Scenario Design & Discussion

27th Scenario posted this year! Dave Steinmeyer has released his first Harpoon 3 scenario. He is the 9th author to post a scenario. Congratulations, Dave, and thanks for sharing your work with the community. Lone Wolf Three NATO diesel submarines travelled north together, guarding each other during snorkel periods. They had intended to conduct wolf-pack operations near the Soviet sub base at Polyarnyy. They have been plagued by bad luck, however. First, one unit was sunk by a Tango-class SS before the other two could sink it. Then as they approached their objective, one of the remaining two boats hit a mine and was lost. The remaining ship, a Dutch Walr…

AAR (SP) „A Fight to the Death“ – playing Soviet side H3 ANW 3.8.0 RC11 Player´s DB 7.4.7 Pentium 4 2,93 Ghz / 1Gb RAM 1. Introduction This scen is one of my all-time favourite ones. I wrote about playing it MP as Soviet side and losing without any chance. Winning it against the AI is possible, but not so easy…. 2. How it worked 1994-12-19; 12:00 Start I am lucky this time! My CVGB is in the North of the map, not so much away from my land base and it is unlikely that there was a Nato CTF between them. Instantly I launch every AC stationed at Kevlavik. I sent my Backfires and Badgers North-West and station them directly over the CVBG. Ke…

I'm brainstorming various ideas and I'd like a reality check on this one... "Water War Template" Basic concept: Water is already reaching dangerous shortages in some places. Especially when the territory is disputed, and perhaps if it is not, but still temptingly close to a border, a nation might decide to seize territory. This is not an invasion--it is simply a land grab. But it is land with a river on it (or both shores of a river that both countries share). Naturally, the country that has lost territory will be upset and will try to get it back, perhaps the help of allies or an international (perhaps UN) coalition. I imagine that any valuable resource i…

Little curious here. I've noticed in a scenerio that I've designed that on one ship in particular it seems to have a small fuel load. Once going to flank, the fuel time drops to barely 48 hrs. Is this a fuel load issue that the designer can change or has the geniuses here figured out how to make ships less effeciant than others. Thanks again to all whose reply.

SPOILER ALERT THE BACKYARD II: FINAL SHOOTOUT The Cold War finally went hot and furious as battles arose around the world. This scenario deals with a final U.S. multi-carrier attack supported by Japanese forces in the Western Pacific. The U.S. forces have neutralized all but one of the Soviet fortresses in the theatre. Now it is time to finish the job. This scenario was originally written by Ralf Koelbach for Harpoon Classic Commanders Edition and has been re-made for Harpoon3 and the PlayersDB with the consent of the author. But beware, the Soviets have reinforced their last bastion to the utmost. For best results, this scenario should be played with both…

AAR "China: 2014 #01: The Fight for the Islands" Author: Klaus Behrmann Game Engine: Harpoon 3.6.2 Database: DB2000 V 10.0.0 Start: April, 12th, 2014, 18:00 I choose Japanese Side 1. At 18:20 I have AAw missions for both Naha and Nyutabaru set up. In addition my Task Force has two helos on sonobuyo station all time aloft 2. Behind the fighter CAP a Sentinel is patrolling near Nyutabaru and an Orion is heading southwest in order to gather intelligence 3. The US air base Kadena has fighters and a Sentry up, thus screening my SAG and both Kadena and Naha 4. At 18:35, The Sentry has detected Chinese vessels and fighters; Eagles are vectored West. …

SPOILER ALERT AAR Old versus new #2, Part 1. Before starting the game, I always explore the scenario [Where is what] and make notes on paper; I launch the aircraft I need in the first stage [mostly, available AEW/EW/ASW and fighters] and re-arm aircraft if necessary; I plot course for the naval taskforces and submarines, plot ASW-missions with the formation editor, etc. etc... It is always a challenge to engage the massive and technical advanced Armed Forces of the USA. In this second [of 3] scenario, I play Europe. This scenario is btw, one of my favourites: +++ Here are the Freek’s orders: #2.0 BATTLE FOR EUROPE This is the secon…

The 32nd NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Hemphill's Ordeal This scenario is an interpretation of the account from Michael A. Palmer's, "The War that Never Was". "About a dozen Soviet submarines of various types, both diesel and nuclear-powered, lay athwart the sea lanes leading toward the Norwegian Sea. The Soviet Northern Fleet staff had charged its submarines with three tasks: reconnaissance for long-range SNA strikes, delaying the movement north of key American convoys and task forces, and attacking NATO ships and installations with torpedoes and missiles. The Soviets had far better success with more traditional attacks. In the first t…

The 289th NEW Harpoon scenario in the last 12 months! 4.0 San Carlos By the 20th of May, there were strong indications that invasion was imminent. Destroyers had shelled Argentine coastal garrisons and rumours were rampant that SAS troops were on the ground. During the night, an Argentine freighter was shelled by an unknown British warship in Falkland Sound. By daybreak, Argentinean observation posts saw the amphibious force steam into San Carlos waters. Author: Freek Schepers With over 142,000 PlayersDB scenarios downloaded in the last 12 months alone, the PlayersDB has proven itself the unequivocal players' favourite. Harpoon ANW u…

Here's another excellent AAR. It is reprinted here with permission of the author: This scenario hosted at: SZO file archives - Home of the Harpoon3 PlayersDB FilesOfScenShare HarpGamer.com - Home of the HCDB.

File Name: The Battle of Baegryeong-do (2015) File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 10 May 2013 File Category: Scenarios My 16th Harpoon ANW/HUD-4 scenario of 2013... In the near future, South Korean forces must defend the small island of Baegryeong-do from a North Korean attack! Image: Two South Korean F-16s (Source: U.S. Air Force website photo 071114-F-1851B-211; Author: Master Sgt. Jack Braden) Click here to download this file

The 125th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Clearing House New World Order battleset #4 - Part 1 - The War with UBAN - Indian Ocean Persian Gulf - #5 CLEARING HOUSE In September 1995, one of the West's not-so-secret desires was fulfilled. Saddam Hussein, the mother-of-all dictators, was assassinated. However, this apparent good fortune has also kindled one of the Western world's darkest fears. In the chaos following Hussein's demise, the "rogue nation" of Iran has taken political control of Iraq. This new nation has further amalgamated with Yemen, Syria, Egypt, and Libya in a new military and economic confederation known as the United Broth…

AAR: Breaking the Shackles - India [spoiler Alert] By Quinton van Zyl Prime Minister Gandhi was quite explicit in her orders. Ensure that Sri Lanka remained under the hegemony of Mother India. Intelligence on enemy dispositions was vague. The Indian Ocean is a BIG place, after all. The only nugget of useful data was that American forces had left Diego Garcia and the Strait of Malacca. With only had these general locations to work from, the reconnaissance assets were despatched; Canberra from Jamnagar, Antonov-12s from Calcutta, and Dakotas from Port Blair. It was still the middle of the night, but I was gambling on the fact that although my cameras would b…

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

The 290th NEW Harpoon scenario in the last 12 months! 4.0 Ice Picket Congratulations to Bart Gauvin for posting up his very first Harpoon scenario for everyone to enjoy. "Gunner98" is the 17th author to release a new scenario. Feb 14th 1994, Valentines Day. Less than 24 hours ago, Soviet forces struck all across Eastern Europe in a drive to seize the initiative and establish themselves as the dominant force in Europe once and for all. NATO, and particularly the Americans are not well positioned to challenge this sudden attack. There are two US CVBGs in the Persian Gulf area and a third transiting the Indian Ocean and a fourth patrolling near…

Over the years, I've found a couple of books and articles like Sources of Conflict in the 21st Century that outline various scenarios for future conflicts (e.g., a war between Russia and the Ukraine). There are very useful, as one might imagine, for creating Harpoon scenarios. I want to read more of them! I suspect there are a lot of these floating around, but I've only found a few of them. Who publishes them? Where can I find them? Are they available online? I imagine various countries' defense departments wrote up a bunch of them--planning war games, etc.--were they ever made available to the public? I'm interested both in recent ones and historical ones …

The 63rd NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Svalbard Oil Battleset The discovery of the third largest oil and gas reserves on the planet near the Svalbard Islands led to a dispute with Russia, who has mining rights and maintains settlements on Spitsbergen, claiming that the islands belong to the chain of islands of Franz Josef Land. Svalbard Oil 1: The Blockade In a surprise move Russia landed troops in Longyearbyen ten days ago and occupied some of the major oil platforms. Norway filed a protest with the UN and requested formal NATO assistance, which immediately was granted. NATO is now assembling forces to break the blockade around the Sval…

File Name: SvaOil1 File Submitter: Herman File Submitted: 6 Nov 2008 File Category: Scenarios DB Used: Y2kDB v10.0.0 Authors: Klaus Behrmann Battleset: Svalbard Oil Svalbard Oil Battleset The discovery of the third largest oil and gas reserves on the planet near the Svalbard Islands led to a dispute with Russia, who has mining rights and maintains settlements on Spitsbergen, claiming that the islands belong to the chain of islands of Franz Josef Land. Svalbard Oil 1: The Blockade In a surprise move Russia landed troops in Longyearbyen ten days ago and occupied some of the major oil platforms. Norway filed a protest with the UN and requested forma…

As a real fan of mountaineering and Argentina's Mount Aconcagua, I elected to play side. After examining my initial dispositions, I decided that since my troop transports were virtually defenceless and I had no idea where the Chileans had positioned their submarine, I had to see to their protection first. I re-organized my CTF to provide ASW support and to escort them to the disputed zone. All available aerial assets were also launched to attack the Chilean airbase at Punta Arenas. Since there was only one Chilean base in the region, I hoped to squelch her air operations with a lightning strike. My lone, slow Dakota recon asset was sent to look for the Chilean fle…

AAR: The Cyprus Question 1966 [spoiler Alert] By Quinton Van Zyl Admiral Feathergill, aboard the carrier Ark Royal, examined his Order of Battle one last time. As the mission of the task force was the liberation of Cyprus, he decided to re-arm most of his Greek air assets for AAW missions. They weren’t likely to be of much use over Cyprus and their limited range meant that they could only attack the Turkish mainland. That was the one thing he did NOT intend to do. He would try to keep the conflict centred on Cyprus and not allow it to escalate to attacks on Turkey proper. He immediately sent his reconnaissance assets aloft to try and pin down the location of…