TacDom - 20 Aug 2010

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Let's get it on.

 

 

Starting at regular time. All new AOs. Would love to get two separate full teams working together tonight.

[SkeleTele~SPARTA~]

Im in ;)

[Yankee~SPARTA~]

Some of us work til 5 ya know!

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Some of us work til 5 ya know!

 

 

lmao, yah unfortunately We should still be around, and if not, start asking around.

[SkeleTele~SPARTA~]

im thinking of installing arma on my work comp so i can play any time.....you think that would be a good idea...............hhmmmm i wonder

[MH6~SPARTA~]

Some of us work til 5 ya know!

 

Amen brother.

 

Sucks coming in right as everyone is usually getting tired out and quitting.

[Cent~SPARTA~]

Let's get it on.

 

 

Starting at regular time. All new AOs. Would love to get two separate full teams working together tonight.

Im in baby.

[Yankee~SPARTA~]

I haven't done a tac dom in months because everyone has already gone off to the pub by the time I'm getting home and done paying attention to the wife.

[GooniversalSoldier~SPARTA~]

I can see all of you clowns on the TS server applet on the forums but im stuck at work (PST!) WAAAAHHHH

[Blue_Hackle]

I'm still a bit rusty, so I'm not gonna dive in at the deep end this week. Another couple of sessions with yuo guys on the public server and I should be good to go for next friday though!

[EMT~SPARTA~]

Tac dom for us workers/ attention givers. At 8:00 pm US eastern time? Anyone in?

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

I wish I could play during Friday evenings, but the wife comes home and it's really hard to do anything while my kid is hanging off my shoulders punching buttons.

 

Hope you guys had fun tonight on the Feruz Base AO. The hardest part of this whole thing is getting everyone coordinated, trying to see my vision. I try my best to explain how things should go, hopefully everyone can see what I'm trying to do.

 

The reason I wanted us to be as silent as possible and shooting as few bullets as possible before we got to that hilltop was because Delta's intel report said there were over 50 infantry huddled in the area on the other side. I was affraid that if we tripped the AO too early, they would all start to spill up the hill before we were ready. More times than not, it's best not to shoot at a target the first second you see him. Either way, we were able to successfully take the two camps without the enemy realizing what happened, then set up in a HUGE line of fire that rained down on the enemy constantly. That was probably the coolest Arma scene I saw in a month.

 

A few quirks, but nothing too damaging. When moving in a line, we have to realize that we are only as fast as our slowest person. It's a constant thing to tow the line, but we did it well enough while moving down the hill. We had a few stragglers, and a few speed demons, but I'd say about 75% of us stayed right on line, which was great. Also, when you're in a huge line like that, make sure you "stay in your lane" meaning if you're in the middle, there's no reason to look 90deg to the left or right, or even backwards as I saw some doing. That will get you or your buddy killed when you take your attention off your "lane."

 

I honestly thought that AO was frickin awesome, just to see the ammount of fire we're capable of when executing a coordinated attack. We even pulled off a successful squad-over-squad flanking manuver!

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Great plan Durka I really enjoyed it.. The next AO suffered from blue on blue incidents, because of the problem you described.

[JackSeven]

Its almost 6 p.m. PST and Im ready for some TAC. I caught the tail end of tac earlier and I still want some more, so gimme some mo.

 

J-7

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Get the guys together on TS, determine who your mission commander is, and then start filling out the roles. Hopefully there will be enough to do the main AOs, and if not, then run the side missions.

 

One thing we need is some more volunteers to do the Mission Commander slots. I'm going to put a post up this weekend about it and give a "checklist" of sorts to keep things moving fast/smooth. Hopefully it'll encourage more to do it.

[Hunter~SPARTA~]

Great plan Durka I really enjoyed it.. The next AO suffered from blue on blue incidents, because of the problem you described.

 

Partly because of not watching our lane, but there were other factors that played into it, as well. I believe it was Sphinx I team killed when bravo began to out pace alpha, but were leaving OPFOR behind them. So we in alpha squad were getting tore up by enemy that was behind bravo's line, but then we couldn't always distinguish exactly where bravo elements were to not shoot them.

 

Which brings me to communication. Tonight was really only my second time getting to play Tac Dom with yall, so by all means correct me if I'm wrong in anything I say. Or if this issue has been brought up before and our current system is simply just the best we can do with what we have, then I can understand that. But communications at the upper echelons, I believe, needs some work. Not so much in the sense of relaying information, I thought that was good, but more in regards to the "scope", if you will. I don't see any reason that the MC needs to be broadcasting to the entire squad channel. By doing so, in many ways, it makes the squad leaders less important. Troops will hear what the MC has to say and begin to execute immediately, before the squad leader even has a chance to survey the situation and gain tactical awareness of the task at hand. Admittedly, having the MC set his whisper binds strictly to the squad leader would be more work for him, but I think it would help. Not to mention that some people don't realize the MC is whispering to the channel and trying to reply to him, just adding unnecessary chatter to the net. Again, if this is an old issue, I apologize. Just stating what I observed. Any and all feedback welcomed.

 

Gripes aside, I felt it was a pretty good night. All three gentlemen that stepped up for MC, my hat is off to you. Well executed plans with a good flow of information. Props also goes to Cent for running Alpha squad for most of the night. Lastly, to my squad mates that later became my soldiers after Cent departed (their misfortune), it was good running with you.

 

Looking forward to next time.

 

 

- JHunter

[MedicSN6]

Get the guys together on TS, determine who your mission commander is, and then start filling out the roles. Hopefully there will be enough to do the main AOs, and if not, then run the side missions.

 

One thing we need is some more volunteers to do the Mission Commander slots. I'm going to put a post up this weekend about it and give a "checklist" of sorts to keep things moving fast/smooth. Hopefully it'll encourage more to do it.

 

Maybe we need to write a PDF manual on some basic parts of being an MC. Some things do, some things to avoid doing. Basically a Sparta written handbook that generalizes the role and function of Mission Commander.

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

 

Which brings me to communication. Tonight was really only my second time getting to play Tac Dom with yall, so by all means correct me if I'm wrong in anything I say. Or if this issue has been brought up before and our current system is simply just the best we can do with what we have, then I can understand that. But communications at the upper echelons, I believe, needs some work. Not so much in the sense of relaying information, I thought that was good, but more in regards to the "scope", if you will. I don't see any reason that the MC needs to be broadcasting to the entire squad channel. By doing so, in many ways, it makes the squad leaders less important. Troops will hear what the MC has to say and begin to execute immediately, before the squad leader even has a chance to survey the situation and gain tactical awareness of the task at hand. Admittedly, having the MC set his whisper binds strictly to the squad leader would be more work for him, but I think it would help. Not to mention that some people don't realize the MC is whispering to the channel and trying to reply to him, just adding unnecessary chatter to the net. Again, if this is an old issue, I apologize. Just stating what I observed. Any and all feedback welcomed.

 

Yeah, that pisses me off to no end, but it's honestly the best we can do. When we started this whole thing, we knew these problems would exist, but the structure of the channels and whisper lists was meant as a time-saving and user-friendly device, which outweighed the cons of having to broadcast to the entire channel. It's just too complicated to set up different whisper commands every friday, and then change them again when a new TL or MC comes along. It's what we're stuck with, but it shouldn't be a problem since our mature players are respecful towards one another. It's mostly just keeping situational awareness.

 

LoL, I can go into the theory of warfighting all day long and fascinate myself with the history and technique of it, but you guys would be bored to tears

 

Maybe we need to write a PDF manual on some basic parts of being an MC. Some things do, some things to avoid doing. Basically a Sparta written handbook that generalizes the role and function of Mission Commander.

 

That's what I was thinking, except it'd just be a post.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Jhunter your comments are fair.

 

The MC sets out a plan, but the squad leader executes the plan. The manner of the execution is down to the squad leader. Its not about racing in a straight line to a dot on the map. Bravo did move faster (your comments about not clearing their zone are noted). I think Durka said yesterday you can only move as fast as the slowest element, especially when 2 squads are moving in line abreast.. Its up to the squad leaders to make sure that they syncronize their positions by checking the map. This is where the forcefulness of the squad leader comes in to play. If the team moves on the command of the MC, you have to tell them to move on your command, because the manner of the movement is down to the SL. I noticed that Bravo were getting ahead, but didnt know that Alpha were taking hits from their left flank (bravos zone). If you had told me I would have halted the advance to deal with it.

 

Mostly, this was a failure on my part, not yours.

 

So if you step up to the SL role the first thing you tell your squad is to move only on your command and dont be shy about letting the MC know if he (I) is (am) fucking up.

 

This is a message to everyone, Tacdom is not a race, we have had SLs before running round the AO like blue arsed flys. A good mission is one where there are few deaths, not one that was completed in a short period of time.

[peter~SPARTA~]

Don't be so hard on yourself Zeno.

We never get a chance to form line abreast cuz we where pinned down at the beginning.

Moving Bravo skip middle between roads and fail to clear their own path. With 2 squads moving along roads we had about 200m wide strip of land where enemy was moving forward between Alfa and Bravo. We thought Bravo is going parallel to us so when we get shoot from our 11 clk, we return fire and Bravo was exactly behind enemy. Dense trees and bushes does not help in that neither.

 

There was also one incident that pissed me off. About this engagement witch suppose to be silent.

Most of us know assaulting down the hill is very difficult in Arma.

When we reach hill having Bravo on our left ( i was with alfa) We reach camp at the top of the hill. I look behinde ridge and saw enemy advancing up to the hill about 50 yards from the peek. We got order to move back and form line abreast. I did report enemy very close and follow order. 2 minutes later half of squad was dead when enemy appear on the top of the hill . We could avoid it. Forming a line without securing our positions was not as much important as response to advancing enemy. Some things that look nice in movies are not as effective as fast response to enemy movements.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

LOL, I am not being hard on myself, just taking responsibility for my actions (or lack thereof).

 

The incident you refer to is the domain of the SLs. The shoot/no shoot decision is theirs, even if the MC orders a silent approach, if a fight cannot be avoided the danger should be removed. But, too often, the desire to shoot stuff overwhelms players and they engage instead avoiding. Durkas plan went well in the previous AO precisely because all teams stayed out of trouble until everyone was in position. It was one of the best AOs I have ever seen executed.

 

I enjoyed my nights gaming immensely, shame I was late to join the party but a juicy Bison steak and an excellent wine distracted me.

[andrewman~SPARTA~]

I was on last night, for the first time in a couple of months, really enjoyed the game - Cent was very disciplined running Alpha and Durka hasn't lost his mojo as MC. "MORE" came the roar from the crowd.

 

Notwithstanding helicopters being taken out, casualities were light - the D30's are awesome - and I took some time to ID the Opfor - as it all looks different - had some difficulty with key bindings [as I had forgotten what key did what] and looking forward to getting some time on the varying weapons.

[Guest Asher]

I agree Feruz Abad was one of the best AOs I've ever done, Great job Durka!

 

Zeno's AO went smoothly in my opinion, a few mishaps but it was partially my fault. I was stepping on the gas with bravo when I should have tapped the brakes. We got too far ahead, and weren't spaced properly.

 

All mistakes aside It was some good fun bravo did a great job when I was leading. I did my best. I am Looking forward to next week.

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Peter, you are assuming I pulled off that movement because I thought "it looked nice in movies?" I hope no one else thought that.

[SkeleTele~SPARTA~]

I gotta say that being in delta squad was great. I really enjoyed providing over watch and marking targets for everyone, Haj Zeno Dia and Batwing great work and good coms. That was first tac dom night for me in months and I have to say it was the best that I could remember. Thank you Durka and Zeno for MCing ;) I think once people learn to follow orders fully and pay attention fully and i understand that sometimes its hard but once you realize your sectors and keep a good formation we will become a force that is unbeatable and suffer less causalities. Can't wait for next Friday!!