Anyone with modern naval combat knowledge.

[StarCruiser]

Exact details are hard to come by since this was a Soviet ship (and missile system.

There is actually quite a fair bit of information on Wikipedia about both the ship class and the SS-N-19 missile system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirov-class_battlecruiser

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-700_Granit

The only issue is - how much of this is actually correct?

[mike robel]

You could buy the board/miniatures game Harpoon by GDW or Harpoon 4 by Clash of Arms (I think) which has excellent references and is well suited for using GHQ miniatures.

You can buy reference books on Navies and ships. Jane's all the World This or That is wonderful, but extremely expensive; an alternative is to go to the US Navial Institute Website and buy some less expensive (but not cheap) books.

To learn how to use them, I would buy the book Fleet Tactics by Captain Wayne Hughes. There are three versions. They are three separate books so the first few chapters are the same in all of them, but the two later versions add new material. I own all three because they are heavily annotated by me over the years.

[chrisswim]

SS-N-19 Shipwreck



Overview
The P-700 Granit or the SS-N-19 Shipwreck is a Russian naval anti-ship cruise missile. It can be launched via ship or submarine but can also be used against ground targets. The Granit was developed as a more successful turbojet alternative to the Bazalt in order to compete against the United States’ anti-ship weapons in the 1970’s.[ii] It features a high explosive or nuclear warhead with an explosive yield of 350 kt. The missile can reach speeds of more than Mach 2.5 and has a range of 625 km. The Granit missile is still operational today and is deployed on two cruisers and one aircraft carrier.[iii]

Strategic Implications
Designed to defend against United States’ Navy carrier battle grounds, the Granit remains strategically valuable today because of its unique guidance system. When fired in a swarm (group of 4-8 weapons), one of the weapons climbs to a higher altitude and designates targets while the others attack.[iv] If the designating missile is destroyed, another missile will rise to take over the same purpose. They attack targets in order of priority, highest to lowest, using information gathered on targets during flight. The missile can also counter attacking anti-missiles and its on-board computer carries data to evade electronic countermeasures, ensuring a successful target hit.[v] Due to the missile’s size, it can only be deployed in small numbers on Oscar-class submarines, Kirov-class battlecruisers, and the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. In the future, it is possible that the Granit missiles will be replaced with smaller Oniks and Kalibr cruise missiles in greater numbers.

https://missiledefenseadvocacy.org/miss ... shipwreck/

Hopefully this will be helpful.

[mike robel]

Harpoon has excellent information on the stuff you are interested in.

[madman]

There are a few rules sets on Wargames Vault. Don't know anything about them. I was big into modern air combat back in the late '80s to early '90s but never had more than a passing interest in modern naval. Falklands was interesting and I have both versions of South Atlantic War for Harpoon. As for Harpoon I have and had a few versions but the period and naval never really got me so I can't give an opinion except. I have the rules set which made Harpoon look like tiddlywinks, Warship Commander from Enola Games. I read it in my spare time in college one year. I penciled in my thoughts in the margins. There are almost as many penciled in notes in the margins as rules. Most are asking were the "rule" is as many of the so called rules seemed more like concepts or ideas yet to be filled in or proper rules written to cover that idea.

So, no Harpoon is not the worst out there.

[Guroburov]

I owned almost all of the Fleet series of games. They were good. I like collecting modern naval ships but games are tough with the ranges and speeds involved. Everyone I knew into the hardcore gaming rules always warned us off Harpoon as too complex. A simple 1v1 game can last an hour or two.