4/9 Operation Human Shield AAR

Alright guys time for the After Action Report.

First I want to say that special thanks goes to Nick and Lucky for doing a fantastic job of getting their squads coordinated and ready to go...On-Time might I add.

Thats right everyone I said On-Time.
9:20pm Lucky and Nick and I got on the same page and got the game plan together
9:30pm we started pulling our assigned groups together.
9:40pm we then began pulling in MoV guys who did not sign up but were logged in to fill out the squads.
9:45pm I count down on MoV chat and BAM were in our first ACQ map with all 3 squads.

1st Game: Defend against Raven
3 squads enter and Raven grabbed 1/2 vehicles but we took the victory. It was good seeing all 3 MoV Squads in the same platoon as that didn't hold true for many of our games. Great job was done by everyone. It was good to get the win right out of the gate and the fact that it was on time was great. The key was holding those bunkers and Chelsea did a great job racking up kill sin that turret. We had good coordination and multiple times even repaired the bunker to our left to get the other squad operational (dont think it was a MoV one)

2nd Game: 3 MoV squads again same platoon defending against Raven. This turned into a defeat from a overall standpoint. The positive side of things is that they did not take any vehicles out from our side. As far as I can tell both vehicles were taken from the other platoon. We held our bunkers the entire game and again we had impressive communication.

3rd Game: 2 MoV squads made the game while Lucky's 3rd squad missed the cutoff and played a Sabo map. From an Acq standpoint both MoV squads were in the same platoon and we really struggled trying to win while attacking Raven. We took out multiple bunkers, mortar battery, motor pool, gates, AA, roadblocks but couldnt get the vehicles out for the win. This is going to be a tough one to win for us on a regular basis until we really get our tactics down. Every game we attack Raven I get more familiar with the map as well as it becomes more clear where and what to go do. I think another couple of games and we should have a pretty good gameplan in place to help better our odds of winning. I will say if the objective was to destroy as many bunkers we would have clearly won as we did take a lot of secondary objectives.

4th game: I believe we had all 3 MoV squads in game with 2 squads in the same platoon. We were defending against Raven and this is the game we really shined. No vehicles taken, massive kick ass from the bunker defense and we had a mobile repair team in the hummers in place. Great coordination and communication. We really did kick some ass even to the point where in the final couple of minutes I unleashed the squad to assault the Raven spawn, which was a first for me. That was fun as we pinned them at the start.

5th Game: Again I believe all 3 squads in the same game however 2 in 1 platoon and 1 squad in the other. This was not a good game as we were defending against Sver. We handily got beat. They swarmed our bunkers and once they were down we had trouble getting out of our spawn location. It was a struggle getting the damn mortar battery operational thats how far they had us pushed back, We must find some better way to get back to our bunkers when we do lose them and that is something we got to work on. But this was nothing compared to the next game.

6th Game: 3 squads attacking Sver on Acq. This was the 2nd time I have ever seen this map. Lets just say we got our asses severly kicked. We went left...got smoked. We tried Right...same result. Go left again....they were watiing for us. I tried to rally at waypoints...they were waiting for us there too. I then decided Screw it lets go straight up the guy. Here is what was surprising we blew up 1 Friggin bunker. Who'd have thought a frontal assault would work. Well it did and then right after it blew up 30 seconds later 16 Sver guys were there repairing and kicking our asses. Epic failure on our side.

At this point the Op was over. 6 Games and we moved from game to game to game. I know that when I posted I said no more than 10 min in between games and I will say that out of all the games the most we waited was 8 minutes. We moved usually under 5 minutes in between games. Again this was due to the great coordination done by your squad leaders Nick and Lucky.

Special thanks also goes out to the guys in my squad for the night:

Crypt shame we are losing him from clan
Raven Medic/Fireteam leader
Cass Fireteam leader
Chelsea Kick ass turret gunner (new heavy weapon specialist)
Lifeline always solid with the squad
Spinal Mobile repair guy first time we grouped and very impressed, followed orders well
Sotello Mobile Repair guy and stole my SL slot when we first brought him in
Needs better late than never but always a pleasure to work with

I would also like Lucky and Nick to post similar AAR's in this thread detailing what your squads did in particular and call out your guys. I also want plenty of feedback here as well. This is something I plan to do every Fri night and I may even do it on Sat nights as well.

I hope everyone had a great time, while we did not win every game and I understand Acq is not Valor's strong point it was chosen for a couple reasons.

First it is the game least populated and I made the assumption that it would be far easier for us to get int he same game together when we linked up
Second, there are only 2 Platoons in Acq which means we have a far greater chance of having multiple squads in the same platoon. Throughout all 6 games I believe Squad 1 & 2 were always together with squad 3 matched up a couple times. If we were to play Dom than there are 4 platoons and all 3 squads could be scattered in each platoon. I wanted us playing together. If we choose Sabo the chances of getting all 3 squads in same game is very slim...I know we've done it in the past but that is also when it took us 30min or longer each match only to play a 3-5 min game because we would kick th=e shit out of whoever we played and I want a challenge.
Fourth I wanted a challenge. We are the weakest at Acq and I want to develop better strategies to make it our game type. I see it as much easier to group up in and have a greater impact. 3 squads in Acq out of 8 total squads has a greater impact on the game then 3 squads out of 16 in Dom.

So I do hope everyone had a good time, we have proved the system works and it is great to see a plan come together. The only way I keep running these though is if I have participation and cooperation. I post an op I need guys to sign up and attend. We keep this up and it will grow and soon enough we will have more than 3 squads manned.

Next post is on lessons learned.

Lessons Learned:

First I believe posting the Op schedule and getting us organized before the games even started was critical. We had all of the following outlined:
squad leaders assigned,
Who was in each squad defined
The time table of when we would pull peopl ein group and then open up to anyone else
The outline of how we would operate if we got sepearted
The way we would communicate via the MoV chat
How best to protest Brashin
These are all things that were done days before the game and I think it helped level-set everyone as to who is doing what and when.

Second thing is I believe the use of the MoV chat worked very well for organizing the squads and for going into games together. Could it be better? Sure it could be better but we make do with what we have avail to us and this worked.

Third, I like having a 2 man team of mobile repair when we defend. Those 2 guys stay behind the lines repairing AA, mortar, other bunkers, sensor array and thats what they do the whole match. While the other guys defend the bunkers.

Fourth, We have to do a better job protecting Brashin. During the last Acq match I died like 25 times. I chalk this up to a lack of focus on the primary objective. I expected people jumpin on nades for me and taking bullets, but no.. people were too busy respawning rather than keeping me operational. We got to do better guys.

Fifth, Again everyone signing up on the forums and participating did a fantastic job. On Monday I will post the next Fri night Op and I may expand it to Sat nights although I am doing Boot Camp on Sat nights but please post here if you would join in a Fri and Sat night multi squad op so I know what the deman looks like. If I have willing participants then Ill make it happen.

Sixth, Please if your not going to be able to make the Op and you signed up then post that you wont make it. Also please post if you will make it as we need to know who goes where and the earlier the better and easier it is for me to set the rosters.

See you on the battlefield.

we should do ones of these every 2 weeks

2nd squad's After Action Report
Our squad went as follows:
nickb_93
guitarest
sth
Elmusie
heeroblaze
mr_future
BigGrillz53
specter597
cheeseclown (came later)

You guys did great all the way through the ops, we got the repairing and communication down to a 't' so well done for that.
Well we all know how difficult Acquisition is for Valor but as a clan we need have to improve our overall game, which sadly meant a few painful but overall, the results we had against Raven, who have perfected Acquisiton and SEVR, who well...are SEVR, was really good, especially for the first time most of us had done acquisition as a team and certainly with each other.

1st game: Defend against Raven
We took the right side and had it pretty comfortably throughout the entire game and kept a close eye on the AA which was defused very quickly. This was a really good squad and team result; communication was excellent and whenever they captured our side's transport we destroyed it with very little effort. On Acquisition the most important thing tactically, is that the bunker is always protected and the squad did that easily, the turret gunner should be the most communicative person in the squad, telling his teammates where the enemy are, whats being planted on and who needs picking up, I don't know if I did that or not but this would definately help in the future. Really encouraging game and that performance was something we should all build upon next outing on Acquisition.

2nd game: Defend against Raven
Another good performance but was let down by the other platoon who bled out both the transports. Nothing you can really do when the other platoon isn't handling things but the positives were that we were completely solid just like the previous match

3rd game: Attacking Raven
This was a really tough game for us, but that's gotta be expected on Raven's home turf I guess. We managed to grind down the Raven bunkers eventually after roughly 5 minutes where they had us really well closed down. It was encouraging when the first bunker fell and we had suddenly broken through, quickly destroying the AAA before flanking the bunker just in front of it. Our next job was to prevent Raven repairing the AAA and unfortunately, we didn't do too well on this. I think the problem was that; 1. People weren't too keen on holding back to defend this and ignored the AAA and 2. Raven repaired their bunkers very efficiently at which point their whole team rallies back up in the bunkers and we have to start all over again. This happened on more than one occasion. As a team, we have to follow the orders of the SL and the PL - our squad HAD to prevent this AAA being repaired and, correct me if I'm being unfair, we didn't do too successfully. As heeroblaze said, perhaps attacking with half the squad would help out the team more in advancing, my reply would be that we weren't successful in defending the AAA with a full squad because Raven have their map entirely perfected. Despite being a major loss, the game had some positives in that we had a few VERY quick advances into their base and we got pretty close to getting one of the transports at one point, we also had very good communication and when we broke through the first Bunker we then took down the remaining Bunkers with relative ease and without faltering.

4th game: Defending against Raven
Continued a great night of defending on Acquisition and our bunker was by the bridge. Again we held them back pretty simply, kept up the good communication and everyone did their part to make it another win against Raven.

5th game: Defending against SVER
Our first game against SVER went pretty badly, they swarmed our bunker after about 5 minutes and it was an uphill struggle from there as we were pushed back to our spawns. What we have to do here is we have to protect our vehicle depot and the main gate. We did this for a fair amount of time but didnt anticipate the flow of SVER guys attacking from beneath who swarmed our transport and won the game. Our problem in this was that we didn't anticipate a barrage of about 2 squads of SVER targeting our bunkers; we were on the far right and we all know that when you attacking you go for the two flanks. At this point I would say that the SL (my bad) should have communicated with the other squads to get some help, because its not possible to cope against 2 squads of SEVR. when our bunker is destroyed, we have to get back to the bunker ASAP via transports, and as many people into a vehicle as possible too. This was a really tough match but after our transport was taken we effectively 'shut up shop' before the other platoon let slip their own transport.

At our 6th game the squad failed to link up with the other two squads and went into a Sabotage which I can't remember :S
Overall it was a really great night and the whole squad did brilliant, really encouraging to see some good teamwork, communication and skills in a mode that virtually all of Valor knows **** all about!
Big thanks to all of 2nd squad for doing a great job and I hope everyone joins me in thanking Brashin for a great night

Also a mini-AAR for the 2 Sabo maps after the Acq Op.

I took a back seat and let Cass take over as SL and Raven was FT leader. We assaulted Sver on Sabo. Now please remember the last game we played was when we attacked Sver on Acq and got out asses completely handed to us. It was payback time. We beat the ever livin shit out of Sver on the sabo map in about 4 minutes.

Don't listen to what Cass tells you about his great leadership abilities and that he could be Sver when I couldnt, it was because I graabed A that brought us the victory baby...lol j/k.

Really Cass and Raven did a good job but game was over too quickly.

2nd game of Sabo we again attacked Sver. We took B and then Cass gave Sotello and I release to go help out over at A. Sotello and I single-handedly took A over and then made the push to C. Again another victory over Sver, this time in about 7 minutes. Now at this point I am starting to wonder about my own leadership abilities and then I realize had I been leading we'd have won in 60 seconds or less or your pizza is free...lol

Again the point I want to make here is that I want to see new SL's and FTL's get some experience leading. The more that can do this the better for the clan. I have no problems stepping aside so our guys can get a taste as this is great for everyone. I just dont want to hear any shit about doing it better then me...lol

Really good job to both Cass and Raven though as I'll squad with you anytime.

I'm in any day of the week brash!

So yes, Friday Saturday for me.

cortezelgangster wrote:we should do one of these every 2 weeks

you werent even there

Thanks to all the guys in my squad:
Crownz
Insane Machine
Thoma 22
BlueBeard
Pat 100
Hotdog Fingers
The Chadd
You guys were all relaxed and calm as we organized the night. It was my first night as squad leader, I was a little confused but you guys help out by reminding me about objectives. We played very well as a squad and a platoon when we were together. Next time we should split into 2 fire times, each team should have a medic, an engineer and a rocket launcher. Fire team 1 should attack/defend the bunker and Fire team 2 should attack/defend Triple A/Mortar battery. Please guys I would like some feedback on what we could all have done better including me. Again Thank you Brashin for organizing Operation Human Shield.

Time to Re-Spec I want a big gun.

Gutairest wrote:

cortezelgangster wrote:we should do one of these every 2 weeks

you werent even there

I never said I was, I was just givin a opinion. I wasnt there becuase i was busy thats why i said we should have a it more then once out of a blue moon.

2nd squad AAR done above

nickb_93 wrote:2nd squad's After Action Report
3rd game: Attacking Raven
This was a really tough game for us, but that's gotta be expected on Raven's home turf I guess. We managed to grind down the Raven bunkers eventually after roughly 5 minutes where they had us really well closed down. It was encouraging when the first bunker fell and we had suddenly broken through, quickly destroying the AAA before flanking the bunker just in front of it. Our next job was to prevent Raven repairing the AAA and unfortunately, we didn't do too well on this. I think the problem was that; 1. People weren't too keen on holding back to defend this and ignored the AAA and 2. Raven repaired their bunkers very efficiently at which point their whole team rallies back up in the bunkers and we have to start all over again. This happened on more than one occasion. As a team, we have to follow the orders of the SL and the PL - our squad HAD to prevent this AAA being repaired and, correct me if I'm being unfair, we didn't do too successfully. As heeroblaze said, perhaps attacking with half the squad would help out the team more in advancing, my reply would be that we weren't successful in defending the AAA with a full squad because Raven have their map entirely perfected. Despite being a major loss, the game had some positives in that we had a few VERY quick advances into their base and we got pretty close to getting one of the transports at one point, we also had very good communication and when we broke through the first Bunker we then took down the remaining Bunkers with relative ease and without faltering.

I've been thinking about this game and how I would defend as Raven when I was on their side. This map is definitely tough on the attacks and easier on the defenders. Our squad did a good job destroying a lot of things, but had difficulty pushing through (I do remember getting to the transports and being half a second from unlocking one until a sniper got me, Nick was right behind me, revived me, but we both got hit after that, definitely really close).

I think one of the ways we can improve that is by using an alternative strategy to defending things like the AAA once its down. Now, in Sabo or Dom, defending objectives once taken is essential and one strategy that I used to keep them secured was through deploying mines in strategic places. If we had two or three troops to deploy mines around say the AAA, we could send more troops forward knowing that there is some defense in place. AT Mines would also prevent the enemy from sending out too many troops to repair and on the side of the Raven map we had, there are only two long roads for their troops carriers to go through which could be cut off easily with two troops with AT mines. If anything, mines at least alert us to enemy troop movements.

Now, I wasn't on the squads with the APCs, but I also didn't notice too many of them in the game. And for this map, its tough to keep an APC moving, especially since Raven likes to plant AT Mines in front of and behind the main gate. But once we had the main gate and main road block down, the APCs need to push hard. One place I use to see enemy APCs when I was in Raven was directly behind the objective transports. Raven troops spawn exits point them forward so many troops just go straight and don't check out what is directly to their left or right unless an SL has FRAGOed an enemy APC. A repair team of one or two troops could keep an APC alive long enough to get the squad in to secure a transport. There are other places to put the APCs once the gate and roadblocks are down, but we just got to get them in there.

Just as a side question, does any one know a good site with the maps of each of these maps? I've seen them all in-game from both attacker and defender positions and think I know most of them fairly well, but actually having a picture of them could help in explaining these strategies better. And I'd really like to see Valor consistently kicking Raven and SVER's asses on every map.