Automated AAW results unrealistic?

[Kadorak]

Hi folks,

I just recently picked up Harpoon 3: ANW; I read enough community websites to before buying to realize it has problems, but figured it still sounded like a good sim and was worth a try. It's not nearly as intuitive as Harpoon Classic, but the tutorials got me up to speed and the 'missions' function is nice.

So now for my question:

I'm playing the "PLO Returns" scenario on the Israeli side. I set up a series of AAW barrier patrols between Tartus and all of the shipping I need to ID, and sent F15 Eagles to fly them. I tagged as hostile all the planes I saw launch from Tartus AFB-343 and fly straight for my forces while emitting signatures unique to MIG-23 jets; I figured that was a pretty safe bet! Once I saw a flight of 4 MIGs incoming, I vectored 4 Eagles to intercept (with a separate mission). Now here's the odd part - after the shooting was over, all 4 MIGs were dead, but so were all of my Eagles! This seems wrong, considering how lopsided the F-15's kill ratio is historically (100+ to zero or something IIRC). Is this correct? Am I doing something wrong? Is it just a flaw in the engine?

Side note - I really wish somebody would work on a real new addition to the Harpoon series. No need for fancy graphics or anything, maybe just some changes to the GUI, a friendlier look like in Classic. Then I'd *love* to see something that could combine the capability of Classic to play out huge engagements with ANW's ability to automate certain things in missions (allowing for even bigger engagements!) and have multiple sides, and most importantly a good AI. Actually, just an overhauled AI for Classic would suit me just fine, but this is now a total tangent.

How do I kill those MIGs?

[th3flyboy]

First of all, the reason that the F-15 has such a high kill ratio is that it usually is ether going up against poorly equipped or poorly trained enemies while the F-15 is usually highly equipped and the pilot highly trained. Why it's loosing to mig 23s, idk, my question is do you have a savegame file of the mission. Also which DB were you using? What anw version where you using? Finally, what load out did the eagles have?

[FreekS]

Two suggestions
 
I agree with flyboy, in Harpoon its as much about the missiles as the planes; so if F15s with Sparrow go up against Alamo they might be in for a surprise.
 
Second, I personally would not trust air defense to missions, I'd keep it at plotted, control my radars and launch at max range and turn away (if I have AMRAAM, not if I have Sparrow). works much better.
 
Freek