Scenario Design & Discussion

AAR: The Empire Strikes Back By Paul Bridge "I can smell'em", said Commander Pettigrew. "I can just smell skunks in those straits". The Queen had been attacked and our orders were to have the HMAS Melbourne and group attack the base at Hasanuddin. The only way to do this was for us to close the distance to the base. This meant that we had to travel through the Indonesian islands in order to close the range so that our Sea Venom could reach the target. Whether or not Cmdr. Pettigrew really could smell submarines was now immaterial. Orders were orders. Orders were also issued to the Eagle TG to make best speed towards the bases in the Western part of Indonesi…

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". …

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…

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 …

I apologize in advance if the following are silly questions, but I'm trying to figure out how to say certain things in a Harpoon orders text file. As I understand it, "Good luck and Godspeed" is the traditional closing salutation for American naval orders. Is it used in other English-speaking countries or is some other phrase used? If so, what are those phrases? (I'm guessing it might be "God save the Queen" in the U.K., but I honestly don't know, and I also don't know what Canada, Australia, and other Commonwealth nations use.) I would also be interested in the phrase used in other countries. I imagine that sometimes it is something that would translate fai…

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…

Friends, I'm working on some scenario ideas and got to thinking about something... Let's say it's 1986 and off the coast of East Africa during some crisis and NATO and the Soviets send various ships into the area. Someone (maybe a trigger-happy American captain) starts shooting at a Soviet ship or sub that got too close and spooked him and...well, when the dust clear, five or six ships and subs have been sunk, but most of them are Soviet vessels. The Soviets are, as one might expect, boiling mad. Whatever the truth is, as far as they can tell, this was not their fault. Of course, the Americans don't want to take the blame, either. It's not a presidential elec…

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

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…

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 288th NEW Harpoon scenario in the last 12 months! Pebble Island During the night of May 14th, 1982; SAS commandoes intended to attack the airfield on Pebble Island. The raid was to be carried out via helicopter from HMS Hermes, which had detached from the CVBG during the night to steam towards Pebble Island with a small escort. While the force was still 6 hours away from their attack, American SIGINT was received which indicated that the Argentinean aircraft carrier Veinticinco de Mayo had evaded British submarines and entered the 200nm exclusion zone. A unique carrier battle was now brewing.... Author: Freek Schepers With over 14…

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 290th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! 3.0 May Day First of May 1982 was when hostilities finally broke out around the Falklands. South Georgia had been liberated by the British and, early in the morning, a lone Vulcan bomber cut the runway at Port Stanley in half. The Argentineans had their army dug in around the Falklands, had attack planes dispersed around the islands, and the Air force and Navy were ready to meet the British forces. In the next three days, the General Belgrano and Sheffield were lost, air attacks proved the effectiveness of the Sea Harriers and SAMs; but also demonstrated their limitations and damaged many ships …

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: Atlantic Clash - scenario for H3 ANW and the HUD 3 File Submitter: RKoelbach File Submitted: 6 Dec 2010 File Updated: 6 Feb 2011 File Category: Scenarios DB Used: HUD 3 V 1.5.0 of 2010-10-30 (Darren Buckley) Authors: Ralf Koelbach Battleset: No Information Hi Pooners, my first scenario for H3 ANW (HUE), since HUE has been released. It is written for and with Darren´s HUD 3 V 1.5 database. Story: What would happen, if a current US CVBG clashes with a strong Russian CVBG, centered around the CVN Kusnetzov and full of up-to-date Flankers and Fulcrums? This one is a nice duel I think. Be careful when using time compression Hope you´ve f…

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

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…

The 166th NEW Harpoon scenario in the last 12 months! Operation Island Wind Dateline July 1, 2008 North Korea has recently been threatening to test a long-range ballistic missile; shrugging off the concerns of the world community. Despite the threat of sanctions, they have persisted in their preparations. This scenario was originally written for Harpoon Classic by Scott Boles (a.k.a. Akula) and has been re-made for compatibility with Harpoon3 and the PlayersDB with the consent the author. Author: Herman Hum This scenario has been tested for compatibility with Harpoon ANW. Interfet-Stabilize East Timor is an old P…

The 289th NEW Harpoon scenario of the year! The Backyard The Cold War finally went hot and furious as battles arose around the world. This scenario deals with a U.S. multi-carrier attack supported by Japanese forces in the Western Pacific. The U.S. forces must neutralize the Soviet fortresses in the theatre. Those Red bases are heavily protected. 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. Author: Herman Hum With over 117,000 PlayersDB scenarios downloaded in the last 36 weeks alone, the PlayersDB has pro…