"Harpoon 3 or 4" Topic

Does anyone still use the Harpoon system on the tabletop? I want to use it – I like the search and combat systems very much. The movement rates do my head in though. I want to see my ships move more distance than a gnat's t-a-d-g-e-r during a game. Has anyone come up with a compromise for the movement system?

Harpoon 4 is still the latest and I'm not sure that there are plans to upgrade the system in the future given that there are so few players. It is still the best system for modern naval combat, but ti does take a lot of work, especially as the referee.

Hard to compromise between the speed of the vessels and missile and aircraft speeds.

Longer turns perhaps, when nothing is going on, if you want more movement, but then slow down to shorter time periods when missiles and jets enter in the mix. Ships are sitting ducks to both, unless they have really robust AA and SAM systems.

I'd go with the latest set, if you have a choice.

Harpoon 4.1, still use it, as aegis said it remains the best out there, but also the most complex system by far. If you want a simulation instead of a game it is the way to go.

Can you buy Harpoon 4.1 or is it out of print?

There's a Harpoon 4.2 on the way, though it's long delayed. Apparently there are plans for a Harpoon V in the more distant future.

I'm waiting for Harpoon 13.

I still play Harpoon 4 on the tabletop. Although I often use map movement to move ships into situations where the battles are played out.

Harpoon 4 (and 4.1) has 3 different turn time lengths; 30 minutes, 3 minutes, and 30 seconds with rules for transitioning between the turns.

So if there aren't any contacts, you can use the 30 minute turns. When contacts are detected and you are getting in weapon range or you want to launch aircraft, switch to the 3 minutes turns and then for missile combat resolution go to 30 second turns.

You can fight out some battles in the 3 minutes turns (this can work for ship vs. ship gun battles and sub vs. sub actions). Stuff that involves missiles or high-speed aircraft are usually better handled in the 30 second turns.

Am I the only one thinking that GDW's Harpoon (Harpoon 3, IIRC) has the best balance between detail and playability, and things slipped into esoteric from then on?

I've talked about this before. One of the greatest games I ever played was Harpoon 3 on a gym floor with about 13 players.
Had a small US fleet centered on a carrier, late in WW3. They were escorting a QE2 full of Royal Marines. (all transport ships were busy or destroyed, plus I didn't have any)They were to land the marines on the coast of Norway which was a specific spot on the sideline. There was a small Soviet fleet against them as well as a group of bombers on one side of the gym and an attack group of fighter bombers escorted by Mig 29's on the other side.
The Americans had one Perry class frigate way out in front. The Soviet fleet started firing missles at the American fleet but ignored the frigate. That frigate shot down most of the missles as they passed him until his sam batteries ran dry. Thats's when the Sov's targeted him and killed him. The Carrier detected the fighter bombers and sent his Tomcats after them. The Sov player had his bombers up high so they could be detected but had the mig 29's down on the deck.The American air group commander was not very good and did not turn on his radars.He was relying on the awacs. When he finally got close the Sov player lit his radars, nosed up and shot all of the Tomcats from the sky. The bombers let fly the as missles but all were intercepted before they hit any of the American fleet.The heavy bombers on the other side of the gym launched from max range. It took most of the game for those missles to reach the Americans. More about those in a minute. In the mean time the Americans had launched his F18's and intruders, loaded as anti ship at the Sov fleet. The same air group commander wanted to wait until he was real close before he fired so he could get some assured hits on the Sov's. He waited too long and flew into the Sov sam envelope. The Sov player was better and held his fire until almost all were in then let go. The American started seeing his planes go down and fired also. He scored two hits on Sov ships. No kills and lost his entire air group. The missles from the bombers arrived at the American fleet and the seeker heads started looking for targets. The American sams knocked down all except one targeting the carrier. We rolled and it just missed and skimmed right over the flight deck. Of course the next target that the seeker head saw was the QE2, just on the other side of the carrier. It slammed dead amidships and while rolling for damage a critical hit was rolled. And it was the best roll he could get too. The QE2 split in half and went down in minutes with all hands. Since the Americans had no planes left and no Marines to land, they just turned around and went home.
I seem to remember this game was late 80's, early 90's. I still game with a few of the players and this game comes up often.