AAR AAR Charlie Company 2-7 FTX: Operation Lightfoot 01DEC24 1900 EST

[Balazova.S]

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

Name of Combat Mission: Charlie Company 2-7 FTX: Operation Lightfoot 01DEC24 1900 EST
Campaign of Combat Mission: N/A
Number within campaign: N/A
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: Training Server 1
Date of Combat Mission: 01DEC24
Time of Combat Mission: 1900PM EST - 2100 PM EST
​

Mission OIC: Major Strider.R
Mission Controllers: Major Strider.R & First Sergeant Balazova.S
Number of Attendees: 88
7th Cavalry Personnel Involved in Action:
Colonel Budd.D
Major Mix.C
Major Strider.R
Captain Anderson.P
First Lieutenant Korfias.F
Second Lieutenant Carmine.J
Second Lieutenant Leifried.R
Second Lieutenant Macpherson.C
Second Lieutenant Sotelo.R
Second Lieutenant Swanson.B
Sergeant Major Komar.T
First Sergeant Balazova.S
Sergeant First Class Hermes.S
Sergeant First Class Mueller.H
Staff Sergeant Busch.J
Staff Sergeant Button.J
Staff Sergeant Herber.R
Staff Sergeant Landry.G
Staff Sergeant Rasmus.M
Staff Sergeant Silvis.B
Staff Sergeant Zulu.P
Sergeant Bean.P
Sergeant Berkowski.C
Sergeant Curran.J
Sergeant Lee.N
Sergeant Solo.H
Sergeant White.C
Sergeant Wisniewski.A
Corporal Alpine.A
Corporal Ackelson.K
Corporal Anderson.J
Corporal Baldrick.D
Corporal Bazzle.J
Corporal Feathers.A
Corporal Hood.D
Corporal Jinto.H
Corporal Maca.D
Corporal McGee.C
Corporal Noriega.D
Corporal O'Culien.M
Corporal Owens.J
Corporal Slagg.J
Corporal Wagner.D
Corporal Williamson.J
Specialist Aly.M
Specialist Baker.JB
Specialist Barnes.D
Specialist Caldreas.B
Specialist Donk.B
Specialist Dupell.G
Specialist Ellison.C
Specialist Fabie.D
Specialist Gimson.M
Specialist Griffin.B
Specialist Hawthorne.S
Specialist Justin.V
Specialist Leaf.J
Specialist Lewis.P
Specialist Mair.B
Specialist Mason.P
Specialist Mulvany.J
Specialist Parton.D
Specialist Plummer.M
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Smith.DS
Specialist Warfield.T
Specialist Williamson.JR
Private First Class Borek.T
Private First Class Bowman.D
Private First Class Duffy.C
Private First Class Grimshaw.J
Private First Class Jebediah.S
Private First Class Moff.N
Private First Class Pollock.R
Private First Class Shred.C
Private First Class Summer.R
Private First Class Warfield.G
Private First Class Yee.L
Private First Class Zincoff.R
Private Bravo.J
Private Dupree.N
Private Williams.JB
Recruit Lynch.J
Recruit Perez.T
Second Lieutenant D'Amico.J Retired
Corporal Smith.N Retired
Specialist Hampton.D Retired

 

[Lee.N]

Element Callsign: TC Axis, Callsign "Rocinante"
Element Leader: Sergeant Lee.N
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Captain Anderson.P
Sergeant Lee.N
Sergeant Berkowski.C


Pros:

• GREAT coordination within our platoon!
• We played 4d chess
• Our tank crew did fantastic throughout, comms and strategy wise
• Actually had fun on El Alamein

Cons:

• The split comms for tanks are chaotic. They don't work that great and cause lots of frustration between the tank crews; Button was coordinating us and him, but he couldn't do any coordination with the other two tanks since it was a game of telephone.
  • Discord-platoon comms work for Command-PL1-PL2-TCs. A-Co has done this with comms before for FTXs; it works well. We've also used it for comp matches, it works well for them.
• Many times it took our PL 4-5 times to ask for a vehicle from command.
• Would be nice to see heavy tanks/more medium tanks in a C-Co FTX as we are half tankers

 

[Leifried.R]

Element Callsign: 1st Platoon Lead - Axis
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Leifried.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Bazzle.J
Sergeant First Class Hermes.S
Specialist Mulvany.J
Private First Class Grimshaw.J
Corporal Wagner.D
Staff Sergeant Button.J
Sergeant Lee.N

Pros:

• Being 1st Platoon lead here was damn awesome. Like moving chess pieces around a board. Big shoutout to Grimshaw.J, Wagner.D, Mulvany.J as new-er troopers for stepping right in-line with what we were trying to do.
• The trooper-specific role specialization pairs excellently with the platoon structure in place for C-Co Operations
• Communication structure was setup well, wasn't followed the whole time - but - when followed worked very well
• Overall pro-activeness from my troopers was top-tier. Allowed me to think on a larger scale and not micro-manage

Cons:

• Zova's hearing/comprehension

 

[Budd.D]

Element Callsign: TC Axix
Element Leader: Colonel Budd.D
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Colonel Budd.D
Specialist Dupell.G
Private First Class Bowman.D

Pros:

• Fun conept
• Good win

Cons:

• Cluttered comms
• Not the best direction

 

[Wagner.D]

Element Callsign: Axis 1st Platoon AT Squad 1
Element Leader: Corporal Wagner.D
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Donk.B
Specialist Griffin.B

Pros:
Good job as AT Squad. Primarily AT Gun. Ability to move and redeploy on Command notice to reangle attack.

Cons:
Massive map, but good for AT and tanks.

 

[Button.J]

Element Callsign: Axis Lead Tank 1st Platoon "Swamp Thing"
"Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Button.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Justin.V
Private First Class Borek.T

Pros:

• Great Tank battles with great tankers
• Excellent crew coordination
• Loved playing on a mostly open map
• Crew enjoyed the minimal satchels made the game feel playable again

Cons:

• Comms restrictions were muddled at best. Need to tighten and reinforce rules.
• The Luchs always will be terrible.

 

[Bazzle.J]

Element Callsign: Infantry Squad 1A - Axis
Element Leader: CPL.Bazzle.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
CPL.Bazzle.J
CPL.Alpine.A
SPC.Baker.JB
SPC.Leaf.J
PFC.Moff.N
PVT.Bravo.J


Pros:

• Good teamwork within the squad
• Not as many machineguns
• Lots of tank action

Cons:

• No OPs made it harder to keep the unit intact
• Not much infantry could do against vehicles

 

[Mulvany.J]

Element Callsign: Axis MG Squad 1
Element Leader: SPC.Mulvany.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
SGT.White.C
PFC.Yee.L

Pros:

• Good match

Cons:

• N/A

 

[Grimshaw.J]

Element Callsign: Axis Squad Leader
Element Leader SPC Grimshaw. J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

First Lieutenant Korfias.F Specialist Fabie.D

Pros:

• Lots of fun.
• Great squad communication
• good intersquad coordination

Cons:

. Convoluted command communication
. No OPs too restrictive.
. Classes being locked to restrictive.

 

[Sotelo.R]

Element Callsign: Allied TC - "Cheap and Easy"
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Sotelo.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant Sotelo.R
Corporal Ackelson.K
Specialist Caldreas.B

Pros:

• Crew got into some rough situations, but fighting our way out of it through superb execution of skills gave proud moments
• Armor gunfights at range was impressive and amazing fun
• Good fighting by the allied team, regardless of the outcome
• Went 5 and 0 at one point within the match

Cons:

• With a armor platoon compromised of 2 highly experienced tank crews and 2 inexperienced tank crews, the need to maintain armor cohesion is multiplied. Allied tank crews had issues staying cohesive against much more cohesive enemy armor.
  • With that, because the armor crews were split into two different platoons, the experienced crews had to direct the other crews via command comms to organize, congesting the already high-traffic channel.
• All tank leadership, regardless of number of assets, need to stay in their own unit/channel. Infantry Leads deals with infantry, Tank Leads deal with tanks, Leads use command comms with Team Commander who deals with all.

I will push that going forward, armor should be seen as its OWN platoon in parallel with infantry platoons, and never under an Infantry Platoon Lead, regardless of number of assets.

 

[Noriega.D]

Element Callsign: SL November squad Axis
Element Leader: Corporal Noriega.D
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Mason.P
Private First Class Warfield.G
Recruit Lynch.J


Pros:

• Fun concept
• Great in squad comms and movement
• Troopers had a great time

Cons:

• A little disorienting in the beginning when plugging gaps in the defense
• The Discord..platoon level comms etc was not very effective.
• Allies seemed to be more worried about getting a kill or 2 then actually playing the objective.

 

[Landry.G]

Element Callsign: 1st Platoon Lead - Allies
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Landry.G
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
SGT.Solo.H
SSG.Silvis.B
CPL.Feathers.A
CPL.Owens.J
CPL.Smith.N RET
2LT.Sotelo.R
SSG.Busch.J

Pros:

• Very fun concept
• Team showed great maneuver
• Combined arms coordination is getting better
• Comms plan would have worked excellent had it been followed

Cons:

• Having no OP's
• Comms very cluttered due to SL's also using command comms when they should have bee using Discord
• Should have been stated in the OPORD for SL's to deafen their command comms in game. It was implied but not specifically said

I edited this because I knew there was something with the comms I couldn't put my finger on last night. Then I was thinking of something I heard in the hotwash, reread the OPORD, and slept on it. This morning it dawned on me.

 

[Von Busch.M]

Element Callsign: TC Axis
Element Leader: Specialist Von Busch.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Von Busch.M
Corporal Anderson.J
Corporal Jinto.H


Pros:

• Tank crew had all the fun
• Good comms from tank crew up to platoon
• Crew did exceptional work for being in a recon tank for most of the game
• We never waited too long to get in combat against enemy tanks or infantry
• Sergeant Bean.P did an excellent job on communicating on the platoons half
• Sergeant Bean.P also didn't hesitate to call out tanks when they were out of position or had no communication.

Cons:

• Would like to have seen more tankers

 

[Owens.J]

Element Callsign: Allies - PLT1/AT Squad 1
Element Leader: Corporal Owens.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Mcgee.C
Private First Class Summer.R

Pros:

• Specialized roles was new(at least to me) Able to focus on specific goals.
• Good tank and infantry action, not always the case
• Good turnout
• Pretty balanced parameters, would look to trying different things with map and team considerations(some bonuses to teams losing by a large margin, areas with overly off/def disadvantages etc) Otherwise was a good time despite no OPs being the toughest challenge

Cons:

• Comms issues, nothing new but while there were more squads(due to increased roles) this suffered a bit.
• Map had lots of dead space considering OPs were off limits, led to many solo infantry taking up spots like recon would
• Chaotic at times, loss of team integrity. I believe we got complacent some moments, almost had the point a few times, and other areas would go down.

 

[Hood.D]

Element Callsign: 2nd Platoon Lead - Allies
"Element Leader: Corporal Hood.D
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
CPL.O'Culien.M
SPC.Gimson.M
PFC.Shred.C
SSG.Rasmus.M
SGT.Wisniewski.A
SPC.Quake.B
2LT.Carmine.J
SPC.Warfield.T
SPC.Barnes.D
PFC Pollock R
PFC.Jebediah.S
SPC.Hawthorne.S
PFC.Duffy.C
SFC.Mueller.H
CPL.Baldrick.D

Pros:
-Callouts were excellent, identified enemy threats and their offensive vectors.
-From what I can tell, local comms were well coordinated and when I had comm issues (see Con), they stepped in to make appropriate callouts.

Cons:
-Unnecessary commentary in command chatter
-Lack of designated artillery man required pulling a volunteer from often undermanned and/or heavily pressured infantry units that needed small-arms support vs fires that bombard objectives not pertinent to that SL missing their gunner.
-The Platoon Leader role needs more fleshing out in practices if it's gonna be used going forward for operations. In theory it could help the Commander from filtering out noise, but in practice it's iffy because it seems quicker for SLs to ask Commander for callouts instead of a game of telephone. Also breaks down if the PL has their own comms issues (I had electronic interference on my gaming headset that made comms inaudible and I lost connection at one point in the operation); one singular point of failure versus it being mitigated with other SLs being able to talk to the Commander.

 

[Wisniewski.A]

Element Callsign: 2nd Platoon Allies - AT squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Wisniewski.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Quake.B
Second Lieutenant Carmine.J

Pros:

• Squad did great, we were punching well above our weight as a 3-man squad

Cons:

• While understanding the focus on tank on tank action, the class restrictions & OP restrictions made it difficult to do our job. we often had a runway between where we needed to be and where we could spawn, leading to a rather painful loop of spawning, running for a long time, and then getting shot from 300m. allowing different loadouts while restricting classes that have satchels might have been more beneficial from an infantry standpoint. Allowing for OPs could have solved that problem as well

 

[OCulien.M]

Element Callsign: 2nd Platoon, Inf Squad 2A, call sign Lima
Element Leader: Corporal OCulien.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Gimson.M
Private First Class Shred.C
Staff Sergeant Rasmus.M

Pros:

• Great creativity for the OP. Love to see it.
• Squad composition was nicely done for the role play sense of a WWII shooter.

Cons:

• Command comms were too hectic. Tankers need to learn to not dominate comms with a constant stream of super tank-only specific information.
• Squad composition was hampered by restrictions used for the role play effort. (Hard to balance the role-play / video-game aspects of this shooter).
• No specific game plan seemed present. Just "go there and fight".
• Squads acting in defense of point would just leave allowing a flanking enemy to just walk back into the point over and over again.
• No OP on this map doesn't work unless you're a tanker.
• With a limited INF squad (down a man from the jump) we had a man taken to run arty so we were a 3 man (1 as medic) trying to hold Airfield.
• Axis Recon didn't seem to follow the rules of engagement for last 2 columns. Was killed multiple times from recon shooting from our I & J columns into the H column.

All that said, you guys put a ton of effort into this one and it's greatly appreciated. Thank you for having this B Co. airborne grump in your OP.

 

[Warfield.T]

Element Callsign: allies George - ghost
Element Leader: Sergeant Lee.N
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Warfield.T - spotter
Specialist Barnes.D - sniper
Pros ---
was able to get in behind and take down a lot of garrisons.
Had good pings on enemy positions garrisons tanks and half tracks
restrictions on classes super realistic was cool to see
SPC.Barnes.D was awesome at spotting enemies garrisons supplies and trucks multiple times
Cons ---
Poor comms (lots of congestion in the channels) need a tank com channel in the discord IMO
lack of decisiveness the match.
restrictions on op's was pretty negative to offensive INF IMO they are crucial to taking points from flanking positions and or being able to do a hot switch on supplies for garrison setup behind the point incognito without the use of a airdrop.
restrictions on class's made it hard for things like AT and supplies to be in a good spot to be useful when needed.

 

[DAmico.J]

Element Callsign: SL, 2nd platoon AT
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant DAmico.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant Swanson.B
Specialist Parton.D

Pros:

• Good turnout for the FTX. Always nice to see you guys succeeding in drawing interest towards the OPs.
• It was fun overall, and the squad had fun too which is really the most important thing.

Cons:

• Comms in the beginning were just plain awful. After the briefing and then during the first 15-30 min of the operation, I wanted to rip my ears off. I could hardly hear myself think or understand what was happening. Trying to coordinate my squad was a nightmare until I finally just muted discord for 30 seconds so I could tell them what to do.
• If comms are going to be split between discord and the game, then everyone needs to do it. I could tell some people were using in-game command chat and others weren't, which eliminates the point entirely. There needs to be more explanation of the breakdown for comms.
• Lack of OPs heavily favors defenders.

 

[Solo.H]

Element Callsign: TC Axis, Callsign "Rocinante"
Element Leader: Sergeant Solo.H
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Private First Class Zincoff.R
Specialist Smith.DS
Private First Class Summer.R
Specialist Aly.M
Recruit Perez.T

Pros:

• Excellent squad cohesion, there were multiple times we had to group up together before moving out and then we managed to stick together as a toe hold in the enemy strong point and it was great to just see how well the squad was able to stick together at times.
• I personally really liked the limitations on the roles and organization to mimic a tighter historical realism than the game typically allows
  • for example, there's an emphasis on the SL providing firepower by being one of few with an automatic weapon in the squad
  • 
    
  • maybe have a greater focus on larger squads in the future
• I also liked the concept of a "one life"-lite focus for the infantry, there's some potential where engagements are more decisiveness because of a lack of sustainment

Cons:

• Garrison placement heavily favored the defender, because they could place a garrison closer to the SP than the attackers and therefore have better sustainment, whereas attackers basically had none
  • suggestion: limit garrison placement so none can be within any strongpoint 4-grid (400x400m square around all strongpoints)
• No top down leadership for the allies, command comms system in discord put in place but was basically not used, relied only on ingame command comms
• Recon/sniper being allowed OPs was a huge pain, as well as the insane lethital while basically being immune at range
  • snipers should not be allowed in onelife-esque ops