AAR Operation Hamburger Hill 24NOV24

[Cameron.J]

Name of Combat Mission: Operation Hamburger Hill
Campaign of Combat Mission: N/A
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: =7Cav= Training Server 1
Date of Combat Mission: 24SEP24
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 0100Z
Mission OIC: Major Cameron.J & Sergeant First Class Hermes.S
Mission Controllers: Major Cameron.J & First Sergeant Sven.S
Number of Attendees: 81

Major Cameron.J
Major Rollins.R
Captain Anderson.P
Second Lieutenant Sotelo.R
Second Lieutenant Swanson.B
Second Lieutenant Hazen.D
Second Lieutenant Macpherson.C
Sergeant Major Komar.T
First Sergeant Sven.S
First Sergeant Webber.R
First Sergeant Balazova.S
Master Sergeant Becks.J
Sergeant First Class Hermes.S
Sergeant First Class Mueller.H
Staff Sergeant Avery.D
Staff Sergeant Cantrell.J
Staff Sergeant Rasmus.M
Staff Sergeant Silvis.B
Staff Sergeant Zulu.P
Sergeant Curran.J
Sergeant LaRoche.P
Sergeant Wisniewski.A
Sergeant Lucas.A
Sergeant Solo.H
Corporal Guillermo.C
Corporal OCulien.M
Corporal Baldrick.D
Corporal Slagg.J
Corporal Kona.B
Corporal Noriega.D
Corporal Munch.R
Corporal Martin.R
Specialist Barnes.D
Specialist Jay.JH
Specialist Allen.R
Specialist Patterson.C
Specialist Kugo.El
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Sanchez.R
Specialist Willis.B
Specialist Lahti.R
Specialist Silvis.C
Specialist Arkan.M
Specialist Hansel.R
Specialist Ashie.L
Specialist Lemon.D
Specialist Durrant.J
Specialist Valente.M
Specialist Svenson.C
Specialist Bell.T
Specialist Suplee.B
Specialist Loup.N
Specialist Mulvany.J
Specialist Fabie.D
Specialist Delosreyes.D
Specialist Beans.F
Specialist Griffin.B
Specialist Lewis.P
Specialist Von Busch.M
Specialist Narayanaswamy.A
Specialist Fields.M
Specialist Maikranz.J
Specialist Lahti.R
Specialist Parton.D
Private First Class Rowe.S
Private First Class Moff.N
Private First Class Warfield.G
Private First Class Freeze.T
Private First Class Powers.K
Private First Class Angels.N
Private First Class Grimshaw.J
Private First Class Barzon.J
Private First Class Pollock.R
Private First Class Rowe.S
Private First Class Vest.T
Private First Class Summer.R
Private First Class Miller.L
Private First Class Plummer.M
Private First Class Duffy.C
Private First Class Maxx.S
Private Moff.N


Corporal Smith.N (RET)
Corporal Reign.A (RET)

 

[Cameron.J]

Element Callsign: Allied Commander
Element Leader: Major Cameron.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Major Cameron.J

Pros:

• Great turnout
• Battle came down to the last 2 minutes
• Many memorable moments
• Clean Comms
• Cadre was a dream

Cons:

• Map flips delayed the start by about 20 minutes
• Map restrictions were a little conflicted

 

[Macpherson.C]

Element Callsign: Axis Baker Squad
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Macpherson.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Kona.B
Private First Class Grimshaw.J
Private First Class Barzon.J

Pros:

• Squad played incredibly well and had fantastic cohesion
• Leadership had a great game plan coming into this and it showed in game that the time spent pre-planning paid off
• Great time overall

Cons:

• Artillery in my opinion made the balance of this Op sway to one side
• Restrictive AO ruleset limitted opportunities for defenders

 

[Wisniewski.A]

Element Callsign: Axis How Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Wisniewski.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Patterson.C
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Sanchez.R
Private First Class Angels.N

Pros:

• Very fun concept
• Defense stood them up for a long time, built up structures were instrumental

Cons:

• Restricting defenders from pushing back on tanks & garrisons just over the line made it difficult on defenders and meant that these assets didn't need to be protected
• Should consider restricting unopposed artillery

 

[Cantrell.J]

Element Callsign: Allied DOG Squad
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Cantrell.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Allen.R
Specialist Arkan.M
Specialist Lemon.D

Pros:
good communication and good movement

Cons:
Blue on Blue grenades without call outs

 

[Sotelo.R]

Element Callsign: Allied Tank Commander
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Sotelo.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant Sotelo.R
First Sergeant Balazova.S
Corporal Guillermo.C

Pros:

• Great turnout, with an Allied victory in the final 20 seconds
• Whole crew execution was on-POINT. Subjectively won the armor battle against a tough enemy tank crew, and was able to provide SBF for a very large majority of the match
• Effective adjustment of tactics and plans based on evolving battle

Cons:

• Map flips for the strongpoint KILL my mojo

 

[Lucas.A]

Element Callsign: Allied Easy Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Lucas.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Jay.JH
Specialist Ashie.L
Private First Class Vest.T

Pros:

• Squad worked well together and communicated well.
• Simple FTX concept that worked out really well.
• Teams felt balanced.
• Overall it was a lot of fun.

Cons:

• At times it was a meat grinder towards the end of the game.
• Felt one dimensional

 

[Avery.D]

Element Callsign: Allied G squad
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Avery.D
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Master Sergeant Becks.J
Specialist Durrant.J
Specialist Valente.M

Pros:

• The Half Track rush at the end was great
• Enveloping the enemy work best then trying to rush through a meat grinder
• We did a good job working through the flanks and getting set up
• Clearing our flanks and pushing

Cons:

• A lot of meat grinder at moments during the match
• Lots of open fields around the last point
• Small team of only 4 guys made it hard to push with little support

 

[Maxx.S]

Element Callsign: Allied B Squad
Element Leader: Private First Class Maxx.S
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
SPC.Svenson.C
SPC.Kugo.E
Cpl.O'Culien.M

Pros:

• Very well coordinated attacks on strongholds
• Nice communication throughout teams
• Great ideas in team, to push forward and make advances
• Great teamwork

Cons:

• Very difficult to make it to Hamburger Hill
• Sometimes coordination wasn't working between teams as enemy advancement was making it difficult
• Having to relay communication through Discord and in game with Squad was a little difficult but I will hotkey my Discord Mic, (easy fix)

 

[Webber.R]

Element Callsign: 6th Fallschirmjäger, Able Section
Element Leader: First Sergeant Webber.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Major Rollins.R
Corporal Munch.R
Corporal Reign.A RET

Pros:

• Great job crafting a gameplan beforehand and sticking with it. Had an excellent plan for a zone of garrisons surrounding Mont Halais and for the hour that we fought over it SLs were diligent in keeping them up when they went down. Kept us from being surrounded and enemies to gain a tactical foothold.
• Shout out to Allied troopers, it's never easy pushing into a fortified positions for extended periods of time, but you never lost spirit and in the last minute found an opening in the east and exploited it to great effect. Wonderful match!
• I love FTXs that highlight underused classes like Medic and (in this case) Engineer.
• Rollins spent 46 minutes uncontested in the second story of a house in our Sections AO doing his best Private Jackson impression.

Cons:

• Beat the odds multiple times on not getting Mont Halais
• Points that are close to the line should be given some leeway with AO restrictions to make battles a little more fluid.

 

[Martin.R]

Element Callsign: Allies Item Squad
Element Leader: Corporal.Martin.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Suplee.B
Specialist Loup.N
Private First Class Freeze.T
Private First Class Powers.K

Pros:

• Fun
• Liked team and squad play
• Well designed FTX

Cons:

• lackluster in building defenses on mid point
• Spent to much time at mid point building up defenses
• Took to long to cap Mont Halias

 

[Noriega.D]

Element Callsign: Axis Juliet Squad
Element Leader: Corporal Noriega.D
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Private First Class Warfield.G
Specialist Mulvany.J

Pros:

• Great Op a lot of fun.
• Our defense was phenomenal all around considering the restrictions and number imbalance. We punched them in the mouth.

Cons:

• Restricting defenders from pushing back on tanks & garrisons just over the line made it difficult on defenders and meant that these assets didn't need to be protected.
• A lot of Allies crossing open fields, with little or no smoke.
• Lack of buddy pairs in the south on the Allied side.
• Allies did little to flank during phase 1 and 2 in the very south.
• Consider opening AO during these phases. This would allow troopers to practice watching their rear flanks.
• Troopers are not learning anything when their FTX is heavily one sided in their favor and the their entire rear is protected. They still couldn't take the point until the last 20secs.

 

[Solo.H]

Element Callsign: Charlie Squad (Allies)
Element Leader: Sergeant Solo.H
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Private First Class Summer.R
Private Moff.N
Specialist Fabie.D
Specialist Delosreyes.D

Pros:

• Well balanced rule-set, resulted in a drawn out battle without a clear advantage for either side
• Good infantry and tank coordination
• Good use of smokes, grenades, and satchels to overcome enemy fortifications

Cons:

• Map flips just about cooked everyone's PC's and I crashed 3 times. Maybe consider using the built in feature added last update to choose the SP layout
• Feedback from my section was, maybe allow the cadre to perform more of a role that better utilizes their specialty, being forced to be the Main Attack Force (an important job) without variation just makes it a long meatgrinder
• Strafing run at the very beginning was a little unsportsmanlike given the extreme predictability of our starting position

 

[Noriega.D]

Name of Combat Mission: Operation Hamburger Hill
Campaign of Combat Mission: N/A
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: =7Cav= Training Server 1
Date of Combat Mission: 24SEP24
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 0100Z
Mission OIC: Major Cameron.J & Sergeant First Class Hermes.S
Mission Controllers: Major Cameron.J & First Sergeant Sven.S
Number of Attendees: 81

Major Cameron.J
Major Rollins.R
Captain Anderson.P
Sergeant Major Komar.T
First Sergeant Sven.S
First Sergeant Webber.R
First Sergeant Balazova.S
Second Lieutenant Sotelo.R
Second Lieutenant Swanson.B
Second Lieutenant Hazen.D
Second Lieutenant Macpherson.C
Sergeant First Class Hermes.S
Sergeant First Class Mueller.H
Staff Sergeant Cantrell.J
Staff Sergeant Rasmus.M
Staff Sergeant Silvis.B
Staff Sergeant Zulu.P
Sergeant Curran.J
Sergeant LaRoche.P
Sergeant Wisniewski.A
Corporal Baldrick.D
Corporal Slagg.J
Corporal Kona.B
Specialist Patterson.C
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Sanchez.R
Specialist Willis.B
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Lahti.R
Specialist Arkan.M
Specialist Ashie.L
Specialist Lemon.D
Private First Class Angels.N
Private First Class Grimshaw.J
Private First Class Barzon.J
Private First Class Pollock.R
Private First Class Rowe.S


Corporal Smith.N (RET)

My squad is not on here

 

[Zulu.P]

Element Callsign: Axis (Charlie Squad)
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Zulu.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Curran.J
Corporal Slagg.J
Private First Class Miller.L
Private First Class Plummer.M


Pros:
good communications.
good movement of troops when needed
Com's were clear most of the time.
Everyone had fun and enjoyed the meat grinder I feel it was a good experience for lot of the new guys to enjoy a well fought out match that is well organized compared to most blue berry matches on public servers.
For the numbers we had we did a great job overall and everyone should be proud


Cons:

This will always be longer because I believe explanations, rather than just one or two-word lines, are needed. This should not be taken negatively but should be something to take note or so we can all improve for the future.

Map flips delayed the start by about 20 minutes.

The final point restrictions were a bit too harsh. Not being able to cross a red line when the enemy garrison is placed directly on it was infuriating and unreasonable. We could have used Airborne to flank in the red zone—at least allow one squad to cross, no more.

A major issue I see is map awareness. We had fantastic markings, but only in the final 2-3 minutes of the match were there no markings. The rest of the game, the markings were updated and placed everywhere. However, with that said, you can have all the markings in the world, but if no one is reacting to them, they are just decorations on the map and clutter the UI.

On multiple occasions, we might be losing the point, and some squads wouldn't react until the final moments. On Point 4 and the final Mont point, this happened multiple times. For example, on the final point, there were enemy squads funneling between my squad and an external squad. The enemy was uncontested and even allowed to build an AT gun. After the fourth callout, we finally had a reaction, and they were eliminated. This is the reason the flank to our rear at Mont happened. We had marks and callouts, but lack of map awareness and failure to hear the callouts ultimately caused us to lose our grip.

We had defensive unit SLs in one channel while some other units were in a different channel. I think this broke the direct line of communication, as sometimes command comms weren’t heard.

We are all victims of complacency. When we were holding for a while, people checked out and stopped watching the map or listening to callouts.

Garrison building and reactions: We had squads on the outside of the final push in the last few minutes of the match, and I saw them funneling in one by one into the point. We could have used garrison building to allow us to split-push back into the point, but this option wasn’t taken. All it takes is two people and the will to build.

 

[Bell.T]

Element Callsign: Axis Kilo Squad (Recon)
Element Leader: Specialist Bell.T
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Private First Class Duffy.C

Pros:

• Great Op had a lot of fun.
• Our defense was phenomenal all around considering the restrictions
• With the number imbalance, we did an amazing job defending the Allied advances.

Cons:

• Map flips delayed the start by about 20 minutes
• Restrictive AO ruleset was very limiting to defenders
• Command chat became very passionate at times resulting in cluttered communication

 

[Swanson.B]

Element Callsign: Axis Fox Squad
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Swanson.B
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Barnes.D

Pros:

• 2 man squad here, Barnes and I had fun. Nothing negative to say about the game itself.
• We followed the plan and succeeded in our position, destroying many backline garrisons and OP
• Restrictions on AO and arty was tough for Axis but apparently well balanced since the objective was accomplished at last 2 minutes and we were down 6 man all game long.

Cons:

• No Cons

 

[Anderson.P]

Element Callsign: 2nd Platoon Command Squad
Element Leader: Captain Anderson.P
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Major Komar.T

Pros:

• Great turnout
• Lots of good fun
• Clean Comms
• Cadre performed perfectly! A very tough battle on their end but they took the challenges in step and gave us a darn good fight

Cons:

• Map flips delayed the start by about 20 minutes
• Map restrictions were a little conflicted
• Command structure did not plan/articulate roles ahead of time well enough.

 

[Anderson.P]

My squad is not on here

Still WIP.

 

[Mueller.H]

Element Callsign: Allies HOW Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant First Class Mueller.H
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Narayanaswamy.A
Specialist Lahti.R
Specialist Parton.D
Private First Class Rowe.S

Pros:

• Restrictions for defender were great, making it more challenging for them to capitalize on their defensive advantage — an issue observed during last month's Operation Bloody Gulch.
• You couldn't have asked for a more formidable and challenging opponent. Such FTX clearly highlight areas where improvement is needed.
• After countless deaths in the meat grinder, I felt like I was banging my head against the wall, but those small victories made it a fun FTX.
• It should be investigated whether the Allied armor team utilized prohibited software, such as aimbots or wallhacks.

Neutral:

• Two troopers left my squad during the Hamburger Hill engagement due to the relentless and seemingly impenetrable meat grinder we faced. While this was a challenge, it also provided an opportunity to reassess the map, analyze strategic options, and implement a more effective approach. After successfully reorganizing our tactics, both troopers rejoined, and we went on to dominate the battlefield.

Cons:

• Allies did not perform at their best or defenders were exceptionally strong, which led Allies to maintain a constant offensive stance throughout the match. As a result, the defenders (Axis) felt as though they had lost the match because of the capture near the end. Given the inherent advantages attackers have, capturing the points should not have taken this long. If I repeat this scenario in S3, I will implement a point system: Defenders will start with capture points (X) per first two captures and gain additional defending points (Y) after holding the current strongpoint for a defined number of minutes. Since defenders are at a disadvantage, Y > X. For example, with X = 1 and Y = 2 per 10 minutes, the final score would have been 21 to 3 in favor of the Axis forces.
  In an optimal scenario, both teams would have defended up to their own HQ and attacked up to the enemy HQ.
• The Allies fell back into their old pattern of not taking full advantage and voluntarily putting themselves in the meat grinder.
• No one willingly chooses to attack Hamburger Hill, and the gods of HLL seemed to understand this, necessitating numerous map flips to spare us from that fate.

Map view from Allies perspective. Around every 30 sec for a few seconds.