AAR Operation Black Cat 13SEP24

[Mix.C]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
Name of Combat Mission: Operation Black Cat
Game: Hell Let Loose Server Hosted on: Hostile Unknown | Event
Date of Combat Mission: 13SEP24
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 2359Z​

Mission OIC: Major Mix.C
Mission Controller: Major Mix.C
Number of Attendees:
7th Cavalry Personnel Involved in Action: 84
Major Mix.C
Major Rollins.R
First Lieutenant Argentini.E
First Lieutenant Anderson.P
Second Lieutenant DAmico.J
Second Lieutenant Korfias.F
Second Lieutenant Rhodes.R
Sergeant Major Komar.T
First Sergeant Webber.R
First Sergeant Groves.A
First Sergeant Balazova.S
Sergeant First Class Mueller.H
Staff Sergeant Hermes.S
Staff Sergeant Herber.R
Staff Sergeant Zulu.P
Staff Sergeant Cantrell.J
Sergeant Travis.W
Sergeant White.C
Sergeant Swanson.B
Sergeant Warren.G
Sergeant Bean.P
Sergeant Silvis.B
Sergeant Wisniewski.A
Sergeant Strole.Z
Sergeant Solo.H
Corporal Hazen.D
Corporal Gardener.J
Corporal Larouche.Z
Corporal OCulien.M
Corporal Jinto.H
Corporal Coutu.M
Corporal Macpherson.C
Corporal Slagg.J
Corporal Owens.J
Corporal Williamson.J
Specialist Wagner.D
Specialist Bell.T
Specialist Knapp.D
Specialist Griffin.B
Specialist Johnson.G
Specialist Felton.J
Specialist Choi.S
Specialist Schulz.R
Specialist Hood.D
Specialist Narayanaswamy.A
Specialist Rousseau.A
Specialist Hall.SP
Specialist Valente.M
Specialist Rhone.T
Specialist Woody.W
Specialist Shaw.JW
Specialist Fields.M
Specialist Feathers.A
Specialist Munch.R
Specialist Silvis.C
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Von Busch.M
Specialist Houser.J
Specialist Parton.D
Specialist Maikranz.J
Private First Class Cenname.C
Private First Class Delosreyes.D
Private First Class Night.M
Private First Class Hansel.R
Private First Class Angels.N
Private First Class Jay.JH
Private First Class Dixon.L
Private First Class Barnes.D
Private First Class Emanuel.M
Private First Class Jeff.F
Private First Class Lewis.P
Private First Class Plummer.M
Private McAbbot.A
Private Miller.E
Private Couch.W
Private Maxx.S
Private Michaels.JE
Private Dieppe.C
Private Dirt.E
Private Bjorn.K
Private Grimshaw.J
Private Borek.T
Recruit Tech.C
Recruit Kozina.A

 

[Bean.P]

Section: Easy Allies
Section Leader: SGT. Bean. P
Members of Section:
Second Lieutenant Rhodes.R
PFC.Jay.JH
SPC. Feathers. A
CPL.Larouche.Z



Pros:

-Had a blast playing with these guys. Putting pressure on their mid point was a challenge but one that was a welcomed one.
-Overall concept was very fun!

Cons:

-Directions on what to do needs be a bit more clear and concise. Thats the key to any of these types of operations.
-Planning NEEDS to happen before hand

 

[Travis.W]

Element Callsign: Allies How Squad, Left Flank Defense
Element Leader: Sergeant Travis.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
First Sergeant Webber.R
Specialist Bell.T
Specialist Houser.J

Pros:

• Absolutely love this OPORD, a success twice in a row!!
• Great distribution of AB units with flanks and attack squads
• EXCELLENT help from cadre to fill out three infantry sections and a tank. THANK YOU!
• Squad comms were on point with callouts
• Squad was extremely flexible and able to pair off to deal with separate objectives and vantages.
• Was neck and neck right towards the end, pretty even balance between the two platoons
• Garry hunting squads took out garrisons fast, even had the final garrison pegged
• ZOC was amazing once we figured what we were doing
• Garrisons were all placed. Responsibilities were divvied out spectacularly
• SL initiative was pretty good
• Command comms were nice and quiet and clear for the first while
• Loved the surprise of the map. Made us think on our feet. Can be really really hard with less experienced SLs though.

Cons:

• Wasn't able to stay their initial push across the river so it was hard to regroup and push them out
• We were slow to adjust to ZOC on garrisons rather that line defense
• We lost so many garrisons when no one was around them, squads could have been assigned to specific garrisons rather than gridlines
• I don't know if the bridge was given as critical attention for the hardpoint attack
• I think we could have switched another AB squad to attack, especially when we pegged their last garry
• Command comms got cluttered when last garrison was getting swarmed
• Command was a little confused on air assets
• Troopers were crossing lines before start time
• Very much did not like the attitude of allowing AXIS to forfeit the match by capping the 4th point. I cannot say how much this irks me that command comms almost allowed this defeatism to take hold. Yes it was desperate moment, but we still have to play our hardest.

 

[Woody.W]

Element Callsign: Bravo Barrens
Element Leader: SPC.Woody.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant First Class Mueller.H
Specialist Rhone.T

Pros:

• Very fun.
• good squad mates! they kept me busy
• we got lucky not to lose our foot hold
• good design! i like the changes!

Cons

• coms got very crazy... a few times
• 1 guy says he don't like night maps..

 

[Williamson.J]

Section: Love Axis
Section Leader: CPL.Wiilliamson.J
Members of Section:
Specialist Choi.S
Corporal Coutu.M

Pros:

-Great game concept. Hard fought down to the wire. From our perspective everyone excelled at their jobs. Made our job easy!
-Shoutout to my crew

Cons:

Can't think of any
-

 

[Owens.J]

Element Callsign: Axis Able Squad, Center Infantry
Element Leader: Corporal Owens.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Staff Sergeant Cantrell.J
Corporal Jinto.H
Specialist Knapp.D
Private Couch.W
Private Miller.E

Pros:

• Ops = fun
• New Op mechanics
• Good comms squad/point defense

Cons:

• Op mechanics could use a tweak, try for center point to force more action potentially and create 3 lanes(map selection for balance). Or even an additional phase to extend action.
• Airborne comms overlapped with center squads more than a normal game of squads talking, suggest moving a core group on discord to a separate channel instead of relying entirely on in game voice if things get heated and/or there or "2 separate battles" happening

 

[OCulien.M]

Section: Item Axis
Section Leader: Corporal OCulien.M
Members of Section:
Private Maxx.S
Private Borek.T



Pros:

-Great concept. West AB defense was very effective in holding their ground once we got regrouped.

Cons:

-SLs stepped on each other alot in command comms..

 

[Shaw.JW]

Section: King Axis
Section Leader: Shaw.JW
Members of Section:
Dixon.L
Rousseau

Pros:

-Super fun gameplay. I always love the search and destroy missions
-very evenly matched

Cons:

-As an SL I didnt get to blow anything up

 

[Cenname.C]

Element Callsign: Allies Able Squad, Garrison Attacking
Element Leader: Private Cenname.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Private Cenname.C
Private Dieppe.C
Private McAbbot.A
First Sergeant Groves.A

Pros:
-OPORD was awesome, a lot of fun.
-Learned new OP spots and how to be more open to where to place ops.
-Challenging and lots of room for growth within operation.

Cons:
-Command chat still had a lot of people speaking over one another but we are getting much better at it.

 

[Narayanaswamy.A]

Element Callsign: Axis Jig Squad, Offensive Airborne
Element Leader: Specialist Nara.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Hood.D
Private First Class Kao.D

Pros:

• Fun concept of trying to sneak behind enemy lines (very airborne)
• Night map made garry searching harder (good thing)
• Exciting with the garries acting as a score

Cons:

• Map/point selection may need some consideration to be fair for infantry
• Holding the point gives a big advantage to airborne but game ended up pretty even. If the point was the middle middle one, then it may have been even more of an advantage

 

[Wisniewski.A]

Section: Charlie Allies
Section Leader: Sergeant Wisniewski.A
Members of Section:
MAJ.Rollins.R
2LT.Korfias.F
SSG.Hermes.S
Specialist Quake.B
RCT.Kozina.A



Pros:

• Innitial push on center point was a good back and forth, it was a lot of fun
• Cool concept

Cons:

• Map & faction was rough

 

[Strole.Z]

Section: Airborn Alpha squad
Section Leader: Sergeant Strole.Z
Members of Section:
Private First Class Hansel.R
Private Dirt.E
Specialist Maikranz.J



Pros:

• Great map and great operation idea.
• My squad was SO amazing doing gods work on defending our last garry

Cons:
- Need to know the map and have a game plan WAY before 10 minutes before op start.

 

[Tech.C]

Section: Hotel Axis
Section Leader: RCT. Tech.C
Members of Section:
CPL.Macpherson.C
PVT Grimshaw.J
SSG.HERBER.R
SPC.FELTON.J
PFC.LEWIS.P



Pros:

-Said they had a great time and enjoyed they love the communication and organization.
-Great communication for Flanks, Tanks, OP's and Garries.
-Overall concept was fun for the entire crew with two different battles coinciding at the same time.

Cons:

-Map at night was a down check for 1 out of 5 Squad members.
-Center Point unanimous should be placed center of map. Allows both sides an even match. We felt like we had a slight "Upper Hand" when it comes to defending point.

 

[Balazova.S]

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

Element Call Sign: Allied Tank
Element Leader: First Sergeant Balazova.S
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
First Sergeant Balazova.S
Corporal Gardener.J
Specialist Von Busch.M

Pros:

• Interesting objective with respect to garrison hunting
• Tank crew coordinated well within the tank

Cons:

• Heavy back-line airborne presence made operating a tank particularly hazardous
• Coordinating with infantry was difficult

 

[Hazen.D]

Element Callsign: Allied Commander
Element Leader: CPL.Hazen.D

Pros

• Good comms throughout
• Good fight over center point
• Squad members had a good time
• Many lessons were learned throughout the Op
• Good squad focus on specified jobs

Cons

• Needed to pull 360 around the final garrison
• Garrisons deployed too far forward for the game type
• Driel was probably the worst roll, too much area for airborne to cover
• A few votes against nighttime maps
• Rough start at the beginning Enemy should not have taken center point as easily as they did.
• Need more time to coordinate before map flip. It seemed a good amount of troopers werent fans of the lack of a plan due to map being revealed at the last second.
• tanks relentlessly satcheled. Need to coordinate trooper cover for the tanks.

 

[Swanson.B]

Element Callsign: Axis Defense
Element Leader: Sergeant Swanson.B
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Fields.M
Private Michaels.JE

Pros

• Like my 2 squad mate said, it was fun, chaotic fun, but fun.
• The concept it nice. Its different than just a simple 50 v 50 game
• My squad was very reactive to my call outs and request

Cons

• At some point in the game, my squad needed help. I called for help and the commander requested a flex on my squad from another squad but it never hapened. I had to call for help again, 3-4 minutes after but it was to late, the enemy had already gain to much ground.
• Felt like i was the online one watching the map and doing call outs when a garrison was going red. Everyone should be doing that so we stay alert

 

[Zulu.P]

Element Callsign: Easy Axis Side
Element Leader: SSG.Zulu.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Johnson.G
Private First Class Plummer.M
Private First Class Griffin.Z
Private First Class Jeff.F

Pros:

• Very fun.
• Good Squad com's

Cons

• Command Coms were a little out of hand at some points, over-talking people or just Too much information.
• The middle point would of been best for this map but it was a random map & point.
• wish Inf holding center point had more they could do near the end we kind of just sat around building.

 

[Rutkowski.P]

S1 Locked.

Assigned Lawrence.M for processing.