AAR Operation Bridge to Bilderberg 27JUL24

[Sven.S]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
Name of Combat Mission: Operation Bridge to Bilderberg
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: Training Server 1
Date of Combat Mission: 27JUL24
​

Mission OIC: First Sergeant Sven.S
Mission Controller : First Sergeant Sven.S
Number of Attendees: 52
7th Cavalry Personnel Involved in Action:

Colonel Rob.Y
Major Cameron.J
Major Mix.C
First Lieutenant Anderson.P
Second Lieutenant DAmico.J,
Second Lieutenant Korfias.F
Second Lieutenant Rhodes.R
First Sergeant Sven.S
First Sergeant Groves.A
Master Sergeant Becks.J
Staff Sergeant Konn.G
Sergeant Lucas.A
Sergeant Swanson.B
Sergeant Cantrell.J
Sergeant Mulholland.J
Sergeant Whitefish.S
Corporal Lee.N
Corporal Warren.G
Corporal Moreau.M
Corporal Beck.JW
Corporal Owens.J
Corporal Laroche.P
Corporal Martin.R
Corporal Owens.J
Specialist Etoh.I
Specialist Knapp.D
Specialist Walker.S
Specialist Blade.B
Specialist Russell.T
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Woody.W
Specialist Sokol.Z
Specialist Wagner.D
Specialist Watters.W
Specialist Parton.D
Specialist Fabie.D
Specialist Lemon.D
Specialist Maines.Z
Specialist Baldrick.D
Specialist Laui.M
Private First Class Miller.D
Private First Class Barret.JH
Private First Class Martinez.XJ
Private First Class Lahti.R
Private First Class Whitehorse.M
Private Allen.T
Private Jay.JH
Private Stankovic.S
Private Night.M
Private Delosreyes.D
Private Baker.JB
Private Swedish.C

 

[Lee.N]

Element Callsign: TC Axis, Callsign "Rocinante"
Element Leader: Corporal Lee.N
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Lee.N
Specialist Watters.W


Pros:

• Tank gunner hit 7 headshots in a row with the main cannon

Cons:

• Yeah
• Some of the worst command comms I have ever heard (people angry, talking on top of one another).
• 2 tanks/32 total vs 0 tanks/20 total: we struggled the entire time even with overwhelming numbers. We never fully regrouped to attack anywhere and suffered for it

 

[Korfias.F]

Element Callsign: Allied Able Squad
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Korfias.F
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Warren.G
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Sokol.Z
Specialist Wagner.D
Private Swedish.C

Pros:

• Squad had a great time playing. It was a fun FTX and we look forward to more.
• Call outs were accurate and precise, great communication.
• Good firefights.

Cons:

• Would have liked to have seen a larger turn out, it was fun but always better with more
• Enemies were spread out, and didn't seem to really push. Paired up alone cutting through a field at times.

 

[Whitefish.S]

Element Callsign: Dog SL Allies
Element Leader: Sergeant Whitefish.S
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

1. Sergeant Whitefish.S
2. Specialist Parton.D
3. Specialist Fabie.D
4. Private Night.M
5. Private Delosreyes.D
6. Private Baker.JB

Pros:

• Good Comms
• Nice concept for FTX, would like to see again but with full teams.
• Destroyed a couple of tanks as infantry

Cons:

• Smaller turnout
• Since we had less numbers we couldn't have a tank

 

[Maines.Z]

Element Callsign: Allied Baker Squad
Element Leader: Specialist Maines.Z
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Maines.Z
First Sergeant Groves.A
Sergeant Swanson.B
Corporal Moreau.M
Corporal Beck.JW

Pros:

• Well thought out operation
• Good fighting between both teams
• Moreau is a beast on AT
• Groves and Beck did well as a pair
• Swanson held that bridge quite well
• Good comms altogether

Cons:

• Slight disadvantage for allies as they had 12 less people and no tanks
• Command chat was quite cluttered sometimes, but I can attribute that to my inexperience as SL

 

[Cantrell.J]

Element Callsign: Axis Able Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Cantrell.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Knapp.D
Specialist Walker.S
Corporal Owens.J
Specialist Blade.B
Specialist Russell.T
Pros:

Cons:

 

[Lucas.A]

Element Callsign: Axis Charlie Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Lucas.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Martin.R
Specialist Russell.T

Pros:

• Squad had fun and were able to work well together
• We were able to build an effective AT gun that was able to hammer the point along with shooting the bridge.
• Successfully able to use the 7 man tactic and swap troopers to other squads.

Cons:

• Restrictions handcuffed the attack.
• Not being able to be in the 4 grid really hindered the flanking maneuvers as well especially trying to find the objectives.
• We were not able to really practice what have been doing all month within our SPs.
• Waiting for intel seemed cumbersome as there was limited amount for the troopers to do.
• Small turn out from sections.

 

[Mix.C]

Element Callsign: Axis Spotter
Element Leader: Major Mix.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

Master Sergeant Becks.J
First Lieutenant Anderson.P

Pros:

• Played out in perfect time
• Had tons of fun personally

Cons:

• OPORD Was a bit unclear
• Coms got somewhat grumpy

 

[DAmico.J]

Element Callsign: Allied Able Squad
Element Leader: Specialist Woody.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant DAmico.J

Pros:

• Any opportunity to play with my friends is great fun. I love to come to any 7th Cav events, and I think it's important that we support one another. I appreciate the chance to come out and help train our fellow members of 2nd battalion.
• Some really awesome players and members of 2nd battalion showed up to support Easy company.
• The operation design itself was awesome! I would love to see us do something like this again. Giving a list of objectives to complete outside vanilla gameplay takes a lot of effort, and changing things up can be great fun.

Cons:

• I noticed that Easy company was unable to fully deploy their units onto one team. That is greatly unfortunate, because it takes away from the opportunity to train an entire unit. Nothing is more frustrating than spending an entire month (sometimes more) preparing for a specific event to only find yourself having to completely redesign things on the fly due to a lack of personnel.
• The entire battalion as a whole needs to do a better job of supporting Easy company in their training. This community is strongest when we all work together. The time of this FTX is never going to change. In fact, our European members really bent over backwards to make this happen. As of me writing this, some of these guys are up past 12:00AM-1:00AM. They are staying up so late, and all they are doing is asking us to come out a few hours earlier in return. Having even just 6-10 more people at this operation would have made for a completely different experience. Obviously not everyone is in a position to do this, but anyone else that we can muster up would be fantastic.

 

[LaRoche.P]

Element Callsign: Allied Able Squad
Element Leader: Corporal Laroche.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Baldrick.D
Private First Class Martinez.XJ
Pros:

• Excellent unit to platoon cohesion.
• Encirclement to get the objectives was slow but steady.
• Good engagements.

Cons:

• My unit had to stay behind (on my own choice) to try and keep spawn points alive
• Fought almost the same 3 men squad the entire game.
• 4 grid strongpoint not being able to be crossed was something really hard on us as they could keep their spawns alive all the time and we couldn't destroy them.
• Infantry and tanks need to have a better cohesion because my troopers and I kept trying to protect them against satchels but lost sight of the tanks more often than not so they blew up.
• Was looking forward to put on the field what we practiced with recon vehicle flanks, heavy push with halftracks, looking at Badgers and Roosters quick AT gun placement and deep quick jeep movement but it was not really utilise because of the low turnout.

 

[Konn.G]

Element Callsign: TC Axis, Callsign "Foxtrot"
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Konn.G
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Staff Sergeant Konn.G
Specialist Laui.M
Private First Class Lahti.R


Pros:

• Great individual skill shown by all crew members, both in driving by Lahti (dodging hits, etc) and Gunning by Laui (800m shot on AT gun).
• Good coordination on local comms between tanks and infantry.

Cons:

• Poor Command Comms
• Extreme confusion for most of the FTX
• Lack of clarity in the objectives
• Too repetitive objective for the tanks (1 and a half hour of SBF without enemy tanks)
• The crew didnt have fun/ found the FTX boring.

 

[Woody.W]

Element Callsign: recon -Axis, callsign= Andy
Element Leader: SPC.Woody.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
2LT.D’Amico.J




Pros:

• i would say good team balance! 20 v 30 was good for this game style
• 
  
• the building of fobs was a good idea I like how it will make people think about setting up at key positions and building it up just a little. Could help allot in a real game as fall back points or fobs like how they were use in the ftx!

Cons:

• wish we had more people so e co guys can practice with each other instead of ageists.
• 
  
• Some of the guild lines where un clear for recon. I did read and was reading the op board. I think just saying yes no to recon is not good enoff it needs its own rules for every ftx to prevent them from going where they shouldnt. I did get close to destroying a Garry and thought about going after arty. But a bad felling came apon me and my sniper and we asked if was allowed and it was not. So we re deployed and went on our merry day. No issues after knowing the zone we were not allowed to go into was for recon as well.

 

[Rhodes.R]

Element Callsign: 1st Platoon "the Jaegers"
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Rhodes.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant Rhodes.R
Staff Sergeant Konn.G (Cavarly Element lead)
Sergeant Mulholland.J (Infantry Element lead)


Solids

• Great original OPORD before changes.
• Excellent platoon-level coordination and comms.
• Great flexibility by SLs and TCs like Laroche and Lee to flex into 1st platoon's leadership hierarchy in a matter of moments.
• Great problem solving occured on the bridge by local squads to facilitate movement towards the latter half of the FTX.
• Final 30 minutes of the FTX showed the diamond in the rough that we have here. They were intense and increasingly organized.

Problems & Solving

• Cluttered command comms
  • Use platoon level comms so that only tankers, artillery, and command staff are utilizing in-game command comms.
• Last minute changes to OPORD seriously disrupted tempo and planning during Phase 1.
  • when large changes are made, pull leadership aside for a minute or two and have quick briefing on changes are being made.
• Tactical deployments created difficulty for the execution of armored cavalry tactic, especially in regards to low-numbers and Bridge terrains relegating armor to a purely SBF role.
  • Assign at least two infantry squads for per 1 armored cavalry tank in a platoon.
  • When given small numbers, focus on defeating one objective at a time to facilitate the best usage of assets.
  • Assign armored cavarly units to more open terrains or to terrains where armor and infantry can work in closer-order formations when undermanned.
• Using nodes as the primary method of FOB creation caused issues by preventing movement.
  • Use Repair Stations or Bunkers, or other structures which are not destroyed upon strongpoint capture.

 

[Rob.Y]

Element Callsign: Allied Commander
Element Leader: Colonel Rob.Y


Pros:

• Got all objectives up in a timely manner
• got through all objectives with a bunch of great fights
• really great stuff from my SL leadership

Cons:

• A couple times we could have reacted faster with redeploys to regain AO control

 

[Mulholland.J]

Element Callsign: SL Axis, Callsign "Item"
Element Leader: Sergeant Mulholland.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Private Allen.T
Private First Class Whitehorse.M
Private Jay.JH
Private Stankovic.S
Specialist Lemon.D

Pros:

• Got fun when we got to the end of the bridge and held it until the rest of the team took the objective.
• Good teamwork and comms between myself, Rhodes and Konn.
• Thank you to all of the cadre who came. We absolutely appreciate that.

Cons:

• Apparently the OP board was changed but I didn't even notice because the OP board was hidden. If this is a thing there must be an actual team briefing. The comms issue and confusion could be alleviated with a simple team briefing so everyone knows what to do. Use the 30-40 minutes while we are sitting waiting for the OP to start. We show up 30 minutes prior to FTX so use that time wisely. As it stands its just a waste of time and asking everyone to be there 30-40 minutes early just to say "here" is kind of crazy when we are playing a 1 hour 30 minute game and 30 minute hotwash.
• Hearing from other leadership that it sounded like a "Get Gud" issue which it most definitely was not is kind of ridiculous and not ok.
• As Damico said above, Echo company is new and could use the support of the entire battalion. The OP started at 11:00pm for our EU guys which is most of 1st platoon. I see EU guys sacrificing sleep to come to other FTX's so it would be nice if that was reciprocated once every 2 months.

 

[Cameron.J]

Element Callsign: Axis Commander
Element Leader: Major Cameron.J


Pros:

• hard fought
• platoons had a chance to fight on the same side and execute on their training plan

Cons:

• lots of attendance issues
• comms were an issue
• basic HLL tactics were not executed to standard

 

[Becks.J]

Element Callsign: Axis Spotter #2, 2 Platoon Sunray Minor
Element Leader: Master Sergeant Becks.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

Nil

Pros:

• Loved the fact we had recon go out to locate enemy assets and FOBs, then planning attacks around it with all the info the commander could get from the recces. Loved it! Would have even if I wasn't recon.
• Having the company all together working on one side. Would like to see more of it!

Cons:

• A lot of questions floating around if we had met conditions in order to advance on the main points or not and not getting answers caused some frustration
• The way FTX was designed, having to destroy two objs in a grid line while not being able to go anywhere near the main cap zone severely limited the tactics my platoon was training on this month (deep, fast flanking attacks). The river itself provided a challenging barrier as it was to mounting said attacks on Driel.
• When a good attack route has been found for an assaulting force, especially one that is out of sight from the enemy. Sections should do their best to establish a rally point, and OP or just rally up. Wait for the section to arrive before launching the attack. If one or two troopers start attacking, you've lost the element of surprise and that attack route will no longer be valid. Critical in situations like this FTX where your chances for such are limited.

 

[Etoh.I]

Element Callsign: Axis Infantry Dog Squad
Element Leader: Specialist Etoh.I
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Private First Class Miller.D
Corporal Owens.J
Private First Class Barret.JH

Pros

-My squad did their best to accomplish the task at hand and worked together well

-Dog Squad destroyed 3 of the objectives, one with a cool jeep "drive by" moment

-Cadre did a great job at constructing objectives and defending them

Cons

-Low turnout, I was the only one from my section able to attend and most other sections were in a similar if not quite as extreme place

-OPORD was not just unrelated to but at odds with what we have practiced for the last month. The only thing in common was the map

-Large portions of the map being restricted to us while the enemy was allowed to occupy and fight from said areas made it frustrating to gain ground in open fields.

-Not being allowed to utilize vehicles or flanking maneuvers in productive ways

-A misunderstanding of the OPORD throughout multiple tiers of leadership led to confusing and heated command comms.

-A distinct lack in rudimentary HLL meta eg. garrisons and pivots. Partially attributing to the confusion, partially attributing to "someone else will do it" mentality

Some Ideas

- Communication with leadership about the OPORD ahead of time

- Using the 30 minutes before hard start to iron out questions and concerns about the OPORD or any recent changes to it

- Patience, empathy and "saving it for the AAR". It's easy to get caught up in the moment and I too suffer from this but at the end of the day we're all here to have fun, and to improve ourselves and each other. There's nothing we can't learn or grow from.

 

[Rutkowski.P]

S1 Locked.

Assigned Groves.A for processing.

 

[Groves.A]

S1 Operations processed.