02-24-2017, 12:56 PM
I know, looking at the scenery from the air as an observer, it's always easy to spot the problems. Well, this should also help us to see what we did wrong. Note this is not to point fingers, I would have acted the same in your position. It's just an observation for the future.
I'm referring now to the attempt at "Across the Sea". There were several decisive moments when soldiers where lost for now good reason. I list those situations below. Also on this list, a mistake I made yesterday in the first mission (Jolly Green)
1 Securing the area
In this case the group was trying to recover the code book. The book was somewhere in the ruins, and the players took the ruins from the enemy. Then, everyone moved in, and while waiting for the new tasking to arrive, everyone was just standing around. And that's the problem. No one paid any attention to the outside. I placed a bunch of enemies (only three) into the town and had them walk up to the ruins to investigate. There was fire there before, so it would be normal to investigate. They basically got right up to the players and opened up. Luckily, I was controlling the machine gunner at that time and deliberately missed, otherwise, I could have killed two without any problem.
So, the rule should be: We arrive somewhere, we secure it. That means, secure the inside firsts, then move in, and when the inside is clear, secure towards the perimeter. Even Arma AI will come to investigate if they hear gunfire. Never stand around idle and do nothing.
We should make it a habit of doing an all around defense whenever we stop, including stamina breaks. Do this every time, even without the squad or fire team leader commanding it. If we stop, call out the direction you will be looking at. The rest of the team should pick up on that.
In specific situation, like the one yesterday, I would even suggest a further approach: When two or more teams are present, one team does whatever the objective requires (searching for the code book in this case), while the other team(s) move past the objective and secure in the direction of the most likely enemy contact. At this point yesterday, the enemy was known to hold the town, thus, it would be prudent to assume that any counterattack would come from there. So while one team searched the building, the other team should have secured/watched the road leading up from the town.
2 Approaching "Points of Interest"
The ultimate demise of the mission was the incident at the road, the parked car. Simply driving up to it an stopping was a bad idea. The result was that nobody saw the two Chedakis standing next to the car in the shadow of the trees. Note that all of the area was hostile territory. It is unlikely that a UAZ flying the red star is just standing there. At the very least, expect a patrol somewhere in the area (if not close to the parked vehicle).
The only way to approach this would have been to stop early, get out, and approach on foot, weapons ready. The numbers where not there anymore (only three left), but in any case, there should have been someone securing from the back while someone else approaches. Even if you where considering this to be the car that you were searching for, just stopping next to it was a bad idea.
3 Covering too much ground when under fire
That was my mistake yesterday. When we spotted the castle ruins on the hill, I thought it would be good cover (which it is actually, but...). The distance was something like 600 meters, and there, things got messed up. Moving that much distance, up a hill, under constant enemy fire, is just asking for trouble. People will tire out running up hill, and one hit to to the leg will basically be the end of you.
So, the lesson learned from that is not to move so large a distance without peeling or bounding overwatch. Ideally, I would have chosen a closer place for cover. That was a stupid maneuver and it cost us half the team (not that it changed much, the chopper was blown up by an RPG shortly after).
I'm referring now to the attempt at "Across the Sea". There were several decisive moments when soldiers where lost for now good reason. I list those situations below. Also on this list, a mistake I made yesterday in the first mission (Jolly Green)
1 Securing the area
In this case the group was trying to recover the code book. The book was somewhere in the ruins, and the players took the ruins from the enemy. Then, everyone moved in, and while waiting for the new tasking to arrive, everyone was just standing around. And that's the problem. No one paid any attention to the outside. I placed a bunch of enemies (only three) into the town and had them walk up to the ruins to investigate. There was fire there before, so it would be normal to investigate. They basically got right up to the players and opened up. Luckily, I was controlling the machine gunner at that time and deliberately missed, otherwise, I could have killed two without any problem.
So, the rule should be: We arrive somewhere, we secure it. That means, secure the inside firsts, then move in, and when the inside is clear, secure towards the perimeter. Even Arma AI will come to investigate if they hear gunfire. Never stand around idle and do nothing.
We should make it a habit of doing an all around defense whenever we stop, including stamina breaks. Do this every time, even without the squad or fire team leader commanding it. If we stop, call out the direction you will be looking at. The rest of the team should pick up on that.
In specific situation, like the one yesterday, I would even suggest a further approach: When two or more teams are present, one team does whatever the objective requires (searching for the code book in this case), while the other team(s) move past the objective and secure in the direction of the most likely enemy contact. At this point yesterday, the enemy was known to hold the town, thus, it would be prudent to assume that any counterattack would come from there. So while one team searched the building, the other team should have secured/watched the road leading up from the town.
2 Approaching "Points of Interest"
The ultimate demise of the mission was the incident at the road, the parked car. Simply driving up to it an stopping was a bad idea. The result was that nobody saw the two Chedakis standing next to the car in the shadow of the trees. Note that all of the area was hostile territory. It is unlikely that a UAZ flying the red star is just standing there. At the very least, expect a patrol somewhere in the area (if not close to the parked vehicle).
The only way to approach this would have been to stop early, get out, and approach on foot, weapons ready. The numbers where not there anymore (only three left), but in any case, there should have been someone securing from the back while someone else approaches. Even if you where considering this to be the car that you were searching for, just stopping next to it was a bad idea.
3 Covering too much ground when under fire
That was my mistake yesterday. When we spotted the castle ruins on the hill, I thought it would be good cover (which it is actually, but...). The distance was something like 600 meters, and there, things got messed up. Moving that much distance, up a hill, under constant enemy fire, is just asking for trouble. People will tire out running up hill, and one hit to to the leg will basically be the end of you.
So, the lesson learned from that is not to move so large a distance without peeling or bounding overwatch. Ideally, I would have chosen a closer place for cover. That was a stupid maneuver and it cost us half the team (not that it changed much, the chopper was blown up by an RPG shortly after).