Harpoon 1 Info

[john688]

Found this little gem on the net, its about version 1.32 so I don’t know how much is relevant.

Employment of ARM missiles

Some users have expressed confusion about the proper use of
missiles with anti-radiation seekers. ARMs may be employed against
non-radiating targets in the expectation that they will turn on their
sensors at some time during the flight of the weapon. This is why you
can fire ARMs against targets that have no active radars.

If an ARM missile hits a base or a ship while the target is radiating
(eg. has it's radars on), the active radar(s) will be destroyed and
the missile will cause airburst damage, which may destroy
non-hardened items like aircraft or the ship's bridge, etc. It can
also start a fire. If an ARM missile arrives at a base or ship, but
no radar is on, ***little or no damage will be done at all by the
missile!***

Tactics:
ARM strikes are used to blind your enemy to incoming strikes and
should be followed up as soon as possible by a conventional attack
that will do more permanent damage to the target (while the enemy
is trying to repair the radars)..

Advanced Tactics:
Please note that ESM detection occurs every 30 seconds. If you
try and stimulate the enemy target into turning on their radars
(perhaps by turning on your radars) just before an ARM arrives,
be advised that the enemy might not react for up to 30 seconds.
You should time such sneaky tricks so the ARM has at least
30 seconds of flight time remaining to the target.

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Surface/Submarine launched homing torpedoes

Some confusion about how torpedoes behave has been expressed by our
testers, in particular with homing vs. wire guided torpedoes. Homing
torpedoes head toward the last known intercept position of the
target, as calculated at launch. If they encounter a target along
this path, they will attack it. When they reach the interception
point, they will enter a search pattern centered around the original
intercept path. If the target has changed course during the torpedo
run, the torpedo has no way of knowing the target isn't where it's
supposed to be. A good chance exists (especially on long range
shots) that a maneuvering target won't be anywhere near the torpedoes
path if this happens and the shot might be wasted. This is why the
computer will turn away from incoming torpedoes. The torpedo will
still roam about, trying to find a target until it's fuel runs out.

In contrast, wire-guided torpedoes will be launched along an
intercept course to a target, but as long as the launching platform
still has an exact fix on the target the torpedo will steer to a
continually updated interception point. Wire-guided torpedoes will
ignore any other targets that might happen to be in the way while
they are being guided to a target whose location is exactly known.
If the launching platform loses the fix on the target, the torpedo
will continue towards the last known interception point, but will
engage any target it hears along the way.



Tactics:
Always change course when torpedoes are incoming! This will
wreck the intercept geometry of the torpedo launch, and if you have
time, put enough distance between the targeted ships and the
torpedo's path so they are not heard by the weapon's seeker.

Advanced Tactics:
Jump all over the launching sub! Wire-guided torps are extremely
dangerous only if the launcher has a good fix on you. Put some
torpedoes in the water around him and fire back along the bearing if
given the chance. If the sub decides to run for it, he will lose his
exact fix on you, and the torps will go for the last known intercept
point (which you should immediately invalidate by changing course and
speed).

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SAM and Aircraft behavior

Surface groups defending themselves against SSMs now optimize their
targeting decisions to avoid duplicate engagements. Ships will
contribute to the overall area defense based on their range and rates
of fire. Ships will choose to engage missiles targeted on themselves
over contributing to area defense when the range begins to get
critical. SAMs now fly to the predicted intercept point, rather than
the simpler stern-chase methods previously employed. Rates of Fire
and number of fire-control channels on each platform is a prime
limitation on the number of targets you will see engaged. There is
unfortunately no way for the user to see the number of director
channels each ship possesses from within Harpoon. Any number of
reference materials exist (check your local library) that show this
type of information about various platforms. Our recommendation is
"Jane's Fighting Ships" or "Combat Fleets of the World". (Shameless
plug---> ) The original Harpoon boardgame from GDW is probably your
best bet though, and the price is really great compared to a copy of
"Jane's".

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Air-to-Air Missile Combat

The guidance restrictions imposed on SAMs also apply to the
air-to-air missiles as well. Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH)
missiles require radar guidance to their targets, while Terminal
Active Radar Homing (TARH) missiles have their own radar seekers and
can find target on their own. Some missiles have Snap-up/Snap-down
capability and suffer no penalties for being launched at an altitude
different from that of their targets (AMRAAM, AA-10, MICA, Sparrows,
SkyFlash, etc). Missiles without snap-up/down will have a reduced
chance to hit if fired from a different altitude band than their
targets.


Tactics:
At medium ranges, getting off the first good shot becomes even more
important, as SARH missiles will miss if they are not being radar
guided. This means if your outgoing missile destroys the enemy
aircraft before his SARH missiles get to you, the incoming missiles
will be destroyed when his planes are destroyed. As TARH missiles
can acquire targets on their own, you should *not* fire them into a
dogfight from long ranges. An even chance exists that the aircraft
they decide to engage will be friendly. Medium range shots against
isolated incoming enemy units present the best geometry.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aircraft endurance

We have fixed several problems with aircraft endurance that make the
version 1.30 changes much more accurate and meaningful. Patrol
aircraft should no longer drop from the skies with no warning.

Now aircraft have a more consistant and realistic model of endurance.
This table shows fuel consumption coefficients for the various altitude
bands and throttle settings. (Note: 1.0 = normal fuel consumption rate)

------------------------------------
Helo Turbo prop Jets
Loiter L 1.0 .75 .75
M 1.0 .75 .75
H 1.0 .75 .75
------------------------------------
Cruise L 1.0 1.0 1.5
M 1.0 1.0 1.0
H --- 1.5 1.0
------------------------------------
Military L 1.1 1.5 2.5
M 1.1 1.5 2.5
H --- 1.5 2.5
------------------------------------
Re heat L --- --- 12.5
M --- --- 12.5
H --- --- 12.5
------------------------------------

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Air-to-Ground Jettisons

Aircraft which are attacked by a sufficient number of fighters in
air-to-air combat will jettison all air-to-ground ordnance and abort
their mission! If you find your attack aircraft suddenly have no
more air-to-ground ordnance, chances are good that you let enemy
fighters get too close.

Tactics:
It is now *much* more important to establish at least temporary air
superiority over strike routes. Send fighters ahead of strike
packages to keep the enemy fighters busy.

----------------------------------------------------------------------



Weapons Allocation and Rate-of-Fire

Mount Empty - This message appears next to weapons mount selections
that are either empty or are unable to engage due to rate-of-fire or
director limitations. In either case, the mount is effectively empty
and may not be employed until reloaded. A F[ull Report] for the unit
in question will usually reveal whether or not that unit still has
remaining ammunition. Rate-of-Fire times tend to cycle every 15 or 30
seconds. This means you will not be able to use the ordnance mount
until it either reloads or finishes whatever mounts do between
firings.

For aircraft, this means you may be prompted by the Staff Assistant
to close to a nearer range so you may engage your target with other
weapons. If you wish to wait until the longer ranged weapons come
back online, simply choose <NO> and try to re-attack in a few
moments.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
SAM/AAM Auto-Fire Logic

When your SAM launchers or Aircraft automatically attack incoming
enemy aircraft (not missiles), they will attempt to fire only when
the incoming aircraft are close enough so they cannot escape by
merely turning around for a few seconds. This holdoff prevents the
enemy aircraft from suckering your defenses out of missiles by using
'Turn-and-burn' tactics. This logic is used *only* for aircraft
targets when your SAM range gate setting is at "Optimum Range". All
other settings will engage aircraft targets at the appropriate range
for that setting. Missile targets are always engaged at maximum
interception range.

Enemy aircraft *will* attempt to avoid incoming missile fire by
dropping to lower altitudes and/or running away for a while. All
aircraft attempting to close against surface targets will endeavor to
avoid radar illumination for as long as possible (usually by dropping
under the radar horizon).

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aircraft Intercept Geometry

The aircraft intercept routines have been substantially rewritten.
Aircraft given an intercept order will now try to intercept at the
fastest speed allowed by their fuel status, giving much shorter
intercepts than the earlier algorithm, which used the slowest
possible intercept speed. As a result, much less micro-management of
intercepts is needed as maneuvering targets are less likely to
escape.

Some of the logic is still (necessarily) conservative and most
players will be able to get the best performance by hand controlling
some of the trickier intercepts. Be aware that manually adjusting
the speed or altitude of an intercepting group will now remove the
intercept order.

----------------------------------------------------------------------



Radar Target Enhancers (Blip Enhancers)

The following helicopters carry radar blip enhancers.

NATO LAMPS-II SH-60 Seahawks/Oceanhawks
NATO LAMPS-I Sea Sprite
ALL Sea King
ALL Lynx
ALL AEW Helix

Note that some missiles may have more than one method of finding
a target, (for example; InfraRed ) and will not be as easily
fooled by such tricks...

The player has no control over whether blip enhancers are on or off.
Remember that the 20% chance is cumulative, so the more helos are in
the air, the better the chance that some missiles will be decoyed.
Helicopters are *not* at risk from the SSM missiles, although some
proximity fused Air-to-Air missiles fired at surface targets could
conceivably attack the decoying helos if they pass close enough.

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.s ... buoy+depth