Designer's Notes Editor's Note: In real life, Dr. Davis makes his living as a... hmmm, well, we can't tell you. How's that for an intro? But you can be sure whenever a cartographer writes on his map, "Here There Be Dragons", Dr Davis takes a most professional interest. Writing Sea of Dragons (SoD) has taken the best part of two years. Covering the Pacific Region, it is the first of the Harpoon' supplements to be published. This article will give an overview of what SoD is and give an insight into the process (and fun) of writing. Firstly, SoD is meant to cover the platforms that are currently in service in the navies and air forces of the Pacific Rim. With the current equipment programmes that the nations are involved in, orders of battle were and are changing weekly. Reading magazines such as International Defence Review, Jane's Defence Weekly and Navy International became a habit - as did the taking of copious notes! In addition, platforms that have been ordered and are currently in build were included. This sounds easy but the bare hull doesn't make a capable platform. In some cases, the weapon and sensor fits are poorly defined, at least in opensource publications. So estimates have to be made. The same is true of existing platforms, especially for nations such as the PRC. The naval platform data was based upon Combat Fleets of the World, Jane's Fighting Ships and Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships. It would be nice to say that only the most up to date editions of these were consulted. In fact, my research had me going back to editions published in the seventies! By the time SoD went to the galley stage, the data annexes had consumed about 70% of the effort I put into SoD. The annexes do contain estimates and some educated guesses. With the data out of the way, time to look at what most people are interested in - the scenarios. Let's face it, data is hardly interesting is it? Most players want scenarios - and lots of them. SoD has taken a novel approach and presented scenario sets, in which a common theme provides the background to a number of scenarios. As SoD is designed to look ahead, a crystal ball was purchased and used heavily by the author. In point of fact, several sets could be easily constructed. Firstly, the Korean peninsula is an obvious choice. The naval dimension of this conflict has been to my mind overlooked. Whilst the hordes of tanks and aircraft are smashing each other up, what will the navies be doing? For the US/Korean/allied navies, the classic naval tasks will have to be performed - convoy, Naval Fire Support and sea control. The North Korean navy may be carrying out different tasks and missions, some of which will be far removed from the "classic tasks". The scenario set was built with some of these assumptions in mind. The PRC/ROC stand-off was another easy choice but how to make it interesting ? It would be easy to just build a couple of "Invasion - They're Coming" scenarios but they would probably be slugfests - enjoyable once but maybe not again. The scenarios written were designed to flow and link together, so that if players made a hash of things, they might have to live with the consequences. In addition, the possibility of a PRC carrier has to be showcased plus the options its seaborne airpower brings. The Sprattly and Paracel group of islands (reefs) are another flashpoint. However, the situation is much more complex than the above two. Many nations are involved and although some are technically bound by treaty obligations, they may find easier to stay neutral. A complex and interesting dynamic. The scenarios, again, were planned with the ideal of being able to be combined. Some of the larger scenarios are designed to give an operational feel to the players as they have conflicting aims, a large area of ocean to fight in and a number of Task Groups. The last set, which is by far the most hypothetical, looks at the difficulties inherent in shallow, littoral waters. The choice of the waters around Singapore and Indonesia was just too tempting. Shallow and deep water ASW, littoral mine operations and convoying were included. Major Concern A major concern was that the scenarios should have some element of replay. Variants are included to most of the scenarios - in some ways this was one of the harder elements of scenario construction. Problem is, you write a scenario and you have a clear, firm idea of the forces and the like. You then have to include options. Thinking of them is very time consuming and frustrating! Overall, I believe the scenarios included in SoD are a good mix, which bring out a number of themes, some of them close to my heart. One thing I tried to do was steer away from much US involvement. The USN is highly capable and their inclusion in every scenario would swamp some of the more interesting country versus country engagements. Some readers/players may be disappointed that the US doesn't show up too often. Well, if you don't like it, change it. The inclusion of fleet lists for the last ten years was another first and was deliberately done to enable designing scenarios for both past and present. Air forces didn't rate much coverage - Harpoon is a naval wargame. A first for Harpoon supplements is the country and armed forces summary. What I tried to do here was give a quick, potted summary of the economic and political factors that affect each of the nations I covered in the supplement. By giving some background, the intention is to allow players to set up their own scenarios and enable the "fleshing out" of realistic backgrounds. In my view, the richer the background the richer and better the scenario is. In addition, the navies and air forces are briefly analysed and their capabilities and limitations highlighted. The analysis is aimed at current platforms, with major procurement programmes also included. So, having described SoD, what was is it like to write? SoD has taken the best part of two (maybe three) years to write. It has been an experience and I want to thank Larry Bond for his support and confidence in me. Whilst writing any supplement is never easy, this one has been more difficult than others. Firstly, keeping the contents current. When the PRC was practising naval manoeuvres of Taiwan and the US was getting involved, Larry and I were hoping the scenario set didn't become a reality! Secondly, the question of distance. As I live and work in the UK, e-mail and air mail were invaluable tools. Luckily, I got a few visits over to the US and was able to meet up with Larry and others whilst I was out there. You can do so much more when you are face to-face. Thirdly, file formats! I think more effort has been spent on making sure we an able to talk to each other than on discussing the illustrations. By various means, we man aged to ensure file transfer but it didn't always work smoothly. Writing SoD was great fun. I really have enjoyed the research, the digging away for facts and the actual writing The hardest part was the data annexes. The country and armed force profiles were don very early on as were a lot of the scenarios The data annexes took up a good year or so and even then I didn't get all the data. One of the overriding considerations was to ensure all the platforms in the scenarios were in the data annex. Simple, you may think, but easy to overlook. Counters were another problem Most people won't have miniatures of man, of the platforms described, so I tried to build a countermix that would allow as many of the scenarios to be played using counters as possi ble. I think I went through about eight iterations before a good mix was generated. As with all Harpoon products, the work is completed but never finished. I encourage the players and anyone who buys or looks at the product to send in their thoughts and comments. Harpoon has been going for a good few years now and is always improving be cause people take time to help the Admiraltty Staff make it better. You can help too. We always answer our mail. Back to Art of War Issue #29 Table of Contents Back to Art of War List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Clash of Arms Games. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com