Operation Barracuda: October 20th

**Katanama** · 10-21-2009, 08:09 PM

This round of Barracuda ranks all the way up there among the best rounds I have participated in. What made it so good was that all infantry leaders (except the leader of a 2 man squad) were in the SL channel with the transport squad and the commander. The flags that were in play were North rock Fort, The beach flag between the forts (B6) and air strip.

Commander: Bullseye (15th)

Squad Leaders: AFsoccer (6th devils), james-d, STealthBanana, R3dcobr@ and me + some german guy I cant remember.

Transport Pilots: Wookie (6th MD), shrivaldo and one that I have forgotten.

CAS Pilots: hipcraka and SuperflyEnt

The previous round had been pretty equal and therefore I was surprised how well this round turned out for the USMC. When I loaded in I was expecting the usual chopper crash and having trouble getting to shore. Safe to say it turned out a bit different...

There is a map with the relevant flag further down and I have also drawn in the initial assault plan as I remember it.

Bullseye started by going commander, Wookie (2)* made a transport squad and hipcraka (1) a CAS squad. Soccer (4), james (5) and me (3) were the only squad leaders in the beginning of the game. Bullseye ordered 2 to take everyone to where the swamp flag would be if it had been on the map. This would be our staging area from where we would move out. When we landed my squad moved south to secure that flank while 4 or 5 build a FoB.
Then my squad and 5 were to attack supplies while 4 moved down to around C5. The attack on supplies was executed by my squad moving up to provide overwatch from E6 for squad 5 that was coming in from the straight north of the flag. Supplies was empty so it was secured and a FoB build. Squad 5 stayed and defended the FoB while my squad moved to link up with 4 for an assault on north rock fortification.
This assault was executed with an air strike and then infantry moving in. Some of my squad and Soccers squads moved in while the heavy weapons (SAW, grenadier, LAT) stayed back. We took down the enemy FoB and killed the enemy there quickly and then started to fortify our position there. When we had capped fort the TEAM had a KD of ~20-1.
We were now defending against sporadic attacks for the next 30-40 minutes until we had an area attack up. This time was spent consolidating our position and hunting down enemies. The enemy had build many defences on the hill facing north rock by south rock and these defences were slowly killed off. It was in this time that most of the other squad were created and they helped flesh out our team. They were patrolling around the areas around the north rock while me and 4 were holding on the rock and 5 was on supply.
During this defence period my squad moved around. First we were on the south-east side killing anything that moved here all the spotting was really good communications between me and soccer was right on he told me everything I needed and I think I did the same (maybe I forgot to tell him about some contacts but thats just because I wanted the kills for my squad

). After having been there for a while I was tasked with taking out a rally on the south-west side. This didn't take long and then I made what was probably my biggest mistake of the round. I set my squad (- AR up un the pillbox in B5k3 from where we were engaged by sporadic sniper/marksman fire we suffered some casualties but nothing major (2 or 3).
when the area attack was up I called it in on the B6 flag and when it had hit me squad 6 (redcobra) and 7 (the german squad) moved in while 4 and 8 (STealthBanana) defended the rock. My squad was wiped out on our first attempt where I called in CAS on a few targets but it never went thru (don't really know why). We went in again where 5 was coming in from south rock to support and this made the difference. When the german squad had been killed they had spawned by the air strip and was sitting on the flag when we had capped (I think). As soon as we had capped the B6 flag 5 and 6 moved to airstrip while my squad stayed and defended the flag. The air strip was capped in quick succession and when we started neutralising it Bullseye was quick to call in a helo to bring 4 to the enemy main to attack that. They did this successfully and we had them capped out

During the round no transport and 3-4 attack hueys were lost (by my count). This have to be an all time low for this map. I would like to think that it was because we were quick to identify threats to the helicopters and take them out but I don't know.

So I would like to say thanks to the other leaders involved on the US side this round because it was a pleasure being part of this assault. I would also like to say thanks to my squad (GoreZiad, Reddish_Red, SingS1ng, bigsam656 and Harlequin (55th)) for being nice to work with and making leading them the easiest thing in the world. In squad communication was good really enjoyed the round.

Lessons Learned:
since I think every AAR should have a conclusion on what was good or bad I better write one

. My biggest grief was that I was on multiple occasions had problems getting thru with CAS requests. This was annoying but not critical but it is seriously the only thing that I can see kept this round from perfect. 6 of my squads deaths (11 total) were due to bad luck (sniper shoots the revived thru the smoke/stuck in walls that kind of stuff) and the other 5 were because we were all but one wiped out on our first assault on the B6 flag because I was not able to get my CAS request thru so they could kill the guys keeping our heads down. I refused to make a second push if I could not get CAS because it would just end up wasting more tickets. I would say the patient strategy paid off and this is a perfect example that attacking all the time is not the correct answer.

I think I better stop now I will just end by saying that this AAR is not just here to say good game to my team/squad. But instead to highlight how big a difference good coordination can do. When the round started I would have guessed the teams were about even. If I look at pure skill (squad leading and shooter) of the people I knew on the two teams. I would say they were even when we were half way thru the game. But because We had a commander with a solid strategy and every squad leader was willing to play ball we wiped the other team off the map, literally.

_____________
*Indicates the squad number

**Bullseye2550** · 10-21-2009, 10:19 PM

that was a real good experience again as commander.

I was all the time very busy with communication and i enjoyed that game.

There were some highlights in this game:

1. communication & teamwork
2. following orders
3. no asset whoring
4. no tard rushing
5. full squads using medics
6. no choppers killed by doing stupid things
7. amazing k/d ratio (i remember about 200 / 60)

the west side of the map was hardly defended against choppers, so i didnt want to lose choppers there, sorry katanama when you didnt get the cas you wanted.

i ordered sq7 (german squad) to stay at the airport tower.

i want to thank all players that worked for the team!

for me it was a perfect round of barracuda.

PS: dont forget that you can nominate your teammates for ribbons

**AFsoccer** · 10-25-2009, 01:28 AM

I agree... this was definitely a great team effort! And Katanama, nice map.

As Kat stated, my infantry squad moved from the landing zone to the trenches in C5. We encountered resistance on the way but we worked well as a squad, spotting targets, covering each others flanks, clearing enemy contacts before the medic went in for revives, etc. After a few minutes of gun battle, we determined that the squad attacking us was coming from the C5 trenches. We also saw an AA shoot off from there, so we made that our first objective (before heading to the flag) because we knew we had to clear out the AA if we wanted air support. The squad made quick work of clearing the trenches. Sure, we took casualties, but once again relied on our squad mates and medic to keep everyone alive.

Once the trenches were cleared, we called in two air strikes on North Rock. One hit the FOB and the other the AA gun and HMG (as well the enemy troops around those positions). The helo pilots did an incredible job, and we made a point of making sure to give them feedback so they knew they hit the targets. After the air strikes we moved in with the other two squads and cleared out a few remaining infantry. Then we requested crates for an FOB, which arrived within 20 seconds of asking for them (totally amazing). I think the transport pilots were in a holding pattern waiting for the all-clear to proceed in.

Bullseye then assigned defensive perimeters and my squad had the east side. We set up a sniper for precision targets, an AR to suppress groups, and a grenadier to target enemies behind cover. Once again my squad was great about spotting targets and I made sure to relay pertinent info to Bullseye. After about 45 minutes of defense, I don't think the enemy made it into the flag zone once. They got close but when one of our squads got overwhelmed, we re-allocated manpower to support. At this point my squad had a KTD of 32-3. I have to give kudos to the medic for being so dedicated and for my squad mates for allowing the medic time to revive. In this case, it made all the difference.

While we defended, Bullseye saw an opportunity to send a squad (or two) to the other two flags. I honestly don't know what occurred there, but that's good. That means the communication was limited to what was needed for the person hearing it. Within a few seconds of Airfield being captured by our team, Bullseye had a transport helo landing at North Rock to pick us up. This was the second time during the battle that a helo popped up within seconds of me thinking, "a helo would be great about now." The pilot didn't land too early (i.e. before we were ready or had cleared the LZ, thus risking a shoot-down) and thus only had to be on the ground for about 15 seconds.

The quick transport enabled us to get to the east side of Missile Silo before the enemy really had time to set up defenses or gather troops. We used a grapple hook to insert my 6 guys into the east entrance and started capping the flag almost immediately. About a minute or two later, another squad showed up using the same method of ingress that was successful for us and we capped the flag.

Like Katanama said, I was pleasantly suprised at how well the team did. We didn't have a lot of "elite" shooters or anything, but we focused on smart tactics and communication. Another thing that I thought was amazing was that during the match I had several turn-overs in my squad. In fact, I think only one or two of the original squad mates were in the squad when the map ended. I imagine this happened in other squads to (due to SM kick), but we stayed focused on the basics and quickly reassigned roles as needed.

Thanks again to my guys, the other SLs, the helo pilots (both attack and transport), and Bullseye for pulling it all together!

**Berlancic** · 11-07-2009, 01:53 AM

Good work, sounds like it was fun. I like that little tactical overview map you drew. Makes you feel like you were apart of the battle even when you weren't, and also can explain a lot without words. This is a bit off-topic, but we should be able to write on maps like that, if it was possible. Swamp is the staging area, S4 conducts a near direct and shallow advance to north rock. Your squad conducts a wide flank and advance to North rock, also allowing cover of S5. And S5 conducts an advance to the SW to supply fort. S4 waits for you (judging from the key), and S5 waits for you to get to your first wait-point so you can cover the advance to the fort. After S5 is in position at supply fort, you continue the advance to north rock, link up with S4, then conduct a joint assault on North rock. Then, S4 defends the main North Rock area, you swing around and defend the outer perimeter of North Rock. That's what that map thingy tells me. Awesome.

Once again good work, excellent effort. Excuse my going on and explaining the exact same thing you explained first off Kat hehe. I just really like the map drawing.