AAR B/2-7 FTX - Operation Dark Horizon 21JAN24

[Cameron.J]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
Name of Combat Mission: B2-7 FTX Dark Horizon 21JAN24
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: Training/Event
Date of Combat Mission: 21JAN24
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 0200Z​

Mission OIC: Captain Cameron.J
Mission Controller: Captain Cameron.J
Number of Attendees: 81
7th Cavalry Personnel Involved in Action:

Colonel Budd.D
Major Mix.C
Captain Cameron.J
Second Lieutenant Argentini.E
Second Lieutenant James.M
Second Lieutenant Anderson.P
First Sergeant Sven.S
Staff Sergeant Mueller.H
Staff Sergeant Hermes.S
Staff Sergeant Webber.R
Sergeant DAmico.J
Sergeant Cantrell.J
Sergeant Slagg.J
Sergeant Hellious.T
Sergeant Hansen.Z
Sergeant Balazova.S
Sergeant Zulu.P
Sergeant Rhodes.R
Corporal O'Culien.M
Corporal Berkowski.C
Corporal Moreau.M
Corporal Mulholland.J
Corporal Button.J
Corporal Finch.A
Corporal Sotelo.R
Corporal Owens.J
Corporal Robertson.S
Corporal Richmond.DA
Specialist Blade.B
Specialist Baldrick.D
Specialist Kofias.F
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Sokol.Z
Specialist Strole.Z
Specialist Summers.J
Specialist Leifried.R
Specialist Korfias.F
Specialist Willis.B
Specialist Leaf.J
Specialist Valente.M
Specialist Rousseau.A
Specialist Noriega.D
Specialist Bachelder.A
Specialist Bean.P
Specialist Woody.W
Specialist Leaf.J
Specialist Bigos.F
Specialist Lee. N
Specialist Firmin.D
Specialist Rousseau.A
Specialist Lawton.D
Specialist Fields.M
Specialist Wisniewski.A
Specialist Curran.J
Specialist Beauchamp.R
Specialist Mason.P
Specialist Hazen.D
Private First Class Bas.D
Private First Class Laroche.P
Private First Class Canaday.A
Private First Class Bazzle.J
Private First Class Ackerman.J
Private First Class Agazzi.J
Private First Class Riley.D
Private First Class Baldwin.C
Private First Class Chaplin.J
Private First Class Trim.D
Private First Class Grayson.M
Private First Class Harris.W
Private First Class Macpherson.C
Private First Class Bannister.J
Private First Class Anderson.T
Private Etoh.I
Private Sykes.R
Private Jamison.M
Private Reed.D
Private Lewis.J
Private Kona.B
Recruit Bellamy.B
Recruit Knowles.J

RET.Smith.N

 

[Argentini.E]

Element Call Sign: Allied Infantry Charlie Squad
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Argentini.E
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Colonel Budd.D

Pros:

• Preplanning and setup phase.
• Strong forward pushes and flanks on enemy garrisons.
• Good command comms throughout the operation.

Cons:

• No cons

 

[Mix.C]

S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Call Sign: Allied Infantry Defensive Squad
Element Leader:Major Mix.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
NA

Pros:

• Great team execution of battle plan
• Good turnout
• Tough opponent, tough fight
• Airhead trick almost worked!

Cons:

• Some folks bummed on arti
• Too many confirmed attendees ghosted

 

[LaRoche.P]

Element Call Sign: Axis Infantry Defensive Squad
Element Leader: PFC.Laroche.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
PFC.Canaday.A
PVT.Etoh.I

Pros:

• Excellent coms.
• Great defenses and pushes from both sides.

Cons:

• More time to capture back at the end.

 

[Sotelo.R]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Armor #2 "Cheap and Easy"
Element Leader: Corporal Sotelo.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Sotelo.R
Corporal Richmond.DA
Recruit Bellamy.B

Pros:

• Intense fight
• Overall good comms and callouts in command channels
• Infantry was quick to respond to call-for-helps by armor
• Strong attacks on Center midpoint provide fruitful

Cons:

• Armor should've gone to separate Discord for armor-to-armor comms
• Infantry callouts could've been kicked into higher gear while operating armor in Urban environment

 

[Hansen.Z]

Element Call Sign: Crusader 1
Element Leader: Sergeant Hansen.Z
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Staff Sergeant Mueller
Private Reed.D

Pros:

• Well Designed Op
• Comms were very good
• Everyone knew their assignments

Cons:

• No cons

 

[DAmico.J]

S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Call Sign: Axis Defensive Squad (Engineers)
Element Leader: Sergeant DAmico.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Rousseau.A
Private First Class Bazzle.J

Pros:

• We built a tremendous amount of defenses on the hard point. I had a small but effective team. We had plenty of time to build bunkers and barbed wire. The defenses provided critical support to help us hold the enemy back. My team did a fantastic job of swapping roles, getting nodes up, and holding the line when needed.
• The squad enjoyed getting to use the defenses they built. It was a unique experience to get to play in such a coordinated team effort. Certainly not an experience you'll find in a typical public match.
• This felt more like an old-school OP, rather than an FTX which made it very fun. I missed doing these kinds of operations!
• Sven and James did a fantastic job of coordinating the attack/defense with me. I felt a lot of support and good communication from them made it simpler to do my job.

Cons:

• Command comms were a bit loud. Lots of panicked screaming, cutting people off, etc. This caused a lot of critical information to be missed, including an airhead that landed directly on hardpoint. We called it out, but nobody responded and they nearly capped our objective.

 

[Woody.W]

Element Call Sign: axis flex
Element Leader: SPC.Woody.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
PVT.Sykes.R
SPC.Valente.M
SPC.Bachelder.A
Ackerman.J
PFC.Bazzle.J
Pros:

• Did well with defense
• Spread out well, didn't clump up
• good coms

Cons:

• final attack for 8 min we wanted more attack at the end 20m+
• arty.....

 

[Bigos.F]

Element Call Sign: Allied Armor "Deployment Hard Drive"
Element Leader: SPC. Bigos.F
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
SPC. Lee. N
SPC Firmin.D

Pros:

• Preplanning and setup phase.
• Strong forward pushes and flanks on enemy garrisons.
• Good command comms throughout the operation.
• Hard Slog of a fight, well done

Cons:

• A little too much time to prep
• Infantry Armor Coordination needs improvement

 

[Slagg.J]

Element Call Sign: Axis Recon - Jig
Element Leader: Sergeant Slagg.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Finch.A

Pros:

• Fun FTX, well planned overall and fun
• Good command and squad comms
• Good response to dynamic developments, solid defense.
• Passage of intel from my sniper was good and helped form a good idea of enemy pushes.

Cons:

• Not much time in the final counterattack phase
• Stalingrad for me at least is a terribly laggy map and detracted from personal enjoyment a little.

 

[Anderson.P]

Element Call Sign: Allied Recon Fox
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Anderson.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Sergeant Zulu.P

Pros:

• Setup time felt appropriate
• Good mix of teams, felt very evenly matched!
• Fairly straight forward, not too much extra nitty gritty rules

Cons:

• Map performance was terrible
• Personally I think some amount of planning would be better off a few days ahead of time

 

[Lawton.D]

Element Call Sign: Axis Infantry Love Squad
Element Leader: Specialist Lawton.D
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Fields.M, Corporal Moreau.M

Pros:

• Everybody had fun, definitely a great FTX to kick off with.
• Good comms, good gunplay and a clear use of mostly everything used prior in trainings and other FTXs, like ZOC and flexing where needed.
• Fantastic play from both sides, really good pressure and strategy at all times.

Cons:

• We felt there was not enough time to organize and execute an effective counter-attack with the time we were given.
• Some balancing issues regarding the use of artillery. Axis side did not have access to artillery through the majority of the game. We felt the allied use of artillery (while very effective) was slightly unfair when the axis were fixed on one strongpoint and unable to engage artillery with recon or anything.

Great FTX, GG all, thank you for an awesome night.

 

[James.M]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
Name of Combat Mission: B2-7 FTX Dark Horizon 21JAN24
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: Training/Event
Date of Combat Mission: 21JAN24
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 0200Z​

Element Call Sign: "Baker" 2nd Platoon Leader
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant James.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Involved in Action:
Second Lieutenant James.M


Pros:

• Great Concept/Overall Design
• Good control of Zones
• Good Communications
• Great Defensive setup
• Excellent Teamwork by all Squads

Cons:

• Artillery was a bit too unbalanced, (Allied Artillery had 1:15 usage/AXIS had 8 min usage) especially given that RECON could not engage them
• Not enough time to stage a proper counter-attack

 

[Rhodes.R]

S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Call Sign: Allied Artillery Team
Element Leader: Sergeant Rhodes.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Rhodes.R
Private First Class Agazzi.J
Private First Class Riley.D

Solids

• We are Genghis Khan
• Airhead + Artillery is impossible to beat.
• Solid communication and great marks from the team, we were hitting spawn points over and over again.

Improvements

• Need to improve artillery + infantry landing coordination.

 

[Noriega.D]

Element Call Sign: Axis Infantry Defensive Squad Golf
Element Leader: SPC.Noriega.D
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
PFC.Baldwin
PFC.Chaplin


Pros:

• Excellent communication and enemy call outs
• Had a great squad of rifleman
• Very simple game plan
• Great team work

Cons:

• Not a fan of the map
• Personally need a lot of work as a SL during FTXs and Ops
• Arty was a pain

Personally I had a great time loved stepping in, showed me personally what i need to work on.

 

[Leifried.R]

Element Call Sign: Daddy's Belt - Axis Tank Commander
Element Leader: Specialist Leifried.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

Private Jamison.M
Private First Class Bas.D

Pros:

• Great Infantry to Armor communications and coordination
• Understanding of the OPORD and Axis Objectives
• Fantastic Cross-Armor Communication on the fly

Cons:

• Lack of time to Counter-Attack

 

[Owens.J]

Element Call Sign: Allied Infantry Charlie Squad
Element Leader: Corporal Owens.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Cantrell.J
Specialist Blade.B

Pros:

• Fun
• Many roles, overall made the op fun and engaging
• Superb defense builds
• Callouts/comms top shelf
• Arty was effective
• Good strats employed across board, both sides should be proud

Cons:

• Armor for both sides was often exposed without inf support, granted aggresiveness was necessary at times
• Unpopular map but not a major complaint
• Phase 4 felt thrown in(as it was) however any real battle is never clear cut. Might consider an alternate objective to enable an additional phase for defenders(expected to lose)

 

[Button.J]

Element Call Sign: Axis Tank "Swamp Thing"
Element Leader: CPL.Button.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
SGT.Balazova.S
CPL.Berkowski.C

Pros:

• Great comms between infantry and tankers
• Close infantry support with tanks and repairs.

Cons:

• Tank tags were being dropped after satchels were placed

 

[OCulien.M]

Element Call Sign: Allied Infantry Defensive Squad
Element Leader: Corporal O'Culien.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Robertson.S
Specialist Rousseau.A
Private First Class Trim.D
Private Lewis.J
Recruit Knowles.J

Pros:

• Great team execution of battle plan
• Good turnout
• Amazing Comms from top to bottom
• Great ZOC

Cons:

• Uncontested arty
• Unable to cross over grid line to eliminate garrys

 

[Hellious.T]

Element Call Sign: Allied Infantry SL-6
Element Leader: Sergeant Hellious.T
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Willis.B
Specialist Baldrick.D
Specialist Kofias.F
Private Kona.B


Pros:

• Good fight across the board - assault functions worked quite well
• Troopers Performed well and swapped flanks when requested very quickly
• the build up on yellow house was impressive

Cons:

• Assault phase could have started earlier for axis and that may have caused some chaos to reduce the grind
• some daisy chaining occurred a bit - should have clamped down on it sooner
• artillery needs counterplay