AAR AAR Operation Iskra - 23MAR24

[Korfias.F]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
Name of Combat Mission: Operation Iskra
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: BR1 Server
Date of Combat Mission: 23MAR24
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu):0030Z​

Mission OIC: Specialist Korfias.F
Mission Controller: Major Mix.C
Number of Attendees:
7th Cavalry Personnel Involved in Action:
Major Mix.C
First Lieutenant Anderson.P
First Lieutenant James.M
First Lieutenant Smith.V
Second Lieutenant Argentini.E
First Sergeant Damico.J
Staff Sergeant Bizutto.A
Staff Sergeant Hermes.S
Sergeant Busch.J
Sergeant Herber.R
Sergeant Rasmus.M
Sergeant Sotelo.R - Camera
Sergeant Zulu.P
Corporal Berkowski.C
Corporal Button.J
Corporal Karr.H
Corporal Lee.N
Corporal Lucas.A
Corporal Moreau.M
Corporal Noriega.D
Corporal OCulien.M
Corporal White.C
Corporal Whitefish.S
Specialist Bean.P
Specialist Blade.B
Specialist Canaday.A
Specialist Chhari.A
Specialist Choi.S
Specialist Etoh.I
Specialist Felton.J
Specialist Harris.W
Specialist Hazen.D
Specialist Korfias.F
Specialist LaRoche.P
Specialist Leifried.R
Specialist Lewis.J
Specialist Macpherson.C
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Rousseau.A
Specialist Sokol.Z
Specialist Valente.M
Specialist Winter.A
Specialist Wisniewski.A
Specialist Woody.W
Private First Class Bogg.D
Private First Class Kona.B
Private Johnson.G
Private First Class Laui.M

Corporal Smith.N - Retired
Reservist Bas.D - Reserves

Showed up but team was full:
Staff Sergeant Phillips.B
Corporal Massey.A
Corporal Strole.Z
Specialist Beauchamp.R
Specialist Martinez.X
Specialist Riley.D
Private Bell.T

 

[DAmico.J]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Airborne East Defense
Element Leader: First Sergeant DAmico.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Private First Class Laui.M

Pros:

• Comms were good
• Team was well coordinated. Everyone did their job

Cons:

• Opponents were late, and understrength. I would love to see us play against more professional teams.
• We need to maintain our comms discipline and remain respectful of our opponents. Insults or jokes at the expense of our opponent are distasteful and not in keeping with our standards. There is a time and place for complaints, and is most certainly not in the middle of a match on someone else's server--or even our own for that matter.

 

[Korfias.F]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Dog Squad - Four Grid East
Element Leader: Specialist Korfias.F
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Herber.R
Specialist Macpherson.C
Specialist Felton.J

Pros:

• My guys worked hard on both offense and defense.
• Kept pressure East of point, took out a lot of OPs and Garrisons.
• Even through victory we continue to learn. They were a tougher opponent than we usually play.
• Squad worked well together, team worked well together. Comms were on point.

Cons:

• Enemy did not show up with a full fighting force.
• Enemy used mercenaries, weak move.
• Initial transport truck driver stopped too far away from mid point, should have crashed on top of it.
• Would like to see better utilization of section specialties.

 

[LaRoche.P]

Element Call Sign: Charlie - Four Grid West
Element Leader: Specialist Laroche.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Canaday.A
Specialist Sokol.Z
Private first class Bogg.D

Pros:

• Having sharpshooters in my unit was a treat, pingning enemies with binocs and seing them go down in less than 2 seconds was perfect.
• Every squads knew their roles and executed it perfectly.
• 1v1 we don't have the best roster, but as a team our coordination is on point.

Cons:

• Command comms was super lit at times, I had to stop playing and listen to my squadmates if they talked to me.
• On mid point the transport truck at the beginning of the game left way too late (35 seconds left).

 

[James.M]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Airborne Wide West Assault
Element Leader: First Lieutenant James.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Specialist Valente.M Specialist Lewis.J

Pros:

• Unit Comms were excellent
• We were able to adlib on the East and execute multiple Airborne Doctrines
• Personelle flexed to whatever the job called for
• Excellent discipline on AOs and Command Structure

Cons:

• Leadership Comms were cluttered, not concise, and not always pertinent
• BR1 could not field their agreed upon numbers and had to incorporate not agreed upon opponents
• Some conduct typed up needs to be cleaned up. We have a code of conduct we need to adhere to.

 

[Rasmus.M]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Artillery Unit
Element Leader: Sergeant Rasmus.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Whitefish.S
Specialist Blade.B

Pros:

• Great comms using Arty dedicated Discord channel. Team markers were great for the intel we needed.
• Artillery had 166 combined kills while having low numbers of teamkills.
• Careful but effective targetting, gunners were responsive and flexible to new targets being called.
• We took Water Mill doing the ''Airhead trick'', let's keep doing that over and over.
• We succeeded defending our nodes because they were all close to us at Center HQ.
• Pulling 2 gunners in order to chase Recon when they were harassing and keeping 1 gun firing at all time proved successful.
• Great covering of the game through casters.

Cons:

• Match setup took some time, partly due to opposing team not having their numbers ready.
• Some troopers need to keep their cool facing adversity and unexpected situations. Let's stay profesional.

 

[Hermes.S]

Element Call Sign: Defense Strongpoint East
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Hermes.S
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Harris.W
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Wisniewski.A

Pros:

• Highly effective team gameplay with all the moving parts functioning as ordered.
• Despite the other team having the stronger gun game, because of the above, we took the "W."
• All 9 nodes were up when the truck left at the 35-second mark.
• A stalwart defense for the entirety of the game both at Lumberworks and Watermill.

Cons:

• Our start needs improvement on many fronts (read below) The biggest is making sure everything is planned in the beginning.
• The call to place nodes at the center was a mistake. Should have been the left point.
• Had the above happened, despite leaving at 35 seconds, given the straight shot and fair terrain, the infantry in mass would not have been far behind the lead truck.
• I felt the call to abandon the watermill push was slightly premature. We had a slow, but strong force gaining ground. Perhaps asking the two on-point defensive squads to fall back first, would've been better? It may have allowed for a more clear picture of the assaulting force on defense to prevent the total abandoning of the front.
• The only squad defending the majority of the lumber mill.
• The video footage was heavily focused on tanks (great work tankers!) however it missed a lot of key parts, specifically the airhead. It wasn't focused on until we hit 80%. Sad face.
• Inappropriate text comms during the setup of the game, even after being asked to lock it up.

A little heavy analyzing of the team's start.
-
*After doing some heavier review at the start there were several things I would like to point out. Just in case people weren't aware of the meta/logistics. A truck can travel one grid square within 20-25 seconds. That's a straight shot. No terrain challenges. With that said, I made the poor call to build the nodes at the center. I should have made the call to build on the left spawn as it was a direct route to the center cap. The node group/infantry did not leave until 35 seconds before going live. All SLs were in the truck. The designated driver was unaccounted for. Thanks to Boggs for stepping up and Larouche for making the call to go. The truck was full with riders on top. I think only 1-3 stragglers were left behind. I did not get in the infantry truck as I noticed the supply truck still sitting there. Upon asking if it was called for I received no answer and made the call to take it. At the official go-live the infantry truck was just getting past the first grid square. To note, the airborne and first tank were at the ready-line however took a route that avoided the MSR into the hard point.

The route to get from the center point to the Watermill was something that was not accounted for. The infantry trucks had to travel west for 25 seconds to position themselves for a direct route to Watermill. This is where things get interesting because it appears that terrain and routes were not accounted for by anyone. At 1:26:13 BR1 had already crossed into the 4-grid. Our closest truck was 20m from the 4-grid, which wasn't far behind BR1. To note, the infantry trucks were just now hitting the ready-line. At 1:25:40 BR1 was on the point proper. Our first truck did not arrive until 5-8 seconds later. Still not terribly behind. I'm not certain how many remained in the truck when it hit the point. Judging out of the 4 videos I saw, it appeared to be 1-3. Meanwhile, the infantry trucks were arriving at the four-grid line. The infantry truck made a pre-mature stop by the bridges and then restarted however half the infantry had jumped out at that time. At this moment, the only squad that was within striking distance was Korfias' squad, who came from the infantry truck. The supply truck had dropped off two crates, its last at C5:KP9. We had one squad at that trench. Nothing was placed at Lumberworks. Fox Squad with White appears to be heading back that way at that time, sadly an easy 200m away. The next closest squad was Larouche a few moments later. I do want to note that at the cap time, we had a beautiful line setup, however the hard cap was still 120m+ away. So what went wrong? Where could we have done better?

1. The only advantage the Axis had was that their route was direct with very few terrain obstacles.
2. In retrospect, the hard cap favored the allies in distance but not terrain.
3. I made the incorrect call to build nodes at the center instead of left; lining up with the center point.
4. The infantry truck left at the 35-second mark with an additional unaccounted-for 20-ish second travel time west.
5. The Driver was unaccounted for.
6. A supply truck was unaccounted for up until 1:30 in.
7. If we are going to nit-pick, the axis hit the 4-square first and the hard cap first despite the distance advantage, why? Our first truck didn't arrive until a solid 5-8 seconds later and with minimal assets. What happened?
8. By the time they had it capped, all we had was a pretty line of troopers 100m +. The closest squad within striking distance was an infantry squad with only two people left.
-
1. Cant do anything about that.
2. Should have taken the time to recognize the routes leading in and the terrain that slowed things down.
3. Always try to start in line with the center point.
4. All troopers NOT in the truck should drop all they are doing at the 1-minute mark, such that the truck can leave on time. Also, make note of the terrain that needs to be traveled to account for any potential time lost avoiding harsh or unpassable terrain.
5. No excuse. With that said though, an SL for infantry could have been the driver. Other than the nodes, the infantry did not have any other assignment and thus did not need to hop out and place an appropriate garrison.
6. Not sure how that was overlooked.
7. I wasn't in the truck west, perhaps someone who was could speak on that. Also, curious how many were in the truck when it barreled into the center point.
8. Speaks for itself I guess?

 

[Argentini.E]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Recon Bravo
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Argentini.E
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Specialist Hazen.D

Pros:

• Solid flanking teams.
• Good use of command abilities
• Enemy hurting on fuel and munitions.

Cons:

• Late opponents
• Cluttered command comms, hard to get a word in when needed.

 

[Lee.N]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Tank 2, call sign "Rocinante"
Element Leader: Corporal Lee.N
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Choi.S
Sergeant Busch.J

Pros:

• Great game overall
• Their tanks did not stand a chance. We ran them out of fuel about 35 minutes in, they never fully recovered until their two tank push in the last 10 minutes (which didn't work anyways).

Cons:

• Opponents were late (map flip 25 minutes after when it should have been) and brought people from outside BR1+Chad
• Command comms were extremely cluttered, one of the most cluttered I've heard. People kept talking on top of others. I had to repeat what I was saying several times. At one point I heard someone say something ~5 times before it was acknowledged by who they were attempting to talk to.

 

[Bizutto.A]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Airborne East Offense "Easy Squad"
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Bizutto.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Noriega.A
Corporal Moreau.M

Pros:

• Squads ability to be reactive to the situation on the fly
• Everyone knew their job and handled the flow of the game perfectly.
• 7 man worked well. Didnt have to wait around for guys to get into my squad for good flanking assaults.

Cons:

• Enemy team seemed a little disorganized
• Leadership comms could have been improved.
• Map pings need to be cleaned up. We need to stop marking on top of others marks. Only use the leadership marks if its your call. If you need to mark a tank for your squad maybe we should use the attack mark.

 

[Mix.C]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Command
Element Leader: Major Mix.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: NA

Pros:

• Over all strategy seems effective and robust for the most part.
• Continuing to improve as a team on maintaining discipline and implementing strategy.
• Tried some new organizational principals. Mixed results but good lessons learned.
• Had some very telling failures and near disasters that will allow us to identify weaknesses and improve.
• Great play by each and every core team. Infantry, armor artillery and recon/AB we doing legit combined arms and playing their roles effectively.
• "Airhead trick" worked flawlessly.
• Got the W.
• Very nearly pulled off some baller halftrack insertions.
• BR1 coverage of the event was pretty cool at times.
• Over all I am hugely proud of and happy with our efforts as a comp team.

Cons:

• Enemy team failed to live up to their end.
• Comms issues were cited as problematic by some folks.
• There was at least one moment of peril that was pretty avoidable had I configured our defense better
• "Airhead trick" was required to take Lumber Mill.
• Need a better name for "Airhead trick".
• Failed to pull off some baller halftrack insertions.
• Need to keep our gripes about other groups strictly internal.
• BR1 coverage was pretty uninformative with respect to actual birds eye perspective of troop movements and tactics. I'd far rather have a recording of both teams maps for 90 minutes than replays of tank kills.
• Don't know how many times I can say this, we have to get a good start. Failure to be in trucks and moving directly to the middle cap very nearly cost us that match. This was our biggest mistake of the game, it should be an easy fix but somehow we keep failing to execute when it counts. We must improve on this.

 

[Button.J]

Element Call Sign: "Swamp Thing" Soviet Tank

Element Leader: Corporal Button.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Berkowski.C
Specialist Winter.A

Pros:

• Practiced routes and observation areas worked well with the recon tank
• Great manuevering and gunning brought 2 tanks down with a light/recon
• No fuel used by my crew to cost them a lot of fuel.

Cons:

• Tags on map were a bit much during the game a few times
• Command comms were filled with information not all of it useful. Practice what is/isnt.

 

[Smith.N]

Element Call Sign: Soviet 4-GRID Flex
Element Leader: Corporal Smith.N
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Zulu.P
Private First Class Kona.B
Private First Class Johnson.G


Pros:

• Comms were good overall, command and squad.
• Response time from units and friendly assets was great

Cons:

• Opponent was late to start and accompanied by unit not preapproved
• Little bit of late start with one full truck

 

[Anderson.P]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Infantry George
Element Leader: First Lieutenant Anderson.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Lucas.A
Specialist Etoh.I
Specialist Bean.P

Pros:

• Good communication
• Team work and coordination of squads/assets were extremely well timed and placed
• Hot wash afterwards was informative (learned a lot from the tankers!)
• Relatively tough opponent

Cons:

• Some poor word choice by Cav members in chat
• Could use some more aggression on next point
• Would like to try more "spear head" style combat

 

[OCulien.M]

Element Call Sign: Soviet Airborne West Defense
Element Leader: Corporal OCulien.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Specialist Rousseau.A

Pros:

• Pre-planning time spent in/out of server in days/ weeks prior to match paid dividends.
• Ability for the sections to shift to respond to enemy was highly effective.

Cons:

• Rather excessive chatter in command voice chat
• Higher level of "professionalism" needed (referring to the comment made in game typed chat about opponent needing to call in other clans to fill their roster). As a ranking member of the NCO class and as a member of the 7th Cav I expect a higher level of sportsmanship, maturity, and class from our ranks in competitive matches, ESPECIALLY when we are guests on other clans' servers.

 

[Kinser.E]

S1 Locked!
Assigned Rasmus.M for Processing.

 

[Kinser.E]

Reassigned to White.N

 

[White.N]

S1 Operations Processed.