donaldseadog

In a rather hectic moment I torpedoed a 'neutral' whale by mistake (it was a 'yellow' unidentified solid contact running from me at about 18 kts while I was 2 mile off his tail having been tracking him at 5 kts for about 20 mins). I expected to get put through the ringer during debrief but got a "you fired at an unidentified contact but it turned out to be enemy-good call" verdict. Some one sure must like whale meat Don

Is there a way to determine if enemy radar is active straight from the screen (IE without selecting the units one by one and looking in the detail tab)? In particular I'm in Ralf's Pason wings of steel (#4?) and have considerable problem dealing with HARM attacks. Planes inevitable fly in without loosing off weapons but instead get shot down at about 30 mile from target (which I assume means that some ones radar is working). (Currently using 3.9.4 from UE package.) Don

I'll assume this is the same "reteat" as appears as scenario #5 in my USNI battleset (which I think is standard as loaded from HUE). The first time I opened this game within two seconds I had esm detection of about a half dozen ships and bucket loads of missiles a bit to the NNW of my carrier group. Fortunatley the game crashed before they hit Next time around the enemy group must have been some greater distance away as I had time to set up my group formation with some a/c in the air getting some EW protection and better warning of what was to come, and your description "vicious" certainly fits what I encountered. With missile coming in from two directions and hordes of front line fighters sweeping through (to absorb my auto anti air defense?) I had all my fighters in the air and more changing loadouts from surface attack to AAW - I needed the lot and most came home devoid of even sidewinders or canon ammo, but still I lost a few fighters and 3 valuable escorts (very valuable, why couldn't they have pounded my Knox instead ) They also lost heavily with most of their fighters that turned up not going home, and with my own big expenditure of HARM, harpoon and ship borne SSMs I soon obliterated their surface group then in the next round (after more loadout shuffles) their four bases. SIGH, but I'm still to face what I expect to be an equally difficult battle with Red Subs so I certainly don't claim much advantage as yet. It isn't the sort of scenario where you power along at a good time compression making minor amendments to a well laid out plan, it is very 'orders intensive' with lots of quick decisions required, and I suspect some good luck as to start up positions. If you hear from me agin you'll know I survived (more or less), though I'm concerned about making the time limit while still avoiding/ dealing with, the subs. Don

File Name: Baltic HDSI File Submitter: donaldseadog File Submitted: 21 May 2011 File Category: GIUK DB Used: n/a Authors: Don Thomas Battleset-GIUK: .sc5 - HDS1 - HDS1 A small basic scenario for the old GIUK HDSI battleset. Mostly airborne action but plenty of naval and ground targets that must be 'had'. Click here to download this file

I'm interested in comments from H3/ANW old hands regarding the different versions of the game that are in the ultimate edition relesae. One item that might be a hiderance to me is my RAM, 1/2 gig including onboard video. 3.6.3 seems to play more smoothly than ANW [3.10.1 update?] and it handles automated ASW work better (my observation open to user error). ANW certainly has a few nice extra bits but I'm looking for what will play the game best. Recent custom scenarios look far more interesting to me than the old built in ones (and I need up dated databases to run them but haven't yet managed to effect this in 3.6.3), how would this effect version choice? Are there any undocumented keyboard short cuts? I try to mouse as little as possible. Should I just go by the assumption that always "latest performs best"?? Anyone got general comments (without taking too much of your time)? Don

I note the quoted gme version compatibility, does "H3 UE" include version 3.6.3, one of the 'UE' bundled versions, and if so how do you implement ANW DB V2.4.7? Don

Don, What date do you have on the Tutorial file that gives you the inadequate runway notification? I've just opened it here and can't see the issue, not in Tutorial 6 Air operations anyway. The Good Guys base has a, "Very Large Runway" and they don't come any larger than that. Aircraft at the base include a single E-3 Sentry and 4 x F-16A's (they don't need such a large runway. The hangar the Sentry is housed in is too small, but the runway isn't and it should launch, I just did... Regardless I found a few unrelated minor edits the Tutorial requires. Don, feel free to post your issues here or contact me directly via: dbuckley@advancedgaming.biz Cheers Darren Thanks for the reply Darren. Due to being new with ANW (just got 'ultimate' and thought I'd try out H3/ANW ) I'm still looking at the different versions and have just removed ANW and loaded Harpoon 3.6.3 so can't really answer definitively. It may have been in one of the other packaged database. It was in the air ops tutorial and was only the E-3 (taking off) and I think an airbourne tanker (landing) so if the E-3 is working for you then I assume it was one of the other database. I'll get back to you if I go back to ANW and will track it down. Thanks

NOT an AAR but, Impressed with the performance of Rubis, without giving anything away I chose to provide a distraction by sinking a good few of the opposition and it left the scene with empty tubes and plenty of scrap metal on the sea bed. A good scenario for those that like to run at a high time compression and do a bit of gambling, a bit of calculating and a fair bit of breath holding, thanks Brad another great scenario. Don

I think a staff reporting problem: Saved Game attached in zip pack, playing "SLMM chance" scenario from GIUK 2003, HCDB-110415, GE 2011.005. shortlly after starting game you should get a staff message "Sir, we have detected 1 new contact:>>Contact>>Method: SONOBUOY" Blue has no sonar bouys and the message doesn't say what is detected. I'm guessing that this is a "red" side staff message getting through the system? Don bad_detect_method1.zip

I've been running scenarios with plenty of visual detection with and without the visualreportdll in place but not noticed any responsiveness difference, how ever I can't think of a good way to test it in a measurable way. I'm assuming that you just need to know it isn't having devistating differences?? Don

I'm thinking that to play players will need H4 paper rules, will this be the case? Don

No need to feel that way. This game always had a steep learning curve. I've been playing since 1994 and I have yet to learn all the ins and outs. I generally don't bother <SNIP> harder it will be to localize them. As often as not, the only indication that you'll have than a SSN is in the area will be when they give themselves away by firing. Their launch transient will give a rough indication of their position but by then you'll have torpedo's inbound. It can get fustrating.....seeing this polygon dance around you, knowing that there's a sub around but you can't narrow it down to get a shot. The best solution is the liberal application of active sonar but this can work both ways, especially in an MP game because the player will be able to get a fix on where your helos are and react accordingly. Don't forget decoys too. The AO is about as smart as the 1991 version of Iraqi air defense network in that particular case. Later D Thanks again for the in depth comments, again you've given me some good tips (manually deploy decoys...hmmm). Between your advice and playing the Pason scenarios I think I'm getting more of an idea of handling the 'panel'. Ta Don

I'm frequently having a situation where I have done significant damage to some members of a task group and I "K" them (denote probable kill) so that auto or blanket attacks use resources to more benefit but then when I get the others hosed down sufficiently I don't seem to be able to undo the "K" tag in order to finish them off. I suppose being a good humanitarian I should leave them in their toothless but living state, however the victory conditions don't seem to share this view. Is there a way to undo the "K" command (I can't find any in the manuals), do people think that the "K" command is to be avoided? Interested to hear experienced opinions. Don

Thanks so much for all those comments and advice. Quite a few finer points that I can't remember seeing in either of the manuals. Re pairing up the helos (aircraft in general). I don't seem to be able to do this (in the same manner as I can with surface platforms). I try shift click both units and key "G", I try drag select and key "G", I try dragging one to another, none seem end end up with a "group", which is what I assume you mean (so that they attack as a pair). So my further question is: by pairing up do you mean a group of two helos, and if so how do you achieve this? (Gee I feel dumb ) Don

I'll attach a zip pack with two game saves and explanation note. In this case the helo is on an assigned intercept. Other places in the game helos are on mission defined ASW attacks and seem to be going through the whole thing correctly (except for the guy who miss calculates fuel and crashes). The GE is version 3.10.1.0, I think it is the packed game in 'Ultimate' (or did I have to do an upgrade to get it to run or was that 'classic'?) PS a separate matter, where should I post questions such as: in the tutorials (air ops I think) I can't launch a particular A/C as the runway is inadequate; suggestions for game operation (eg. keyboard short cut for mission edit/ create); a couple of missing entries in command card within manual (key "K", Ctrl 7, Alt S)? Thanks for help (I need it) helo_waiting.zip

Do you by any chance write speeches for politicians??? I was starting to think it made sense

Am I correct that there isn't much instruction in the manuals for actual game play, just all the warfare theory (which is valuable)? Little problems seem to stop me from playing 'successful' games (IE having fun), my current problem relates to helo ASW game play. I send a helo to attack a sub contact (eg PASON #3 (ASW/ASUW) HUD3 db), it goes so far then hovers outside of the uncertainty area, the unit status window says its 'waiting' but never seems to get a trigger to proceed further. It seems to make no difference as to how I attack, select the helo and use F1, select the sub and use F6, use the mission editor (no shortcut key?), the same result. I can't find any specific instructions in the manual to do anything different, what am I missing, what should I be doing? Do you need more information? Don PS I browsed the official ANW forums but here seems a better place for questions & info, any comment?

I didn't actually cast a vote as I've never had anything to do with these games and wasn't sure about most aspects. However I'm interested to see more and probably participate in a short(ish) simple game. I'd have no preference in most of the questions except; time limit [i'd like less than six months]; turn frequency [three to six days] and basis [forum based sounds better judging from comments] Being a 'virgin' my biggest preference (not asked) would be for simple rules. Don Thomas [ed.] PS I assume (generally speaking at Harpgamer) having 'looked' at the votes in a poll you then can't vote?

That's a set of images for Rene Haar's custom HC xx to xx series databases. It will replace your commondb.rsr files (where the images are stored) in your HCE/HUCE directory. I cannot vouch for whether it will work with the standard/official HCDB database and user scenarios created for that database. If you use scenarios with any of REne's databases you will need it if you want to go into the platform display (especially to look at graphics). I believe it is designed to be a safe replacement for the standard 'picture file' (commondb.rsr), I used to run my HCE with Rene's 'picture file' in my main folder (thus replacing the standard) and it didn't cause problems. I now use Tony's Harpoon Launcher to swap it in when needed (but sometimes I forget and shoot my own foot when going to the platform display in Rene's database). Don

Quoting this very interesting article, form the 'special mention' section. Can harpoon model shipping mines dropped by plane? I assume yes as mines are just zero speed torpedos (correct?) I think (if correct) we need some new loadouts for A-6, A-7 in HCCW and divefreaks HC_65to80 Dbs (ED. if not already there ). This looks like fun.

Born about 1901 and was a combatant of WW1. How old could he have been? Who ever said "war is hell" must have been there. Lest We Forget.

There's only one HCDA, which you can download here. It is updated regularly, the latest being HCDA-110225. CV32 thanks for the stear. When i went to the downlad I found a caution "The stock HCE scenarios for EC2003 and Westpac will NOT function with this database installed." Seems pretty clear and I can live without the stock scenarios. However, I have built a number of User scenarios using the Stock scenarios as a basis. Are these now useless? As well as Brad's comment swapping the database files in and out of the mainfolder (or renaming dtabase file) you can download form the tools/mods sections Tony's harpoon launcher, way slick and if you have lots of scenarios based on a variety of different databases it lets you keep them all nicely organised in respective folders. Sounds like you're having lots of fun, great. Don

You might be able to find an older (and smaller) version somewhere. I've used OO for a few years and I seem to remember my original version was a reasonable size although it only handled the basic office applications (quite enough for my purposes). You could also check micro soft web to see if they have a reader like they do for Word. Don

Yeah, I guess that the database question is pretty complex in ways, it actually wasn't my main thought but where my thinking got me (the database was kind of my deadend). I'm thinking about what the 'harpoon classic' set up will look like in another twenty years (and it will be around I'm sure). We currently have kind of era oriented families of battlesets as a hand me down from the old in built database. I think there is a need to know how we should be working towards continuing this and expanding it so that the official release also has say 'cold war' grouped scenarios (there are getting some pretty good custom scenarios). With a super database capability such as Tony describes then every thing could grow on it, but it will be a long time coming and is it better than 'era' based databases? (I find era based databases good to write with as I don't have to figure out if particular platforms are legit inclusions) I guess what I'm wondering is how best (may be status quo) we should be heading so as to attract the best scenarios to go into currently 'empty' battlesets and to represent current era circumstances (will they go into EC2003 family of battlesets in a 2018 upgrade release???). Don