Harpoon '97 Bugs and Design Factors

by Mark Gellis
mgellis@kettering.edu

This is a text file that will accompany any scenarios I write for Harpoon 
Classics '97.  It will updated periodically as new bugs and design factors are 
identified.  The most recent update to this file was September 26, 1998.  

ORDERS AND SAVED SCENARIOS.  One thing I have noticed about Harpoon '97 is that 
when you save an original scenario, shut down the game, and start it up again at 
a later time, it is sometimes impossible to access the orders file.  I found 
that one solution is to save the game with its original prefix (e.g., marines1) 
and the saved file suffix (e.g., marines1.hpk) rather than using the default 
autosave file (e.g., autosave.hpk).  This can be done by using the "Save As" 
command instead of the "Save" command; the latter will automatically save a file 
as "autosave."

THOSE DANG AIRCRAFT RANGES.  One of the big complaints I heard about Harpoon '97
was that the ranges for aircraft were all wrong.  I am not sure exactly how bad
this problem is (I looked at various reference works and they did not always
agree, so perhaps erring on the side of caution may not be such a terrible sin).
I am also not sure it is a big problem for players.

Adding a tanker to any flight increases the range by roughly 50%.  In addition, 
if one is careful, it is not difficult to effectively double the listed range for
any aircraft: adding a tanker to the initial flight and putting another tanker
along their homeward route to meet the returning aircraft (and then making
sure you join the two groups) usually does the trick.

The number of tankers does not appear to be important.  One tanker seems to
provide as much additional range to a flight of ten aircraft as ten tankers.  
This can be handled in two different ways, I think.  First, one can assume 
that the tanker version of aircraft not normally designed as tankers (like 
the F-14), can provide air-to-air refueling for one other aircraft, while 
dedicated tankers can refuel several aircraft.  

The other method is to simply add one tanker version of an aircraft to each 
attack group (e.g., one tanker F-18 and five ASuW F-18, if you wanted to divide
the squadron into two six-aircraft attack groups).  In situations where the 
scenario designer believes an erroneously low range has been given for the
aircraft in question, this would alleviate the problem without having to
dedicate half of the aircraft in the squadron to the tanker role.

In some cases, of course, aircraft are not able to refuel from tankers.  When
this is combined with a short range (e.g., the MiG-27, which appears to have an
erroneously short range), it does limit the value of the aircraft. 

The 600-mile range for the MiG-31 is probably a typo in the database.  Since
there is nothing that can be done about this, and since Flankers can carry the
long range missiles, I recommend just using the Flankers for long range missions
and keeping the MiG-31s in the defensive role.

I do wish the designers had kept a few of the older aircraft, like the Hawk,
MiG-19, etc.  It would be nice to do a full range of historical scenarios with
all the additional options provided by Harpoon '97.

TOMAHAWKS, TORPEDOES, AND SHIPS.  Ship-launched Tomahawk missiles will work if 
you keep the Tomahawk-AR missiles in their launchers.  Once you use them, a bug 
in the program prevents you from using TLAMs against ships.  This is similar to 
the bug that only lets patrol boats use torpedoes against other ships if they 
also have some kind of missile weapon.  One way to get around this bug, by the 
way, is to attach patrol boats armed with torpedoes to a group with missile 
boats.  Use the formation editor to place the torpedo boats in front of the 
missile boats (or larger vessels with missiles).  When an enemy vessel is spotted, 
it will probably attack the torpedo boats first, since they will be closer.  Most
of these boats will probably be sunk, but some may get a chance to use their
torpedoes, and the enemy vessels will both reveal their positions and use up
a lot of their missiles while your missile boats remain unscathed.      

STANDOFF CHOPPERS AND AIRCRAFT.  For some reason, the designers decided to 
eliminate a few aircraft and a few loadouts that probably should have been
left in.  For example, there do not appear to be any aircraft in Harpoon '97
that are capable of firing the Israeli Gabriel anti-ship missile.  The Dauphin
helicopter is also missing, but the Seahawk SH-60B is a good match (the Penguin 
missile it carries has roughly the same range and damage points as the Gabriel).  
The export version of the F-16A carries the Penguin, too, and if one needs
Falcons dedicated to the anti-shipping role, these will suffice.  The
Israeli F-16 does carry Mavericks, which can be used against ships, but
these have less range than the air-lauched Gabriel or Penguin.

RED BASES ONLY FOR SOME COUNTRIES.  Another "bug" in Harpoon '97 is that the 
EC2000 battlesets have some very odd choices about bases (for example, no Blue 
French or Egyptian bases in the MEDC battleset).  Fortunately, many of the bases 
have no country listed and (except for obvious ones like "Algiers" where people 
are not going to be able to suspend their disbelief if you locate it in 
Bulgaria) these can simply be moved around the map as necessary.  Naturally,
any base can be moved using the Change Group Position command in the scenario
editor, but using bases without country names listed may facilitate the 
suspension of disbelief when placing the base in a different country.  

Nations without Blue bases can still be Blue players even without "faking" a 
base for them; the only requirement is that some allied nation allows them to fly 
aircraft out of one or more of their bases (e.g., Germany flying aircraft out of 
a Greek base).  The same is true for players without the option of being Red
(for example, if Israel was allied with Egypt or Turkey against some common
enemy).

WHERE THE HECK ARE ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES?  For reasons known only to the gods, 
the designers of the EC2000 databases have eliminated the navies of several 
nations that were previously included in Harpoon: Australia, Bulgaria, 
Indonesia, Syria, etc.  

In some cases, the platforms used by these countries can be simulated without 
too much difficulty (e.g., Australia's navy includes a number of American 
platforms like Adams-class destroyers and Perry-class frigates).  In fact,
Australia can be represented in all four battlesets in this way.  Taiwan
can also be simulated in Harpoon Classic quite easily for the same reason.  
In addition, since it looks as if Greece will be getting the Kidd-class 
destroyers, and since it already employs Adams-class destroyers and Knox-
class frigates, those vessels can be used in all four battlesets to allow 
Greek contributions to various scenarios.  This is also the case with 
Pakistan and the Type 21 frigates they have purchased from the U.K.  
Finally, although this is a rough match, China can be simulated using 
Russian vessels, submarines, and aircraft because they appear to be 
purchasing a lot of military hardware from Russia (or making their own 
copies).  

Other absent nations (e.g., Thailand and Indonesia) are difficult to 
simulate in the EC2000 battlesets.  This is unfortunate, as these nations 
could have been incorporated into many scenarios.  At the same time, the
availability of many older Russian, British, and American vessels in the H97 
battleset databases allows for some flexibility here.

In all cases, where substitutions are made, I believe it is helpful to provide 
a "Design Notes" section in the orders files that explains what has been done
and why.




