Hi, I am a casual pc player (play once in two weeks or so) and have harpoon 3 v. 3.6.3 on my pc. I really enjoyed it. So, to contribute to further devlopment, I want to buy some newer version of harpoon. Do you think that buying ANW will be rational, since I am not sure if I will see some real improvements when I convert from 3.6.3 to ANW. Some even say that it would be one step backwards, because of the bugs. If that is the situation, I will purchase HCCE, but I am not sure if I want an operational naval game, instead of a tactical one. Any suggestions?

I will not ever discourage you from buying HCE.

 

IMHO - repeat my own humble opinion - HCE is the most purely enjoyable Harpoon sim available, but of course this is subjective in the extreme, and it is not meant to be put forward at the cost of ANW or any other version of Harpoon.

 

When I say 'pure enjoyment', I'm talking about a sim that I can fire up in literally seconds, and be on the virtual battlefield. I can modify the database to my liking, I can whip up my own scenarios quickly and easily, and I can play out those scenarios with much more than a reasonable facsimile of realism. I can hammer a company of tanks with an A-10, move carrier strike groups across oceans, clear a minefield in a chokepoint, or launch a nuclear strike. Game crashes are very rare, and I don't know of any 'killer' bugs.

 

Does HCE have its own limitations ? Sure. Are the simulation models as complex as they are in ANW ? Nope. Can I do multi-player ? No, sorry. Do I enjoy the heck out of this sim ? You bet.

 

So, while I do own ANW and I have played it a bit, I'm an admitted HCE-aholic. Someone else should probably offer up their own opinion about whether you should ante up for ANW, but I cannot honestly suggest you should do so at the cost of foregoing a crack at HCE.

I'm in pretty much the same boat as Brad but I'm even more extreme in the casual player aspect. When I pick up Harpoon for a game, it is HC 75% of the time or so. Case in point on the casual thing, the most fun I've had with Harpoon in close to a year was playing one of Ralf's scenarios from the wrong side two weeks ago. I enjoyed the crap out of smashing a two carrier battlegroup with an abundance of Russian bombers.

 

Here's what I would suggest, if HCCE is available for sale before ANW 3.9, grab HCCE, if ANW 3.9 is released first, grab ANW. With the return of Darren Buckley to the H3 scene and other ANW participants finding a firmer footing, ANW progress should be more consistent and focused than it has been the last few years (3.9 is bearing the first real fruits of that). ANW in the longer term is the game with the future, we're going to do what we can with HC, and for the next couple of years that may seemingly outpace the development of ANW, but ANW should by all rights grow into the choice of most computer Harpoon players as it transitions to TNH (The Next Harpoon).

 

I suppose based on that, another way to look at it is now is a good time to take your foray into HC, ANW is a stepping stone to something greater while HC isn't a stepping stone to anything so the focus is on the here and now with HC, it is on the future with ANW.

Hi, I am a casual pc player (play once in two weeks or so) and have harpoon 3 v. 3.6.3 on my pc. I really enjoyed it. So, to contribute to further devlopment, I want to buy some newer version of harpoon. Do you think that buying ANW will be rational, since I am not sure if I will see some real improvements when I convert from 3.6.3 to ANW. Some even say that it would be one step backwards, because of the bugs. If that is the situation, I will purchase HCCE, but I am not sure if I want an operational naval game, instead of a tactical one. Any suggestions?

 

I agree that the current state of ANW leaves me wondering if there has been a net improvement from the 3.6.3 version or not. Although they've fixed/improved things like:

 

1) Sonobuoys work (more often)

2) Aircraft logistics work (more often)

3) Multi-player

 

They have also broken a great many things in the process like:

 

1) Sonobuoys broken (in some instances)

2) Aircraft logistics broken (in some instances)

3) Multi-player broken (in some instances)

4) Victory Conditions do not evaluate

5) Missions no longer behave as before

 

For a full list of reported problems, see:

 

* Known Harpoon [ANW] Issues

 

I own both Harpoon Classic and Harpoon3 / ANW and enjoy them equally. I don't think that you will go wrong playing both, if you so choose.

Here's what I would suggest, if HCCE is available for sale before ANW 3.9, grab HCCE, if ANW 3.9 is released first, grab ANW. With the return of Darren Buckley to the H3 scene and other ANW participants finding a firmer footing, ANW progress should be more consistent and focused than it has been the last few years (3.9 is bearing the first real fruits of that).

 

this sounds reasonable,

i will try to take a look at the demo ver. of classic first, then, probably buy the first comer, which I suppose will be HCCE possibly as I have not heard any dates etc. at matrix's forum...