Commander's Critique: Focus, Decision-Making, and Hesitation

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Ferrard Carson
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Commander's Critique: Focus, Decision-Making, and Hesitation

Post by Ferrard Carson »

July 7th's Grishinokessel was all of 3 minutes long, but there is a very, very important lesson to be learned here. Please note that this is intended to be instructional, not personal. Everyone has an opportunity to learn from this. For educational purposes, let's review the transcript of Squad ( :v: ) and Squad Leader ( :zoidberg: ) comms from the entirety of this mission:

:v: "The IFV is leading, yeah?"
:zoidberg: {8 seconds of silence} "Umm... who just asked if IFV..." {12 more seconds of silence} "Who just said that IFV is leading?"
:v: {clarifying} "Is the IFV leading?" {11 seconds of silence} "Shall I overtake the IFV?"
:jihad: {sound of bullet hits and gunfire come from opposite sides of the truck, meaning they're flying past us}
:v: "We're taking fire, by the way!" {Starts driving again, passes IFV}
:zoidberg: "The IFV shouldn't be leading... Just a note for the situation itself, IFV is always going to be behind us, never in front of us."
:v: "Yeah, we're taking fire, small arms fire." "Yay, Ural leads the way..."
:zoidberg: {7 seconds of silence} "Yeah, go to the RV marker, all of you. Overtake the IFV if you have to." (ed. note: IFV is now 100m behind us already)
:v: {Sees troops running on the road ahead - can't tell the uniform, my finger scrolls to Eject, I await order to bail or bullets to indicate they are enemy} "Are those friendlies ahead? Troops ahead."
:zoidberg: {2 seconds pass} "..."
:jihad: {AT4 crashes through the windshield, insta-gibbing all of Bravo}

Squad lead was focused so intently on logistics and marching order that four (4) factors that should have rang alarms failed to register and trigger any decision-making at all. Those factors were:
  • 1) Bullets whizzing past the truck
    2) Report of taking fire
    3) Second report of taking fire
    4) Report of unidentified troops where we weren't expecting any.
A squad leader who is an entire conversation behind and fails to make decisions is not a squad leader, but a squad follower. A good squad lead will cut the logistics the moment a bullet flies by and focus on the task at hand, which is surviving the ambush. There's plenty of time to determine marching order after all the enemies are en-deadened by our rifles.

If a comrade in the squad leadership position cannot deal with the information flow and decision-making that comes with leadership, there are several steps that can be taken to mitigate the confusion:
  • First, try Mike's CC addon or another TS3 solution that allows you to place whispers in one ear or the other. This greatly simplifies your task of focusing purely on what's important.
  • Second, be clear and concise when you're speaking, and demand the same of your FTLs.
  • Third (and this one is weird coming from me) stop thinking and start doing. A poor decision now is often better than no decision at all. You'll screw up, you'll make mistakes, but so long as you learn from those mistakes, then you're doing better than before you made that poor decision, even if you and your squad are out of this mission.
:clint: ~ Ferrard
"Take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turnin' of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurtin' before she keels... makes her home."

tryteyker
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Re: Commander's Critique: Focus, Decision-Making, and Hesita

Post by tryteyker »

Certainly some good advice that I'll try to implement next time I'm SLing. There's no doubt Grishnokessel was a failure from my side - mostly because I was being an extreme slowpoke. There were no actual communication problems (with that I mean there was no excessive chatter over CC that could've caused me to miss critical Squad-level info from my FTLs), but I took my sweet time to process information flowing in as I was very focused on reaching the RV point. I wasn't very flexible, to say the least. But thanks for the advice Ferrard, and I'll try do better next time.

Mr-Link
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Re: Commander's Critique: Focus, Decision-Making, and Hesita

Post by Mr-Link »

Since this is intended for learning and discussion, I would like to ask: Is there any reason why you would want the IFV (or any armoured vehicle that is not transporting troops) to be in the back while moving to the RV?

I understand that once you are AT the RV and you have your troops disembarked then yes you would probably want the IFV in the back to provide cover and reduce the chance of it being ambushed by infantry.

Just wondering for the sake of this mission or any other similar mission that we might attempt with any degree of combined arms.

As a side note: Grishinokessel at least from the briefing alone seemed like a really interesting mission. Kudos to Mojo for the nice work.

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Ferrard Carson
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Re: Commander's Critique: Focus, Decision-Making, and Hesita

Post by Ferrard Carson »

Mr-Link wrote:Since this is intended for learning and discussion, I would like to ask: Is there any reason why you would want the IFV (or any armoured vehicle that is not transporting troops) to be in the back while moving to the RV?

I understand that once you are AT the RV and you have your troops disembarked then yes you would probably want the IFV in the back to provide cover and reduce the chance of it being ambushed by infantry.

Just wondering for the sake of this mission or any other similar mission that we might attempt with any degree of combined arms.
The orders as given were intended for the actual sweeping phase of the mission, not transit. No one expected fire while in transit. In transit, there really isn't any reason at all for the IFV not to lead. As little armor as the BMP-3 has, it's still more than a truck.

The only case where I can think of it making any sense at all for an unarmored truck to take point is if you're using it to draw fire so the enemy reveals their position. Or to take out a few mines in a minefield so the IFV can maybe push through. Either way, you're wasting party resources and will be dealt with accordingly ( :commissar: )
Mr-Link wrote:As a side note: Grishinokessel at least from the briefing alone seemed like a really interesting mission. Kudos to Mojo for the nice work.
Very nice work indeed - I look forward to playing more o' your missions, Mojo. Just, a little clarity about where the "safe zone" ends would be nice.

~ Ferrard
"Take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turnin' of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurtin' before she keels... makes her home."

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Mojo
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Location: Spain

Re: Commander's Critique: Focus, Decision-Making, and Hesita

Post by Mojo »

Mr-Link wrote:Since this is intended for learning and discussion, I would like to ask: Is there any reason why you would want the IFV (or any armoured vehicle that is not transporting troops) to be in the back while moving to the RV?

I understand that once you are AT the RV and you have your troops disembarked then yes you would probably want the IFV in the back to provide cover and reduce the chance of it being ambushed by infantry.

Just wondering for the sake of this mission or any other similar mission that we might attempt with any degree of combined arms.

As a side note: Grishinokessel at least from the briefing alone seemed like a really interesting mission. Kudos to Mojo for the nice work.
Ferrard Carson wrote:Very nice work indeed - I look forward to playing more o' your missions, Mojo. Just, a little clarity about where the "safe zone" ends would be nice.

~ Ferrard
Thanks to you both, its good to see that my experiement has put some spotlight on combined arms. I would just like to point out that you are traveling near frontlines and therefore can never be sure if you will fall into an ambush or just run straight into the main enemy force. Putting the RV right at the doorstep of the frontline might not be a good idea.

As for the IFV, I personally see it as an offensive asset on open ground and as a shield in dense forest (thank you army training) There are a lot of ways to deploy the IFV in grishinokessel as it is not a vital mission object and both types of areas are present. A well thought out plan and a clear headed CO could ride it all to victory if he expects the unexpected. ;)

It may just have been a really bad day as I see that todays session went better.
And sorry for any messed up words, this spanish keyboard thinks that I am typing in spanish :commissar:

**EDIT**
I just saw Iceraisers video from that specific day and I am not really suprised that it went so bad. The IFV is stuck behind 2 trucks who are racing forward. Notice on his GPS how they cross the blue line (Friendly front) and head towards the red line (Enemy front). Just 100m from the line, the first truck containing bravo gets blown to pieces, killing almost everyone. From what I could read, they where supposed to go about 1 click, wich is quite deep in the enemy lines, and then also traveling on the most obvious route towards that target.
I guess that goes as a painfull lesson that frontlines should be respected and not be assaulted by trucks.
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