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From: felixh@sandstorm.Berkeley.EDU (Felix Hack)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Harpoon...Does anyone know how to play this game?
Keywords: Harpoon tactics
Message-ID: <1990Nov8.205614.3122@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 8 Nov 90 20:56:14 GMT
References: <1990Nov8.144713.2547@cbnewsl.att.com>
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Reply-To: felixh@sandstorm.Berkeley.EDU (Felix Hack)
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  Here are some tactics that have helped me win at Harpoon.

   First, never use the formation editor to fly fixed-wing
aircraft.  Launch such aircraft as separate groups,
loitering in the vicinity of where you think subs
might be.  Keep helos on their ships ready to take
off as a separate group to prosecute any contacts
detected by other units.
  I've found that ASW aircraft flying within the 
formation, no matter how you change the ranges
and assign sectors, are pretty useless.  I
wouldn't even fly AEW aircraft in formation,
better to fly them 100 miles or so ahead
to detect the enemy sooner.
  When you make a sub contact, turn ship groups
away from the contact and vector aircraft after
it.  If the sub is really far away (30+ miles)
evasion probably isn't necessary, unless the
sub carries type 65 torps, with a range of
54 (!!) miles.  If you detect torpedoes, turn
the formation away and go to maximum speed.
Use the unit display window to get an exact
idea of where the torps and ships are; the
group display only shows you the theoretical
center of the formation, and ships not in 
that center won't maneuver the way you
think the should; they'll maneuver to
keep station relative to the center.
  If you can pick out what ship is the 
target, go ahead and split it off from
the main group, use the formation editor
to place it in the center of its new formation
(that really should be done automatically
by the game, what a hassle), and order it
to its max speed, away from the torps.
  It is important to increase the speed
again because the main group's max speed
is probably very slow due to merchants
and the like.  Soviet torps fired at
long range are relatively slow (around
30 knots) so a warship can just outrun
them.  In the meantime keep
the main group away from the torps, they
might decide to attack a juicy merchant 
instead.
  In the second scenario (the one in
 the example) it is difficult to 
 detect the sub before it shoots;
 it has type 65 torps and you dont'
 have multi-convergence zone towed 
 arrays.  In practice I dogleg the group
 to the northwest right at scenario start
 and don't get subjected to torpedo attack;
 this is by far the best way (after killing 
 the sub outright) of defending against
 torpedoes.

   Some ideas with submarines:  split
   them into separate groups, one per sub,
   and make sure they are at the center of
   their formations; that's the only
   way you can be sure that what you
   see on the group display corresponds to the
   real position of the subs.  You can get
   really confused if you don't do this, as the starting groupings often
   have two subs in the ASW zone of a formation, with no sub in the center.