War In The Pacific Admiral 39;s Edition Scenarios

[Amice Golden]

Harpoonis a series of realistic air and naval computer wargames based upon Larry Bond's miniatures game of the same name. Players can choose between either the Blue or Red side in simulated naval combat situations, which includes local conflicts as well as simulated Cold War confrontations between the Superpowers. Missions range from small missile boat engagements to large oceanic battles, with dozens of vessels and hundreds of aircraft. The game includes large databases containing many types of real world ships, submarines, aircraft, and land defenses (i.e. air bases and ports).

The simulations have a dedicated fan base with several websites offering a varying styles of scenarios and discussion forums, especially as the latest edition includes a feature to allow players to create their own scenarios. Often described as a "niche within a niche market," development of the simulation has progressed steadily through the years despite the overwhelming graphical details of first-person shooter and real-time strategy games. Advanced Gaming Systems, Inc. (AGSI), developers of Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare and Harpoon Commander's Edition (with HarpGamer), currently distributes the simulation as a Harpoon Ultimate Edition through Matrix games with technical support handled on a co-operative basis by AGSI, HarpGamer, and Matrix games employees.

Harpoon was originally published by Three-Sixty Pacific and has had several development paths and publishers. Despite the widespread success of the game, Three-Sixty Pacific experienced financial difficulties and went under in 1994. Currently all computer rights rest with AGSI, who continues to improve the series with new developments and releases. In 2006, AGSI released Harpoon Advanced Naval Warfare (ANW) which allowed players to compete with human opponents for the first time in the game's history.

Harpoon's interface emphasizes technical accuracy over graphical polish, with simple 2D symbols to simulate a warship's radar display. There has been considerable debate in the game's user community about the decision of the developers to utilize 3D graphics in later versions of the program. Since March 2009, two releases are available to AGSI civilian customers. Harpoon Commanders Edition is an updating version based on the game engine of the original series. Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare is the current civilian edition of the product. Military customers are offered Harpoon 3 Pro, which is tailored for customer specifications. There was a Macintosh version that lies between the Harpoon II and Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare called "Harpoon III v3.6.3" aka "H3"

The games play in real time, with time acceleration capability in case the action slows down. The player can control single or multiple platforms (thousands if the computing power is available). The game is extremely comprehensive, although certain elements of naval warfare are not modeled, such as radar ducting, sonar bottom and surface bounce, and COMINT/SIGINT.

Computer Gaming World said that Harpoon II's long delay helped the game, approving of the Windows-like interface for the DOS game.[3] The editors of PC Gamer US nominated Harpoon II for their 1994 "Best Wargame" award, although it lost to Panzer General.[4]

Pacific War, by SSI. This is a BIG game, covering every aspect of the entire Pacific war, and containing every ship, aircraft squadron, and brigade-size or better land unit that fought in the war. In other words, this game is just stupefyingly large. I like it. The graphics (particularly the map) are just god-awful, but as a strategic exercise it is very interesting. Some of the more important aspects of the war really get hammered home as you slog through the campaign week by week, such as "Jeez, American fighers were really bad at the beginning, and you have to wait forever for the Hellcat." (After playing through a couple of these campaigns, I've decided that I'd rather lose Tulagi than lose an Atlanta-class AA cruiser: American flak is just so righteous.) Be prepared for 100-200 hours of game play to get through an entire campaign from Pearl Harbor to Japan's surrender (and a fast computer doesn't hurt, either). You can download the game for free at the Matrix Games website.

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Task Force, 1942, by Microprose. A ship-to-ship tactical simulation of the fighting around Guadalcanal, with a strategic engine slapped on top of it. Entertaining in the tactical mode, but the strategic mode is kind of hokey, because it really doesn't encompass enough of the elements of the actual Guadalcanal campaign (plus, it's ludicrously easy to win on either side of the ball). Pet Peeve about this game: ships sustaining any sort of moderate damage in the tactical module are recalled home for repairs and never, ever return. What's the good of a repair yard if you can't get the ships back into the fight sometime? Contains a scenario editor for creating encounters between squadrons of your choosing, which is a good thing (I am particularly fond of the Yamato vs. a single U.S. Fletcher-class. Short, but exciting.) Find out more about the game here.

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Silent Service II, by Microprose. The grand daddy of WWII sub simulators, and still a hoot. Nothing quite like the visceral thrill of blowing up a Japanese patrol boat with your deck gun. Find out more about the game here.

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Both of these games are quite fun to play, being similar to Task Force 1942 by Microprose but with MUCH better graphics (SVGA) and computer AI. You can manage a battle at any one of many levels, and switch freely between them:

Almost all of these "positions" allow for a direct view of thebattle. You can actually watch the main guns turn and fire on targets, watch the torpedoes being launched and running to the targets, view internal compartmental damage & flooding, and best of all view the splashes of misses on targets and the explosions of hits on them!

As far I can tell, the game engine is fairly accurate as far asdamage and it is results go, but it could use a little fine-tuning. It has a very detailed scenario editor, with the ability to adjust torpedo malfunction rates, crew reload rates, gun accuracy and damage, damage control quality, etc. You should save often while building a scenario, however, as it has an occasional bug which will lock it up from time to time.

It is inconceivable that a homepage dedicated to the IJN makes no mention in its computer games section of SSG's Carriers at War. This is possibly the most realistic computer naval wargame you will ever come across and the realism is all transparent. The game INTERFACE is extremely simple. You can find out a bit more about it at:

Many people dislike this system, claiming that the game tends to run itself with minimal opportunity for player input. Additionally, the system is concerned solely with naval operations. There is no ground combat. Nevertheless, the realism built into the model is unsurpassed and an excellent editor exists to change anything you do not like. It should also be mentioned that SSG's work in artificial intelligence for computer wargames is probably the most advanced in the entertainment software industry.

Submarines during World War 2 became an important weapon of the combatants. Silent Hunter by SSI is perhaps the best made simulation to date of subwarfare. The game provides single or historical scenarios, along with a campaign game covering the entire Pacific War. All realism settings can be changed by the player to suit his or her own playing style. Also, a sub tour and interviews with William "Bud" Gruner, commander of the U.S.S. Skate during World War II are provided.

Patrol zones range across the whole area of the theater of operations. Nine sub types are yours to command, along with direct or auto control of the deck gun and computer controlled AA guns. Four torpedo types and new technology appear at the appropriate times in the campaign game. In additon to the hunting of enemy ships, photo recon and lifeguard duty are also part of the experience.

As of this writing, I have been through several campaigns and have so far counted 47 seperate ship types. Of that 47, there were 9 carrier types, 5 battleship types, 5 cruiser types, 5 light cruiser types, 10 destroyer types, 2 patrol craft types, 1 sub type, 9 freighter types (cargo to troops) and 1 sampan type. One patrol disk has been released, adding new patrol zones. Another is promised in the near future.

From my perspective as a gamer, the graphics are excellent, the ship types various enough so as not to get boring and the AI smart enough to take appropriate action. The control of the realism settings is a big plus. The patrol disk concept is a good way to add to an already great game. There has been a patch or two released that have made the game one of the most stable I've ever seen. I've played all the others and this game is the only one which has kept my interest. Give it a try, you won't be sorry.

The game requires at least a 486DX/66 or better; with 8 megs ram, a 1 Mb SVGA graphics card, a double speed cd-rom drive and a mouse. On a P90 with 16 megs ram, it runs like a dream. Find out more about the game here.

Released in 2002 and with legendary game designer Gary Grigsby as one of the main designers behind it, this game deals with the vicious fighting that took place in the South Pacific from May 1942 to November 1943. It consists of 17 scenarios with several covering the individual battles including the Battle of the Coral Sea, Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and Battle of Santa Cruz. Several others deal with hypothetical scenarios, which focus on an alternate historical timeline in which the Battle of Midway never occurred and therefore the ships that were lost on both sides in that engagement will appear in the game as well. A turn-based game, it deals with the fighting in the South Pacific on land, sea, and air and though it has simple graphics, they are somewhat impressive for a game such as this. In addition to the fighting, the play also has to deal with keeping enough supplies for the troops in the field and keeping the ships is good order (the main bases here in the game is Truk for Japan and Noumea for the Allies). If a ship is heavily damaged, then as the Japanese player it is sent back to Tokyo while as for the American player, the damaged ship is sent back to Pearl Harbor. For those that are familiar some of Grigsby's other games such as Pacific War and Great Naval Battles II and III, while it is similar but much more advanced. An impressive game on the Pacific War, it gives the player a chance to get a sense of what it was like during the Pacific War for both sides.

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