Yom Hadin Problem

[John688]

Hi, I'm new to H3 so bear with me.
I installed 3.6.3, installed players DB Library and did a few tutorials, great, so then I loaded up Yom Hadin for some air action and nothing engages.
I can fly over enemy ships (red) and past enemy aircraft and nothing engages, If I try to engage with F1 I get "No enemy units or contacts were selected", If Intercept with F6,It says Intercept in aircraft Data but my aircraft flies away.
Also I see in the bug report there are problems with F1/ F6 Intercepts, so what's the best way to engage ?
Thanks

[Herman Hum]

Hello John688 and welcome aboard, shipmate.

The scenario you have selected has some special situations set up. You must read your orders carefully and follow them or else the scenario does not initiate properly. I do not know from which side you are playing, so I am appending the orders for both sides. Please note the high-lighted sections:

Israel
O 621018Oct93 SSSSSSSSSS

Fr: CinC IDF
To: Cmdr. Israeli Naval forces
CTG 21.1
CTG 21.2
CTG 21.3

S E C R E T // N02524//
Subj: OpStart Yom Hadin

1. You are ordered to conduct an air and sea raid of Tobruk harbour facilities which contain Col. Qadhaffi's military headquarters.

1.1 The sea-borne raiding force will clear the harbour of ships to allow the deployment of Special Forces commandoes to infiltrate and destroy command and control facilities in and around Tobruk.

1.2 The air strike will be conducted in concert with the naval raid. Conduct a coordinated air strike to eliminate enemy air defences and detection capabilities in order to allow safe egress. Ensure that combat air patrols conduct a sweep of the route and target area. Use the air strike to destroy the port base of Tobruk.

2. Intelligence estimates that Libyan forces are on alert and expect some kind of action. Enemy sea and air patrols can be expected.

3. Plans of the raid may have been discovered by Libyan Intelligence. Destroy the Libyan Intelligence ** IMMEDIATELY ** agent before they can be revealed.


Libya
O 0170900ZOct93 SSSSSSSSSS

Fr: CinC Libyan Defence forces
To: All operational commands

S E C R E T
Subj: Full defense preparations following gas attack on Tel Aviv

1. Forces sponsored by the state have just released a nerve agent against the Zionist city of Tel Aviv.

2. Retributive air strikes are expected.

3. All air, land, and naval forces are hereby placed on full and extended alert.

4. Defend our people, our cities, and our beloved leader from the Zionists.

5. A Mossad agent has been discovered in regional HQ. Destroy him ** IMMEDIATELY ** lest he reveal our preparations.

You will find that if you re-start the scenario and complete those bold-faced items immediately, the scenario will function just fine. The bugs reported for F1 and F6 do not pertain to the Harpoon v3.6.3 you are playing. They are only for ANW v3.9.4 and HUE v3.10 versions of the game.

Tally ho! I look forward to your review and report on how that scenario ends for you.

[John688]

Thanks for your prompt reply, will report back when complete.

[John688]

Phase one complete, I launched airstrikes on the Libyan navy, sinking a number of FFLs and shooting down all air cover, while a flight of F16s tried to take out the SA2 site with ARM's, but failed (they fired off their missiles before I could allocate them, must remember weapons hold next time).
All the aircraft are now rearming and preparing to hit Tobruk with a big alpha strike while my navy move in to mop up their remaining ships.
I'm really enjoying 3.6.3, I originally bought ANW but gave up with all the bugs, this version seems a lot better.
A couple of questions..

I your opinion what are the most serious bugs in 3.6.3 ?

I noticed in the scenario that a lot of the neutral ship contacts were red, even though they were described as neutral in the unit window.

I read on a HCE forum that air to air SARH would guide even if they were out side the radar arc of the launcher, is this true of H3 ?

How often do you use Missions in scenarios ?

Thanks

[Herman Hum]

Phase one complete, I launched airstrikes on the Libyan navy, sinking a number of FFLs and shooting down all air cover, while a flight of F16s tried to take out the SA2 site with ARM's, but failed (they fired off their missiles before I could allocate them, must remember weapons hold next time).

Remember, the Weapons Tight command only applies to units under manual control. If you are uncertain of how it works, review:
Weapons Tight and how it works

I'm really enjoying 3.6.3, I originally bought ANW but gave up with all the bugs, this version seems a lot better.

The most important thing is that you came to this conclusion on your own. You don't need to believe me or anyone else that ANW is a piece of crap.

I your opinion what are the most serious bugs in 3.6.3 ?

The biggest bugs that come to mind in H3 are from the list of * Known Harpoon 3 Issues:

1) Aircraft Logistics - ammo dumps on air bases are broken and will give you virtually unlimited re-loads
2) AI Sonobuoys - buoys dropped by units under AI control have absolutely no effect. Manually dropped buoys work.
3) World revolves in the wrong direction
4) Land unit weapons do not re-load from magazines i.e. SAMs
5) Mount Underrun - Mounts sometimes jammed with high number (6#,###+ in display) when left in weapons-free mode.
6) Underway replenishment of ships not possible

I noticed in the scenario that a lot of the neutral ship contacts were red, even though they were described as neutral in the unit window.

This should not happen, IMO. You most likely attacked a neutral unit by accident at some point and they are now all hostile towards you.

I read on a HCE forum that air to air SARH would guide even if they were out side the radar arc of the launcher, is this true of H3 ?

This is true for both HCE and H3 - SARH missiles can guide even outside the radar arc of the illumination radar. In H3, we can make it more realistic and try to restrict it to the launcher arc, but then it may cause other problems for the AI. For example, the AI cannot understand that it needs to keep the target within the illuminator's arc so it executes turning manoeuvres and the SARH missiles self-destruct from lack of guidance. For this reason, we try to help the AI by not forcing it to do things it cannot understand. As a player, I try to obey this real life requirement by not allowing my fighters to turn away after firing their SARH missiles even though the game will not penalize me for doing so.

How often do you use Missions in scenarios ?

I rarely use AI Missions in my solitaire games. You can see why by checking out these scenario AARs:

AAR: Guardian

[John688]

Thanks for the info

[Herman Hum]

How did you come to selecting Yom Hadin as the first scenario to play? It is not normally a beginner selection as it isn't on the list of Introductory H3 PlayersDB Scenarios

When you finish it, I'd be happy to provide you a human opponent so that you can compare how the AI runs. If you find the AI too easy, a human opponent is a totally different kettle of fish.

[John688]

I'm more interested in the air combat part of the sim and this was the first one I found.
I'm sorry but I don't have much time to play online with a young family and all (as you can probably tell by my infrequent posts!)
A couple more questions if you please.. I used a group of 6 fighters (to reduce workload) but found it very difficult to keep track of their weapons remaining, is there an easy way?
and are all air to surface weapons modeled as fire and forget?
Thanks

[Herman Hum]

Since your preference is Air Warfare, a few nice scenarios for you might be Alpha Strike 1 and 2 in the HDS II NACV and HDS II MEDC battlesets. A bigger one is 1stTeam from Battles of the 3rd W.War battleset. Freek Schepers also wrote a nice short air scenario, Dreamland.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to keep track of the weapons for an entire group of aircraft. You simply have to check each aircraft one at a time with the Unit Report function.

Not all Air-to-Surface weapons are simulated as fire-and-forget. There are weapons such as AGM-62 Walleyes and AS-4 Kitchens that you can fire either directly at a target or on Bearing-Only-Launch and then give them manoeuvre commands such as speed, altitude, and course.

Don't worry too much about the time factor in MP. Some games can be over within 20 mins. Neat and quick. Others can take weeks or months.

[John688]

Thanks I'll give those scenarios a try.
In your Gauntlet AAR you overflew the target somewhat while dropping LGBs, was this necessarie or were you just adding realism?

[Herman Hum]

I think you are mistaken. The Gauntlet scenario/AAR has no units that carry LGBs. There are only helicopters that carry either torpedoes or Sea Skua.

Could you be thinking of AAR: Guardian?

[John688]

Sorry yes Guardian

[Herman Hum]

In real life, the LGBs require laser designation. Laser designators are possible in H3, but they are buggy about 40% of the time. Once they lock onto a target, you can't change the target. You can see this problem in databases such as Y2k or HUD. For this reason, the PlayersDB removed the laser designator requirement because our weapons need to fire in all instances and not only 60-70% of the time.

I did try to simulate a bit of reality in that video by having my bombers continue towards the target even though they could have turned away without penalty. Hopefully, they will fix that bug in the future so that we can re-enable that weapon function.

[John688]

Thanks