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|D ^0Diskussion |D ^1On The Editor's Desk |Dͺ ^0Diskussion |D
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^C^1Harpoon^0


    Sometime in the late 1970's . . . 

    "Bridge . . . Weapons here!  We have multiple air contacts bearing 
 189 degrees true, range 90 miles, constant bearing decreasing range."  I 
 released the talk switch on the 32MC. 
    "Bridge Aye."  The reply crackled back at me.  A second later the shrill 
 trill of the boatswain pipe announced the beginning of ten minutes of intense 
 adrenaline charged terror that accompanies an air raid.

    From the first moment with this program, I knew that Three Sixty Software's 
 Harpoon had brushed that elusive essence that is naval combat.  After sitting 
 in the seat of the FCSC (Fire Control Systems Coordinator) I know firsthand 
 what the tactics, fears, guesses and stresses are in effecting not only your 
 own survival but that of the ship and the Task Force.  I found that on more 
 than one occasion I was faced with the same challenges that confronted me in 
 the fleet.

    "Condition yellow weapons tight," the 1MC blared out to the crew.  In my 
 left ear I heard, "Forward radar manned and ready...After missile battery 
 manned and ready...Forward missile battery manned and ready...After radar 
 manned and ready...Condition Zebra set all stations."  The unidentified air 
 contacts were displayed on my scope, their radar images being downlinked from 
 the E2C Hawkeye circling to the west of the task force.  I listened in on the 
 airborne intercept.  "Hammer two three come to 'angles' one five zero and go 
 to burner..."

    Larry Bond's Harpoon game system, for miniatures, is one of the most 
 thorough designs in gaming.  It encompasses ships, aircraft and weapons used 
 by all navies worldwide.  Incorporating the enormous amount of information and 
 interactions required to adequately represent what occurs in naval combat is a 
 very difficult matter.  Many designs, such as Lucas Film's "Strike Fleet", get 
 lost in the weapons interaction, and even then they don't reasonably represent 
 what occurs.  Harpoon has overcome this and gotten into the fascinating part 
 of naval warfare which is the stalk and hide, the deception and misdirection, 
 and the hunt and kill!

    "Flag Pole this is Hammer...  No Joy!  I repeat No Joy!"  I immediately 
 switched my mike to the radar rooms.  "Look alive, the flyboys blew the air 
 intercept.  We're up next."

    The interface used in Harpoon is very complete. It provides the view of a 
 theater of operations, the range of sensors and helos; and the tactical area.  
 In addition there are special screens for the deployment of the task force and 
 for the readying and launching of air strikes.  Air defense is directly 
 affected by Task Force deployment and is handled automatically for you by the 
 computer.  This eliminates the need for you to personally do what several 
 hundred trained professionals normally do with the aid of the worlds most 
 sophisticated computers.  With that burden removed from you, you are free to 
 employ your units in locating and destroying your adversary.

    "Condition Red...Weapons Release."  the 1MC announced to the crew that 
 combat was imminent.  "All systems standby for desig.," I said trying to keep 
 my voice calm.  With a quick assignment of targets all my fire control radars 
 were searching for lock-ons.  Radar one locked his target first and I checked 
 the passive IFF systems.  Toggling my mike to the Weapon Boss's circuit I 
 reported, "Two Mirage F1s at seven thousand and six hundred knots.  Possible 
 external stores." 

    Part of the challenge of naval combat is threat identification.  To test 
 out Harpoon's thoroughness at adapting its tactics to available information I 
 employed a tactic called a 'Stalking Horse' against the computer.  I detached 
 a Krivak, I was playing the Soviets, and positioned the small surface warship 
 40 miles ahead of the main body of my surface action group.  I turned all my 
 sensors in the main body to passive and turned the Krivak's sensors to active.
 The computer localized the Krivak and launched 24 harpoon missiles at it.  
 Needless to say the Krivak was overwhelmed and destroyed.  But I was able to 
 locate the attacking force.  (Don't get stationed on a small combatant with an 
 admiral that is willing to take losses to achieve a cat's paw.)  I again 
 detached a Krivak to pull the counter attack away from me and launched an 
 attack with the Krivak heading opposite for the main body with all systems 
 active.  My attack went in destroying a Spruance DD, but my main group was 
 localized and fired on.  The enemy/machine had managed to localize the main 
 body and ignored the ploy. 

    "Condition Red...Birds Free," the 1MC blared as we were about to fire.  I 
 picked up the "pickle," a pistol grip with the firing key attached.  "Optimum 
 firing at <Censored> thousand," I reported to the Weapons Boss.
    "Fire at Optimum," he replied.
    I called off the range to T1.  "Twelve Hundred.......Six Hundred.....Two 
 Hundred."
    "CHECK FIRE! CHECK FIRE! Bogies are outbound!"
    I sighed heavily and thought "Another day of peace," as I placed the firing 
 key back in its cradle.

    Harpoon is not for everyone.  If you are looking for an arcade game, 
 Harpoon is not for you.  But if you want a challenging thought provoking 
 opponent that doesn't play the same way twice, this is it.  There are some 
 scenarios you can't win, welcome to the real world, but all of them are sure 
 to provide many hours of entertainment. 

^R-- Jeff Billings
