AAR AAR Charlie Company 2-7 FTX: Operation Woodwork

[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 Woodwork 02FEB25 (Sunday) 2100 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: 02FEB25
Time of Combat Mission: 2100PM EST - 2300 PM EST
​

Mission OIC: Second Lieutenant Leifried.R
Mission Controllers: Second Lieutenant Leifried.R & First Sergeant Balazova.S
Number of Attendees: 77
7th Cavalry Personnel Involved in Action:
Colonel Hayes.J
Lieutenant Colonel Strider.R
Major Cameron.J
Captain Anderson.P
First Lieutenant Rhodes.R
Second Lieutenant Leifried.R
Second Lieutenant Sotelo.R
Sergeant Major Komar.T
First Sergeant Balazova.S
First Sergeant Rasmus.M
Master Sergeant Mueller.H
Sergeant First Class Busch.J
Staff Sergeant Button.J
Staff Sergeant Landry.G
Staff Sergeant Lucas.A
Sergeant Bean.P
Sergeant Beauchamp.R
Sergeant Etoh.I
Sergeant Noriega.D
Sergeant Solo.H
Corporal Ackelson.K
Corporal Baldrick.D
Corporal Bazzle.J
Corporal Cantrell.J
Corporal Coutu.M
Corporal Ellison.C
Corporal Finch.A
Corporal Guillermo.C
Corporal Jinto.H
Corporal Kent.R
Corporal Mair.B
Corporal Moreau.M
Corporal Owens.J
Corporal Slagg.J
Corporal Wags.D
Corporal Warren.G
Corporal Williamson.J
Specialist Alaniva.A
Specialist Bjorn.K
Specialist Borek.T
Specialist Caldreas.B
Specialist Choi.S
Specialist Delosreyes.D
Specialist Fabie.D
Specialist Freeze.T
Specialist Heinz.B
Specialist James.M
Specialist Jat.R
Specialist Jebediah.S
Specialist Johnston.J
Specialist Lewis.P
Specialist Miller.L
Specialist Narayanaswamy.A
Specialist Palmer.N
Specialist Rose.MJ
Specialist Rowe.S
Specialist Watters.W
Specialist Williamson.JR
Specialist Winter.A
Specialist Woody.W
Private First Class Bravo.J
Private First Class Carrasco.J
Private First Class Darko.M
Private First Class Dupree.N
Private First Class Flick.J
Private First Class Koalafied.C
Private First Class Payne.J
Private Baker.M
Private Baktash.L
Private Frost.Y
Private Grey.W
Private Houser.Q
Private Keenan.S
Private Kent.S
Recruit Celestial.L
Recruit Darabi.B
Specialist Rousseau.A Retired

 

[Bean.P]

Section: King Squad on Axis
Section Leader: Sgt.Bean
Personal In section:
PVT.Frost.Y
SPC.James.M
RCT.Celestial.L

Pros:
Guys liked the Operation! Great job to these guys when it comes to working together. Several times they walked into the fourth point. A lot of thought went into this and it shows! Great work!


Cons: Great concept. Many rules. Hurt Brain. Just Kidding once the rules were understood, it made sense.
Maybe a different map would be better!

 

[Sotelo.R]

Element Callsign: Allied Lead Tank Commander - "Cheap and Easy"
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Sotelo.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant Sotelo.R
Specialist Winter.A
Private First Class Koalafied.C

Pros:

• Koala and Winter were absolute chad crewmen tonight. Great skill, good execution of tasks, really proud moment as TC
• Armor platoon as a whole was stellar. We rolled out a simple gameplan, stuck to it, handled the scenarios that we predicted as best as we could. Fellow TC's were doing a great job flexing to different areas as needed.
• From our perspective, our SBF performance was some of the best to date.
• Infantry's callouts were huge, really good job with keeping armor updated on anything they saw.
• I appreciate Rhode's holding armor accountable on supporting infantry and then backing off when we alerted of our inability to respond in the moments that came up.
• Also show out to Infantry's use of AT guns in the opening period of the op. Really alleviated the pressure of executing counter-armor when our tanks were consistently outmatched.

Cons:

• Command comms got a a bit hectic at times, but that's a small gripe. This was a really good match for our side.

 

[Cameron.J]

Element Callsign: Allies Able Squad
Element Leader: Major Cameron.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Major Cameron.J
Master Sergeant Mueller.H
Corporal Cantrell.J
Specialist Rowe.S


Pros:

• Detailed OPORDs
• Competitive fight until the end
• Squad members had a great time

Cons:

• Complex rule set that took away from game play at times
• Comms
• Badly placed AT Guns

 

[Guillermo.C]

Element Callsign: Allied Tank "Gas Monster"
Element Leader: CPL.Guillermo.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Ackelson.K
Specialist Choi.S
Pros:

• Really fun FTX, restrictions were balanced
• Allied Tank Platoon worked cohesively with a Game plan
• Infantry correctly and constantly called out enemy movements, tanks, AT guns
• My crew had a lot of fun

Cons:
Restrictions were complex when explained, maybe better and easier wording/ easier display of the restrictions
Need more people to show up for C co FTX!

 

[Woody.W]

Element Callsign: allied recon
Element Leader: Specialist Woody.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
First Sergeant Rasmus.M

Pros:

• good coms and good map cleaning
• 18 Garry's destroyed between us 2
• good concept just need some changes
• my sniper and i just spread out and controlled the hole rear end by running around

Cons:
- we controlled the 4 grid zone were they can only build Garry's and it made it easy to find Garry's
- playing on a laptop is hard lol...
- defending the point i went to hill 15 twice and started to cap so i stayed to distract and i would be killed by players coming from outside the grid square
-watch your Garry's
-i did lose my op once but we had so many Garry's i just ran back pretty easily



suggestions
-limit players attacking in red zone
-maby limit recon just to spot and the sniper to kill.. i like Garry hunting with Rasmus but leaving destroying Garry's to infantry and tanks may make it interesting
-some one said no ops 4 recon... it could be interesting. it would teach recon how to fall back when destroying stuff or take your time and time spawns when attacking spawns

 

[Moreau.M]

Element Callsign: Allied MG Squad
Element Leader: Corporal Moreau.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Private First Class Flick.J


Pros:

• interesting restrictions make you approach a bit different

Cons:

• I had only one person in my squad, more would make the defending a bit smoother
• defending with MG became a bit boring after a while

 

[Von Busch.M]

Element Callsign: Allies TC (Goodwrench)
Element Leader: Corporal Von Busch.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Von Busch.M
Corporal Jinto.H
Specialist Borek.T
Pros:

• Stuart simulator
• Good comms between command, infantry, and other tanks
• Great tank callouts
• Loved infantry yelling at me to get my attention
• Team holding tanks accountable

Cons:

• Lots of trees and rocks
• Multiple people would talk over eachother to report the same thing in command comms sometimes
• Too many rules

 

[Rhodes.R]

Element Callsign: Infantry PL, Allies
Element Leader: First Lieutenant Rhodes.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
First Lieutenant Rhodes.R

Solids

• Great defense squads, King (Bean) and Dog (Ellison). Very disciplined.
• We planned rapidly before the Rally and it paid off.
• Garrisons, AT guns, and all things that needed to get set up were set up within 10 minutes of phase start. By the time Phase 1 began we were all ready to go.
• Very strong tank, infantry coordination (Thank you, Sotelo)
• Great tank callouts from infantry SLs.
• Tanks provided excellent SBF to the point throughout the operation, especially when asked for, which is huuuuge.
• Command was constantly dropping supplies and helping rebuild garrisons, likewise having a dedicated Logi driver building garrisons was a huge boon to the team. Should Truck Driver be official role from now on?
• Strong backline defenses run by Cameron and Moreau.
• Command chat was productive.

Improvements

• Reinforce needs to be removed from the operation. Only used it twice, but it has huge potential to be abused.
• Map choice, strongpoints, and ruleset created a nasty triple bind that made attacking practically impossible.
• Command staff need to be warned if they are commanding beforehand, pleeeease. I nearly had a heart attack.
• Command chat was a bit hectic.
• AT guns ended up being only liminially useful, handful of kills.
• Axis should have used artillery constantly.
• Halftracks were underutilized on both sides.

 

[Lucas.A]

Element Callsign: Allies Fox Squad
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Lucas.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Lewis.P
Specialist Rousseau.A RET


Pros:

• Squad had a good time we were able to destroy 4 tanks
• Great call outs and were able to keep garrys up and rebuild when destroyed

Cons:

• FTX was complicated and with a lot of rules and restrictions
• Command Comms were hectic
• Spent a lot of time running around along with class restrictions limited fun for some.

 

[Ellison.C]

Element Callsign: Dog Squad on Allies
Element Leader: Corporal Ellison.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Miller.L
Private First Class Darko.M
Private Baker.M
Private First Class Payne.J

Pros:
My guys thoroughly enjoyed this operation. Opord was very clean, and the operation was structured very well. Great job C co on putting this together!

Cons:
Tough map for Axis.

 

[Solo.H]

Section: King Squad on Axis
Section Leader:Sergeant Solo.H
Personal In section:
Specialist Palmer.N
Specialist Bjorn.K
Specialist Jat.R

Pros:

1. good moments where my squad was concentrated and together on an attack mission
2. tried to utilize trucks to flank the enemy
3. i do really appreciate the class restrictions for historical authenticity and flavor

Cons:

1. Explicitly disallow the reinforce commander ability
2. we were allowed artillery but it was never used
3. disallow Recon squads entirely or restrict their OP privileges like everyone else
4. somewhat felt like i didn't have the jurisdiction to coordinate with the tanks

 

[Baldrick.D]

Section: Baker Squad on Axis
Section Leader:CPL.Baldrick.D
Personal In section:
CPL.Finch.A
PVT.Houser.Q
SPC.Freeze.T
SPC.Alaniva.A



Pros:
Turkey shoot for Allies team.
Cons: No OP's made it impossible to defend tanks, and attack the center point.

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[Caldreas.B]

Section: Love Squad on Axis
Section Leader: Specialist Caldreas.B
Personel in section
Corporal Wags.D
Private First Class Carrasco.J

Pros:
Had fun and enjoyed the operation, Opord was clean and clear

Cons:
Allies sided map, lack of tank to infantry comms

 

[Slagg.J]

Section: Baker Squad AT-1 on Allies
Section Leader: CPL.Slagg.J
Personnel In section:
Specialist Fabie.D
Specialist Delosreyes.D

Pros:
Very Enjoyable FTX, liked the restrictions and the challenges they brought.
Fixed squad layouts made for an interesting dynamic.
Effective support from armour, AT guns and MG units was critical to stemming the enemy pushes.

Cons:
Command chat whilst effective was very hectic and made communication with my squad challenging a lot of the time, hard to pick up callouts and spots from my troops quite often leading to delayed marking of enemy locations etc.
The map is not great for axis in its layout sometimes.
As usual server hit reg was problematic to say the least and detracted from my overall enjoyment at times.

 

[Williamson.J]

Element Callsign: Axis Tank "J Time"
Element Leader: CPL.Williamson.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
SPC.Williamson.JR
SPC.Jebediah.S
Pros:

• Good game concept and ruleset
• Axis tanks worked well together
• good crew cohesion and attitude under tough conditions
• My crew had a lot of fun

Cons:
Coord with infantry lacking
Enemy AT squads seemed to roam our lines with impunity

Thanks to Balazova and Leifried for putting this FTX together

 

[Owens.J]

Element Callsign: Axis - MG Team
Element Leader: Corporal Owens.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Noriega.D
Private Keenan.S

Pros:

• Lots of tanks, dont often get to work with so many.
• Intense firefights, little down time. A plus from an infantry player.
• Unique parameters, keeps things intresting.

Cons:

• Tough map especially with fixing firing lines being easy. Never made much progress.
• Adding/removing restrictions or additional assets for the team falling too far behind can breathe life to the Op for players feeling done with the mission, late in the game.

 

[Narayanaswamy.A]

Element Callsign: AT Squad 1
Element Leader: Specialist Narayanaswamy.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Warren.G
Sergeant Bachelder.A
Pros:

• Were able to destroy/assist on two or three tanks kills with AT gun
• Communication was good. Tank positions were consistently called out

Cons:

• Once the AT gun firing position was lost, unable to retake it or go after tanks with no OPs or infantry assistance
• Complex ruleset led to confusion and many rule breaking events (i.e. placing garrisons inside 4-grid, multiple bombing runs)
  • Could be alleviated by having a few people thoroughly briefed on rules and have them in charge of plans or have them monitoring each side
• No defense on the attacking garrisons leading them to be virtually unavailable by mid match and pushed back an entire column by the end of the match
• No flank defense in the north/northeast, allowing infantry to freely take attacking garrisons on blue side and making it impossible to set up AT in the advantageous positions in G6 or G5
• Rule keeping non-recon outside of C-D grid lines make it impossible to do anything about Allies' advantageous position on the hill across the river
• Underutilization of half-tracks. We never saw one on the map. With garrisons disallowed in the 4-grid, this was absolutely necessary to have any forward spawn options
• Underutilization of smoke concealment. Absolutely necessary in any infantry advance.
• Airheads were used in very predictable and exposed positions

 

[Etoh.I]

Element Callsign: Allied Uber Etoh (Driver)
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Etoh.I

Pros:

• Fun Concept
• Always a fan of Realism Attempts
• Excellent armor/infantry coordination
• Dedicated Supply Driver and Garrison Upkeep element allowed command and other elements to focus on the task in front instead of being distracted by what was behind
• Backup supplies littered throughout the entire map made certain that the network of garrisons wouldn't fall
• Would love to see this concept played on more evenly balanced maps (flatter geography)
• Very thorough OPORD communicated expectations, phases, and limitations well

Cons:

• Tough to encourage further point captures with a score per minute system. Especially when the very real risk of losing all momentum (no OP's) is so present
• Axis was sky-lined all day trying to crest the hill
• Was very excited to see troop transports utilized mid game with spawn point restrictions but the map wasn't conducive to it
• I personally dislike wide sweeping Area Restrictions for Infantry and Armor in operations. Often the idea behind them is for game balance but more often than not they just result in the losing side losing harder and limit realistic movement options. If they are going to exist Recon should not be given a free pass.
• Continuing on that thought I believe that Nodes should be valid targets. Yes it's annoying to lose them, it's part of the game and part of the resource war.
• I personally broke a restriction by building a garrison 15 meters across the line into the 4 grid of a hardpoint (it wasn't spawned and only existed for a 1.5 minutes though)
• I misidentified P4s as Tigers because I saw stripes (my bad, apologies tankers)
• I understand the idea of class restrictions for historic accuracy (and love it). However I think allowing Wrench Engineer in more elements (and not just classifying Engineer as Anti Tank adjacent) could have resulted in a more satisfying performance for both teams. I wanted to see more Infantry/Armor cohesion eg. Repair Stations and Fortifications in Hull Down positions and active Armor Upkeep during advances

 

[Button.J]

Element Callsign: Axis Lead Tank Commander - "Swamp Thing"
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Button.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Staff Sergeant Button.J
Specialist Johnston.J
Specialist Borek.T

Pros:

• Great inner squad communication and cooperation.
• Good work between tank squads backing each other up

Cons:

• No cohesion with infantry
• No real direction within in the match. Felt like a free for all.