dozens of further aircraft with AA-loadout but the first 30…

I played this scenario commanding the BLUE side. You get an interesting mix of assets here. One carrier battle group with a heavy Tomahawk arsenal, a couple of SSNs and few, but yet formidable aircraft dispersed at 3 bases in Japan. Like I already noted in the other thread, the lack of strike assets on the blue side is one issue. Of course the orders you get are to "just" sink the chinese carrier and not annihilate every single chinese unit/base on the map... :-) I launched several air patrols out my bases in Japan and carrier battle group (CVBG). The CVBG is stationed a bit off the area of conflict, so the F/A-18Es with their long range are excellent for the ta…

File Name: Reagan against China, December 2016-early 2017. Hypothetical/Historical Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 25 Jan 2017 File Category: WestPac Reagan against China (and F-35B first blood), December 2016-early 2017. Hypothetical/Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for EC2003 Battle for the Western Pacific BattleSet and the new HCDB2-170401 (Previously 170122) 1980-2025 era Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. Image: Aircraft assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 14 perform a diamond formation flyby over the aircraft carrier USS…

File Name: Barents Sea Russian ASW Drills, June 2017. Historical Training Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 01 Jul 2017 File Category: GIUK Barents Sea Russian ASW Drills, June 2017. Historical Training Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for EC2003 Battle for the GIUK Gap Battleset and the HCDB2-170611 new standard 1980-2025 Platform Database. This scenario is designed with Advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/Russia side or from the Red/Russia side. You should play a few times first the Red side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the…

File Name: Sub Hunt off Faslane 2014. Historical Scenario/Alternate History Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 18 Dec 2014 File Category: GIUK Sub Hunt off Faslane 2014. Historical scenario/Alternate history scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for GIUK Gap Battleset and the HCDB-140909 1980-2015 era Platform Database or the New Standard HCDB2-170611 1980-2025 era Platform Database. Image: Royal Air Force Sentinel R.1 visits the National Test Pilot School at Mojave, 29 October 2007. Photo by Alan Radecki. From Wikipedia Commons. This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/NATO side or…

File Name: Operation Opera, June 7, 1981. Historical Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 28 May 2017 File Category: Middle East Operation Opera, June 7, 1981. Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for The Middle East Battleset and the new HCDB2-170522 1980-2025 era Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. Image: Israeli Air Force F-16A Netz '243', aircraft flown by Colonel Ilan Ramon in Operation Opera. This was the eighth and last to drop its bombs onto the reactor. CIAF, Brno-Turany, 4 September 2004. Image by KGyST, took from Wikipedia C…

File Name: Interesting Times, Part One File Submitter: rainman File Submitted: 05 May 2017 File Category: Middle East In late 2017, the Americans launch an ill advised attack on Iran. Here is the first of a series of scenarios regarding the results. Escape from the Red Sea with a scratch team. Click here to download this file

File Name: Clash of DDGs, Spratly Islands 26-27 October 2015. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 28 Oct 2015 File Category: WestPac Clash of DDGs, Spratly Islands 26-27 October 2015. Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the Western Pacific Battleset and the HCDB-150928 1980-2015 era Platform Database or the new HCDB2-170522 New Standard 1980-2025 era Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/US side or from the Red/Chinese side. To avoid spoilers you should play a few times first the Blue sid…

File Name: Alternative Naval Prelude to Desert Shield, 2 August 1990: Alternate History Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 20 Nov 2015 File Category: Middle East Alternative Naval Prelude to Desert Shield, 2 August 1990: Alternate History Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for The Middle East Battleset and the HCDB-150928 standard 1980-2015 Platform Database or the HCDB2-170507 new standard 1980-2025 Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ Game Engine or later. Image: USS David D. Ray (DD-971) firing an ASROC from the VLS circa 1991 after her Improved Spruance conv…

File Name: Kuznetsov at Bay. 9 November 2016. Hypothetical/Historical Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 20 Nov 2016 File Category: Middle East Kuznetsov at Bay, November 9, 2016. Hypothetical/Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for The Middle East Battleset and the HCDB-150928 1980-2016 era Platform Database or the HCDB2-170507 new standard 1980-2025 Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. Image: Admiral Kuznetsov on the Mediterranean in 1996. USN photo in public domain, took from Wikipedia Commons. This scenario is designed to be pl…

I'm an experienced Harpoon, commanders edition scenario creator. I like to create very large scenarios. However, if I make one very large, I sometimes get a memory allocation failure message. Is there a way to avoid that? Thanks, Steve

File Name: Solving the Spratlys problem: Stennis Compromise, March 2016. Alternate History Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 15 Mar 2016 File Category: WestPac Solving the Spratlys problem: Stennis Compromise, March 2016. Alternate History Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the Western Pacific Battleset and the HCDB-150928 1980-2015 era Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. Image: An VFA-14 "Tophatters" F/A-18E Super Hornet (Squadron with the only Super Hornets with the old APG-73 radars in the CVW-9, the others have the APG-79 AESA) parti…

Heads' up to scenario authors, the scenario file format changes again in 2017.008 (not released yet) which means scenarios made with the 2017.008 or newer SE will not work in builds of the GE older than 2017.008 and won't be editable in SE builds older than 2017.008. The changes so far are internal and invisible to the scenario author and player. In other words there is no compelling reason for you to move to the new SE right out of the gate. Eventually there will be but by that time I'll probably have changed the scenario format again. To quickly summarize what does change is that each unit, group, scenario, saved game, and plane record (aircraft on the ground)…

File Name: Bubiyan Turkey Shoot, January 29, 1991. Historical Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 02 May 2017 File Category: Middle East Bubiyan Turkey Shoot, January 29, 1991. Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for The Middle East Battleset and the new HCDB2-170430 1980-2025 era Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. Image: The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Leftwich (DD-984) at anchor off Sitra, Bahrain, Persian Gulf, on 16 May 1993, one of the US Navy warships present at the action of Bubiyan. Of interest in this photo is USS Leftwich was …

I have noticed this in a couple of the recent scenario releases, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to offer a tip for scenario writers. The SE will permit you to move the location of installations (airfields, ports, etc) on the map. Sometimes the coordinates plugged into the DB (via the PE) do not translate well onto the game maps and you will find an airfield slightly off kilter from where it ought to be. Perhaps in a body of water when it ought to be on the coast, or an island, for example. While this does not impact game play in the sense that it prevents use of the base, it does look odd and will change the range/endurance of aircraft operating …

Thanks for the excellent tempo of scenario writing lately, guys. broncepulido and rainman in particular. Very much appreciated. Now if I can find some time to actually play ...

File Name: F-35A Lightning II First Blood, August 2016. Hypothetical/Alternate History Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 15 Aug 2016 File Category: GIUK F-35A Lightning II First Blood, August 2016. Hypothetical/Alternate History Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition introductory scenario for the EC2003 Battle for the GIUK GAP Battleset and the HCDB-150928 1980-2015 era Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. Image: U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. George Watkins, 34th Fighter Squadron commander, drops a GBU-12 laser-guided bomb from a Lockheed Martin F-35A LIghtning…