Greetings!

I am a long time miniatures and tabletop wargamer but brand new to the world of Harpoon outside of the Tom Clancy Novels. I saw an article in Forbes recently on the release of 5th edition and it really sparked my interest! I have never been able to find a good naval wargame that really captures the depth and scale until now.

To that end, I have set myself a goal to host a weekend event of Harpoon V for my buddies a little more than a year from now as my bachelor's party/guys getaway weekend. The rough idea is for it to be a modern day conflict in the South China Sea similar to "Cold Wars: War with China". 

I have picked up "Harpoon V Rules" and started to devour them. I have noticed that perhaps the better way to learn would be to mock up a couple of units and play it out to understand the mechanics. I was thinking of purchasing next "Harpoon V Player's Handbook", "Harpoon V America's Navy" and " Haproon V America's Aircraft". What other materials should I pick up at this point? Particularly to get the Chinese units?

Also, any advice you have on learning this wonderfully detailed system would be greatly appreciated! Certain tips and tricks, common pit falls, online resources and tutorials, etc.

Thank you all in advance.

-Mike

Presently, only US and Russian naval/air units are available for Harpoon V.  Chinese units are in the works.  They will most likely be done before your bachelor's party.  But, please don't hold me to it since H-V was supposed to be done months ago...🤨

 

Cheers I have a feeling the US side alone will give me plenty to learn with in the meantime to learn the basics. How did you go about learning H-V? My plan was to get down movement of ships (starting with a staple like the A. Burke), then detection mechanics then shoot missiles at the ship under multiple conditions. From there not exactly sure, or if that is even the correct way to go about it.

Your one-step-at-a-time approach will work well.  Harpoon4 had a series of scenarios that took players through various aspects of the game mechanics.  The present Jumpstart doesn't do it quite as well, but it is a place to start, anyway.  Do you have the free Jumpstart?

That is a shame they didn't leave something like that in for version V. I have read the jumpstart and plan to again here after finishing the main rules to hopefully give some more clarity.