Scenario Design & Discussion

The 279th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! The Third Temple A surprise attack by Egypt and Syria on Israel during Yom Kippur yesterday has been astonishingly successful. Using the element of surprise, the Egyptian and Syrian Air Forces destroyed scores of Israeli planes in their revetments. Under cover of the strongest SAM-belts the world has ever seen, Syrian ground forces have broken through Israeli defences along the Golan Heights and are pushing south towards Jerusalem. Israeli ground-attack planes destroyed scores of tanks, but were decimated by SAMs. As the Syrians are moving out of the protection of their SAM belt, they rely on the A…

25th Scenario Posted this Year! NWCM3 - Carving Turkey When the NSC made good on its promise to deliver SA-10 Grumble SAM systems to the Greek Cypriots in the spring of 1995 despite Turkish protests, the stage was set for another conflict in Cyprus. The presence of the advanced weapons shifted the delicate balance of power as it put nearly all aircraft operating from the Turkish side of the island at risk. NATO was embarrassed when regular Turkish forces stormed the island a few months later. It had not been aware of Turkey's intent to reclaim Cyprus once and for all. Hand-in-hand with the economic boom in the NSC came military modernization and revitalizat…

The 258th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! ANGLO-EUROPEAN WAR The EC was the first economic system to recover from the World Recession of the 90's. However, the advantage gained was short-lived, with the US economic situation strengthening rapidly. European leaders understood that if the US was to regain its advantage in economics held since the Second World War, the European nations would continue to live under the iron fist of North American dominance. They decided that things must change. When the complete ban on trade with North America was passed in several legislatures of the EC nations, the world was aghast. In effect, the EC declared Col…

The 54th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Philippines When Mt. Pinatubo covered Clark AFB in the Philippines, it signaled the end of US protection of this nation. By 2008, the Philippine Air Force had no operational jet fighters and its Navy had not acquired SAM- or SSM-armed ships. Insurgents and terrorist groups made good use of the stricken military and, by 2008, the Philippines opened discussions with China, Japan, and Korea on military and economic cooperation. The Philippines' closest neighbours, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei, perceived a repeat of the WWII invasion threat from the north and each decided to widen their sphere…

The 277th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Alpha Strike 1 As the tide of battle in the North Atlantic turned in favour of the NATO allies, it became clear that the lynch pin was Keflavik. Without it, NATO lost the ability to track R3 submarines as they sortied into the North Atlantic to interdict the sea lanes of communication. Without it, the convoys in transit lost raid warning and attrition capability on the Backfires, Bears, and Badgers hunting them. With Keflavik, R3 gained a forward base for those same aircraft, extending their search and attack range thousands of miles further into the North Atlantic and making strikes on the ConUS a terri…

MatchPlay The full and complete "MatchPlay" battleset is now available! The second and third rounds of the "MatchPlay" battleset have been publicly released. These four scenarios have previously been unavailable to the Harpoon public. Now that the PlayersDB contest is complete, they are hereby posted for your enjoyment. Anyone interested in playing the battleset as a consecutive / connected series is welcome to play the first scenario in the series and send in the results to Freek Schepers at freek_schepers@yahoo.com and he will send out the next scenario in the series and customize it to your losses in the previous round. MATCHPLAY Terrorist att…

File Name: Coconut Crisis 1980 File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 17 Feb 2012 File Updated: 27 Jul 2012 File Category: Scenarios DB Used: HUD 4 v 1.1 b8 Authors: Mark Gellis Battleset: No Information In 1980, there was a quasi-rebellion in the New Hebrides. Historically, there was little loss of life. But what if the organization behind the rebellion was more violent, and Great Britain decided to eliminate the threat, but France refused to allow Great Britain to use force in an area where they were co-administrators? So, the British task force must conduct the raid but it is possible that France will attack them before they even reach the New Hebrides..…

File Name: A Fight to the Death (mod. version ANW / HUD3) File Submitter: RKoelbach File Submitted: 29 Aug 2010 File Updated: 6 Feb 2011 File Category: Scenarios DB Used: HUD 3 V 1.5.0 (2010-10-30) Authors: AGSI (mod. version by Ralf Koelbach) Battleset: GC1 Hello Pooners, " A Fight to the Death" maybe is the most discussed and debated stock scen, delivered with the very first battleset for Harpoon 2 back in 1994. Several pooners have written their own modification of this thrilling scen. In the HUD 3 version currently available, there is a modified version based on discussions Darren and I had. Here now is another variation, my "personal edition". …

AAR: First Contact [spoiler Alert] By Ragnar Emsoy Reports were received from all throughout the Norwegian Sea: many unidentified ships and aircraft were spotted closing in on the Norwegian coast. Fighters had been scrambled, but we needed to conduct a proper surface search. As four Orion P-3s of the 17th Maritime Patrol Squadron prepared to launch from Andoya, most of the unidentified contacts were localized through ESM efforts. Some contacts were easily classified as Kresta cruisers and others as Sovremenny/Hangzhou destroyers. Northern Command ordered us to ascertain the identities and intentions of these contacts. While waiting for the P-3s t…

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 …

The 44th NEW Harpoon scenario in the last 12 months! Oubliette The war in central Europe is bogging down. Although NATO has suffered horrendous losses, the Soviet armoured thrust has lost its momentum. There are rumours of growing dissension and unrest among the upper echelons of military command in Moscow. The risk of the Soviets resorting to the use of nuclear weapons in desperation has climbed considerably in the past few days. US Navy ballistic missile submarines, already deployed and at sea, have been directed to their patrol stations in case things 'go south'. Several of these boomers, including USS Tennessee, have been ordered to take up …

I played from the Israeli side and started off by breaking up my groups into individual ships and spreading them out in hopes of getting some ESM cross-detections. I saw that the PCFG Mivtach had no SSM armament and was thus the weakest of my assets so I chose her to be my "beater" to flush the game for my "hounds". After gaining separation from one another, I set the Mivtach and 2 other ships from the flanks on intermittent active radar watches so that only one would be active at any particular time. I felt that this would, hopefully, prevent me from total surprise from the Syrians. The Mivtach increased her speed to flank since she had the duty of 'sniffing' out the…

File Name: Sharks vs Flattops File Submitter: RKoelbach File Submitted: 31 Jan 2010 File Category: Scenarios DB Used: ANW DB v 2.2 Authors: Ralf Koelbach Battleset: No Information Sharks vs. Flattops A scenario for Harpoon 3 ANW by Ralf Koelbach Database: ANW DB v 2.2 Click here to download this file

I re-organized my ships in hopes of keeping as many escorts between the Queen and the threat axis. There were many unidentified vessels in the area so I had my Shackelton MPA investigate them and found many of them to be neutral. Only one vessel was from Indonesia but she was not operating in an openly hostile manner so I was not allowed to engage her. Instead, I kept a close eye on her throughout the voyage. My fighters positioned themselves as BarCap in hopes of intercepting any potential attacks from Indonesia. As the island was very large, an attack could conceivably appear from a very wide area. I kept my fingers crossed that I would have sufficient warning …

The 46th NEW Harpoon scenario in the last 12 months! Sea King to Chile Incident One of the most mysterious events of the war happened on May 16th, when a Sea King was found burning and abandoned near Punta Arenas airbase. The British claimed a 500nm navigation error but, after the war, it became clear that SAS Special Forces had been planning a raid to take out the Exocet-armed Super Etendard aircraft which had sunk Sheffield and Atlantic Conveyor. Speculation on the nature of this operation still ranges from SAS-Hercules aircraft landing on Rio Grande airbase in order to destroy the planes on the ground to the setting up of covert radar facilities t…

The 4th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! Warnings This scenario is based upon events described in the book, "Show of Force", by Charles D. Taylor, 1980, Charter Books. 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 African nations and others within the area due to intimidation. Both nations have deployed extensive fleets to the Indian Ocean in a "Show of Force". In retaliation for American ASAT operations, the Soviets have replied in-kind and destroyed all reconnaissance and communications satelli…

Just a thought... In any scenario, you could divide a particular nation into more than one side; the difference being how different parts responded to other sides. For example, you could have two French ships as "France Task Force 1" and a third ship as "France Task Force 2." France Task Force 1 is set to respond to to a potentially hostile side as Neutral, but the second task force (the one ship) has a loose cannon for a captain...he's set on Hostile, to model him panicking and shooting first even though it is against orders. He gets played by the AI. Since the two French task forces are Friendly to each other, I imagine one shooting at a supposedly neutral …

The 54th NEW Harpoon scenario in the last 12 months! Shadow the Boomer After several vicious carrier battles in the Barents Sea and with the ground war stalemated in the Nordic winter, negotiations started to end the war. Both parties observed a cease-fire, which held surprisingly well in the first week. However, NATO feared Putin would make use of the cease-fire to bring his boomers to bastions prepared in the Barentz Sea. USN and Royal Navy hunter-killer subs were sent to stake out Severomorsk and be prepared to shadow SSBNs exiting the harbour. Author: Freek Schepers Nordkapp Prior to war breaking out, a small Dutch Task force of…

File Name: Pason Battleset for Harpoon 3.6 and the DB 2000 File Submitter: RKoelbach File Submitted: 3 Aug 2010 File Category: BattleSets DB Used: db2000 (Ragnar Emsoy) Authors: Ralf Koelbach Pason Battleset: The original battleset for Harpoon 3 V 3.6 and the DB 2000 database (editor: Ragnar Emsoy) I´ve included a dsd-file so it handles easy. Regards, Ralf Click here to download this file

File Name: Ralf's H3/HUE Standalone scenarios for ANW DB V 2.4.7 File Submitter: RKoelbach File Submitted: 22 May 2011 File Category: BattleSets DB Used: ANW DV V 2.4.7 (Dale Hillier) Authors: Ralf Koelbach My updated standalone scenarios for Harpoon 3 ANW/HUE and the ANW DB V 2.4.7. Battleset description file included in the zip. Click here to download this file