Scenario Design & Discussion

AAR MP: Matrix Siege -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This morning I played Matrix Siege against Rene Haar. Matrix Siege is an old Harpoon Classic scene converted to ANW/PlayersDB by Herman Hum. It covers an exercise in the Kattegat between two US warships and about 15 European light frigates and fast attack craft. Rene chose to play Europe and I played the US. I launched my Cobra gunship to start recon took both ships out of the formation and moved them independently south at speeds I hoped would make them mistaken for neutrals. Rene switched on the radars on his Norwegian patrol boats and although …

File Name: Okinawa II - Western Pacific File Submitter: TonyE File Submitted: 10 Mar 2007 File Category: Scenarios As the Western economies continued toward collapse, Japan moved forward in its desire to reassert dominance in the Far East. In order to force the United States to relinquish its forward bases in the Pacific, the Japanes military moved into action. A naval and air blockade was placed around Okinawa Island. The US government, backed by strong public opinion, decided to respond with a show of military force. The Japanese, knowing they could not stand toe-to-toe with the US Navy, decided the best option would be to operate within range of their land bas…

File Name: Nettle Meerkat (2018) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 24 Jun 2013 File Category: Scenarios In expectation of the June 28 release of the next version of the HUD-4, my 21st scenario for 2013... In the near future, with fish populations collapsing, tensions are rising around the world over accusations of illegal fishing. Fearing that Mozambique (which has recently acquired ships and aircraft from China) will take violent action against South African fishing boats operating in its EEZ, South Africa is sending two of its new frigates and a submarine to patrol the area... (My experience testing this is that it is not too hard to win, but …

The 288th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Duel The fighting over Keflavik has been so heavy that what remains of the airfield, currently held by NATO, is unusable. At the same time, the fighting in Europe has placed demands upon available resources that preclude either side sending long-range aircraft to attack or defend Iceland. The fate of Iceland will, therefore, be decided by a decisive surface battle. This scenario is a re-make of a Harpoon Classic scenario from the original GIUK battleset and has been re-made for Harpoon 3 with the consent of AGSI. Author: Herman Hum With over 109,000 PlayersDB scenarios downloaded in the last 3…

File Name: Coast Bronco (2015) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 26 Jul 2013 File Category: Scenarios My 26th scenario of 2013... In the near future, a small American task force must take on a drug cartel operating out of Costa Rica. (This might be a good scenario for people getting used to Harpoon ANW...it is not hard to win as long as you are careful and don't take unnecessary risks. It is, I think, a good example of how Harpoon ANW does well with small scenarios and in modeling low intensity conflicts; I also had fun mapping out part of the Western coast of Costa Rica using online resources to identify where beach resorts, etc. were located).…

AAR: Guinea By Freek Schepers My orders were to protect Her Majesty's dominion in New Guinea, a daunting task, indeed. I started by launching most of my Maritime Patrol Aircraft [MPA] to seek out and locate the Indonesians. As with most battles, the initial phase is always about Intelligence. As my MPA spread out from Biak, I was happy to see that they possessed radar more than adequate to search long stretches of water leading me to assume that this battle was going to be a milk run. Well, as every primary school child knows, you never "assume" anything because it makes an "Ass" out of "U" and "Me". The MPA spread out on their reconnaissance duties whil…

SPOILER ALERT AFTER ACTION REPORT Operation Jaya Wijaya, designed by Freek Schepers. I am in command of 7 destroyers, 2 submarines and 38 aircraft on 1 airbase and 2 airstrips. I have to defend the Dutch interests over the Archipelago and stop the Indonesian invasion of New Guinea. I have to stop the Indonesian invasion of New Guinea, sink 30 vessels and prevent 4 units [surface vessels],and 20 units [aircraft] from taking 100% damage. For comprehensive orders, click on the little flags below. Orders for Netherlands Orders for Indonesia 18 August 1962. 12:00:00 – 14:30:00 Zulu Time. Right after start the HMS Dolfijn detected se…

The 51st NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Papa and Son The Papa and Son Battleset was written by Ralf Koelbach for the HUD3 and Harpoon ANW. They have been re-written for compatibility with the PlayersDB and Harpoon 3 by Herman Hum with the consent of the author. These scenarios are designed for beginners. All scenarios use the same map, starting with using smaller parts of this map. The complexity and difficulty of the scenarios increases steadily. A fourth and fifth scenario has been added to the Papa and Son battleset by Ralf Koelbach. "Wings of Steel" In "Wings of Steel", aerial warfare is introduced. You are facing a Russi…

File Name: Vivid Sentry (2018) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 24 Aug 2013 File Category: Scenarios My 28th scenario of 2013... In the near future, tensions have increased between the Netherlands and Venezuela. The Netherlands sends a small task force to Aruba to "show the flag," and hopefully discourage Venezuela from any aggression, and to gather intelligence. But things may not go as smoothly as planned... (This is another scenario that I think shows how good Harpoon ANW and the HUD-4 are at modeling small battles where both sides only have a dozen or so units. It is not too hard to win, but you have to pay attention to what is going on b…

Hi guys, first of all, a big thank you to Herman who posted my first aar here! So here's the second FOST mission aar, enjoy! BTW: I'm still expirementing with images and such, so plese let me know if you have problems viewing them, thanks! FOST 2 – Vampire Vampire Vampire Objectives Three mine hunting vessels are to be escorted to Reference Point PBL2. Starting time is 1200 hours and the convoy must arrive no later than 1800 hours. The three mine hunting vessels, Tyne, Hurwarth and Blyth must arrive undamaged, and Fort Victoria musn’t suffer more than 50% damage. In order to reach it’s destination in time, the convoy must move at an average speed of 15 k…

I've been discussing one of my scenarios with JSF and one of the issues that has come up is that the AI for ANW often makes dumb mistakes that make it less challenging to play against. I honestly don't know how "smart" the ANW AI is, but what I'd like to do in this thread is collect whatever tricks designers have come up with for making the AI more dangerous. While there are probably limits to what can be done, I imagine it is possible to give the AI better tactical performance by setting up missions, patrol zones, etc. in certain ways. And I imagine there are ways to take advantage of things like geography, civilian air traffic, etc. that make it harder to be…

File Name: The Cold North - The North Atlantic File Submitter: TonyE File Submitted: 10 Mar 2007 File Category: Scenarios The Russian military has been experiencing a loss of discipline and an increase of desertions and mutinies among its ranks brought on by little or no pay and loss of morale. Of late, several older ex-Soviet warships that were laid up prior to decommissioning have turned up missing. More disturbing is the fact that the ammunition for these warships stored in a nearby warehouse, prior to their destruction have also turned up missing. In another development, Oil has been discovered in and around the coast of northern Greenland and several oilrigs a…

File Name: Crocodile Snare (1980) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 17 Jul 2013 File Category: Scenarios My 25th scenario of the year... This scenario assumes that the brief war that took place between Egypt and Libya in 1977 has continued and that Italy has tried to broker a peace between these two nations. However, when Egypt begins preparing for a new offensive in 1980, Italy decides that further aggression against Libya is unacceptable and decides to intercept an Egyptian convoy carrying vital supplies to the occupied port of Tubruk... Image: Italian destroyer Impavido (DD 570) (Source: Click here to download this file

File Name: Gallic Spark (1984) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 27 Jun 2013 File Category: Scenarios My 22nd scenario of the year... In 1984, a coup took place in Guinea. This scenario assumes that French businessmen were arrested by the new government, charged with espionage, and executed. France wants revenge... (As is often the case, the real challenge, and part of the Victory Conditions, is not just achieving your goals but doing so with minimal losses. This scenario has already been updated to the new version of the HUD-4, v1.2, so you will have to download that. With other scenarios, remember, since a new version of the HUD-4 is out, y…

The 66th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Sending a Message Show of Force Battleset These scenarios are based upon events described in the book, "Show of Force", by Charles D. Taylor, 1980, Charter Books. The United States has, ostensibly, established a Trident re-supply base in the Indian Ocean. The Soviets claim that such a base is meant to de-stabilize the region. Both nations have deployed extensive fleets to the Indian Ocean in a "Show of Force". The United States has established a Trident re-supply base in the Indian Ocean. The Soviets claim that such a base is meant to de-stabilize the region and prevent the self-determination of Afri…

File Name: Mauritania Madness 2017 File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 17 Jan 2012 File Updated: 27 Jul 2012 File Category: Scenarios DB Used: HUD 4.0 Official Release Authors: Mark Gellis Battleset: No Information China has armed a West African nation with ships and planes in return for oil. Now that nation is viewed as a threat to E.U. shipping... Click here to download this file

A really nice setup. The size of the AO stretches the player to cover many bases with very limited resources. Excellent. I started by moving FFs Torquay and Lynx into positions near Akrotiri to add their limited AAA support to the base in the event of air attack from Syria. The Malta MCM squadron also set sail to rendezvous with the inbound Malta Convoy. They were limited in their combat abilities, but some ASW detection gear is better than none at all. SS Orpheus and SSN Tinosa were ordered to set up positions in order to blockade the Aegean Sea. I wanted to keep whatever surface assets that might be there bottled up tightly. Malta launched her long-range r…

"Somali Pirates" Author: Freek Schepers Game Engine: ANW 3.9.3 Database: PDB My first impression: Looks like an usual scenario. The thematic issue is up to date. I´m curious how this will work out for Nato side. November, 1st, 2008, 12:00 - On we go! Ok, mission is to guard the Norway, Kimi and Austrain Trader. Thus I have to find them and vector my vessels in their directions. 1. 12:02 Found the three HVUs and plotted intercept courses for my ships. Oh Lord - so many ships on the ocean and so few guardians! 2. 12:50 Freek is really tough with the player. Just detected that he has unloaded the Harpoons from Nato´s ships 3. 15:20 Waiting…

File Name: Gray Hermit (1984) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 31 Aug 2013 File Category: Scenarios My 29th scenario of 2013... This Cold War scenario assumes the Soviets have stealthily moved a couple of submarines into Hudson Bay. Canada considers this intolerable and acts to remove this threat. I think this one turned out quite well. It might work well as a scenario for people getting used to Harpoon ANW because it is a straightforward search-and-destroy mission and you only have a few ships and aircraft to control. The only drawback, and this is often the case with an ASW scenario, is that there can be a lot of waiting while you search. …

File Name: JAPFISH - Sea of Japan File Submitter: TonyE File Submitted: 10 Mar 2007 File Category: Scenarios based on an original HC scenario by Mark Gellis Fish populations around the world have declined due to global warming, overfishing, and other factors. Japan has responded to dwindling catches by fishing closer and closer to parts of the Russian coast where fish are still relatively abundant. It is not clear whether Japanese fishing boats has actually violated Russian territorial waters or, if they have, how often it has happened, but Russia believes its territory is being violated. The situation has become very tense. Russian fishermen have fired shots at …