JSF

File Name: Surprises in the Pacific File Submitter: RKoelbach File Submitted: 25 Dec 2010 File Category: WestPac DB Used: HC95to10 (Rene Haar) Authors: Ralf Koelbach Battleset-WPac: .scq - WPac - WestPac Surprises in the Pacific Year 2015 You find Yourself in command of the Japanese and allied forces in a big struggle versus the PRC and North Korea. Your forces are outnumbered and the Chinese bring in their latest inventory. Russian intentions are unclear and unpredictable. If they join the war on China' s side it will become extremely difficult to hold Japan and Taiwan. Yet You are not defenseless. Both new Japanese through-deck carriers are in service. The big surprise for the enemy will be that these carriers actually carry modern F-35 fighter bombers. So while you were caught off guard by the first hostile steps, You can strike back by using your brand new carriers and their modern combat aircraft. You are in command of US air assets at Clark AFB, too. Several squadrons of first line bombers and fighter bombers are ready for counteroffensive actions. Make it count. Xmas 2010 Ralf Koelbach Click here to download this file

Hi Silent, thx! I love those old scenarios and would like to have the time to play all of them through. Maybe when I´m retired - I´m sure HCE still will be there Let´s call it HCU = Harpoon Classic Unsinkable Regards, Ralf

After Action Report "Punch Through" A Harpoon Classic scenario for the original NACV Battleset "Punch Through" was one of my favourites in the old times. It always gave me close and hard fought out battles. To be honest, I usually lost. In this scenario the red aircraft are rather well coordinated and heavily press the Nato defenders of Stornoway and Kevlavik. And so things getting started many years after the last scenario run. I start with setting up my GIUK CAP and an Iceland based Sentry. Soon after that one wave after the other attacks. SU-24 Fencers, Badgers, Backfires. The typical Soviet Cold War inventory. Nasty surprises included...those Amos missiles get several fighters. I remember - that must have been this fictious AAM capable Backfire version. Anyway, got many inbound bandits. Kill ratio after the first battles is 46 to 6. Most important: I scored several Bear D recce birds an even a Kamikaze Mainstay which tried to break out into the Atlantic. Twenty years back, playing Harpoon V 1.3 for DOS I usually tried to counterattack as early as possible, using my aicraft based at Stornoway. I have never forgotten the lessons which the AI taught me back then. My attacks failed miserably, running straight into massive CAP based around Orland. Suddenly I have to remember another nasty surprise in this scen: while focusing on the constant air attacks it´seasy to forget taht the main goal is to get the merchants through. Red draws the attention away from this main battlefield by his air attacks. And here we are: one merchant group is attacked by four torpedos. Sub contact in another sector - close to my carrier group! Identified as Victor III - an deadly opponent. And extremely close to the group. Three helos instantly attack, one torpedo hit. Second torpedo hit, the Victor III is sunk. The four hostile torps missed my merchants. Meanwhile my GIUK CAP got four more Tu-95Gs, trying to break through into the Atlantic. Kill ratio is 51 to 6. In the years I have forgotten how many aircraft the Soviets have in this scen. Could it be possible that they are already significantly weakened? SOSUS contact: an Akula. A real first line sub which ought to be sunk. Two Orions underway. Thogh I send in a third Orion, I lose the contact. subs are really good modelled in HCE - hard to detect and destroy. Two Tornados detect a pair of Fulcrums operating far from Orland. They close in and attack. One Fulcrum downed.The othr one launches missiles, my Tornados, too. All miss. Estimates indicate that there is still a full regiment bombers stationed at Shagui air base, and over 40 attackers at Orland. Much too early for a counterattack. Patience is the virtue needed here. Here we are! A massive air strike heading West towards Iceland. 19 aircraft. Looks like a combination of Flankers and Fencers. Got four of them but the Flankers kill two Eagles. Next attack with two Tornados. Oh Lord! ALL are Flankers! Maybe they detected the Sentry circling over Iceland. And Flankers are the only chance to get it. Got one more, but still 15 left! Two Tornados versus 15 Flankers! Lost both Tornados, no chance. But they kill another five Flankers. Meanwhile eight more Tornados launched from vagar in order to intercept the remaining ten Flankers. VIctory! The Tornados close undetected from the Flanker´s six and kill them all without any losses. Kill ratio is 71 to 10. The best Soviet fighters downed. Time to plan a first counterstrike on Orland. There are still around 20 attackers at Orland. I have to lure them out of Orland into a battle before my strikers can attack. Lost a merchant! That Akula I didn´t find killed one. Meanwhile another bomber wave is heading for Iceland, 16 of them. Speed indicates Backfires. Lost another ship, a tanker. Where are the red subs? Two Eagle pilots are now aces: In a perfectly conducted attack, those two Eagles shoot down all 16 Backfires. Kill ratio is 87 to 10. Pressing started: Moving several aircraft to Stornoway and Vagar in order to have them closer to Orland. Begin to fly close in CAPs. My forward CAP shoots down four TU-95Gs. The last bomber wave? First attack wave Orland launched: two F-15 Eagle and 12 SEAD and Guided armed Jaguars. Another torpedo salvo out of nowwhere fired at one of my SAGs. That´s one main difference to the old Harpoon Classic or Harpoon 1.X: Subs are very much more dangerous. Strike abandoned. Low on fuel. Four merchants lost. And no sub contact. That part of the scen does not work for me. Got two more Beard Ds and four Fulcrums on CAP near Orland. Time to try another strike. SEAD armed Tornados underway. All four Tornados shot down. Problem is there are no harms. Just short-ranged ARM. So my aircraft need assistance. I vector one Improved LA SSGN, loaded with Tomahawks, and a SAG, including Tomahawk armed Spruances, towards Orland. Contact! SSGN Charlie. Got another Mainstay. Contact! Victor III. This one is, too, close two my SAG heading North towards Orland. So a typical Soviet pair of nuke subs. I need to get them before they get a not so distant merchant group. Orderered a P-3 and the Improved LA to intercept those subs. Firm cobtact on the Charlie! Torpedos underway.Got the Victor III.The Charlie surfaces. Got it with a standoff ASW weapon. No more air attacks. Seems I have got almost all bombers and longe range fighters. even more important: I got the Mainstays and Bear Ds. Thus the opponent is blindet. Now I have to carefully drive my remaining merchants home. It´s a pity that there are no tankers in this scen. Having them I could fly my Canadian Hornet to Stornoway and use them with their long range Harm ARMs to destroy Orlands SAM sites. air contact! The Ai still lives. Nine Fencers heading for Iceland. A pair of Tornados and another one of Eagles gets them. Nine hostile birds less. Kill ratio is 108 to 16. Splashed two more recce Bears. Both trying to reach the open sea. One fyling over the GIUK Gap, the other one trying to overfly the UK. All merchant convoys are now guarded by subs or ASW aircraft. Counting my sheep heading for the East Coast shows that there are enough left for fulfilling the Victory Conditions. I need six each arriving on both sides of the Atlantic. All five lost so far were heading Westward. Luckily, there are still ten left, dispersed in four groups. One once was a six ship convoy which got ambushed so only one merchant survived. Another sole tanker and two four-ships packages, one guarded by surface comabatants. With SNA assets nearly annihilated, especially beacuse I got their Mainstays and Bears, the main remaining threat are hostile subs. I caccot afford another madman killing five merchants. IIRC in the old days I focused on killing the Soviet Bases at this stage. Strategically, that is neither necessary (VCs) nor important (it is enough to have destroyed the bombers , Bears and Mainstays). Sub contact! Detected by a Nimrod. Two torp sfired, one hits and damages the sub. Regained contact. The sub does 31 knots, veyr deep. A fast nuke boat. Four more torps, hit! A Victor III bought the farm. Fourth sub killed, but I fear there are many more lurking on my se lanes. Torpedo contact close to one of my merchant groups! A salvo of four torps. They get the FF Knox, which led the convoy. Next torpedo contact.It´s not over until it´s over. This one detected by my Seawolf SSN. Out of the blue sky I lose the last survivor of a six ship convoy heading for the US East Coast. This must have been the sub which had already killed the five other merchants. Got another Mainstay. A four ship convoy heading Eastward is attacked, one merchant sunk. This is the group most far away from the coasts and not yet closely guarded by own assets. Two Bear Ds shot down. Out of nowwhere, 18 missiles heading for Iceland. Coming from Southeast. Must be sublaunched cruise missiles. No F-15 stationed well to intercept them. So it all depends on Kevlavik´s SAMs.One pair of Eagles comes close enough to launch - at least. Kevlavik starts firing Patriots. Got the all! Six more missiles approaching. The second wave. Nukes if I´m unlucky. Kevlavik is nuked. Four F-15 killed on the ground. Now I´ve got nuclear release as well. SOSUS contact: a Kilo SSK. Lurking around in the middle of nowwhere, on my SLOCs. Another SOSUS contact. A Foxtrot, rather close to the UK. 14 Jaguars transferred to vagar which is about 100nm closer to Orland compared to Stornoway. Transferred the Tornados, too, to Vagar. Four are reloaded with Alarm SEAD missiles. Sent them to attack Orland´s SAM sites. All four are shot down. No chance to penetarte this screen without HARM missiles. Readied the other four Tornados with Alarm missiles and sent them on station close to the SAM range. I have another plan instead of coming in dumb once more. A Nimrod and a Orion got the Foxtrot which had been lost for a while but redetected by SOSUS. My tactics worked! Dispersing the four Tornados around Orland and then attacking from four different angles of attack, low and fast, won the day. At the cost of two more Tornados the SAm site is shut down. I immediately send my 14 Jaguars to Orland in order to finish it off. It worked, Orland is destroyed, the Jaguar´s LGBs did the job. Aircraft kill ratio now is 129 to 30, 5 subs sunk. The Kilo is back! A salvo of four torpedoes is fired and races towards one of my small convoys. The guarding SSN Seawolf is to far North - bad timing The salvo mises, but I don´t find the Kilo. The Seawolf has detected the Russian sub. Two torps underway. Got it! No Kilo, this was a far more dangerous Victor III. The second sub is detected! The Seawolf fires two standoff weapons, one with a nuke warhead. Got two subs! A Kilo, yes. But a Charlie, too. The nuke did a good job. The next sub contact. Right in front of another convoy. How could the sub come this close? First hit.Second hit - the sub still lives! Three more hits, radar contact! The sub is surfacing and then sinking. An Akula. A real tough opponent. That must had been the killer sub which annihilated a whole convoy earlier in the scenario. SOSUS reports a Victor III. Far away from my convoys. Vectored one Orion towards it. Contact lost, the Orion arrives too late. Another SOSUS contact, a Kilo. Close to the Canadian coast, another sub. A noisy old Foxtrot. Sunk by helos. Several SOSUS contacts, but all are far from my convoys. One by one, my convoys are coming home. Sub detected close to a SAG. It´s a Kilo. Sunk by helo launched torps. Victory is awarded!

Brad, just working on two new HCE scens, one using the HCDB. Browsing through the units I stumbled over the SU-33. There is a loadout where it carries 14 misslies - 12 Adder and 2 Archer. I knew that this bird can carry a large load, but thought the limit is 10 missiles. Have I missed something? Regards, Ralf

File Name: Tutorial No. 9 File Submitter: RKoelbach File Submitted: 12 Dec 2010 File Updated: 5 Feb 2011 File Category: Scenarios DB Used: HUD 3 V 1.5 (included in HUE) Authors: Ralf Koelbach Battleset: No Information LESSON IX - HUD3 -- LESSON IX: UnRep, Boarding and Takeover -- V 1_01 as of February, 5th, 2011 The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize the user how to conduct ship-to-ship unrep, boarding and takeover operations. Playing through this lesson the user should become familiar with the following tactics: 1. Ship-to-ship Underway Replenishment. 2. Boarding of a hostile ships. 3. Takeover of hostile facilities. Good Guys INTELLIGENCE: We have deteced a hostile base. Close to it there must be a hostile merchant ship. MISSION: Prepare your attacking birds for a strike, take the base and board the hostile ship. EXECUTION: 1. Bring the AOR vessel and your LH close to each other. Then transfer AGM-65D Mavericks from the AOR vessel to the Essex. 2. Ready some of your Harriers with loadout #142 SEAD (Sidearms and Mavericks). 3. Use your Harriers to destroy the EW sites and the hostile Command Post. 4. Now fly in your helos and take the ammo dump, the runway and the gas tank with your troops. 5. Find the hostile transport ship and board it with your helo based teams. Note: This is not an official AGSI scen. It was written to supplement the official tutorial scens with one focusing on several new features. Click here to download this file

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 fun. Ralf Click here to download this file

105. Air attack on Trivandrum. Four Jaguars downed on my way. 106. Second air attack. Only 3 per cent damage. But got more fighter bombers while attacking. 107. Kill ratio is 193 to 18. Though I only lost one ac in a long time, it was my sole F-35C, my sole remaining HARM capable ac. 108. Third attack on Trivandrum. Still only minor damage. How I miss SEAD capable birds. Lost 5 JSFs to hostile fighters. Again those mean Adder armed Fishbeds. Got many of them, though. 109. Lost four Rafales in a row. Now it has become critical. 110. Kill ratio 253 to 27. Just detected that I have some F-35Cs left! They were on CAP in the Formation Editor. 111. Trivandrum levelled flat! Kill ratio is 281 to 27. 112. Next target: Cochin. Attack with my three HARM armed F-35Cs. 113. Cochin harmed. Next attack wave are my 18 remaining F-35Bs. 114. Cochin is destroyed! The first Storm Shadow wave worked. Bless the HARMS. 115. Kill ratio is 319 to 27. End of Part Four 116. Eighteen Sea Skimmers approaching the British carrier group from the South. Who was the archer? 117. The SAMs got them. 118. The F-35Bs shoot their first Storm Shadow salvo at Bangalore. 119. On their egress, they got two more Jaguars. 120. First missile wave damages Bangalore 22 per cent. 121. HARM armed F-35Cs underway, it does not work without them. 122. Sub Contact. An Indian SSBN. 123.My approaching F-35Cs got a Mainstay. Great! 124. Bangalore is harmed. 125. Second Storm Shadow wave. Damage Bangalore is up to 72 per cent. 126. Aircraft kill ratio is 364 to 27. 127. Third wave destroys Bangalore. 128. Merged the two carrier groups into one. Driving the small SAG in the same direction in order to build one powerful group, capable for the final battle. 129. Got six attacking Mirages.How strong is Bombay? How many aircraft left to causing me problems? 130. Six more Mirages shot down. Looks like a long range CAP. 131. Kill ratio 404 to 27. 132. Four more Mirages downed. maybe the last long range CAP. 133. Coordinated HARM and Storm Shadow attack on Bombay. My fighter bombers detect two neutral surface contacts. 134. Perfect time: the HARMS arrive shortly before the cruise missiles. 57 per cent damage is the result. Got several aircraft on my way home. 135....Time Limit exceeded - DRAW ! Why that? Mabe because I did not manage to destroy Bombay; especially its port where neutral shipping was kept hostage. Not sure, though. Anyawy - a wonderful scenario by donaldseadog!

Hi Don, Never mind, these things happen. In my two decades of pooning and scenario writing, I did worse sometimes Regards, Ralf P.S. I´m an Vark fan, too!

Don, hehe..thx for the encouraging words, old friend. I´m gonna win, that´s for sure Say Ralf, have you located the hostage neutrals yet? I must say I'm impressed how well you're going without those F/A-18s, I thought you were a goner when you lost them. The RN F35s aren't very versatile I think though the meteor AAMs aren't bad to have on your side. If you'd been lucky you'd have had some F35Cs(?), with long range harm too, but such luxuries are had only by chance. Best of luck, keep wearing them down, lucky theirs no limit to AAMs hey. Don Hostage neutrals? No, not yet located. Nice Yes, I need tons of AAMs. My tactic is simple: Two carrier groups outflanking my opponent and my subs and land based aicraft punching through the middle. Ralf

Don, hehe..thx for the encouraging words, old friend. I´m gonna win, that´s for sure Say Ralf, have you located the hostage neutrals yet? I must say I'm impressed how well you're going without those F/A-18s, I thought you were a goner when you lost them. The RN F35s aren't very versatile I think though the meteor AAMs aren't bad to have on your side. If you'd been lucky you'd have had some F35Cs(?), with long range harm too, but such luxuries are had only by chance. Best of luck, keep wearing them down, lucky theirs no limit to AAMs hey. Don Hostage neutrals? No, not yet located. Nice Yes, I need tons of AAMs. My tactic is simple: Two carrier groups outflanking my opponent and my subs and land based aicraft punching through the middle. Ralf

hehe..thx for the encouraging words, old friend. I´m gonna win, that´s for sure

65. Six Su-30 downed, no own losses. 66. SSN Triumph detects hostile ships.A group, at least four ships. 67. SSN Triumph fires four Spearfish, one for each vessel. 68. Two ships sunk. SSN Saphir joins the battle, but fails. No hits. 69. Next Spearfish salvo kills the two remaining vessels. Another victory. The second hostile group litters the bottom of the sea. 70. I send two Eagles to this section in order to down those ASW helos still in the air before they can be dangerous for my subs. 71. Two helos downed. Following a third one the Eagles detect three Mig-29Ks. The shipborne Fulcrum variation. So there is another carrier group. 72. The Eagles down two more helos and detect the carrier and another vessel. Certainly there are more. 73. Four Scalp armed Rafales underway.The first test for the Indian carrier group. 74. At least six Fulcrums form the carrier´s CAP. 75. Three Fulcrums chase my Eagles which are out of BVRs. No way to fight the Fulcrums with Sidewinders. Two more Eagle underway. This will be close. 76. The first Scalp wave doesn´t get through, as expected. 77. The Fulcrums turned, maybe out of fuel. My Eagles have survived. 78. Now it´s another exercise in patience. I have to gradually build up my attacking force. Two subs and two carrier groups. Not to forget my ASuW armed Tornados at Diego Garcia. Enough to overwhelm this carrier group with minimal own losses. 78.The plan is easy: the British carrier group will comoe from the West, the French from the East. The subs and later the land based ac will puch through directly. 79. The carrier group carries Harriers, too. Five permannently on CAP. This is no milk run, that carrier group is formidable defended. 80. Not forget the land based air assets. Six Mig-21 Bisons are rather close to my French carrier group. 81. Looking at the estimated ac numbers staioned on the Indian airfields makes me somewhat depressive: There are still hundreds of ac in the game, my forces are totally outnumbered. I think I´ll badly miss those Hornets I blundered. 82. The carrier is identified as CVH Vikramaditya, a former Russian Kiev class carrier. But if this is correct - how can it carry Fulcrums? 83. A group of six SU-30MKI Flankers is approaching. Coming from the carrier, too? If verified, bad news. 84. btw my Sentry is stationed rather forward, close to the French carrier group. Just vectored a recon bird (Nimrod) even more close to the hostile carrier group. Intelligence rules. 85. The hostile carrier group consists of at least seven vessels and is doing 20 knots. Good for my subs. Problem is that the SSN Triumph only has five torps left. The so far low performing SSN Saphir has eight left. 86. Time to act. 23 Storm Shadow armed F-35s launch from the British carrier. This means business. 87. Four land based SU-30 try to outflank me and head straight for my Sentry! The first eight F-35s have launched their cruise missiles and are vectored towards the dangerous Flankers. 88. Fourteen Meteors underway. Got them - all four! 89. The second wave of F-35 downs three Fulcrums, too. 90. The score is two frigates. Not bad for the first serious test. 91. The third wave of JSFs downs five Sea Harriers and several helos. The carrier´s CAP is ripped apart. Kill ratio is 139 to 15. 92. Changed the French carrier group´s course. Westward, bringing distance to the Indian airbases. 93. An Indian P-8 closes from the east and fires two Bramos missiles, followed by two Harpoons. 94. All missiles downed, a F-35C gets the P-8. Another success. 95. Next strike underway: the six Sea Eagle armed Tornados, guarded by three Eagles. 96. One DDG sunk, many helos downed by AMRAMs. The way is ploughed for my subs! 97. Two SU-30 coming from the East break through and down one of my remaining Rafales. 98. This is a real counterattack! Four more Flankers following the first ones. 99. My Nimrod EW bird is downed. Too bad. 100. Six sea skimmers approaching my French carrier group. Fired from those SU-30s? 101. Four hits and the carrier sinks! Kill ratio rises to 167 vs 17. 102. The third F-35 wave launches their missiles in order to sink the last two surviving vessels. One sinks, one damaged. 103. Got six more Mig-21s. 104. The SSN Triumph finishes the job. The second carrier group is completely destroyed. End of Part Three

One thing I love in HCe is the possiblity to make ships and subs first part of a port = part of the group and then allows to split them = sail. It would be even better to combine this with ship and sub replenishment: My fleet sails back to the port, join groups and then the weapons magazins are reloaded. That would be awesome!

Awesome! Would you share this Access database, the template with others? I´d love to use it! Regards, Ralf

16. Started to pound Gan with long range ac launched cruised missiles. 17. Stopped an attack by several Jaguars in the tracks. Kill ratio is 38 to 7. Regarding the numbers, acceptable. But six of my seven losses are valuable Super Hornets. 18. Air battle raging. Lost three Rafales, got six more Migs. 44 to 10. 19. SSN Rubis torpedoed and sunk. Sigh. 20. Another attack shattered, got three Jaguars and three more Mig-21. 21. Shock: Two F-35 attack! So the enemy has newest equipment. Got them. 22. Gan annihilated. Kill ratio is 57 to 11. 23. Both carrier groups set course Trivandrum. Time to regain the initiative. 24. Torpedo contact close to my French carrier group! 25. Got some more aicraft around Gan, including two Flankers. Kill ratio is 69 to 11. The loss of the Hornets still hurts but maybe I can compensate it with those wonderful Scalp and Storm Shadow missiles. 26. Another torpedo in the water, racing for my SSN Trafalgar. Still not sub contact. 27. The Trafalgar counterfires a torpedo, turns on its heels and races for safety. 28. Sub contact! My 65knot Spearfish obviously frightens the hostile sub and it has started its machines. 29. Three helos are underway, location yet unclear. 30. I love the Spearfish torp! It has struck a Shishumar class SS. Now it becomes evident why it took so long to detect this sub: it is a variation of the excellent German Typ 209 sub - real stealthy. 31. Got contacts on Mig-29Ks. Carrier based Migs. So there should be a Kusnetzov class carrier around. Nice prospect. 32. SU-34 Fullback bombers detected! These are deadly birds. 33. Six SU-24 Fencers closing in. Got them. 34. Downed the Fullbacks, too. Kill ratio now up to 78 to 11. 35. There is more than just a carrier group outside. At least another SAG. There will be no easy way for my carrier group to break through towards India. 36. Next air engagement - I´m up to F-35s again. It ends 3 to 3. I lose one F-35 and two Eagles. Not good. I have not enough aircraft for such dogfights. 36. Starting to mop up SAM sites around the destroyed AB Gan. Better not to have them there, still monitoring and firing SAMs. 37. Looks like all remaining Gan SAM sites are destroyed. 38. surface contacs! An Indian carrier and a DDG. Now it becomes clear where those F-35s came from. Carrier based high end aircraft. 39.Both subs set course and speed to intercept this Indian carrier group. 40.The job is to concentrate forces in order to finish the Indian forces off by using overwhelming assets. So I vector both carrier groups towards the Indian one. 41. My French carrier group will be in striking distances in an hour or so. Would be great to still have my Super Hornets in order to harm the Enemy first. 42. Missile alert! Four sea skimmers approaching my British carrier group! 43. Torpedo attack! Seems to be the same sub which lanuched the cruise missiles. 44. The hostile carrier group is now clearly identified, seven ships including the carrier. EMCON active. A kingdom for some SEAD birds. 45. I will attack with cm armed attacking birds from both carriers. 46. The first salvo sinks one DDG. All other missiles are downed. 47. Next attacking wave launched: Tornados from Diego Garcia. 48. Seven SU-34 Fullback attacking with long-range ARM missiles! Where do they come from? 49. Got t he Fullbacks, losing one F-35 to an Archer IR guided missile. 50. Although I downed many ARMs, there are still 12 closing in. 51. Got all ARMs, though with last ditch defenses. On the offensive site, my Tornados hit the Indian carrier several times, but it is still afloat and operating. One Tornado lost. 52. There is asecond hostile surface group, few hundred miles North of the carrier group. 53.The carrier group fires four long range SSMs at my French carrier group. No problem, two Rafales get them. 54. my British carrier group launches 19 JSF, armed with Storm Shadow cm in order to get the carrier. 55. Sunk a frigate and two more hits on the carrier which is burning and slowing down. 56. Another torpedo attack on the British carrier group. Both carrier groups do not gain any space. They are still close to Diego Garcia because their way out seems to be plastered with subs, ships and hostile ac. 57. I fear the second SAG is a carrier group, too. Migs came from that direction - and the Fullbacks, too. 58.My subs are slowly closing in on the carrier group. 59. The SSN Triumph has reached an optimal position and fires six Spearfish torps at the carrier group. 60. Strike! Two ships and the carrier are on their way towards the sea bottom. 61. Three F-35s made it to flee from the sinking carrier. They get two Rafales who in return kill them with their missiles. 62. Three more Fullbacks attacking from the North. Got them. 63. The Triumph sinks the remaining frigate. The first hostile surface group is in shambles! 64. Aircraft kill ratio is 121 to 15. End of Part Two

Guys, watching the HUE coming out and looking forward to Christmas, it is a nice time for reflecting over the "game" which excites us so much. Not about H3 ANW, that´s a totally different story, but about Harpoon Classic. While in the last two years I´ve focused on H3 ANW and not written a single HCE scenario (shame on me but I´ll do it better in 2011 - promised), I never lost contact to HCE and to Harpgamer. Since a few weeks, I have returned full scale, enjoying donaldseadog´s latest scen, having fun whenever I start HCE. And getting "that same old feeling". Why is that so? Why is it so fascinating to play a sim which... ...uses an very old 16-bit scenario editor ...uses pixel maps giving horrible graphics when zoomed out ...cannot start scenarios with aircraft airborne (this one is really serious and game-narrowing) ...denies a lot of micromanagement ANW offers Why is HCE marching on and on and ANW always on the brink of defeat? Following the reasons coming to my mind: 1. Tony is an excellent developer moving the sim forward step by step. And not losing in a jungle, creating game stopping bugs and weird behaviour. Thanks, Tony! 2. The HC3 are a working core team, pushing it forward. Thanks, core team! 3. There are lots of excellent databases, created by Brad and Rene. In fact, HCE has far more good databases than ANW, regularly mainatained an on a very high level. Thanks, Brad and Rene! 4. The game engine/AI is REALLY nasty! I have detailed experience with ANW, with GCB2 and Fleet Command (which btw is really fascinating and worth a try from time to time - good fighting atmosphere). In HCE hostile units are mean and dangerous. 5. The GUI may be old and technologically outdated. But it is good because it is intuitive. 6. Maybe this is the main strongpoint: HCE is "easy too learn and hard to master" as it was once advertised. You can write challenging scens in a few hours. No way to achieve this in other sims. 7. The community lives, produces content - and is decent. There may be some arguments from time to time but in all this one really works. So there are very good reasons why HCE exists since 20 years (!!!) and will march on. I´ll always remain a true fan of it. I´ll restart writing content, no way to stay clear of this After all, I think one of my scens is the most-often-downloaded-one in history Thanks again to Tony, Brad, Scott and Rene. Regards, Ralf

Hi Tony, interesting idea. Maybe it could lead to attracting more players to the site and the sim. Are these the goals or what exactly are you heading for with this tool? I would liketo have it anonymously, though. Regards, Ralf

Hi Chris, Playing Donaldseadog´s "Hold on Diego Garcia" I´ve the F-35B JSF (RN); loadout Precis-LR is Storm Shadow and Meteor for AAW. So Brad has already inserted this one. Or are you thinking of another variant? Regards, Ralf

After Action Report by Ralf Koelbach Hold on Diego Garcia A Harpoon Classic scenario by Don Thomas aka Donaldseadog 1. Read the orders. Understand the current situation. 2. Draw a plan based on the goals aka Victory Conditions. 3. In this scenario both defensive and offensive action is needed in order to win. 4. The mixture of ressources is well suited for this: two carriers groups and land based aircraft as well as subs. 5. First actions: 5.1 Split the carriers and escort from Diego Garcia. I decide to make it two carrier groups 5.2 Fly the JSFs onto the British Carrier and the Rafales to the French carrier 5.3 Up with the only Sentry available. 5.4 Launch Air cover for the Sentry. 5.5 Split the subs from Diego Garcia. 6. Shortly after this initial steps I get contacts, six aircraft approaching at 560 knots. Could be SU-24 Fencers. 7. Vector two Eagles towards those boogies. 8.Got them! Alls ix boogies downed, but not wothout shooting some nasty surprises at me. Must have been Adders or something like that. 9. The Eagles turn on their heels and go to afterburner, diving. 10. The Egales have survived, but meanwhile the Mersey is attacked and sunk. 11. There they are, the next six boogies. Again large AAW range circles. 12. Those are, like the first wave, Mig-21 Bison. Impropved Fishbeds, able to carry the Adder missile - bad news. 13. Got them with another pair of Eagles! This time the Migs didn´t shoot, I was faster. So aircraft kill ratio is 12 - 0 for me. Good start. 14. Time to make it count. First attack on Gan, eight SEAD armed Hornets. 15. The Hornets run into an ambush. Suddenly they are amidst a cloud of Mig-27s firing the deadly Archer Missles. Where did they come from? Why didn´t my Sentry detect them? Anyway, the Hornets shoot back. A bloody mess results. I lose seven out of eight Hornets, killing six Migs. Now kill ratio is only 18 to 7. I´m not amused. The Hornets were very important as SEAD birds. Why did they get so close? How was the Sentry blinded? End of Part One.

Yep, if you want to carry weapons internally and thus preserve the low observable status of the aircraft, you are limited in the number of air to air missiles carried. One of the many criticisms of the JSF. Interesting. But the F-22 Raptor is a stealth bird, too and can carry more missilies - can´t it? If so, then there´s really reason to criticize the JSF.

Just uploaded an upgrade, I had a victory condition problem with sam barges, so switched to mobile ad. (also a red sub with zero initial speed) Hope you have fun, I look forward to comments as some aspects don't seem to go as I expect (nuke attack for one) Don Ok, downloaded the updated file; going to play it thsi weekend I hope.

Brad, just downloaded Don´s latest scen, Diego Garcia, which will bring me a lot of fun and nerve-racking battles Included is the F-35 Lightning. I was surprised that both loadouts Intercept and Patrol only allocate four long range missiles to this aicraft. Thought it carried short range IR guided ones, too. Six to eight all in all. Is that bird really so poorly armed and thus not really well suited for dogfight? Regards, Ralf