Scenario Design & Discussion

AAR: Go Tell the Spartans [spoiler Alert] – Turkey A Harpoon 3 scenario By Stephen Mills Kemal reminisced over his last visit with his grandfather before he passed away. His grandfather had been taught by his grandfather, "Bir Yunanliya asla güvenemezsin." [You just can't trust a lousy Greek.] Once again, he thought, they had proven that their promises of peace were worthless. The briefing officer droned on about their treacherous attack across the Meric River. However, a determined and fierce response was underway. They would feel the rage and ire of the Turkish people and Kemal was proud of the fact that he would be an instrument of their vengeance while strap…

File Name: Western Lemur (2018) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 28 Apr 2013 File Category: Scenarios My fourteenth scenario of 2013... In the near future, with a revolution erupting in Madagascar, the E.U. has decided to support the lawfully elected government of that country and assist them with their fight against the rebels. An E.U. task force led by the French amphibious assault ship Tonnerre must cripple the rebel forces currently using a town in eastern Madagascar as their stronghold. The name of their mission: Operation Western Lemur. Image: The French Command and Projection Ship Tonnerre (Source: Official Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Alici…

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…

File Name: Kurils - Sea of Japan File Submitter: TonyE File Submitted: 10 Mar 2007 File Category: Scenarios The Kuril Islands is the setting for this dispute between Russia and Japan. The Russsians invaded the Kurils near the end of World War II and Japan wants these islands back. Neither side has signed a formal peace treaty following the war because of the Kurils Islands. Whenever negotiations take place, Japan brings up the Kurils in an effort to get them returned. So far, the Russians have not yielded, despite their inability to support the Islands. The economic situation of the Kurils and its native, largely Japanese, population is deterioriating as each day p…

Here's an excellent AAR. It is reprinted here with permission of the author: 24 December 2003, 00:00:00 Zulu: First I took some time to study the scenario; what units are available and the best tactic to eliminate as many enemy targets as possible. Several aircraft are already airborne. 4 Backfire-C [no payload] aircraft have been ordered to return to Yelizovo AB. 4 groups with 4 Backfires each, armed with AS-4 Kitchen missiles are cruising east of Misawa. They have to close to a distance of less than 190nm in order to launch their deadly payload. Few fighters, as well as EW/AEW units, are airborne. My naval assets are 9 ships and 6 submarines. 2 SSK KILO …

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…

Fellow Harpooners, I have a theoretical scenerio in the works where Iran invades Manama Bahrain in retaliation for EU sanctions. (I figured the 5th Fleet HQ and the US Embassy would be good targets.) It appears that on my machine the more units their are in the scenerio the slower the game runs (slewing doesn't work well.) So since I wanted to have red targets in the Straits of Hormuz, Tehran and on Bahrain, would breaking up the scenerio into two or three smaller scenerios would make it run any smoother? Thanks to all as usual. Steve

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: C Level Brawl File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 10 May 2011 File Updated: 10 May 2011 File Category: Scenarios DB Used: ANW/HUD3 Authors: Mark Gellis Battleset: No Information A small action...Canada takes on Colombia. Enjoy. Click here to download this file

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 …

Herman, Freek and I got together yesterday evening for a game of Shadow the Boomer, created especially for the community's favourite databsase, the Players DB. This is a three-sided scenario, with the US, UK and Russia. I took the USA, mistakenly thinking it had the boomer. I found myself in command of an early model Los Angeles SSN, La Jolla. My mission was to find a "Delta" boomer and shadow it. ROEs permitted engagement only if I was fired upon. In a hurry to get into the location and thinking, clearly incorrectly, that I could run deep at 14 knots without being detected, I headed south. Suddenly, I detected two torpedo contacts, USET-80s. I launched back o…

AAR Backyard 2, Part 2 During the first 16 hours of the operation, my aircraft and submarines were rather successful! 23 Soviet surface vessels, including capital ships, such as the Admiral Gorshkov and the Kiev [both CVHG], 2 BCGN [Frunze and Admiral Ushakov], 4 other cruisers, 5 destroyers, 6 patrol craft, and 4 non-combatants were destroyed. All combatants operated in the Sea of Ochotsk. The helicopters and S-2 Viking took out 7 submarines, including 1 OSCAR-II class SSGN. Submarine #8, an Echo II mod, was destroyed by a Chinese Han-class submarine. The F-14 performed very good as well: 59 fighters [MiG-25, MiG-31, and Su-27 Flanker], 44 bombers [Tu-95 Bear,…

The 265th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Assemble in the Antilles This is the third scenario in the "Hugo's Folly" Battleset. Elections in the Netherlands Antilles have seen gains for the political party seeking closer ties to Venezuela and its President, Chavez. The Government has fallen and the legal status of the islands is unclear; with Curacao an independent nation within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Aruba, and Bonaire seeking a similar status, and the three smaller islands of St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, and Saba being municipalities within the Netherlands. Early this morning, Venezuela carried out a sudden invasion of the ABC islands…

The 286th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Belgrano The sinking of the General Belgrano on May 2nd 1982 caused the single heaviest loss of the Falklands war. HMS Conqueror showed that Argentinean escorts could not prevent nuclear subs from killing their ships. As a direct result of this attack, the Argentine aircraft carrier 'Veinticinco de Mayo', which had successfully detected the Task Force with her Trackers and was preparing a strike with her A-4Q Skyhawks, returned to port and played no further part in the conflict. Author: Freek Schepers With over 106,000 PlayersDB scenarios downloaded in the last 34 weeks alone, the PlayersDB…

File Name: Baltic Squeeze (1980) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 11 Jul 2013 File Category: Scenarios My 24th scenario of the year... A nice, basic Cold War scenario, set in 1980, in which West German forces must ambush a Soviet convoy headed for East Germany. It's one of those scenarios where, if you are careful, it is not too hard to win, but if you are not careful, it is very easy to lose. Image: West German guided missile destroyer Lütjens (D185) (Source: U.S. DefenseImagery photo VIRIN: DN-SC-89-03687; Author: PH3 Haley, USN) Click here to download this file

Here's another excellent AAR. It is reprinted here with permission of the author: I'm not an old hand at this game so after a few attempts to work out the interface and how its done, this was my first "proper" game. Only Women and Children was the scenario - in short, the British evacuation of Hong Kong after a Chinese invasion. I'm playing the Brits. Starting assets were two frigates (a Type 23 and a Type 22 Batch 3) and two destroyers (the Brit AA destroyers with Sea Darts and not much else) guarding a convoy, a whole bunch of cruise liners and tankers at Hong Kong. For whatever reason, those four surface ships have no helicopters, which proves quite a …

Hello, I´m just back to Harpoon after a pause of several (eight I think) yeras. Though I´m focuse on Harpoon Classic and on my way finishing a scenario I think it coould be fun to design one for ANW, too. Is there anyone left playing Harpoon 3 occasionally?

The 275th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! SHARKS OF STEEL - PIG BOATS 2 At first, the world considered the declaration of war nothing more than a formality -- a joke. How could Russia successfully stage a war against Spain? Sure, the Spanish had vetoed the EC trade agreement with their large eastern neighbour, but they had their reasons. The problems could be evaluated and resolved. The declaration of war, though unnecessary, was somewhat understandable. In any case, the two nations were so far removed that nothing would come of the "war" -- right? The EC was completely shocked by the blitz the Russians conducted against the Spanish fleet. I…

Here's another excellent AAR. It is reprinted here with permission of the author:

File Name: Pledge 6: The Matsu Incident 2015 File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 08 Sep 2012 File Category: Scenarios A routine patrol for the Taiwanese Navy. Or, at least, it should have been... Image: The U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-993) crossing Thimble Shoals in Chesapeake Bay; Released to Public ID: DNSC880921; Author: PH2 K. Bates, USN. The Kidd was eventually sold to Taiwan, where she serves as the Tso Ying (DDG-1803). Click here to download this file