Fishbone

Introduction

Today I experienced my first time commanding a complete battle in Project Reality. After getting my squad as the best of the team three times in a row and started to get even more lucky with a fourth one I had to step up in Qwai as our US team was losing badly and the previous commander didn't build anything. In the end I was suprised how long we held and we even recaptured Mine and Processing Facility. I got the idea that the key was placing a few assets and direct the squads just a little bit.

Once Fools Road loaded up I applied for Militia commander as I did not want a rerun of the previous battle and so began my first battle as commander.

Starting out
We started with a small team and had a few single or two men squads and of course a sabotage squad to take advantage of the rule change regarding the bridge. That left me with just 2 infantry squads and my orders didn't seem to hit home and probably rightly so. I told my SLs that I wanted a bunker at Hilltop Estate, but I started with Helicopter Air Base (see map) as that was the flag the squads were heading to. After that I quickly drove to Hilltop and made another bunker. So far so good.



First contact
Then I really started to feelthe lack of squads that could capture flags. We barely had enough to defend Hilltop and attack another flag. I still yet had to gain control over my squads so they mostly went on their own to start capturing train depot. In the meantime an APC and infantry were approaching Hilltop but the defending squad held them off. As there was little progress at Train Depot I got myself killed in the defense allowing me to spawn at main. I drove a truck through the trees, remembering why the Romans built roads and got a squad helping me to build a firebase. It was meant to help squads quickly reinforce the attack on Train Depot and help them get AT for destroying APCs.

I toppled my truck so it was again time to get myself killed, this time helping to attack. Didn't work out quite so well as I stayed in life only to drive a smoking technical to oblivion.

All that time sabotage squad was still near the British UCB and even seem to have started firing into it. I called them off and eventually they seemed to understand that their talents where needed elsewhere. Luckily after a while they got a new squad leader who talked more and gave me another squad to work with.

The turning point
Spawned back at main again and saw and got a report that the British had destroyed the bunker at Hilltop and were almost done capturing it. Luckily the militia were able to capture Train Depot just in time and so we only needed to get Hilltop back.

And it was at that point that I really started to notice the difference between commanding and squad leading. With the former you see a map with dots moving around and all you can do is ask for a situation report and possibly sent some reinforcements. As squad leader you notice the deaths of teammates, the bullets flying around your ears, making the decisions wether the press on or fall back. It is much more down to earth fighting. As a commander it was almost surreal so great was the difference, at least for me. I was a ghost with a diesel engine hovering between the battles and through the forest.

The squads were able to get Hilltop back and I started to praise the squads even more hoping that the grunts would understand that I was appreciating their efforts greatly.

After that realization I started to ask more often for situation reports, got them and started to give more orders to squads besides helping me build and the occasional attack and defend order. I drove another truck all the way to G4, apparently in the middle of a battle between squads and a nearby bunker. Still we were able to build another Firebase and by then my line of defense was established, see figure.

The beginning of the end
Although we had Hilltop Estate and Train Depot and the squads were all along the frontline (in a good way!) we still had to get Warehouse. And that flag was tough to get. I had one squad asking for reinforcements and eventually I could get practically all the squads on that flag. By that time I had of course no longer a truck as it got stuck between the trees at G4 so it again time to die like an hero. But no, I was then just joining in the capture of the flag and we started to gain control. Even so, we were still behind in tickets and our only way of winning was getting Village.

But by then all the squads were on the ball and it was more or less a steamroller of squads moving north and south of the road to village. Once we had that captured the British were bleeding and we won with around 37-0 tickets.

Afterthoughts

And that was my glorious end of my first time commanding a battle. It went pretty well and I hope that the SLs felt that I was supporting them and not being a typical new commander who doesn't the know what is going on in the field.

If there is a next time I will definitely be asking for more situation reports and trying to keep a good overview of which squad is doing what and how long they are trying to achieve their objective. As there is little tactics involved as the sequence of capturing flags is set in stone I have the idea that the concept of good commanding lies in knowing when your squads need support and how to develop a frontline and fallback point by placing bunkers and firebases. And to achieve that the commanders needs to ask situation reports and provide the squad leaders with feedback on how other squads are doing.

Still there is much to learn as a battle of Kashan will require different skills such as taking care of all the transport choppers, tanks and jets.

As a final word I would like thank all the squad leaders and members that were on the Militia team on monday, first of July, at around 16:00 GMT! You made this an awesome experience!

Cheers,
Fishbone

d1sp0sabl3H3r0

Fish - +rep for you and a very nice AAR! Welcome to the big chair - we need more regular COs on this server!

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|TG-X|d1sp0sabl3

Fishbone

Thanks! This game has certainly encouraged me enough to have a few more tries at it if no one is commanding.

And a question that arose after writing the post. We were almost constantly behind in tickets and then I remembered that I destroyed a bunker as it got placed in a wrong position. Is it true that placing bunker and firebases cost tickets? And what about AA? I remember reading it somewhere, but couldn't find it again in the manual or guide.

TheSkudDestroyer

Great read, nice map too!

I love visual aides

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|TG-6th|Skud, NA Deputy Lead Tester
-F- Skudly

gijoe

Wow really inpressive AAR! That is intense and the map really helps to understand what was going on!

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imnotacanadian

Very nice AAR. The map is great too. I am very impressed.

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