AAR Operation: Assyrian Spearhead

[Edric]

First off, I wish to thank the following people:

Thank you Komissar, Scramble, and Phoenix for your input on my first solo Op.

Thank you Just Joe, Tank, and Komissar for the impromptu build day.

Thank you to my wife for putting up with me these last several weeks.

Thank you Joe Laderoute, and Kirk Erickson for helping with set up on Friday.

Thank you Jen and Tank for helping with props on Saturday.

Thank you Bill, and everyone else who helped feed the masses.

Thank you John with JF Paintball and Airsoft for your support.

Thank you Komissar and Katianna for allowing us the use of your back yard to camp and play in.

Most importantly thank you all for attending.

The US forces were dropped late Friday night, their orders to secure the site for the listening post. The Insurgent forces, meanwhile, ever wary, were ready for whatever the US drop might mean for them. OpCom tried hard to distract these individuals, claiming a lost goat and randomly firing off shots into the night, but both teams held fast. After the US signaled for the equipment drop, the insurgent forces went forward and quickly overran the US position. During the night, additional US and Iraqi Army forces pushed off the insurgent forces during the night at some point.

Morning found the US forces atop President's rock, with the insurgent forces patrolling their village. Unbeknownst to the US forces, Iranian Intelligence was running a recruiting operation with the local populous, though it ultimately proved fruitless. The US and Iraqi military set up a parameter and then went to collect their equipment at drop point Blue 1. They were met with resistance, but eventually overcame it and captured back their equipment. The CIA was contacted by a member of the insurgent forces and requested to be extracted out of country in exchange for vital information. The Iranians caught wind of this, and ordered the traitor killed. The US forces fought valiently and secured the rescue of the defector, who was airlifted via the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system. The US forces returned to their Iraqi Army allies just in time to assist them in repelling an almost overwhelming attack by insurgent forces. The Iranian operatives, with the help of the insurgent push, secured the body of an American soldier and displayed it for the disbelieving Iraqi townspeople.

Fighting subsided for a moment, and the US and Iraqi military forces were able to secure their positions. The insurgents retreated back into the village. The town's leader approached the US forces, now believing that they were in his town, and asked why they should be allowed to operate in his village. The US commander laid it on the line straight. There was going to be war in their area, which side would they choose? Do they want to be in front of American guns or behind them? Taking this into consideration, the village leader confronted the insurgents and their Iranian puppet masters with and wanted to know why the village should tolerate them. The Iranian officers and insurgent leader considered this, and offered peace and an influx in funds to assist the village rebuild and prosper.

With the listening post built, and the defector debriefed, the US forces learned of the Iranian involvement and sought to capture vital intelligence papers to bring to the attention of the international community. During their operation, the village leader shot at the US forces, and it was clear which direction the village had taken. With the intelligence recovered, and listening post established, it was clear that it was time for the US to get out of Iraq before things got really ugly. They fought hard and were successfully extracted.

Please, tell me what you liked and didn't like about my first solo Op. I am looking forward to planning my next one.

[Komissar]

Well Edric beat me to the AAR by 37 minutes. But here it is.

On February 10th and 11th, 2012 Operation: Assyrian Spearhead was held Drakes field in Browns Valley, California. The OP ran from Friday at set-up and included night OPs. It continued Saturday, and was concluded at approx 1600 hrs.

OPCOM was Edric from Diamond Corps.

Diamond Corps operators included: Scramble, Kattiana, Komissar, Bill, Ziggy, Furge, Jen, Spidedd,  FlapJack, Just Joe, Tank, Sarge, Hi-Cap, and Jensen.

This post is to give congratulations to Edric as well as report what went well, and what didn't, so that we might learn and become better solders for our battles to come.

Registration and E-mail sign-up:

Edric used a new e-mail system to assist in registering operators for this event.

All operators who registered for this event took it seriously, and had viable concerns which were answered on the forum and using an e-mail system. I may utilize this system in upcoming events myself if it is found to be as successful as it appears.

Event Set up and KP:

My thanks to Kirk and Joe Laderoute who on Friday helped greatly in our set-up.

All of our operators were well equipped and self reliant.

Special thanks to Edric, Jen, Bill, and Jensen who contributed to the operator breakfast on Saturday, as well as hot chocolate on the Friday night OP. It felt like camping which was always a great time for me.

 

Friday night Prep: I think the light social feel at arrival was good in that it gave operators a chance to ready their gear. and even double check it in anticipation of the night ops. In preparation for the night-ops I could see that this is where Edric had put a great deal of thought and detail into this.

 Night ops: At approx. 2115, the operators took to the field for the night OP. The US force and the Insurgents both took a while to get comfortable with the low light. Despite the nearly full moon, it was overcast which blotted out even the stars. About the only light at all was from a refection of the city, (approx. 15 miles away), which reflected off the low cloud cover. This resulted in operators being unable to use night vision without the assist which can give their target an equal benefit.

After some time, and a bit of prompting by OPCOM, the insurgent forces moved to attack the US force who had secured the top of the hill. It seemed that the first assault didn't break through the US line, and a second push was required before they could be moved.

- I had a great time assisting Edric during the night-op portion of the OP and don't have many details of the battles.

The official night-ops ended at around 2230 hrs, and most of the operators enjoyed the war stories around the campfire. Of course there are always a die-hard few who took to the field again for another round out in the dark.

Secure the Area:

Beginning on Saturday the US force deployed at the top of the hill and moved to secure an area where they had set up a listening post. From here they moved to locate and recover a defector and gain intel on the region.

The Iranian MINSIRI wasted no time in "encouraging" the local insurgents to assist in finding the traitorous defector. During their engagements they even found the time to deliver some very convincing negotiations with the locals. These negotiations would later be found of importance as the US and Iraq forces defended their listening post.

Excellent foreign PR skill demonstrated by Ferge as the leader of the Iranian MINSIRI. Good time.

As the battles continued, the US forces managed to recover the Iraqi defector and return to their hilltop. The insurgents seemed a little disorganized remained effective in their efforts to harass the Iraqi military forces.

-Me? I was a disgruntled fuel station owner who was not about to negotiate with the trouble causing Iranians, or the US forces (If I ever saw any). The Iranians finally convinced me to leave my fuel station, and join them by bringing one of the US operators right to my door! A Ji-had began to drive the foreign invaders from our province.

Of course it wasn't official just yet.

Lunchtime:

Thanks again to all who did the bringing, preparing, and cooking! Thanks to Bill, I had a hand delivered burger and chips, when usually I don't even have time for water. Thanks again.

Finishing the Job:

After lunch, battles raged back and forth over the Blue Base where the Iraqi forces where launching attacks toward the insurgents. My small group, through tireless persistence was able to finally get over the top of the hill and take the listening post. Flapjack dismantled the equipment before we both moved to rejoin our insurgent allies near the Silo.

Conclusions:

I know that there was a great deal more that went on during this OP. I can only be in one spot and that is the perspective I write this from. I would like to read about all the action I could hear going on from my morning stations. I had a good time, and want to thank Edric for putting in so much work on delivering this OP.

In retrospect I would like to see more detail at the briefing to give a solid identity to the operators, who their allies, and mission orientation. I personally had an advantage in this from speaking with Edric for the last months prior to OP launch, and could better understand the forces and their missions. I am anxious to hear from the operators themselves.

Great OP. Lots of challenge, and a strong basis to build on for future events! Thanks Edric.

[Edric]

I'll be honest, I wasn't happy with my briefings either. I had so much stored in my head, and I ended up forgetting most of it. Next time, I will remember to have bullet points to remind me what I need to talk about.

Thanks Komissar for your breakdown.

[Joe Laderoute]

Thanks for having us, and i would like to add if there is to be another night op maybe considering using tac lights as an advantage and not just as a "dead" signal especially if its going to be low light situations other than that it was very well planned out and went smoothly even with some confusion between allies. One last critique, if we are going to use flares in the future we should try to aquire road flares to mark the combat/drop zone. If you need help with setting up more ops in the future i am happy to help just as long as i can get a weeks notice, thanks for the great time and im looking foward to seeing some pictures posted soon. -Joe Laderoute

[Komissar]

Although I am not new to participation in night ops, I learned several things which are going to allow me to produce even better results in the upcoming RECON Challenge. Thanks again to Edric for giving this educational preview. And thanks for the offer Joe!

[StierCo Industries]

Edric, this OP is going to be the first post in my blog I will send you the link later

[Edric]

Sounds good StierCo, I am looking forward to what you have to say. Thanks again for coming out, and please extend an apology to your team for any misunderstandings that came up about the Night Op.

[Edric]

Well, I am going to start things here.

What I didn't like about this op: I had a problem with the pace of the night op. I was anticipating more tension and less boredom. I didn't adequately compensate for the drop in players for the day op, which led to some slow parts of the day op. I didn't like my briefings and frequently remembered details that I should have given. I didn't like how the teams were organized. I didn't adequately communicate my wish for team leaders to create fire teams. I didn't like how the "flair" worked out. I didn't enjoy the creative re-purposing of the smoke bomb.

What I liked about this op: I liked the use of lights as death rags. I enjoyed the limited ammo. I liked that some people were getting into character. I liked the teamwork I saw. I liked people's control and overall maturity. It was much easier for me to have everyone e-mail the e-mail I set up just for this op, for organization purposes.

Originally, it was my goal to give the insurgents some suicide bombers, but I ran out of time and funding to figure them out properly. So I am still thinking about that. It was also my goal to have more props built, but once again I hit the funding and time problem. Next time I run one of these, I am going to work on filling out the story lines better. As well as better communicating with everyone more thoroughly the story, as well as my intentions. 

[Bluewolf]

It sounds like a well run op.  I am sorry that I was not able to attend.  I know Peter will continue to make great opts and I look forward to being a part of future gaming opportunities .

[Tank]

as leader of the durkah durkahs i think the op was very well planned out and very thought out in the different aspects of the missions. now for communication between the players on my side was very minimal... thank you to those who would check in. now the story of the op i felt that it started off a bit rocky... we got the general idea of where we were and who we were but at first i did not get the feeling of actually being an insurgent. during the morning is when i finally got the story i was looking for and actually got into my role... i must admit when i started using arabic some guys gave me very very strange looks so then i switched it up into the typical akmed the dead terrorist sort of thing. i gotta admit i was very amused with my "character" i had so much fun being durkah durkah numero uno and im glad others enjoyed my "character" too. all and all edric i think that this was a great op. it far exceeded my expectations and if i was new i would have thought this would not have been your first op. from my perspective it was very well run and very well put together and the team separation and limited ammo was great too. i also am going to take the assigned uniforms and put them into my ops that was a great idea.

[Blazed]

On Feb. 10th I received orders(via email) regarding my deployment and squad situation.  My superior and team was wiped out(only one guy from Iraq showed up for the night op) during the evening of Feb 11th and my orders were to get to the area(presidents rock) and find and take control of any troops still in the area.  

Feb 12th 09:30ish: Upon arrival I met up with the rest of the Iraqi forces and then proceeded to contact our American allies who then gave me orders to be deployed to presidents rock. My squad went into immediate action creating a perimeter of the area assigned. We designated a Radio man(bull) for we had only one radio to communicate with the leader of the American squad(Scramble).  Upon arrival to presidents rock we found the last remaining survivor of our forces(Hi-Cap) who had held position all by his self.  Luckily he had scavenged all the Ammo he could from our fallen soldiers which helped us immensely for the day op.  His former knowledge of the area helped us set up the new perimeter which we held down for a while. Truth is we were getting a bit restless and itchy finger syndrome for a while and then got a call for support from The Americans who needed help in securing some communication equipment. I sent a four man team to assist who completed the mission flawlessly. The Americans left to try and find from what I understand a VIP to whom was important to the insurgents leaving us to wait.  After a bit of shooting at ghost and snipers we were finally under attack.  The insurgents were coming at full force to which we then called for back up.  The American troops arrived but  Shortly after that we had a breach on the North side of our perimeter which gutted our belly and lead to our demise, followed by lunch.

After lunch we were then redeployed to presidents rock where we again held perimeter.  We stood  holding the perimeter for quite some time without much action and then received orders to help the American troops attack Silo.  I took a small crew to assess the situation.  After taking over blue2 I then called for backup for the Silo.  Unfortunately upon my rush on the Silo with the American troops my trigger broke and I was quickly slayed.

Being my first true mission in charge I tried to remember all of my squads name and did it rather successfully to my surprise. Thanks to Ziggy, Zane, Cross, Frosty which is actually frost but sounded too much like cross soooo...., Logan, Spidad, Hi-cap and bull.  If I forgot someone so sorry but Im lucky I remembered that much.   Our orders were simple which were to listen to the American troops so not much confusion there.  I had a clear understanding for the most part on what was going on. Though I do say I had no idea about the fuel guy.  I think it went down like it should though with the Iraqis left rather in the dark awaiting orders.  I thought the op was ran well.  The only complaints I heard is it seemed people in our squad wanted a bit more action but at the same time we had roles to fill and at the end of the day we all had fun.  I really enjoyed organizing my squad and thank Edric for giving me the chance to fill the position which I did to my best ability.  Everyone loved the limited ammo and seem to want even greater restraints on it.  I don't mind that so much as long as there is a way to resupply I think it could be interesting.  I had an Awesome day and cant wait for Edric's next one.  Great Job on your first op!

[Komissar]

Blazed, . . . your a natural!

[Edric]

Wow! Thanks guys!