7th Black Regiment of Foot

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Reflections on Warmanoeuvers against the DA 25th SC infantry regiment

Opposing Commander: Colonel Concord (?)
Regiment: 25th South Carolina infantry
Opposing forces: 14 men


In command: Colonel Andrew
Fighting as: 7th GA
Regimental members in attendance: 10 men

Outcome: 3-3 DRAW



-: General description :-
This linebattle was rather hastily put together. The invitation came around 1600 CET and the battle was at 2100 CET but we still fielded a decent percentage of our members.

We fought on two maps with three rounds on each map. Both maps where huge in size but nicely designed. But to have benefited from the map design we would have needed atleast 50 more men on each side.

We fielded 9+1 men and the 25th fielded 13+1 men of which 4 served as riflemen.

(1) First round we marched straight down the center and were sadly hit in the flank from a corn field at rather close distance, taking 3 casualties before even realising that they were there. We took additional losses when we fixed bayonets. The ensuing charge was doomed to fail but necessary as they where to close for any other tactical opitions. All but two of the remaining troops were killed when trying to jump the fence seperating our men and their defensive positions.

Our foes were employing skirmish tactic with individual fire and maneuver which given the situation and terrain worked brilliantly for them.

(2) Second round we when down the same route and ended up in the same corn field that had seen our demise the round before. The 25th had circumvented us and we opened fire at extreme ranges. To hit close to their position we had to aim at the treetops. The 25th took up similar positions as our own with one exception; their rifles (?) took up position inside the farmhouse and fired out of the top floor windows. We fired 15 rounds each scoring two kills, and suffering none, before holding fire. Prior to this the 25th send out 2 runners (to our knowledge) to probe our flanks. These flankers were encouraged to desist with the activity and they hastily returned to their own lines.

When we held fire the 25th advanced half the distance and stopped behind cover when we put one volley in their direction. Following this volley we fixed bayonets and charged right. The effect of our charge was superb. Losing only two men we defeated the 25th soundly.

(3) The third round was a game of cat and mouse. We could not find them and again walk straight into their field of fire. We lost the Colonel to the first encounter and we lost three more men when we pulled back. After this a series of fire and move orders where issued. We fired reloaded and moved right. if we had train the Zipper maneuver we would have had both outmanueverd and out weight them in firepower. This was however not an option since the regiment are yet to familiarize itself with the tactic. The 25th were faster, since they had no organised fire or movement, but moving to our left as we moved right. We lost three men in the process and caused 4 casualties on the 25th. As the riflemen got close to our left we charged. This charged worked well, but we were counter charged in our flank by the main force before we had finished the flankers of. The 25th counter charge resulted in our loss of the round.

(4) The fourth round was on a new map. Nice map but still too large for the amount of players in the regimental linebattle.
Again we couldn't find the enemy and they fired first. Only this time from the rear and with no effect. We took cover among the trees next to the river and did an alternating fire and advance routine to put us in position to charge them. The charge it self was rather uneventful as we went into the corn field they were firing from and eliminated them, more or less one by one, in quick succession.

(5) This round saw an audacious charge by our regiment. We found the 25th on the other side of the river, by the stone bridge. They fired first and we took cover in the woods. As they were in the open and was for the first time organised into a line, we actually hit them at this extreme range. As the 25th saw that they were without cover they advanced  towards the bridge were cover was available. Seeing that they were disorganised the order was given to charge across the bridge. We only got one quarter of the bridge before the opened fire upon us. Some of them had the time to fire twice before we got across but we took minimal casualties and as we held our fire during the charge the stop and fire command was particularly effective when it was issued. Again the ensuing melee was furious and over quickly ending in our favour.

(6) Still along the river but this time it developed into a pure skirmish battle with us in our wood and the 25th in their. We took heavy casualties as they spread out their line very far. A decision that utilized the 25th advantage in number in a great manner, giving them both the ability to put flanking fire on our men and also give them good overwatch. Colonel Concord even crossed the river in a, as he described it, "cheeky move" to reconnoiter our positions. SPN Gotomtom, who was alive for some reason, ended this "cheeky move" with a single shot. Seeing that they both had advantage in firepower and in angle it was decided to charge across the river. We had 5 men charging across, hitting their right flank. The battle was rather intense and ended in a 1 vs 1 situation that the 25th ended with a good fake attack securing them the round.

-: Command and control :-
Good sense of terrain and tactics but most importantly a great sense of timing from the Colonel. The ensign, who took over after Colonel was killed, still needs to gain experience before he will be effective. But generally he (Ensign) was already locked into a combat situation where the options where limited which simplified matters. The ensigns orders were however reactive rather then forcing which is generally never good.

-: Maneuvers :-
None of the standardized maneuvers were excuted with any major faults. But there was a few situations were the regiment could not use its more advanced maneuver as we now have alot of new recruits.

(Hallelujah [as made famous by Händel] for the fact that we have new recruits)

-: Warskills :-
We were superior in melee skills, even though it was sub par our regimental standards, and our shooting skills were en par with the 25th.

-:Conduct :-
Nothing serious, but we could be better at ignoring trolls then we are but that is that.
General rule of thumb during linebattles;
  • 1. Dont respond to ingame chat messages
  • 2. Repeat rule one
-: Communications :-
This we need to improve. Today we lost alot of time critical information as the channel was flooded with chatter. Please note that it was not irrelevant information but it was not concise chatter. As the 25th were though out the linebattle employing skirmish tactics the battlefield changes quickly and every chance and threats are time critical.

We need therefore to learn and train to convey information quick, concise and accurate.

There were also four instances of people failed to identify priority messages and kept talking about their personal situation. Being forced to call out "Priority Message" to quiet down the combat chatter is in this regiment considered a failure, gentlemen. You are NOT unruly over the TS but we need to train this particular discipline, specially as we are expanding as an regiment.

If you feel that you cannot identify what is a priority or not, talk to the Officers or NCO:s, they will help.

Playing Project Reality and joining your national defence forces will also help you with the learning of this skill. But these measures are to be considered extreme measures and are measures that we cannot encourage you to do, as this will steal time from your regimental duties and considering that the bandwith in Afghanistan is rather poor.

-: Summary :-
The battle ended in a draw (3-3). It was a great fight against competent foes. The 25th proved to have potential that they did not utilise at the moment, should they have, for example, formed lines they would not have been so vulnerable to our charges as they were. Lines are easy to handle but to organise skirmishers and to preform coherent battle tactics when in skirmish mode demands extreme discipline and very good tactical sense from both officers and enlisted. Should the 25th excel in coordinating their individual efforts it is my belief that our next linebattle will be far more challenging.

It is note worthy to mention that the 7th Georgian Volunteer Infantry Regiment initiated a charge with numerically inferior forces in every round of this linebattle.

Therefore the fact that the linebattle ended in a draw should be considered an success for the regimental training scheme in spite of the actual result.

-: Recommendations :-
  • the Zipper: We need to train the men in moving along a line, such as a stonewall, while maintaining fire on the enemy during the entirety of the maneuver
  • Spotting fire: As the maps in this mod seems to be favouring the plus sized maps, I recommend that we train ripple fire with a spotting officer (fire coordinator). Volley fire works as well but training wise I believe that ripple fire would be a great challenge, simulating "fire at will"
  • Training Scouts: our greatest failing this linebattle was that the 25th got the jump on us in almost every situation. When the regiment grows we should consider training 4-6 skirmishers, or rather scouts, to improve the battlefield awareness of the regiment [/li

-: Distinguished Soldiers :-
  • Soldier name: PVT Dobel
    Motivation: Superior marksmanship
  • Soldier name: SPN Gotomtom
    Motivation: Bullet magnet
  • Soldier name: PVT Callum
    Motivation: Superior marksmanship
 
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