AAR ARMA 3 | Campaign Winter Scythe | Operation Fenrir

[Geki.T]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Name of Combat Mission: Operation Fenrir
Campaign of Combat Mission: Campaign Winter Scythe
Number Within Campaign: 1/x
Game: ARMA 3
Server Hosted on: ARMA 3 TacR
Date of Combat Mission: 04MAR23
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 2100Z
Mission OIC: -
Mission Controller: 1SG.Geki.T, S3 Personnel

Attendees :

1. Major General Baeder.S
2. Brigadier General Tharen.R
3. Major Burton.P
4. Major Dread.M
5. Captian Bunnell.M
6. First Lieutenant Gerrish.T
7. Second Lieutenant Beiter.A
8. Second Lieutenant Mackey.A
9. Second Lieutenant Teddy.J
10. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sutodoreh.W
11. Warrant Officer 1. Tyrcon. L
12. Warrant Officer 1 Berg.J
13. Warrant Officer 1 Bloggins.R
14. Warrant Officer 1 Currier.M
15. Warrant Officer 1 Hamm.C
16. Warrant Officer 1 Sparrow.P
17. Warrant Officer 1 Spitnale.K
18. Warrant Officer 1 Thumper.N
19. Warrant Officer 1 Villmarsson.L
20. Warrant Officer 1 Wulf.C
21. Command Sargeant Major.Nexhex.A
22. Sargeant Major Schmidt.A
23. First Sergeant Geki.T
24. First Sergeant Jupiter.J
25. First Sergeant Summerfield.P
26. Master Sergeant Maco.D
27. Sergeant First Class Couvillion.T
28. Staff Sergeant Mazinski.H
29. Staff Sergeant Raeder.U
30. Staff Sergeant Sullivan.A
31. Staff Sergeant Whitehead.B
32. Sergeant Goel.B
33. Sergeant Phillips.B
34. Sergeant Sam.T
35. Sergeant Santoyo.T
36. Sergeant Stewart.AJ
37. Sergeant Terp.J
38. Sergeant Zeoli.D
39. Corporal Lamb.J
40. Corporal Armitage.T
41. Corporal Boyd.M
42. Corporal Bane.K
43. Corporal Butcher.B
44. Corporal Crapachi.M
45. Corporal DAmico.D
46. Corporal Dio.B
47. Corporal Dujakovic.R
48. Corporal Easson.T
49. Corporal Highman.J
50. Corporal Hilberg.A
51. Corporal Hunter.A
52. Corporal Holiday.T
53. Corporal Kamenar.M
54. Corporal Kastor.K
55. Corporal Lucander.P
56. Corporal Miller.DC
57. Corporal Novak.I
58. Corporal Oldham.G
59. Corporal Robbi.J
60. Corporal Rozhkov.P
61. Corporal Saint.Z
62. Corporal Velasquez.J
63. Corporal Westcott.R
64. Corporal Whaley.H
65. Corporal Zander.D
66. Corporal Zaren.T
67. Specialist Masnec.G
68. Specialist Kiser. C
69. Specialist Spin.M
70. Specialist Winters.R
71. Specialist Albright.J
72. Specialist Alexander.P
73. Specialist Bethea.A
74. Specialist Blade.B
75. Specialist Bishop.C
76. Specialist Chandler.A
77. Specialist Crowley.T
78. Specialist Dohun.T
79. Specialist Facklam.E
80. Specialist Fisher.S
81. Specialist Fox.Z
82. Specialist Hans.D
83. Specialist Harris.M
84. Specialist Keith.W
85. Specialist Lee.RA
86. Specialist Mac.S
87. Specialist Mobius.T
88. Specialist Priest.V
89. Specialist Rodahl.S
90. Specialist Savage.C
91. Specialist Stuart.Z
92. Specialist Tucker.C
93. Specialist Turn.J
94. Specialist Turner.L
95. Specialist West.Z
96. Specialist Xinos.T
97. Private First Class Bowman.B
98. Private First Class Brian.F
99. Private First Class Cole.T
100. Private First Class Davis.D
101. Private First Class Falleur.J
102. Private First Class Searle.I
103. Private First Class York.KC
104. Private First Class Williams.U
105. Private Almaguer.R
106. Private Krupa.W
107. Private Franklin.J
108. Recruit Thornhill.T
109. Recruit Willson.JA
110. Reservist Teixeira.J

* = Attended at least 16 hours of the operation (allowances considered: Time between deployments/server restarts/server issues post-briefing, briefing time)

 

[Saint.Z]

Element Callsign: Bandit-1/Viking-1 Any 1 with 1st squad 24 hr
Element Leader: Corporal Saint.Z
Element Members:
Major General Baeder.S
Brigadier General Tharen.R
Command Sergeant Major Nexhex.A
Sergeant Major Schmidt.A
Captain Bunnell.M
Second Lieutenant Mackey.A
Second Lieutenant Teddy.J
Sergeant First Class Couvillion.T
Sergeant Stewart.AJ
Sergeant Norman.B
Sergeant Santoyo.T
Corporal Saint.Z
Corporal Zaren.T
Corporal Dio.B
Corporal Easson.T
Corporal Whaley.H
Corporal Armitage.T
Corporal Robbi.J
Corporal Oldham.G
Corporal Westcott.R
Corporal Lucander.P
Corporal Miller.DC
Corporal Novak.I
Corporal Hilberg.A
Corporal DAmico.D
Specialist Tucker.C
Specialist Lee.H
Specialist Turner.L
Specialist Chandler.A
Specialist Crowley.T
Specialist Bishop.C
Specialist Bethea.A
Specialist Fisher.S
Specialist Xinos.T
Specialist Dohun.T
Specialist Mobius.T
Specialist Savage.C
Private First Class Searle.I
Private First Class Thornhill.T
Private First Class Bowman.B
Private First Class Cole.T
Private Krupa.W
Recruit Willson.JA

Retired:
Houston.T
York.A
Rob.v
Caboose.M
Stone.J
Ocean.M

Other:
Rok
Cavy
Pluto
bluespaceman
harriss
Daniel
Expendable joe

Pros:

• The 24 hour op was well received, for the most part troopers enjoyed the experience, in fact there had been calls for more of this kind of operation as it makes the 7th cav a unique place, that offers a unique experience
• Had a strong group of troopers that all held their own in leadership as well as skill
• fantastic comms for what is usually on the net, the net was often calm and brief, with some exceptions
• the mission creators overcame a mod issue just a day prior to the kick off, their problem solving really saved the operation (aka someone better write you all up for a medal)
• WINTER AND WINTER CAMO!

Cons:

• please unless it is related to the op, can we please stay away from checkpoint ops, they usually kill servers, and nobody knows SOP on how to conduct stops
• the op had a scenario, with Georgian extremist irregular forces being headed by Russian troops invading Georgia, however it felt like the order of invasion and our experience were disorganized, ie what was our battle plan as the 7th cav to defend the land, could we have done a defense and delayed the enemy and lost land, at low numbers could we have done a reconnaissance of enemy forces preparing to attack where we could foil their plans via calls for fire and then when the server picks up we re-attack. My suggestion is although it take more manpower, we could wargame out this exact scenario then play it out in-game for a more natural experience (such as using alive on a personal server to see the reactions of the enemy or use a battle simulator like wargame)

What-ifs:
is it possible to do a 24 hour op that recreates an invasion such as iraq where american marines pushed up through towns and cities "liberating" them, and perhaps each new area is a new map. essentially we use mutiple maps over the 24 hours (can be 2 or more) to help tell a story of how we took more land; if this is at all possible?

 

[Maco.D]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: ATLAS-1

Element Leader: Master Sergeant Maco.D 19 hours
Private First Class Brian.F
Corporal Holiday.T 16 hours
Sergeant Stewart.AJ
Major General Baeder.S
Specialist Albright.J
Major Stewart.B
Private First Class Davis.D 19 hours

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
2100z-0400z
Pro:
fun work
Had fun in team
Had a few engagements which kept us busy
Good Comms with 7 throughout

Con:
Could of been more medical
Could of been more time

0900z-1400z

Pro:
Lots of medical

Con:
Some random black tags and some perm issues
Sectors of defense being left by squads which allowed EI to come into the circle.

1400z-1800z

Pro:
Very enjoyed
Lots of medical
7 got fooled by a AI
lots of different ranges of Injury
No crowding on injured people

Con:
Sometimes hard to make sure to have all kit when people are cycling out.
To hard of a push can result in medical teams taking injures

1800z-2100z

Pro:
Enjoyed the Bravo opening to the DPMC
Was enjoyed by all
Good pacing

Con:
As all 24h ops energy gets a bit low near the end.


Overall
Pro:

All Medical teams did very well
plenty of medical to do and what was quiet in some parts others made up for it.
Comms with PM and on platoon nets when without a PM was very good.
Self aid was 50/50 in some areas still a improvement from before.
lots of practice for surgery for newer players to the medical system.
Great flying from all pilots.
Shame AC-130 did not work on large player scale but I believe that private ops it will work nicely.

Con:
Regardless of how well it went. It is a shame that we are unable to host a op longer than 3 hours with 70+ before the server starts to degrade majorly this is something that not only Cav members mentioned to myself but also some new public players to the server.

 

[Dread.M]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: Bison-1

Element Leader: Major Dread.M

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Warrant Officer 1 Spitnale.K
2100z - 0800Z

Pro:

• Good ISR
• Decent amount of engagements
• S3 was Johnny on the Spot all night
• Thanks to everyone to execute the entire 24 hours

Con:

• During some of the phases of the OP we had too many assets
• Having 5 or 7 trying to manage the air assets felt too much for them to handle with the absence of Infidel
• AC-130 poor performance on the server

Element Callsign: Viking-6
0900Z - 1030Z

Pro:

• Really good turn out of 4am US
• Viking 1 & 2 did a great job adlibbing with everything thrown at them

Con:

• With the chaos of public players coming in and out sections lost track of one player resulting in a rescue
• Didn't feel like the concept of operations made a lot of sense with bounding check points with no real trigger

 

[Priest.V]

Element Callsign: INFIDEL

Element Leader:
Priest.V Hilberg.A
Element Members:
Priest.V Hilberg.A Dread.M Summerfield.P Tucker.C

Pros:

• Nice to see 24Hr Ops stiill going strong
• Good turn out for such an old game, roll on Arma 4 Cav will dominate!
• Lots of Air Assets and trying out the AC-130 was fun
• TACP Format really helped handle so many assets when we had enough of the right people in it - with some work and re-wording this is 100% the way forwards for large scale Ops!

Cons:

• Too many Air Assets with not enough/zero in depth targets Trying to re-word this better i keep going down the rabbit hole of trying to relate Arma to reality but it would take more words than should be in an AAR so ill put it this way: Everyone likes big booms, 100% we can and should run lots of assets, but to do so it would be great if we could have a layered approach to the battle beyond the immediate AO. The last segment of the Op (I believe it was Geki.T 's design) had this applied about right; what that section did well was to 1. Define the AO, 2. Deliver multiple non-linear tasings to achieve, 3. Have an initial tasking that was beyond the defined AO, 4. Have reinforcing elements arriving from that area beyond the AO, 5. Preseent a threatening situation that resulted in tough decisions having to be made.
• TLDR: It would be great if we could see a layered approach to the Battle Picture design (Deep/Close) and defiined boundaries for this. Some appropriate Assets can be assigned areas of activity in the Deep that then "shape" or impact activity in the Close. This will in turn increase immersion and continue to apply our approach to Combined Arms Operations that ONLY the cav does to this magnitude! (As ex S3 and previous mission maker for other communities I can assist in the understanding/creating a doctrine of this if required).
• AC-130 still needs work but 100% is one of the most appropriate mods for the Cav to use for CAS
• The TACP format needs re-working in line with Alpha Company functionality and needs training in

 

[Goel.B]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign:
Element Leader:
Element Members:

Pros:


Cons:

 

[Santoyo.T]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: Bandit 3/Viking 3/ Zues
Element Leader: Santoyo.T 19 hours (2100z-1400z/1700z-1930z)
Element Members:
Armitage.T
Phillips.B
Novak.I
Facklam.E
Butcher.B
Pros:
Snow map
Need peer enemy

Cons:
My brain is melting after 18 hours.

 

[Villmarsson.L]

Element Callsign: Hammer-1

Element Leader:
WO1.Villmarsson.L
Element Members:
WO1.Berg.J
CW2.Sutodoreh.W
CPL.Dujakovic.R
CPL.Kastor.K
CPL.Zander.D
2LT.Beiter.A
SSG.Raeder.U
CPL.Robbi.J
BG.Tharen.R



Pros:

• Nice 24Hr Ops
• The AC-130 was fun for all who was guning it
• cant wait ones we can use the ac-130 agian

 

[Sam.T]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: GODFATHER, Viking-7

Element Leader: Sergeant Sam.T -24 Hours

Viking-7 POV:
Pros:

• Very flexible teams and airframes to work with.
• Good medical responses.
• Excellent comms inside the platoon.
• Good comms on aviation net*.
• Excellent work maintaining the momentum of the OP.
• Coordinating CAS and Medical radio nets are two of my favorite jobs! So despite the challenge of doing them simultaneously, it was fun (in a stressful way).

Conns:

• The lack of a dedicated Infidel led to these duties being passed on to -5 and -7. Managing 4 radio nets a the same time is... suboptimal.
• The secondary objective regarding EPW and body securement was super last minute, meaning completion of the objective was entirely untenable.
• Medical resupply was entirely wrong (idk what a "field hospital crate" is, but despite being massive, it only had 10 bandages in it).

Godfather POV:
Pros:

• Amazing turnout! Peaking at 90+ players is something I can't recollect seeing since I joined the Cav a year ago.
• Despite the OP heading into the wee early hours of the morning, the player count remained fairly steady! I don't think we dipped below 2 squads the entire night!
• Despite the challenges thrown at everyone, each objective was completed with minimal loss of life and equipment.
• The server performance, as a whole, seemed good tonight. We had a few hiccups with 2 crashes and a drop in performance mandating a restart, but considering the demand we placed on it compared to a normal OP or session on TacR it sustained itself admirably.
• Communication between Zeus's was excellent tonight, it seemed! None of the issues with undesired spawning of stuff happened tonight, at least while I was working.
• We got the AC-130 in the air!
• The 2 main phases I had envisioned plans for (the initial airborne OP and the foot patrol) went off with minimal issues and were executed phenomenally.

Conns:

• Server performance drops at the 4-hour mark, and client performance at the 8-hour mark are both fairly limiting. Hopefully, this will be rectified in future titles.
• The "schedule" for Zeus blocks didn't work exactly as planned, with one phase finishing a bit earlier than expected, leading to some... issues.
• Trying to balance OPFOR air assets is incredibly annoying. If we have CAP up, red air is smoked as they make it off the runway. If we have no CAP up or try to overwhelm it, all rotary aviation dies... It's two extremes that don't work well together. (This is old news for other, more experienced Zeus's, I'm sure).
• It has been proven 2-3 times now I begin losing my ability to think clearly after about 21 hours of this game.

 

[Wulf.C]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: BISON-2, GODFATHER
Element Leader: Warrant Officer 1 Constantine Wulf

Elements Member: Specialist Richard Allen Lee (BISON-2-1)


BISON-2: POV:
Pros:

• Decent amount of action
• Had a lot of fun!

Cons:

• Despite initially having two INFIDELS the way it was organized was highly inefficient and not how we do things, 90% of comms were on one channel and it was hectic and hard to communicate mission critical information
• Too many air assets for the amount of friendly infantry and the small amount of enemies.

Godfather POV:
Pros:

• It was my first operation zeusing experienced and things went great. Learned some good lessons about managing mission flow better and being more careful with what was intended to be superficial artillery.
• Tons of fun can't wait to do it again.

Conns:

• Deleting things from previous AO's never seemed to improve server performance. It continuously became worse and worse.

 

[Sullivan.A]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: Viking-4
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Sullivan.A

Elements Member:
Staff Sergeant Sullivan.A
Recruit Willson.JA
Specialist Stuart.Z
Corporal Lucander.P
Corporal Kamenar.M
Sergeant Santoyo.T
Corporal Robbi.J
Specialist Keith.W
Corporal Dio.B
Warrant Officer 1 Tyrcon.L
Private First Class Bowman.B
Private First Class Falleur.J
Recruit Frags.J


Pros:

• Decent action
• MK-19 make tank go boom (nice lucander)

Cons:

• Comms where wonky

 

[Thumper.N]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: Buffalo-1; Pegasus; Bison-2
Element Leader: Warrant Officer 1 Nate "Justicar" Thumper

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Private First Class Tyce Thornhill - Buffalo 1 Crew Chief

Pro:

• Initial start was rocky, but the S3 Department was superb in their communication and execution: Beiter.A Geki.T Sam.T Bethea.A and I'm sure I'm missing someone, but great work all around.
• Good communication, but then as the night wore on it degraded as expected.
• Overall a good Op.

Con:

• Concerns with some pub folks having to be warned.
• In general we need to work on air traffic control and the understanding of how it works, there were some concerns; but if you don't use it you lose it, and that's what I believe happened.
• Concerns about not separating CAS to multiple channels, some assets weren't even utilized which can get frustrating when you're just hovering doing nothing for a few hours.

 

[Xinos.T]

LOCKED

Assigned Xinos.T for processing

 

[Xinos.T]

S1 Operations Processed

 

[Abate.L]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: Viking-1 - 1700Z-2100Z

Element Leader: Sergeant First Class Abate.L

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
First Sergeant Jupiter.J
Sergeant First Class Abate.L
Sergeant Westcott.R
Sergeant Zeoli.D
Corporal Armitage.T
Specialist Crowley.T
Specialist Mac.S
Specialist Rodahl.S
Specialist Savage.C
Specialist West.Z
Specialist York.KC
Private First Class Krupa.W

Public Personnel Within Element:
Dotolo.M

Pros:

• Good blocking positions.
• Highly accurate drone reps.
• Top initial and subsequent planning from leadership.
• Effective leadership throughout.
• Sustained performance from SIERRA.
• Tactical movement and good breach of castle location.

Cons:

• Server crashes
• Mod issues
• Mine detector needed for SIERRAS
• Possibly look to post the time slotting needed for the various stages of operation. Lots of players waiting nearly an hour for the next stage.