AAR Operation Breakthrough - 14FEB24 - 8PM EST (0100z)

[Rhodes.R]

Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
Name of Combat Mission: Operation Breakthrough
Game: Hell Let Loose
Server Hosted on: Training Server 1
Date of Combat Mission: 14FEB26
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 0100
Mission OICs: Captain Swanson.B, Corporal Roderick.S
Mission Controller: Corporal Rhodes.R





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Number of Attendees: 48 (+3)
7th Cavalry Personnel Involved in Action:
Captain Macpherson.C
Captain Swanson.B
Second Lieutenant Angels.N
First Sergeant Herber.R
First Sergeant Mueller.H
First Sergeant White.C
Sergeant Flick.J
Sergeant Jay.JH
Sergeant Matthews.A
Sergeant Sibley.K
Corporal Arnold.W
Corporal Giglio.M
Corporal Jinto.H
Corporal Lewis.P
Corporal Pollock.R
Corporal Rhodes.R
Corporal Roderick.S
Corporal Wagner.D
Specialist Atkins.DS
Specialist Austin.M
Specialist Banfield.H
Specialist Cross.E
Specialist Doss.T
Specialist Fenrir.J
Specialist Fox.F
Specialist Freeze.T
Specialist Graves.J
Specialist INGRAM.M
Specialist Josephs.E
Specialist Lee.TJ
Specialist Milkovic.D
Specialist Stout.S
Specialist Stripes.P
Specialist Veilleux.J
Specialist Von Knispel.K
Specialist Yates.J
Specialist Blade.B
Specialist Rowe.S
Private First Class Waffle,J
Private First Class Mustard. C
Private First Class Richardson.JD
Private First Class Miller.H
Private Sinclair.M
Private Strole.Z
Private Taylor.O
Recruit Bouwer.P
Recruit Brown.LG
Recruit Jorgensen.C


Recruit Whebell.M (discharged)
SGT.Slagg.J [RET]
RET.Guillermo.C

 

[Guillermo.C]

Element Callsign: Gas Monsters

Element Leader: Sergeant Guillermo.C

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Jay.JH
Corporal Jinto.H

Pros:
Fun map, really enjoyed the Axis and Soviet tank restrictions. liked that it was a 2V1 in tank numbers which was offset by one Soviet Heavy

Cons:
Need more participants

 

[Sibley.K]

Element Callsign: Axis Tank Squad - Blood Spire
Element Leader: Sergeant Sibley.K
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Sibley.K
Specialist Banfield.H
Specialist Von Knispel.K

Pros:

• Interesting mission design concept. Really enjoyed the asymmetric constraints faced by each team.
• Trying to take down an IS in a panzer IV is always a challenge.

Cons:

• Mission balance needs slight adjustment. Almost impossible to get a truck all the way to the destination point. Would recommend restricting AT guns, and/or providing a second route for the trucks to take.
• The above point is emphasized by the fact that it was a 25v25 and we couldn't get a truck through. Would be harder on 50v50
• From a strategy perspective, I think command should've run trucks through earlier in the map rather than waiting as long as they did. By the time a major threat was eliminated (taking the town center, destroying an IS/AT gun, etc.), it would take too long for a truck to get down the road and the Soviets could have a response ready.

 

[White.C]

Element Callsign: Axis Dog
Element Leader: 1SG.White.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
First Sergeant White.C
First Sergeant Herber.R
Private Jorgensen.C
Private Sinclair.M
Private First Class Richardson.JD
Specialist Graves.J

Pros:

• Combat felt balanced
• Liked the concept of trying to force trucks through enemy lines

Cons:

• Maybe allow two roads for trucks to go down or increase the area which they can drive on to allow them to have a bit of a better chance to survive the infantry. If there was a full 100 man presence, the crowding the main road would probably become an issue where no trucks would be able to get through.

 

[Arnold.W]

Element Callsign: Axis Charlie Infantry Squad
Element Leader: SGT.Arnold.W
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
SGT.Slagg.J - RET
SGT.Lewis.P
SPC.Waffle.J
SPC.Milkovic.D
SPC.Freeze.T

Pros:

• Squad Communication was on point. Always calling out garrisons, ops, tanks, infantry. We were able to take "Bitter Spring" with our squad alone with SGT.Sibley's armor support on top of the hill.
• Best Axis Squad for Combat Effectiveness with 3,640 score and Support Effectiveness with 9,230 score!
• Tank Commander communication in Command Comms was top tier. I will almost always give kudos to TC's for their level of communication.
• We felt that the OPORD was "kiss'd"

Cons:

• Limited truck route especially with such an open map. Being a 25v25 and needing to get trucks onto a specific point we didn't even get one truck to the point.

 

[Flick.J]

Element Callsign: Allied Infantry Squad

Element Leader: Sergeant Flick.J

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Josephs.E
Specialist Stripes.P
Specialist Blade.B
Recruit Whebell.M

Pros:

• Great concept
• Great Map

Cons:

• No squad comms gets boring quick
• Maybe just restrict Command Comms and let squads talk freely

 

[Angels.N]

Element Callsign: USSR "Dog" Infantry Squad
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Nate Angels
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

Captain Christopher Macpherson
Corporal Daniel Wagner
Specialist Matt Ingram
Private First Class Hank Miller

Pros:

• Great communication with the limits that we had. We could only use proximity chat but I was able to effectively hold the line with my squad with callouts and markers and pings to call out targets.
• Great use of the AT Gun. We don't see a lot of the guns in operations and I believe that we absolutely held the road very effectively.
• Great use of the mines on the road, all spread apart, that reduced the chances of the Axis' pushes.
• A big shoutout to my squad for tonight's operation and a big shoutout to Captain Swanson's plan.

Cons:

• The Area of Operations was restrictive for the Allies. There were times where the Axis would be allowed to freely go and flank us easily and we couldn't go across to be able to effectively mitigate the threats.
• The fact that Phase 2 was called with 23 minutes left in the match was a bit of a let down for my squad. Not one supply truck went passed us and it felt like the Axis was given an advantage.
• The number of players. I would say that the attendance was a bit low, I know it's a "holiday" but also the balance. 6 player difference does make a big difference. A whole squad on a hardpoint versus 2 guys on defense is a bit hard.

 

[Brown.LG]

Element Callsign: Axis Fox Recon Squad
Element Leader: Private Brown.LG
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element: Specialist Atkins.DS


Pros: Recon had a very unique experience compared to other squads on the map. It was very enjoyable to call out enemy intel and be in constant communication with other SL's and the Commander.

Cons: None from the Recon Perspective, our objective was to hinder the enemy teams operations and we did just that.

 

[Swanson.B]

Element Callsign: USSR Commander
Element Leader: Captain Swanson.B
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
N/A

Pros:
Great job sticking to the plan I put together. We ended up placing around 30 mines on that road, roughly one every 15 meters. There was no way a supply truck was getting through that. I wasn't able to directly guide my SLs to execute it step-by-step, but they took the initiative on their own and did an excellent job.

Overall very solid game from allies. We didn't win that game because of the total war but we defenetly owned that concept. Amazing defense in all aspects.


Cons:
During hotwash, some people said to restrict the at-gun next time. I don't think the AT gun needed to be restricted. We had to rebuild it three or four times because it's actually very easy to destroy. I spent time scouting the map to find the best placement, which is why it ended up being so effective. The Axis side also had the option to build their own AT gun to counter both our position and our tank.

That totalwar part was overall not very fun from a balance standpoint — 21 vs 26 players, and only one tank crew on our side versus two on theirs. With that difference, we just couldn't hold the point.

Note:
I think limiting garrisons to Lines 1 through 4 would have given Axis the small advantage they needed to have a real chance at winning. We held St. Mary for a solid hour largely because we had the spawn network to sustain it. If they had captured St. Mary earlier, they would have been in a much better position to push toward the actual objective — German Recon Camp.

 

[Veilleux.J]

Element Callsign: Allied Infantry Squad
Element Leader: Specialist Veilleux.J
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Cross.E
Specialist Austin.M
Corporal Doss.T


Pros:

• Great operation idea, really enjoyed taking the comms out to distill the gameplay to a very individual level and testing all of our game sense.
• Perfect map and point choices.
• My Squad was absolutely stellar.

Cons:

• Very difficult next to impossible for axis to reach target point.

 

[Giglio.M]

Element Callsign: Allied MBT (Trenchfoot)

Element Leader: Corporal Giglio.M

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Recruit Taylor.O
Private First Class Mustard.C

Pros:

• Amazing concept that was very creative and on par with history!
• Easy OP-board to understand.
• Awesome job by my crew,they made it easy.
• Great choice for area of operation.

Cons:

• Getting restricted back to medium With only one tank on Allies against two Axis tanks.
• Low attendance due to holiday scheduling.

 

[Roderick.S]

Element Callsign: Axis Commander
Element Leader: CPL.Roderick.S
Pros:

• Excellent concept, I look forward to seeing more of these types of operations
• Hard fought on Axis team, great work by the truck drivers who worked constantly against the odds

Cons:

• As said on hotwash, I think the details of the operation could use tweaking. Nothing that can't be fixed for future operation.
• As the Commander, I could've done better directing the flanking efforts.

 

[Murdock.T]

S1 Locked.

 

[Murdock.T]

S1 Operations Processed / MILPACS Updated.