noxious

A difficult thing to summarize, but essentially the High Tide annexes are more expansive (i.e. cover more platforms), and like all Harpoon 4 data annexes, look to update and improve upon the available information. Well, all I wanted to know was that it's indeed a new book, and not just with a few updated entries and a couple of new platforms. You seem to say that it's thick with new info ? Thx

Complete re-edit, I don't usually do that Okay, the description seems to imply it's a different data annex book, seeing as there is some land units in there. So anyone has both 4.1 and HT care to sum up how alike or different the data annexes are ? Cheers, thx

R.I.P after more than 60 years of eternal patrol. Onward dolphins !! For those who'd like to tour (Quicktime VR) an unmodified GATO class sub, head on over here http://www.usscod.org/spin.html, or take the trip to Cleveland to really check out the Cod Thanks for the story, Buddha

Just took it for my first ride. Wow. Hadn't noticed it's a global map, etc. Very very nice. Now, features request : mouse wheel zoom, and faster than the buttons. Customizable colors, as already mentioned of course. A working stay on top checkbox : I don't want it to stay on top, and well it does NTDS Symbols : wouldn't you have new NTDS symbols, higher res, even in vector format (.svg) ? There aren't that many to do... But all said in done, very nice, I like how it bodes well for the future. Cheers !! Yes, actually this is a great task for one of you Look in your Graphics subdirectory of HCE and you'll find GR_ICONS.BMP. Now look in the UnitWin\UnitIcons subdirectory, you'll see that the UnitWin\UnitIcons are just pieces chopped out of GR_ICONS.BMP. What you can do to help me is chop up the NTDS symbols in the same fashion. They should each end up being 16 x 16 pixels. As for naming, if the stylized one is named HR.bmp (Helicopter, Red), name the NTDS one tHR.bmp (tactical display, Helicopter, Red). Aircraft carrier will be tCB.bmp (tactical display, Carrier, Blue). That will save me the effort of needing to do that, I'll write the code that makes use of them

Yes, well known, just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Thanks for the reminder. Thought so, but better to give refs to facilitate db editors job, just in case.

Request correction of Arleigh Burke Flight IIA : They have 64 and 32 VLS launchers, and they can't replenish at sea, as the cranes were removed to make room for the additional launchers. See Harpoon 4.1 annexes, HNR 2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Howard_(DDG-83) http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/sys...dg-51-flt2a.htm

Former Capt at the helm !! With hundreds of shipmates ! Wow, I hope you take the time to go check it out and take pictures

Actually, even though I use firefox and have avg 7.5 up to date running in the background, I know better than to clicky So no clue on quality or lack thereof of aforementioned ladies or anti-ladies, or whatever... SQL Injection, sounds like something the Doctor would give you for, hmmm, thinking this was another pr0n wmd

That's also good for me, being in Montreal et al. Still working on the module and scenario. Worse comes worse, I'll ref and play the pirates (and assorted surprises, hehe) Nice of your Navy to give you USS Howard And other ships from CTF150 : it's their area of operations after all. Btw, if you know or come across data on the "elusive" pirate motherships, please share. Have trouble believing they don't know which ships they are... You know, from reading certain docs from a certain PBEM I'm in, GCS seems to fit rather well, although from where I stand hard to know what's "official" GCS and custom house rules. Might inspire myself from it I like how it builds unit kinda like TOAW, by totaling equipment ratings. Going to try to make something happen before the week ends. Cheers, Nic

If we go with GCS, you'll have to referee that part, as I'm not only not familiar with it, I don't have access to it. If not, two possibilities : one being what I alluded to in the previous post : achieving the landings and winning naval engagement for Raiders, preventing them for Pirates. Two, using a simple system for the ground combat, be it custom/house rules or something that exists. Lightweight and not overly tactical. Open to suggestions on this one, albeit I'm putting some effort in creating a quick and dirty system that fits somewhere in between SP:MBT or TacOps and TOAW Scale of 1km or 2 per hex/terrain unit/cm with turns of 30 mins or 1 hour. Stuff modelled by H4.1 stock rules would be used as such, using the "can always call an Engagement turn at anytime" rule to allow reaction or planned fire of such weapons like manpads stinger, etc. Some formula + tables to use H4.1 weapon dmg on ground units (casualties + combat/movement modifiers) Aggregate combat between ground units (combat happens by having opposing units in the same location) for small arms/support weapons/AFVs/tanks. Artillery/Fire Support should be able to fire from a couple terrain units away, depending on particular equipment caps. Very similar to TOAW in that regard. But, if you have a better suggestion, please bring it to the table. Post your available times, looks like it's not happening tonight or tomorrow so far. Ditto for anyone else interested, post your available times. Cheers !

Hello there, I'd like to play a game, tonight or tomorrow. Proposed scenario is Raid on Lucky Pirates (working title ), a custom scen by yours truly, which I'm working on atm. Amphibious/airmobile assault on Somali Pirates Lair, with naval battle with one or more mother ship and launches. Unless I pass the refereeing to someone else for the actual infantry tangle-up. it will be decided by how well the two landings are achieved. e.g. Victory Conditions should be based on achieving the landings, destroying the pirate fleet for blue, and repelling the landings damaging blue assets for Red Need at least one player for each side, if interest is there is possibility of more. There will be observer spots if enough interest. Will be played with VASSAL 3.x (exact version will be linked here later on) and a custom, private H4.1 module. Participants will need Java installed before installing VASSAL, at least Java 1.4 (aka 2 iirc), the Sun version. If needed, I will post links for this also This module will be distributed to participants under honour rule of no distribution outside the game. It will NOT include any rules, or expose any Intellectual property of Larry Bond, Chris Carlson, AGSI/Don Gillman, the H3C axis (cheers !!), Call of Arms or Matrix Games outside proper in-game use, except people won't be able to actually look at the rules if they don't have them handy, unlike around a real table If Harpgamer admins want to give a hand enforcing honour rule, be my guests Post here about interest Cheers !!

Update : the latest betas of VASSAL include an import ADC2 module feature. Going to try it with the Harpoon 4 ADC2 module, now freely available, and free. About to try the import, but apparently it uses HEXES !!! [after a bit of time spent trying things out, i come back to finishing this post...] Well, you can only import on a scenario per scenario basis, but at the very least I can use the counters (on a temp basis), as well as ideas from the result of the import to work on mine. More news later on, Cheers !

Well, I was thinking of making a alternate of the Hormuz Strait scenario in HNR 2003 for testing the vassal module, with landing Marines or drop/airmobile Legionnaires from Djibouti(the French do have an interest in that part of the world), but Eyl is not really a port (it's 2 km in-land, on the shores of a river that seems to full of sediments, without a clear channel to the sea. Satellite pix show mucho fishing boats laying on the beach. Would have to give some kind of armada to the pirates, or bomb boats against a light detachment of Western Forces... Two-pronged attack, maybe ? Landing marines with some naval and aviation support (a couple fighter bombers and helos, SSMs), to cut off the sea access, and a land based attack by Legionnaires, in the spirit of a new era of French/US cooperation as heralded by Sarkozy. Btw, the ground rules are not included in high tide ? I'm asking because there seems to be quite a bit of GCS stats in it, as well as scenarios with a GCS element in HT

the BBB : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7637257.stm Extract from the full news page : Somalia's pirates seize 33 tanks The waters off Somalia are among the most dangerous in the world A Ukrainian ship seized by pirates off the coast of Somalia was carrying 33 tanks and other weapons, the Ukrainian defence minister has confirmed. Earlier, the country's foreign ministry said the ship had a crew of 21 and was sailing under a Belize flag to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. There has been a recent surge in piracy off the coast of Somalia. Russia announced on Friday it would start carrying out regular anti-piracy patrols in the waters off Somalia. A navy spokesman said a warship had been sent to the area earlier this week to protect Russian citizens and ships. Somalia has not had an effective national government for 17 years, leading to a collapse of law and order both on land and at sea. Somali pirates are currently holding more than a dozen hijacked ships in Eyl, a town in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. Senior UN officials estimate the ransoms pirates earn from hijacking ships exceed $100m (£54m) a year.

Private distribution I said, which falls under fair use in Canuckistan, if not many other Western countries : I'm allowed to make as many copies of materials I bought as long as I don't distribute them publically... The scanned countersheets would never be part of a public distribution without the permissions from IP holders or a mechanism decided by them to check that users are licensed users of the IP (e.g proof of purchase of harpoon 4.1, not going to happen that way, too much headaches, just an example...) Me giving a copy of the module to you and Pete so we can test it for example is private distribution. I'm a game industry veteran, I'm very familiar with IP laws and have strong feelings on the subject : believe me, there is nothing wrong happening here If the module became public, it would be cleared first by Larry Bond and Chris Carlson, then maybe also Uncle Harpoon, depending on the precise wording of the IP agreement on computer rights to the Harpoon IP, and maybe even the H3C committee, seeing as they're sub-licensees of the Harpoon IP (in Uncle Harpoon's own words) For it to become public and commercial, we have to go even farther, and I don't see that ever happening without making it competitive with HCE and ANW, which I don't want : including a sort of annexes DB, with automatically filled forms, etc. would compete too much with the real computer versions, whom like the paper game, see part of their value in bringing a lot of data and information to players through their annexes/platform display/plaftorm editors, well worth the price of admission if you ask me, but if it was suddenly accessible in a computer based aid for the paper rules might throw a wrench in a few people's plan, which again I don't want. But, as long as it's not freely available, and for private use (meaning using Harpoon and house rules/aids as they're meant to be played : with friends or acquaintances), it can contain pretty much anything I or we want in it Clear things up ? Cheers !

Very nice indeed !

Anyone with good scans of their countersheets, or links to images that would make good counters ? We could most likely play a small scenario as soon as this weekend if I don't have to do too much work on graphics. There won't be any rules checking implemented, but a referee will be able to supervise and hide/unhide counters according to detection. Distribution will be on a private basis, no public availability for the time being, as it's very much a work in progress. Most likely, book keeping will still be all done the traditional way, by hand, on paper or computer forms, depending on one's preferences. All it will be for this initial test is a live environment to play H4.1 with human opponents over the net with a referee. It might include more, depending on various factors The idea is being able to play asap if we want to. Suggestions welcome for a small scenario to test with, since I have to incorporate maps. The module will include a large blue water playing surface for generic blue water engagements. Thanks in advance for any graphics, suggestions for graphics, maps, etc. Cheers !

Question : in High Tide, you get the full 4.1 ruleset, as in the rulebook and the 4.1 data annexes ? What is the added content, apart from the big scenario book ? It's one think I don't like about their product descriptions for the Harpoon line, they are not clear, one could be paranoid and almost say intentionally so (to produce sales), hehe, which I won't So you know you get the 4.1 rulebook, but what is the data annexes included is not clear : a vanilla 4.1 or is it a special high tide 4.1 plus annexes book ? Would love to hear more. Thanks in advance

So I can count on you to do some testing soonish with me ? VASSAL is a very nice toolchain, from my experience with it so far with it. A lot of the functionality I need for the initial "build" is built-in, part of standard features. Stay tuned

So, been reading, thinking about what I'll run first scenario wise, and mostly thinking how I'm going to do it so I can play on my computer, against human opponents, either pbem or live, with no human referee (albeit it should be possible to have one) First try will be a VASSAL module, as it already has live capabilities versus cyberboard that only does pbem (afaik). Now, it wouldn't include the rules, or automatic resolution of combat : the only automated part would be a fog of war to replace having a human referee plot everyone's moves. So as not to step on Uncle Harpoon's toes, et al. e.g you input your detection dice roll, the "ref" checks if you have anything in range.... Part of that musing aloud has me wonders if I could do this in an official manner, with Larry's approval, and maybe down the line have it offered on a donation/shareware basis... The idea is not to compete with the computer versions of Harpoon, but to allow players of any version of paper Harpoon (focus on 4.1) to use the net to play head to head games, or small multiplayer games without a referee. Or even better, large games... The computer adjudicator/referee could be a lot more evolved, but again not wanting to step on anyone's toes, or even be perceived to do so makes me consider it all at a very reduced scale for the moment. Not AI opponent complex, but kind of where you fully leverage Vassal UI to enter legal orders for your units, and the hosting player/server who runs the referee solves everything simultaneously for the players, maybe even roll the dice for you. Of course, the turn sequence would be strictly followed : it would be paper Harpoon leveraging the PC For a "turnish" PBEM style of play, it would use the formalized way to enter orders to synchronise every phase, give feedback/update to each player, so everything is resolved like in a paper game with referee. Of course, it could be used by a solo player to play against himself Going to start working on a first quick iteration that allows me to set a custom map (.bmp, .jpeg, or whatever vassal supports) by importing the file, with player inputing scale of the map as how many pixels to a mile or some such. Now, I'd like to hear what you guys think about this, and whether there is a "market" for it (market in the sense that people would use it) : Harpoon doesn't have the popularity it once had in wargaming circles it seems, not only computer wise. Also, for those having experience in harpoon licensing, any thoughts on Don or Larry's position on such a product ? I'd like to reiterate that players would have to stick to the "honor rule" that pervades paper and PBEM wargaming : it really would be a supplement of H4.1, rather than something separate. And I'd like to know what you would like in such a harpoon computer aid, as far as how it works (e.g order input UI) and alongside features it might have (calculator for multiple weapon launches to get a simulataneous ToT, etc.) It would also be an invaluable aid to PBEM gamemasters/referees, I guess. Anyway, off to tinker with VASSAL a bit

In reality, the US stored tac nukes in Bagotville, QC, from somewhere in the 50s until 1984. These nukes were for use by Canadian aviators, flying Canadian Voodoos, intercepting soviet long range bombers. They are the Genie air rockets. Small detachment of US officers at CFB Bagotville would release the weapons in case of an incoming bomber raid in the Great North. The Canadian public was NOT aware of this back then, and still isn't : I grew up thinking Canada was a nuke free zone (well, weapon wise, we do have nuclear centrals), except in the case of ICBMs flying over us and being intercepted there. So, who knows what other shenanigans happened during the Cold War

For 21 Can, tax included, I'm very happy with my purchase, except for being a bit disappointed that the listed counters are in fact printed on the supplement's soft cover, and not hard board sheets... Minor, as I'll mostly play with just paper/computer aids, and not cardboard counters, hehe Now, if I could find a cheap copy of South Atlantic War, 2nd ed

Looks like Pete is saying they are in the 2nd edition of South Atlantic

Might as well add : any harpoon modules for the free ADC clones out there like VASSAL ?

Anyhow, if a designer wanted to have his cake and eat it too, because of a need for that functionality in a particular or set of particular scenarios, there is always the possibility of making a custom DB implementing such changes and embedding it in the Battleset I think I understand what you're suggesting, i.e. 406mm Turret1 ammo, 406mm Turret2 ammo, and 406mm Turret3 ammo, each occupying a separate entry in the Weapons Annex. I can see how that might would work, but its cumbersome, and unless someone can convince me that the current arrangement affects gameplay so much as to make it unworkable, the present method will stay in place. Personally, I've never encountered a scenario (yet) where the number of reloads aboard an Iowa (and how those reloads were allocated among turrets) made any difference.