AAR Able Company 2-7 FTX - Operation Neptune's Shadow - 26OCT25

[Macpherson.C]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
Name of Combat Mission: Aco FTX - Operation Neptune's Shadow
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: Training Server 1
Date of Combat Mission: 26OCT25
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 2345Z
Mission OIC: Captain Korfias.F
Mission Controller: Captain Korfias.F, First Lieutenant Macpherson.C & First Sergeant Herber.R

​

Had Server Issues, no CRCON stats available, Allies won
Number of Attendees: 90
7th Cavalry Personnel Involved in Action:

Captain Korfias.F
First Lieutenant Macpherson.C
First Sergeant Herber.R
Sergeant Major Komar.T
First Sergeant Herber.R
First Sergeant Mueller.H
First Sergeant Webber.R - Retired
First Sergeant White.C
Staff Sergeant Silvis.B
Sergeant First Class Wisniewski.A
Sergeant Ackelson.K - Reserves
Sergeant Angels.N
Sergeant Ashie.L
Sergeant Felton.J
Sergeant Maca.D
Sergeant Patterson.C
Sergeant Plummer.M
Corporal Wagner.D
Corporal Barnes.D
Corporal Bazzle.J
Corporal Becker.J
Corporal Donk.B
Corporal Ellison.C
Corporal Feathers.A
Corporal Flick.J
Corporal Harris.W
Corporal Heller.T
Corporal Jinto.H
Corporal Koalafied.C
Corporal Lewis.P
Corporal Mair.B
Corporal Matthews.A
Corporal Payne.J
Corporal Pollock.R
Corporal Rhamaad.K
Corporal Sibley.K
Corporal Slagg.J
Corporal Smallbeck.E
Corporal Smith.N - Retired
Corporal Tilley.B
Sergeant Williams.JB
Specialist Andrew.A
Corporal Arnold.W
Specialist Austin.M
Specialist Belanger.C
Specialist Blade.B
Specialist Bonderant.F
Specialist Cotton.R
Specialist Daver.R
Specialist Davis.O
Specialist Doss.R
Specialist Fenrir.J
Specialist Gimson.M
Corporal Hellious.T
Specialist Hermes.S
Specialist Jat.R
Specialist Jefferzon.Z
Specialist McDonald.N
Specialist Milkovic.D
Specialist Miller.L
Specialist Morgan.A
Specialist Patricks.C
Specialist Quake.B
Specialist Rowe.S
Specialist Tawfik.Y
Specialist Thrass.ED
Specialist Thrawn.N
Specialist Veilleux.J
Specialist Walton.D
Private First Class Banfield.H
Private First Class Beckner.Z
Private First Class Frost.T
Private First Class James.HR
Private First Class Josephs.E
Private First Class Mote.M
Specialist Schulz.M
Specialist Stripes.P
Private First Class Tuff.O
Specialist Turnbull.J
Specialist Watts.L
Private First Class Yates.J
Private Drummer.M
Recruit Gentry.J
Private First Class Graves.J
Private Ingram.M
Private McMillan.H
Private Prescott.R
Private Rios.P
Private Urh.T
Corporal Sokol.Z - Retired

 

[Smallbeck.E]

Element Callsign: Allied "Easy" Squad
Element Leader: Corporal Smallbeck.E
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Turnbull.J
Private First Class Josephs.E
Specialist Watts.L

Pros:

• Wonderful FTX idea, very fun
• Good squad communication
• Team cohesion was great

Cons:

• Server was still buggy for several who got kicked

 

[Tilley.B]

Element Callsign: Allied "Baker" Squad
Element Leader:Corporal Tilley.B
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Ellison.C
Specialist Patricks.C
Private Ingram.M

Pros
Awesome Concept for an FTX Operation
Great coordination between squad leads
Great Planning from Squad Leads


Cons
Game Crashing

 

[Flick.J]

Element Callsign: Allied Cadre Squad
Element Leader: Corporal Flick.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Barnes.D
Corporal Becker.J
Specialist Austin.M
Specialist Stripes.P
Specialist Davis.O

Pros:

• Great Squad
• Great Map
• Amazing planning by Aco SLs

Cons:

• Team 17 Crashing my Squad 3 times but who cares we recovered every time
• Drowned Fields is really hard to Attack so we got Stalemated

 

[Arnold.W]

Element Callsign: Axis "Able" Squad
Element Leader: Corporal Arnold.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Daver.R
Private First Class Tuff.O

Pros:

• Great squad communication, they did exactly what was needed when it was needed.

Cons:

• Command Comms were good up until the airhead was dropped and the push was wiped out. After that it went dead quiet.
• All the open space and not enough smokes were used to push.

 

[Donk.B]

Element Callsign: Axis Infantry
Element Leader: Corporal Donk.B
LOVE
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Walton.D
Private Drummer
Corporal Payne

Pros: Good Planning

Cons: Felt like an adjustment by the show runners to give the axis an edge would have made it more engaging.

 

[Patterson.C]

Element Callsign: Axis
Element Leader:SGT.Patterson.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
CPL.Jinto.H
SPC.Veilleux.J
SPC.Quake.B
PVT.Rios.P


Pros
Great coordination between squad leads
Squad listened and worked well together

Cons
Game Crashing

 

[Angels.N]

Element Callsign: Axis "Mike" Infantry Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Nate Angels
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Youssef Tawfik
Specialist John Fenrir
Private First Class John Graves

Pros:

• The strategy that we had worked flawlessly at the beginning.

Cons:

• After taking the middle point on Phase 1 and the Northern Checkpoint, everything went downhill from there.
• This FTX felt like a training for the Allies in a shooting gallery.
• A real meat grinder and felt like the rules were a bit unfair. Allies were allowed to flank us but the attacking Axis couldn't go and outflank the checkpoints and the midpoint.

 

[Mueller.H]

Element Callsign: Axis "Jig" Infantry Squad
Element Leader: First Sergeant Mueller.H
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Rhamaad.K
Specialist Blade.B
Private First Class Banfield.H

Pros:
Good concept for the OP
Good planning from commander
Clear and clean command comms and inter-squad comms.

Cons:
Game crashes for my troopers
and what Angels wrote:

Cons:

• After taking the middle point on Phase 1 and the Northern Checkpoint, everything went downhill from there.
• This FTX felt like a training for the Allies in a shooting gallery.
• A real meat grinder and felt like the rules were a bit unfair. Allies were allowed to flank us but the attacking Axis couldn't go and outflank the checkpoints and the midpoint.

CRCON STATS LINK: https://sb1.hll.7cav.us/games/3434

 

[Wisniewski.A]

Element Callsign: Axis Commander
Element Leader: Sergeant First Class Wisniewski.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:


Pros

• Came in with a solid plan, thanks to all who came out and helped with putting that together
• Command coms were great for the majority of the match
• Executed plan as it was written, then adapted when things stopped going to plan and were able to capture the north and center objectives

Cons

• While this format works great for FTXs, would like to see some variety mixed in
• All 3 of our objectives for phase 1 were pushed way back toward's the aliied side of the sector. With a very limited number of viable approaches to each objective, those approaches were easy to defend and turned the last objective in phase 1 into a bit of a turkey shoot. Things like this should be considered when considering balance for an FTX

 

[Williams.JB]

Element Callsign: Axis "Easy" Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Williams.JB
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Thrass.ED
Specialist Belanger.C

Pros:

• Always fun playing with the company
• good coordination from Havoc among ourselves.

Cons:

• Coordination between squads overall was lacking
• people stopped listening to commands from Wis (Commander)
• people didn't follow the battle plan we had laid out
• should have attacked southern checkpoint first (hindsight is 20/20 and all that)

 

[Hermes.S]

Element Callsign: Allied Southern Defense - George Squad
Element Leader: Specialist Hermes.S
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
First Sergeant Webber.R
Corporal Harris.W
Corporal Wagner.D
Private First Class Beckner.Z

Pros:

• While some may argue that this concept has run it's course, I would disagree. The concept provides more than just the constant vanilla style concept with specific objectives. I think there are ways that this concept could be adjusted for continued use, by overall, well received.
• All of Delta - First Platoon - did outstanding. Top two scoring squads on the allied side.
• D2 - In this personal case did outstanding. Great Communication, discipline, and over all performance.
• Nice to have Webber in the mix.
• Strong planning by Allied Command
• Thanks for giving me tons of half tracks to use.

Cons:

• Having Company staff split amongst both teams would be appreciated in the future.
• Absolutely terrible start for the Allies. For the efforts put in before hand to avoid starting issues, we certainly missed the mark. That said, there were confusing events that did play a heavy part in that. IE the match setting at 3hours and questioning if there was going to be a restart. No 2 min, dont pass the second column gig...
• Crashes are a continued issue. We were without a commander for longer than we should've been.
• Appropriate audible planning: Moving forward multiple audibles should be planned ahead of time in case there is a gross imbalance. Using a stacked squad in hope to balance isn't the solution. Said audibles should be partially mentioned in that they will be utilized. Also, stop complaining when audibles are used to try and help balance mid-game.
• That airhead caught us with our pants down - C+ reaction. F for not recognizing it before it was a legit threat.
• No armor

 

[Mair.B]

Element Callsign: Axis "Item" Squad
Element Leader: Corporal Mair.B
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Lewis.P
Specialist Andrew.A

Pros:

• A clear plan at the beginning of the match.
• The concept of destroying a bunker and an AT gun was thought to be pretty cool.

Cons:

• All in the squad agreed that artificial limits are a dangerous idea. After the north bunker and AT gun were destroyed, the defender had nothing to worry about. The attacker could not flank other than to the north. They could not take the next point and make defense of the AT gun and bunker untenable. The attacker could not go deep and disrupt. The defender knew exactly where the attack was coming from and did not have to concern themselves with depth defense or the defense of nodes and garrisons (as they could not be attacked behind the line).
• All in the squad agreed that they would have zero interest in playing this sort of match again if the same restrictions were in play.
• We all know that "no plan survives first contact." With that in mind, the EXCON should always reserve the right to call an audible. For example, seeing that the attack had zero chance of succeeding, the line restriction could have been lifted, or a tank could have been authorized. Game imbalance due to artificial restrictions needs to be countered by such branch plans.

 

[Rutkowski.P]

S1 Locked.

 

[Felton.J]

Element Callsign: Allied "Charlie" Squad
Element Leader: Sergeant Felton.J
7th Calvary Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Hellious.T
Corporal Feathers.A
Specialist McDonald.N
Private First Class James.HR
Corporal Sokol.Z

Pros-

1. Set up of the FTX was great. Had a clear plan going into the match
2. FTX concept is very fun
3. Troopers performed exceptionally well and listened to any and all callouts made by me
4. Command comms were very active and very clear, the best command comms ive had in an OP in quite sometime

Cons-

1. The timer was messed up for the match at the beginning which led to setup being cut short

 

[Rutkowski.P]

S1 Operations Processed.