Operation Talon AAR (5/5/12)

[=VG= Calv]

OK guys, use this thread to give a basic report of what you did in the mission.

Feel free to include any criticisms etc

[Guest AirborneAlways]

Things went well right up until the time I died (OH WELL).

Team moving toward RP1 encountered light infantry. Due to distance from main body, reinforcements where to far to be effective once the first shoot was fired at us. We lost two of three people in the encounter.

Recommendation:
Use separate channels for each squad (fire-team) and use whispers for communications between team-leads [until we are using ACRE]. Trying to use in-game voice is horrible at best.

[=VG= Calv]

Yeah, lack of acre is quite painful, think I may push for next session to have acre in. Doesn't really need much training to get people upto speed on the 343s.

[lupago]

The main problem was that we didnt give too much importance to the point of explaining how were we going to face the towns in the middle, in the first one 3 squads were clearing and the other one, jager, went through it and hit the first objective, that was the best way but we didnt know we were going to do that.

[Jager]

4-1 Actual
When we touched down we regrouped and spent roughly a minute going through some basic formations and a rough plan.
With Ingo as pointman we moved on to RV1, as soon as we heard there might be resistance we moved down to the shore, with our backs against the sea we moved past the city and moved up into the forest.

300m from AA emplacement we went into line formation and moved slowly towards the AA position, due to slow reaction from me I got hit in our initial engagement.
My team returned fire but we lost Cerb in that firefight, I was wounded but got revived by Ingo while Acer covered.
Flanking further east we was able to take out the AA emplacement from a elevated position.

After some internal discussion internally in the group we decided to do recon of the area north of us, two fire fights later we found a quite mobile Tunguska and gave the position to 1?
Deciding against the cache search we moved towards the AA radar but before our engagement we saw team 1 go down and went to their rescue only to get bogged down in a firefight where we all got wounded or killed.

Somewhat "brief", fun times though.

[suomikeizari]

Fireteam 1.
immediately after touchdown our machinegunner informed us of a problem on his Sound system, he could only hear TS, I decided to keep him on but stay on a supportive role in the mission, however after taking heavy losses at RP1 (we lost sam, our MG) we had to step up, the mission was confusing to us until we moved from the RP1 to 2nd AA position. there we were ambushed by 2 enemy LMGs and a couple riflemen luckily Fireteam 4 aided us and we took only 1 casualty and 2 wounded. By this time the rest of the fireteam 3 had emerged with us. after dealing with the ambush we took out enemy Tunguska, we got ambushed again and lost 100% of our manpower.

[=VG= Calv]

lupago =VG= LAN_WROTE ...

The main problem was that we didnt give too much importance to the point of explaining how were we going to face the towns in the middle, in the first one 3 squads were clearing and the other one, jager, went through it and hit the first objective, that was the best way but we didnt know we were going to do that.

In an ideal situation there would have been two fireteam leaders moving on that town, and it would have been down to them to decide how it would be secured.
I wanted to impress that fireteam leaders are required to be responsible for their teams and use their own initiative in situations.
The higher ups just outline "what" they want done, it's the ftl that have to decide on the "how".
In future missions there will be some "safe" time at the start where ftls can discuss the mission plan between themselves and outline their general areas of responsibility.

In hindsight the initial RV point should have been placed closer to where we dropped, one of the problems with me being in command and making the mission was that in numerous test runs I had never encountered any enemies in that first town so assumed it was clear (good practical demonstration of why you never assume a place is clear), I also lacked NV goggles due to an error with the loadout script, which is also why you guys lacked silenced weapons.
However it did highlight an important point: The initial plan is never perfect. If an RV point is set in briefing that seems to be a "safe" area, but then once on the ground it is unsecure and an exposed position, then you are free to communicate this information and change the plan as required.

[Pvt. Pirate]

fireteam 3: we regrouped after the jump, then moved along the railway towards kamenka, there we observed the area and went around the northern end of the town to secure it. 2 of our team got killed when the enemy suddenly came from the north and got us in the open without cover.

[=VG= Eclipse002]

I hate ARMA :-)

[lupago]

Well yeah, basiccally Talon 2 landed in the jump zone, moved to the south side of the RV1, once i found out talon 4 was in the aa location and talon 3 was down we pushed through the road to secure the town were the cache was located but an enemy fireteam placed in the north side of that town with a firebase in the top of a hill eleminated 2 members (me and confused master) the only one left was nvram who was in highground giving marksman support and he wasnt able to secure the town alone.

It was a great mission though Calv, congratulations, as everyone says we just need to coordinate more and try to plan our movements, i think the capacity of adapt to the situation is important but planing some possible situations will also help.

[chrisi123]

fireteam 3: we were fucked in the first town by an ambush...

[Switch]

Castor =VG= LAN_WROTE ...

Fireteam 1.
immediately after touchdown our machinegunner informed us of a problem on his Sound system, he could only hear TS, I decided to keep him on but stay on a supportive role in the mission, however after taking heavy losses at RP1 (we lost sam, our MG) we had to step up, the mission was confusing to us until we moved from the RP1 to 2nd AA position. there we were ambushed by 2 enemy LMGs and a couple riflemen luckily Fireteam 4 aided us and we took only 1 casualty and 2 wounded. By this time the rest of the fireteam 3 had emerged with us. after dealing with the ambush we took out enemy Tunguska, we got ambushed again and lost 100% of our manpower.

I think we did pretty good Castor, considering the technical difficulties we encountered. We survived 2 ambushes and took out one of the main objectives by using just the buddy system.

Definitely a lot of fun, really looking forward to doing this again.

[Guest AirborneAlways]

Something I observed during the operation was fire-teams were bunched up together, some well within the effective range of grenades. Should work at keeping at least 15 meters between each other when traveling so that if a grenade lands at one persons free it doesn't get everyone.

Now that is not to say that there aren't time when you will need to stack up in order to breach a building.

To give those who do not have military backgrounds or haven't done tactical playing before here is some further reading to give you some ideas. http://compass.seacadets.org/pdf/nrtc/cb1/14234_ch4.pdf

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

I was the squad medic... never healed anyone and I think I might have fired 10-12 rounds total !yes

At mission start I ran forward with Calv as I thought he was just going to move up to RV1 and get organized. After he got shot I hit the ground and crawled to the outskirts of the town where I linked up with Castor's squad FT1 and stuck with them moving through the town until we got ambushed and I was shot in the head. It was our own fault I think we were all looking at the map when the enemy opened fire.. good lesson there.

I think this mission showed us the importance of planning and communicating the plan so that all SLs understand the overall objective.

Everyone needs to thank Calv for making the mission as these things take a lot of work to get right.

[Guest AirborneAlways]

SavageCDN =VG= LAN_WROTE ...

Everyone needs to thank Calv for making the mission as these things take a lot of work to get right.

THANKS CALV for the hard work

[=VG= Calv]

SavageCDN =VG= LAN_WROTE ...

I was the squad medic... never healed anyone and I think I might have fired 10-12 rounds total !yes

At mission start I ran forward with Calv as I thought he was just going to move up to RV1 and get organized. After he got shot I hit the ground and crawled to the outskirts of the town where I linked up with Castor's squad FT1 and stuck with them moving through the town until we got ambushed and I was shot in the head. It was our own fault I think we were all looking at the map when the enemy opened fire.. good lesson there.

I think this mission showed us the importance of planning and communicating the plan so that all SLs understand the overall objective.

Everyone needs to thank Calv for making the mission as these things take a lot of work to get right.

Yeah, the mission itself may have been slightly stacked against us but I did want to impress the necessity of teamwork and moving slow and tactically. Most of the people have only really played insurgency and when facing badly trained takis you can rambo a bit and get away with it.
Main aim of this mission was to show that things can go south very quickly when you're outnumbered and only have one life. It was very much a trial by fire to open everyone's eyes.

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

Well great job then 'cause we got fucked up in a hurry...lol

At first I thought you had gotten killed on purpose to see how we handled the loss of a commander :)

For that situation, does the Alpha FTL then take command of the troops? Should I have taken command being squad medic?

[=VG= Calv]

Yeah, would be you, then ftl1, ftl2, ftl3, ftl4.

[Pvt. Pirate]

i dont know if the mission was too hard for that tiny army we were, or did we just have to realize our incapability of working as a team?.
i suggest both is the case :D
also i thought it would be best if ARMA-veterans would lead teams, as they know whats possible and what isnt.
i'm new to the game and wouldnt even try to lead a team in ARMA, but others have played the game for years and are skilled.
also the roles of every single team weren't clear enough. like we had to go for that small village, but noone told us which way we were supposed to take there... lack of communication and maybe each team wanted to be the best one and headed forward too fast.

[Pvt. Pirate]

also: thanks to airborne for the great tactics guide. i read it (well, i skipped one part i already knew) and its a good guideline for new players.

[Jager]

For newbies and veteran players alike http://ttp2.dslyecxi.com/ is a very good place to start, it was a very good read when I started out and still is.

Quick briefing and markers on map that illustrated what needed to be done, in addition to the normal map briefing gave me a fair idea of what needed to be done.

As Calv already has pointed out once we are rolling it's the ftl's responsibility to make decisions, cmd simply gives us a task and expects results.
How we accomplish those goals is entirely up to us, RV1 was not a task simply a waypoint but that's how I'm taught ^^

And cmd do not know how things will look on the ground so it's up to us (cmd's eyes and ears) to judge the situation, it has happened during an op that cmd gives a bad RV due to factors that is not known to cmd (elevation, exposure etc).
Then we can always contact cmd and give him the information needed to make a decision or make a field decision.

After Calv was down I went into solo group operating modus and that's just habit kicking in sadly.
We had a task and so I took my team towards that, think I mentioned briefly in ts after that the longer we stay hidden the better.
But eventually we need to fire shots in anger :p and hopefully that's later rather than sooner.

As for map checking, be vocal about it, "checking map, 360 coverage", "ready to move again" etc
Whenever we stop it's a benefit to just go out into defensive formation.

1-2-3-4 in a column formation transition easily into defense, 1 covers front, 2 left, 3 right and 4 covers rear as he always does.

For map time 1 is to my left and 3 to my right, 4 still at my back.

Anyhow good stuff..
-We did manage to keep acceptable coms
-Completed some tasks
-Got killed by our mistakes and we'll learn from that ;)

Not so good.. stuff :p
-Command structure broke when Calv died but it's something we can be more clear on for the next ops
-We (the majority) died!

What we could benefit from is learning patrolling formations and doing contact drills.

Dunno how hard it is to setup a range with dummy targets popping up randomly which we can patrol in.
If it's a hazzle we can always wait for Ace and probably grab Nkenny's basics maps.

[suomikeizari]

thanks Jager! gonna check that for the next event!