AAR Easy Company 2-7 FTX: Operation Verborgene Bedrohung

[Cameron.J]

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

Name of Combat Mission: E.Co FTX Operation Verborgene Bedrohung
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: Training/Event
Date of Combat Mission: 26MAY24
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 1930z​

Mission OIC: Major Cameron.J
Mission Controllers: Major Cameron.J, First Lieutenant Anderson.P, Second Lieutenant Rhodes.R
Mission Controller: Number of Attendees: 82

Major Cameron.J
First Lieutenant Argentini.E
First Lieutenant Anderson.P
Second Lieutenant Korfias.F
Second Lieutenant Rhodes.R
Master Sergeant Becks.J
Sergeant First Class Mueller.H
Staff Sergeant Phillips.B
Staff Sergeant Dietz.H
Staff Sergeant Avery.D
Sergeant Zulu.P
Sergeant Konn.G
Sergeant Slagg.S
Sergeant Berkowski.C
Sergeant Cantrell.J
Sergeant Carmine.J
Sergeant Sotelo.R
Sergeant Whitefish.S
Sergeant Travis.W
Corporal Lee.N
Corporal Jinto.H
Corporal Warren.G
Corporal Donato.E
Corporal OCulien.M
Corporal Lucas.A
Corporal Mulholland.J
Corporal Bean.P
Corporal Meyer.T
Corporal Wisniewski.A
Corporal White.C
Corporal Martin.R
Corporal Flanagan.L
Specialist Bas.D
Specialist Rousseau.A
Specialist Sykes.R
Specialist Stenberg.P
Specialist Beauchamp.R
Specialist. Laroche.P
Specialist Devito.D
Specialist Woody.W
Specialist Cub.N
Specialist Bastogne.M
Specialist Rilian.M
Specialist Mason.P
Specialist Etoh.I
Specialist Nutting.J
Specialist Leaf.J
Specialist Fields.M
Specialist Lemon.D
Specialist Macpherson.C
Specialist Riley.D
Specialist Knapp.D
Specialist Blade.B
Specialist Sokol.Z
Specialist Narayanaswamy.A
Specialist Lust.K
Specialist Sudul.L
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Suplee.B
Specialist Fabie.D
Specialist Laui.M
Specialist Jat.R
Specialist Baldrick.D
Specialist Choi.S
Private First Class Carrasco.J
Private First Class Shaw.JW
Private First Class Feathers.A
Private First Class Taylor.H
Private First Class Maines.Z
Private First Class Donk.B
Private First Class Wolf.P
Private Von Busch.M
Private Lahti.R
Private Franks.M
Private Diaz.L
Private Dailey.D
Private Whitehorse.M
Private Hessler.R
Private Gimson.M
Private Ashford.I
Recruit Bower.W
Retired Smith.N

 

[Lee.N]

Element Callsign: Axis Tank Commander, call sign "Rocinante"
Element Leader: Corporal Lee.N
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Lee.N
Specialist Bas.D
Private Von Busch.M

Pros:

• Interesting op with two objectives per point, would play again.
• Crew had a fun time!
• Having two tanks versus one, where the two tanks were limited to the road but the single could go anywhere was also interesting.
• The two tanks pushing into Chappelle and Medical won us both points in the last 20 minutes.

Cons:

• Rule of staying close to road was difficult to keep sometimes, several times we found ourselves out of that 30 meter gap and had to correct.
• Was told at one point that we could not have infantry support.
• Phase 2 (attacking Chappelle) was extremely stagnant, we did not regroup until the tanks pushed into the hard point.
• Tank identification still needs work. Shermans were called as 76's more than a few times.

• More than I can count, I saw 4 names talking at once in command chat (saw 5 a few times). We need to practice the Command -> PLs and TCs -> SLs structure more. It works, and keeps command comms empty except when needed.

 

[Cantrell.J]

Element Callsign: Allies SL, call sign "George"
Element Leader: Sergeant Cantrell.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Cub.N
Sergeant Travis.W
Corporal Donato.E

Pros:

• A lot of builfing lot of action like the concept
  Great squad coms

Cons:

• More zone coverage
  Command coms kind of hectic

 

[LaRoche.P]

Element Callsign: Allies Recon team codename ''Vietcong''
Element Leader: Specialist. Laroche.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Devito.D

Pros:

• typical recon meta, we're on artilery, they're on the guns... yeah that was that.

Cons:

• maybe one really small infantry unit OR another recon squad to help to take down garrisons and OPs because I had my hands really full at time.

 

[Woody.W]

Element Callsign: Axis Tank Commander, call sign axis poke around squads
Element Leader:Specialist Woody.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Mason.P

Pros:

• GOOD TEAM WORK
• good coms team and squad
• good flanking and tank cover

Cons:

• to many restrictions and objectives made ppl to spread out and once we all went for 1 objective in stead of 3 we did well.
• seeing garrys and not being able to get them after taking one a Garry and 3 op i get to a certain point and i cant go on even tho i see the the Garry then they took the north back because i couldn't go past the line

 

[Lemon.D]

Element Callsign: Axis Artillery Commander, call sign "Big Guns"
Element Leader: SPC.Lemon.D.
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
SPC.Lemon.D.
SGT.Slagg.S

Pros:

• Only lost 1 of 3 nodes, and able to get it rebuilt elsewhere on map
• Effective on-point fire, despite Enemy Recon pressure
• 66 kills despite all this - absolutely solid
• Slagg = John Wick

Cons:

• Need another member to ensure artillery placement security and increase effectiveness

 

[Korfias.F]

Element Callsign: Allies Phase 3 Ambush Easy Squad (North)
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Korfias.F
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant Korfias.F
Specialist Macpherson.C
Specialist Sokol.Z


Pros:

• FTX was well planned and executed
• Squad had a great time, fantastic concept
• Command leadership had great oversight and good plans
• Our squad held the north for a lot longer than we should have being only a 3 man squad

Cons:

• Command comms were a mess. People constantly repeating and talking over each other made it difficult to hear important information and relay it to my squad
• Enemy tanks did not seem to stick to within 30m of the roads, some confusion as to the blue lines on the map being considered "roads"
• Some confusion as to what the objective was/when it was destroyed to move to the next phase, would probably have been better with clearer command comms channel

 

[Avery.D]

Element Callsign: Allies FTL, call sign "Item"
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Avery.D
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Staff Sergeant Avery.D
Specialist Lust.K
Specialist Baldrick.D
Corporal Meyer.T
Specialist Sudul.L

Pros:

• Everyone had a lot of fun
• Good teamwork
• Moved quickly to new positions when enemies attack from new angles

Cons:

• Was hard to see due to the map having so many trees and bushes
• Tanks were limited being on the road
• Some troopers had lag due to new map

 

[Jinto.H]

Element Callsign: Allies Tank Commander, call sign "punching bag"
Element Leader: Corporal Jinto.H
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Choi.S
Sergeant Berkowski.C

PRO: great tank coms, fun op.
CON: map terrain was a real issue, a few times command coms failed, a few times felt alone as a 1 vs 2 armor match with no inf.

 

[Konn.G]

Element Callsign: Axis Tank Commander 2 "How"
Element Leader: Sergeant Konn.G
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant First Class Mueller.H
Specialist Laui.M

Pros:

• Great cooperation with the infantry
• Great cooperation with armor
• The last dives with the tanks were glorious.

Cons:

• Command comms could have been better
• Some lack of organization at the start

 

[Narayanaswamy.A]

Element Callsign: Axis Airborne Squad Leader, callsign "Negat"
Element Leader: Specialist Narayanaswamy.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Narayanaswamy.A
Specialist Rousseau.A
Staff Sergeant Phillips.B
Corporal Whitefish.S


Pros:

• Very effective firefights, was able to defend our position very well
• Was able to hold down an entire garrison on our own, giving time for recon and another airborne squad to destroy the garry
• Good coordination, was able to get set up quickly again after all our garries got wiped
• Excellent planning overall to get us up and running quickly

Cons:

• Command communications need to be more organized to make sure information gets through, could use more definitive orders/objectives for individual squads to prevent excessive communication
• Stuck in the north not doing anything during Phase 2 due to miscommunication about how close the objective was to being destroyed (see Con 1)
• Could have tightened up southern flank in Phase 3 to more directly hit the point rather than holding up the garry to the south, squad felt like we were out of the game for that Phase
• Squad prefers more vanilla/freeform gameplay, maybe could have used an offensive map

 

[Riley.D]

Element Callsign: Axis "Georgia"
Element Leader: Specialist Riley.D
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Flanagan.L
Private Lahti.R
Private Franks.M
Pros:

• Great cooperation with armor
• We all did something really cool while protecting the tanks

Cons:

• Command comms could have been better
• Could use work on infantry communicating with the tanks; Ex. getting ran over while repairing

 

[Wolf.P]

Element Callsign: Axis Infantry Squad Lead, call sign "Jig"
Element Leader: Private First Class Wolf.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Mulholland.J
Private First Class Taylor.H
Specialist Nutting.J
Specialist Leaf.J
Private Whitehorse.M


Pros:

• Great cooperation with armor.
• Great squad communication.
• Great FTX. Lots of action and enough objectives to face with different challenges.
• Nice to have all the commander abilities to make the game more fun and engaging.

Cons:

• Command comms were rough. Need to find a way to not overtalk each other.
• "30m close to the road" rule made the game difficult. As Axis, we got stuck north due to heavy enemy infantry push. We could move south easier if the rule didn't exist, but not a big concern.

 

[Wisniewski.A]

Element Callsign: Axis SL, call sign "Item"
Element Leader: Corporal Wisniewski.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Fabie.D
Private Gimson.M

Pros:

• Whole squad enjoyed the tank escort & 2 objectives concept
• Team adjusted well when plans weren't working
• Squad moved and communicated really well together

Cons:

• Command coms got a bit hectic at points

 

[Carmine.J]

Element Callsign: Allies Jig Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Carmine.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Suplee.B
Private Hessler.R

Pros:

• Our squad had an easy job, we were instructed to be in charge of ambushing in phase 2 and we lost that hardpoint almost immediately so we basically got to wander for the rest of the FTX and take out OPs.
• Because of how broadly the OPORD was written for the Allies it gave a lot of my guys the opportunity to step up and create their own in house battle plans. Quite a few of my guys did go out of there way and try to put in an effort to learn the map a week before the FTX.

Cons:

• FTX wasn't initially written with my guys in mind at all. We got zero practice on this map this month aside from a pub match. The Allied OPORD was written poorly and most of the restrictions weren't even being followed by the end of the event anyways. We got maybe a little over a week of in house planning before the event and it just wasn't enough time to learn the map.
• The entire thing was written like a Mortain Offensive Match that we weren't allowed to win unless we held the midpoint which we pretty much lost the moment we loosened the restrictions on the enemy team.
• Enemy team got so many more assets. 2 tanks versus our 1. Started off with 1 arty gun, allegedly turned into 2 from what our recon said. Suddenly we got bombing runs dropped on our heads which we initially thought were off limits. Once a sector was lost the only people allowed to deal with enemy red zone garrisons was our 1 single recon squad so there were a couple of times Id have to ping an enemy garrison and just leave it there while our team was forced to do all our fights in the sectors we were meant to be defending.
• The whole tank fighting loop during this FTX was just weird to me. For the first hour they were restricted to the roads which I felt bad for the enemy team for having to go through but at the same time they had 2 tanks, we had 1, and anytime they'd get damaged they'd just either full bum rush our hardpoint or fall back to the red zone where we weren't allowed to pursue them. I watched a Panther take a rocket and just full on retreat back to the red zone where we couldn't follow them, but were still taking MG fire from them.
• After the midpoint was lost the entire thing just devolved into a pub match. Communications went and it felt like our guys stopped trying because by the time the last phase started and we were allowed to counter-attack there was 9 minutes left and it was pretty pointless to carry on.
• I came in with low expectations, so I wasn't as disappointed once it was over, but it still went about exactly how I expected it too.

 

[Martin.R]

Element Callsign: Allies How Squad
Element Leader: Corporal Martin.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Sotelo.R
Specialist Bastogne.M
Specialist Rilian.M

Pros:

• My guys had a lot of fun.
• Got our stuff up quickly.
• Held Phase 3 for ever.
• Liked the multiple objectives in a 2 column sector.
  

Cons:

• Map knowledge lacking.
• Command comms chaotic didn't/couldn't hear any of the in game rule changes.
• Held Phase 3 to long left no time for phase 5. And possible reason why Allies didn't even get their second tank that was to open up in phase 5.
• Should limit the multi objective phases to 2 at most to leave room for a counter attack phase.
• When an Opord is written, there should be no changes mid game. This would eliminate ANY confusion from not being able to hear rule changes in a chaotic command comms.
• Any future FTX with mid in game rule changes should not only be based on a time limit before becoming active, but should be allowed by BOTH sides and should be written into the Opord. This, again, eliminates confusion.

 

[Lucas.A]

Element Callsign: Allies Dog Squad Phase 2 Destructible Objective Defense
Element Leader: Corporal Lucas.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Stenberg.P
Specialist Beauchamp.R
Private First Class Donk.B

Pros:

• We all had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the layout of the FTX.
• Built solid defense around the destructible and was able to defend it for a period of time.
• Squad comms were clear and call outs were well spoken and received
• Adapting to the change in the game, being able to utilize trooper swapping to other squads to help provide support on Phase 3 hard point

Cons:

• Command comms were cluttered and a mess. Multiple people talking at the same time and repeating same information
• A lot of map markers up for extended periods of time. They were not being cleared after they no longer became relevant.

 

[Etoh.I]

Element Callsign: Allies Baker Squad - Phase 4 OBJ.
Element Leader: Specialist Etoh.I
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Fields.M
Private First Class Carrasco.J
Private First Class Feathers.A

Pros:

• Axis Armor point crashing was effective, props to them
• Set up of objectives and defenses went extremely well due to many hours of planning and research done by Commanders, FTL's and enthusiastic Infantry.
• Fire Teams knew their roles ahead of time and practiced coordination and execution of said roles to achieve calculated results in a fluid manner
• Squad swapping worked well for constructing emplacements as well as for defending hardpoints
• Phase 3 and 4 went so well for us that we moved to phase 5 before the phase 4 objective was destroyed by the Axis
• Baker squad members communicated and reacted with speed and precision
• My squad reportedly had fun and I had fun leading a fire team for the first time in an FTX

Cons:

• Map icon clutter reached a point of confusion. If your mark is no longer relevant, remove it. eg. if a tank is moving rapidly through an area call it and its direction of travel while using the marker as a ping. Then remove it. Old info is Bad info
• Losing a squad member temporarily to hardware issues as well as in game voice com issues (a known thing that we cannot change)

 

[Dietz.H]

Element Callsign: Allies Phase 2 Hardpoint
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Dietz.H
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Knapp.D
Specialist Blade.B

Pros:

• Despite low amount of planning for the Op it went very well. Leadership leaned on delegating specifics to NCOs and staying fluid with an overall strategy. It saved a lot of time with less strategy meetings and still produced a good result
• SLs executed their roles well despite a few that will be in cons
• Reacted well to enemy pushes/flanks with squads flexing to where they needed to be
• My troopers and myself enjoyed the Op. Great first FTX

Cons:

• Command comms were very cluttered, we could have benefitted from more strict designations of who is in what discord channel. Some SLs stopped using discord altogether and went to in-game command. The last A Co FTX utilized army groups in discord with only the Leader of that group (PL) able to speak in in-game command unless it it critical info/tank callout. It worked very well
• Some SLs need to work on their callouts. I even heard some seasoned guys yelling "Tank. My ping" in command, which is not helpful. At the very least add your squad designation to that "Enemy tank. Jig marker. Approximate/Accurate" is 1000% more useful. If you've got time add a grid square to that
• Based on what I heard in command comms it seemed like some SLs lost sight of their job and strayed too far from their AO and left it less defended without being ordered to reposition. This could be more on leadership to designate some squads as dedicated defenders (do not leave your AO at all) and some as more flex roles that can leave for a while if needed. IDK but Anderson had to repeatedly ask for critical objs to be manned
• Too many 2-3 man squads due to dropouts. I feel like the team (and command comms) could have benefitted from less squads with more bodies. push it to 4-6

 

[Warren.G]

Element Callsign: Axis Fallschirmjäger, Fox Squad
Element Leader: Corporal Warren.G
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal OCulien.M
Private First Class Shaw.JW
Private Diaz.L
Private Dailey.D


Pros:

• Awesome concept of an FTX
• Awesome map choice
• Solid strategy that was well communicated ahead of time
• Great combination of main line infantry, armor, and airborne tactics to great affect
• Everyone had fun

Cons:

• Restrictive AO's; We were having to assault over open ground when there was a perfectly good hedgerow just a few meters passed the zone. In larger scale games the AO should really be more open and allow for more maneuverability of infantry so we're not forced into a wood chipper.
• Command comms were very cluttered; I had to resort to prox chat with another unit to coordinate the attack on the second X objective.