I literally can't explain how incredible this is to see. I could seriously spend hours of my life inside these mission replay files just watching the missions from every angle. Amazing work.
I know this takes a lot of work to put together but I hope to see more of these. In fact this pushed me over the edge to finally support you on Patreon. I've been a long time fan and subscriber of your exploits here on TH-cam and, as I am using ad-blockers a lot more, I definitely feel like I should be doing more to support you. For some reason I took a long break from watching your videos but within the last few weeks have been catching up. Glad to see a lot of familiar names are still around. Keep up the good work.
This was incredibly educational in multiple different ways. In a sense it was even better than the mission video itself. I'm very glad you did this. Thank you.
I love your team's videos, but this overview was especially good. Helped me better appreciate the multiple layers of decision-making and how changing factors can completely throw off planning and mission success. Looking forward to additional mission debriefs such as this one!!! Keep up the great work!
This is a excellent strategic breakdown, It places a real emphasis on the fog of war and the intensity of in the moment decisions. Single decisions and small details can have such far reaching outcomes. Fantastic Analysis Dyslecxi , Really informative, Well done and thank you.
I was taught to force BRDMs into disadvantageous positions with indirect and incapacitate them with concentrated fire to weak points like tires and crew slits so you don't have to burn so much AT on what essentially amounts to a glorified technical
2 Points. Your use of your AAR for your intros and this video style is incredible. Even as a review without the critiquing elements, would love to see more of this paired with your usual videos. It's a fantastic complement. Secondly, You promoted Arma 3 a lot during it's launch year; do you ever feel odd about developing game features privately for your group?
These videos are by far my favourites! Being a Squad Leader in an Arma Unit myself, having you dissect an entire OP like this really helps me see the bigger picture in our OPs, in a completely new way. Thank you for the great content, keep'em coming!
Amazing review. Amazing performance by plt leader, and specially, squad leaders. This kind of confusion happens IRL and in FoF exercises all the time. Your OPORDs are short and to the point. They clearly reflect YEARS of experience, and the know that no plan survives contact. The adding of two simple tools to the OPORD can help to overcome the confusion: - Named phases, specially when there are changes in attitude (insert, attack, defend, extract), or organization. Each phase change comes with a brevity word ==> - A backbrief, as a short and sweet form of rehearsal. You name the phases, and each squad leader tells their squad tasks, movements and actions. You can drill down in squad leaders minds that, for example, the brevity word BEACH PARTY means withdraw and man your piece of the extraction perimeter. You'll be sure they know the WHAT, WHEN and HOW. Anyway, if I drop there a platoon of marines, they wouldn't do better. Specially, plt leaders don't have the amount of experience you have. All this is by no means a criticism, but as a collaboration and a thank you for all these years of videos. I've learned a great deal of stuff I later applied IRL. PS: you were REMARKABLY calm when correcting them about the position of the LZ.
This is my favourite video I’ve seen from you. Absolutely amazing. I get lost pretty quickly with your usual vids. But here you made everything clear from different perspectives, while cutting out the not so interesting to watch bits. It was fascinating and engaging. Would love more videos like this
I've not watched Shack Tac for a couple of years now, and it must just be my good fortune that I stumbled back across this after you posted it! I have to say it's absolutely fascinating and I found myself enjoying it almost as much as some of your old classic videos! The production quality is as always impeccable, and some very interesting lessons learned. I think I'll be going back and trying to catch up to the myriad of missions I've missed! Well done mate. Seriously good video and I would love to see more in this vein.
This kind of content is why I come here. This AAR is really helpful in understanding the events. But the many perspectives of the same event is one of my favourite literary tropes. Reviewing other channels perspective on the same events. Realy enjoying the additional commentary.
This is amazing! Please continue to do these! I've been loving the direction your videos have been going recently, with you starting to do commentary videos again!
That was amazing. Super cool retrospective and coverage, with all the content from the various angles. And especially the mission replay. Wow. That needs to be a packaged product. Please do these again.
This breakdown was amazing. The visualisations you put together, both for Art of Flight, the start of missions and now for this hindsight style really makes for engaging viewing. I'd be curious to see if there'd be a way to look at what modules were hit/missed from a rocket strike against vehicles (similar I guess to War Thunder) as a post game/training type thing.
Wonderful work, D! This system is an incredible and very useful tool. Post-action review is a perfect tool for improving training and individual efforts, because it inspires people to do better. A picture is worth a thousand words. I agree with everything you said, and the key element was air support for this mission. But I know they did their best and, after all, I wasn't there (but I wish I had been). Congratulations to everyone. Thanks for the video, I'm already looking forward to the next Hindsight.
That feeling when you make a 36 minute video just to tell Chris it was all his fault lol. Keep up the amazing work! Edit: I was just pointing out the slander towards Chris. I do not support the Chris slander! No matter how much he may deserve it. /s
Eeyup, can't argue with that :P However, I will debunk the "I told you so" notion as it indirectly downplays members of ShackTac as people who 'need to be told when they've committed an error'. The first person to open discussion on this mission *was me*, two minutes after the scenario ended. It was a discussion that multiple people participated in and gave insight to in order to create the clearer picture that none of us were afforded during the mission or the immediate aftermath. For example, I happened to be the first to solidly identify the critical point of disaster as when we moved to engage the no-factor UAZ. Dslyecxi was a part of that and had plenty of immediate insight as PltHQ and had among the clearest high-level perspectives; my pilot, Intel chimed in as well; Squad leaders were involved; etc. None of this was because they were asked to contribute, but because they voluntarily did so themselves - all while remembering that it's a video game at the end of the day.
@@the_christopher It's all love! I definitely agree with everything! Just had to point out the slander against you. Can't let him get away with it 24/7. Super easy to armchair when you have not been in that scenario before and you are watching from someone else's perspective with no stress. Super important to look at how to improve and why that mission went the way it did. The breakdown of multiple events and perspectives was amazing! Hope I get the change to play with y'all one day! Keep up the amazing content!
@@indianajones3636 oh nonono, the second part of my comment was never directed at you; rather the other reply! You don't need to defend me for an obvious joke, especially when the assessment was right: The major fault goes to me. It's the thought that someone needed to be told they were in the wrong that I was replying.
@@dslyecxi that was one thing I noticed as I watched the video, not naming it Specifically by an LZ lead to some problems, Also couldn't the Platoon Medic step up as FAC/JTAC during the Evac? Seeing most efforts would be on that instead of healing people
@@Voron_Aggrav Being a FAC isn't as easy as just stepping into the role. Morrow is an FNG, perhaps not even experienced enough to know what to do! You also need a 152 radio, which I assume Morrow -- a medic -- wouldn't have. Besides, the mission explicitly didn't have a slot for a FAC, perhaps specifically to pose that as an obstacle.
@@headrockbeats all kinds of info I didn't have at the time, wasn't assuming the medic had the experience just mused about the possibility that he possibly could've been that role in a different scenario, And I might've made it look like I thought it'd be easy to "step up" but I am aware that especially a role as FAC/JTAC would be very difficult to fulfill Any case I'm just someone that enjoys watching content and muse about things
First, holy hell this debrief is unbelievably exciting. Second, very excited to see someone within Shacktac working as a dedicated JTAC/TACP as FAC is one of my favorite combat roles.
This is just fucking awesome. I...need...MOAR. The whole after action report feel along with the "birds eye" view and video of the action is just perfect. Not to mention the graphics are just stellar. One recommendation would be to increase your voice when using POV footage since the gunfire kinda drowns you out.
Wow....this replays are so mesmerizing. Had to rewatch a lot of passages to hear what you were saying :D. Just imagine if this was interactive and you could dive into anyones perspective at any time...... EDIT: After watching further: Wow the intercutting of perspectives is so great....I love it.
Very well done Dslyecxi. Love the banter about Chris at the end, excuses excuses... A real masterpiece, cant even imagine how much time you put into these. :)
totally awesome!!! i cant imagine how much work goes into making your 'missions'...their so detailed and immersive, and intense (100 ei!) kudos to your mission makers ...id love to see similar video as this from the mission makers/zeus pov... just a kinda behind the scenes expose that would deepen our insights to the immense work involved! as always amazing work shacktac!
Your gameplay content is the best, and yet you make even better with videos like this one. Your after action tool is freakin' amazing. Thank you for taking the time to share it all with us!
The one thing I found out from years of enjoying (Yes, really, I enjoy it. Already, I can hear you, "You masochist!") squad leading is that no matter what situation you find yourself in- never assume anything. (This also applies to FAC/FO/JTAC, and I've got my own stories of those situations.) Situations being situations, expect the most competent you could be, then half-it, and pretend your slightly hard of hearing, and 99% of situations that could've been avoided are. The down side to such thinking is that it can Frey competent players who think you are "Babying them", but so long as you clear your intent (something that all leaders of any number of people, team-lead through to regiment should do with superiors and subordinates) it can save a lot of miscommunication and bad blood building. Now many questions come with that- such as the term "micromanagement!". It's funny, considering that with my ideas on SLing, there's *less* micromanagement in the long term! The randomness and chaos of battle will never be conquered (And I personally love the challenge) but a positive order conveyed twice with intent, covering all bases during a hot situation is better then a loose order requiring additional management given the assumption, at least in my experience. You can note the randomness of battle where a single BRDM is able to negate multiple LAT's though amazing dodging skills and "Just go fuck all your shit" ARMA moments. I always remember the quote from Black Hawk Down- "You don't control who gets shot, who falls out of a helicopter or not- Its war!" I did want to mention that I've done Squad Leading and FAC, and that is a workload I never want to do again. I couldn't imagine doing it while leading a platoon sized element. FAC itself is a hell of a workload, cause one fuckup is all it takes to unleash a fuck-ton of lethal ordinance on friendlies by mistake. The one thing that I positively learned as an SL is to never *assume* , because you never assume as a FAC. That lesson was learned when I marked a PL for air to prevent follow-on-forces to engage friendlies, but I negated to mention the friendlies on a hilltop at the town (Though they we're behind the PL by 100-150 meters). The Pilot? An extremely competent man for the job. He saw people pushing up on friendlies, saw an AK and that's all that was required (As that was ROE, and as I *assumed* he'd be able to positively ID hostiles over friendlies, using CTAB) to let two hydras off the rail and ("thankfully", because of simple battle positions) frag only one guy, lightly injuring the rest. What you learn from that is to never assume anything, and that way of thinking, specifically because of that incident, has creeped into my way of thinking for some time now. Dedicated FAC is a must, for the same reasons you yourself found out about during this op- leading men, no matter the situation- is a full plate. It's pretty much standard for the unit I play in to dedicate both an RTO and a FAC. Hell, usually if we have the guys and the assets, an RTO, FAC and FO! Lessening the workload is always best, because you can become extremely skilled when you don't have to think of anything else other than "Flying the aircraft" ;). I can tell just based upon this video alone, you have a great deal of competency towards how you handle yourself in leadership positions. Hell, I saw myself making the same calls you did in those situations if I had been in your boots. Take that experience, own it. Hindsight is always 20/20, though I can tell you already know the pitfalls of that. May you find Victory, but let it not hide your mistakes. - Dude whos done a bit of SLing, gained a few nuggets of wisdom (Crossing my fingers there lol) in the process. (:
This is super interesting! Always like to see that kind of information, seeing how things went and all. Educative and entertaining! And yeah, Communication is love, Communication is life.
Thank you for the hindsight series! Few and far between, but each time most interesting. One thing I personally am having trouble to wrap my head around: Why do you extract the main part of the platoon first leaving 5 ppl to fend for themselves who have to wait for a full extract cycle. Why not extract either in a staggered fashion, or a small element first and then the main force. I am aware that a staggered approach would need continuous clearing of threats to air assets. Also am I aware that picking up a small element first would require an approximate headcount. However personally I don't get why leaving a small group behind is beneficial if you in fact are aiming to extract everyone.
They weren't going to be fending for themselves. Like I say in the video, the goal was to have the Cobra support them, which is extremely straightforward to do and highly effective. The problem was that the Cobra crew was on a completely different page and dropped the ball when it mattered most.
@@dslyecxi I appreciate your reply. I don't think what you say invalidates my point. Here are a few thoughts: -- Disclaimer: I've written this down out of interest for strategy and analysis. In no way would I want this to be read as a "you should" or "ShackTac needs to". As I am not part of the community, that is none of my business. -- Thoughts: The cobra was a single point of failure in the plan and it did fail. Every other person/asset wouldn't have caused such a fallout (fmpov). Was the crew briefed on that part of their mission in accordance with the importance it had? Did the crew just happen to lack in skill or was it also lack of information? In addition, what steps were taken to take importance off the cobra? Even if the crew had performed flawlessly, external events may have made it impossible for it to fullfil it's role, leading to the same result but a different apparent cause. - imho: The cobra crew wasn't the problem, the single point of failure was. The crew was the trigger. - I suggested a different exfil pattern in an attempt to cut down on the time the cobra support was absolutely essential for, attempting to make it zero. From what it understand from the video, the exfil was delayed due to alpha getting late to the PZ. A different exfil pattern could have compensated for that. Third, the high intensity event of exfilling a large force at once amidst a firefight required a lot of attention that took away from the awareness of platoon lead to what the cobra crew was doing as well as their radio messages. -- I'd gladly hear any thoughts. cheers!
The mistake you're making is thinking that you understand what would have happened if the extract had been planned in a different fashion, and thinking that it'd be a situation where
Here's another way to think of it, re: split extracts. Say you have 30 people with medium ammo facing 100 AI, which is to say that each person needs to kill roughly three AI to nullify the threat. They're holding them off, but only just, and are getting wounded that need treatment by the ~3 medics that would likely be at play in that scenario. At the rate of fire they need to use to control the AI, they'll run out of ammo in ten minutes. Now imagine a lift comes in and pulls out 15 of those people. There's still 100 AI, and now every person needs to kill ~6-7 AI - double what they previously did. The rate of fire has now increased to compensate, so this element that had ten minutes of protective fires is now down to five, and every person who gets wounded is making it that much worse both because of the smaller number of people able to defend it but also because there are now proportionally fewer medics. Things get **extremely** hairy **extremely** quickly when you cut the number of people at a PZ by doing split lifts like you're suggesting.
Oh boi I'd wish to see this more over regular gameplay, but I get how labor intensive it is to make. Anyway the ST AAR tool looks incredible and would love to see it published one day.
Seeing that shot miss the BDRM right as it began backing up and turning hurt my soul. I've been the one to take a missed shot like that too many times in my day, it looks perfect and then they change the rules on you just as you click to fire.
The demo playback system for these AARs are absurdly powerful tools of storytelling; seems similar to how OG Doom recorded the inputs and outputs to save lots of space and processing power..
this is a good format, love it. may i offer one piece of advise, employ a voice over ducker when you do your VOs. most audio compressors, virtual or otherwise, can do it with a sidechain input.
This was a fantastic breakdown of the mission, and really cool to see the overview. Only thing I would say is a criticism of the audio, where either you or the game audio becomes inaudible because of the other. I'd prefer you finish your explanation before playing the radio chatter, as it was sometimes hard to distinguish what was being said. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing more of these in the future!
Amazing to watch - if I had the means, I would be a patreon. I don't even dare to guess how much time you put in to this. Totally off topic: Any chance of getting a mission where the enemy are ShackTac members as well? I miss those. I remember when you got opposing (new) members to tell you where there mates where, shooting them afterwards, or while you were overrun and hiding in a little hut an enemy walking in and out without seeing you, while their HQ was talking outside, members talking trash to the 'enemy' when they had them cornered... Or the capture .......... missions. Playing cat and mouse. Or better; cats and mice. Not saying you can tell there is someone knowing and watching what you're doing while guiding the AI, but... you know what I mean. And I think it's very hard to set up, getting enough people having time to participate. Anyway; I really enjoy your channel! This one is one of your masterpieces!
These kinds of Videos are awesome, I tend to go through this as I'm watching videos, The LZ name, and not specifically noted as LZ was one thing I noticed as you where doing it as a potential problem which later also seemingly did Honestly most of things that happened was human error under stress which is very understandable and expectable, For the lack of FAC/JTAC I wonder if the Platoon Medic might've been an option at the Evac LZ but I guess he might've been unable due to Radio restrictions or not knowing the role Just my opinion about this just musing out loud as an outsider
The PltMed won't have the radio for it. In the context of a scenario like this, where the actual intent from the mission maker is that there isn't a FAC, I don't think I'd generally want to try to skirt around that to try to make it happen. It's interesting having to work through that problem without the role you'd normally lean on for such things.
@@dslyecxi I wholeheartedly agree with that, although that said ingenuity at the front made a lot of difference irl even if High command would raise an eyebrow But this did a good job simulating the trouble a platoon commander would be in, in such a hectic situation
I don't usually consider watching the videos longer than 30 minutes or so but I've had some free time this week (largely owing to the winterpocalypse here in Texas) and watched Civil Affairs (and "Bring Them Home") yesterday. This was fantastic and really interesting. Not to suggest there's anything missing from this analysis, but I'm still left wondering what the heck was going on with Ugly after the events depicted here.
Poor visibility from their flight profile, which evolved from the anti-AA coverage they did (they kept about the same crossing pattern over the city after that for a good while) pre-extract, which limited their visibility on *how* bad the situation was on the ground, and made it such that they didn't realize the need to re-prioritize targets on closer in infantry over further out mechanized elements. With the lack of response on their "Should we be doing A or B?", they stayed on the coverage they were on, rather than repositioning to get better fire, and visibility, around the PZ.
@@xxpoisonblxx Yes, but I meant after the extract was over. Ugly kept orbiting the PZ for some reason and eventually got pegged by a tank of all things.
The issues with Ugly after this video ends are just further demonstrations of the crew's failure to understand the scenario or react appropriately, to include hovering meters from shore and almost being RPG'd for it, then getting shot down by a tank. They'd just be rubbing salt in the wound of the failure to properly cover the extract, so I left them out. If you check the video description you'll see a link from Chris(CHA)'s POV which summarizes that whole situation.
@Dslyecxi I was wondering what method the mission used to load the civvies. I see the helis landing on marked pads yet no AI being loaded. Are they ohyscially being loaded one by one or is it a script based system in which AI is loaded into a heli when landed within an area? Appreciate a reply if you see this, if you know the knowledge of course.
I literally can't explain how incredible this is to see. I could seriously spend hours of my life inside these mission replay files just watching the missions from every angle. Amazing work.
I know this takes a lot of work to put together but I hope to see more of these. In fact this pushed me over the edge to finally support you on Patreon. I've been a long time fan and subscriber of your exploits here on TH-cam and, as I am using ad-blockers a lot more, I definitely feel like I should be doing more to support you. For some reason I took a long break from watching your videos but within the last few weeks have been catching up. Glad to see a lot of familiar names are still around. Keep up the good work.
second
I like how Null still survived at the end, fighting off the enemy like at the end of Halo Reach
The Mission Recording is extremley neat
This should be a regular thing
I love these kind of videos keep them coming
These videos must take a huge amount of work, 10/10 content
This was incredibly educational in multiple different ways. In a sense it was even better than the mission video itself. I'm very glad you did this. Thank you.
I love your team's videos, but this overview was especially good. Helped me better appreciate the multiple layers of decision-making and how changing factors can completely throw off planning and mission success. Looking forward to additional mission debriefs such as this one!!! Keep up the great work!
IMHO this was the best video you've ever produced. Excellent.
These multi-POV videos are always excellent!
This is a excellent strategic breakdown, It places a real emphasis on the fog of war and the intensity of in the moment decisions. Single decisions and small details can have such far reaching outcomes. Fantastic Analysis Dyslecxi , Really informative, Well done and thank you.
I do love these breakdown videos, I know they probably take a LOT of extra work but it's entertaining to see it all laid out and broken down.
Will you release that AAR mod/system? That looks dope as hell and super useful.
seconded this would be extremely useful to use in my unit.
Yes please!
he probably wont
I was taught to force BRDMs into disadvantageous positions with indirect and incapacitate them with concentrated fire to weak points like tires and crew slits so you don't have to burn so much AT on what essentially amounts to a glorified technical
2 Points. Your use of your AAR for your intros and this video style is incredible. Even as a review without the critiquing elements, would love to see more of this paired with your usual videos. It's a fantastic complement. Secondly, You promoted Arma 3 a lot during it's launch year; do you ever feel odd about developing game features privately for your group?
having just watched yours and mrH videos of this mission it was really cool to get an AAR so close to the release of those videos to get true context.
These videos are by far my favourites! Being a Squad Leader in an Arma Unit myself, having you dissect an entire OP like this really helps me see the bigger picture in our OPs, in a completely new way. Thank you for the great content, keep'em coming!
Amazing review. Amazing performance by plt leader, and specially, squad leaders. This kind of confusion happens IRL and in FoF exercises all the time. Your OPORDs are short and to the point. They clearly reflect YEARS of experience, and the know that no plan survives contact.
The adding of two simple tools to the OPORD can help to overcome the confusion:
- Named phases, specially when there are changes in attitude (insert, attack, defend, extract), or organization. Each phase change comes with a brevity word ==>
- A backbrief, as a short and sweet form of rehearsal. You name the phases, and each squad leader tells their squad tasks, movements and actions. You can drill down in squad leaders minds that, for example, the brevity word BEACH PARTY means withdraw and man your piece of the extraction perimeter. You'll be sure they know the WHAT, WHEN and HOW.
Anyway, if I drop there a platoon of marines, they wouldn't do better. Specially, plt leaders don't have the amount of experience you have. All this is by no means a criticism, but as a collaboration and a thank you for all these years of videos. I've learned a great deal of stuff I later applied IRL.
PS: you were REMARKABLY calm when correcting them about the position of the LZ.
You spoil us bro, great presentation.
I am no expert, but this seems to me like a military grade exercise and exercise review, that is what military sims are all about. Very fascinating!
This is my favourite video I’ve seen from you. Absolutely amazing. I get lost pretty quickly with your usual vids. But here you made everything clear from different perspectives, while cutting out the not so interesting to watch bits. It was fascinating and engaging. Would love more videos like this
I've not watched Shack Tac for a couple of years now, and it must just be my good fortune that I stumbled back across this after you posted it! I have to say it's absolutely fascinating and I found myself enjoying it almost as much as some of your old classic videos! The production quality is as always impeccable, and some very interesting lessons learned.
I think I'll be going back and trying to catch up to the myriad of missions I've missed! Well done mate. Seriously good video and I would love to see more in this vein.
This kind of content is why I come here. This AAR is really helpful in understanding the events.
But the many perspectives of the same event is one of my favourite literary tropes. Reviewing other channels perspective on the same events.
Realy enjoying the additional commentary.
I like how the perspective can mix in a long mission like this.
Finally a new hindsight👍🏻
this is a super interesting video, fascinating to see a more in-depth breakdown of a scenario. I'd love to see more like this.
This is amazing! Please continue to do these! I've been loving the direction your videos have been going recently, with you starting to do commentary videos again!
I fucking love the hindsight series
The Hindsight videos, as well as your Art of Flight tutorials, are pure gold. Please keep them coming.
Probably the beat series on TH-cam. Jesus christ these are gold.
Please never stop uploading these.
That was amazing. Super cool retrospective and coverage, with all the content from the various angles. And especially the mission replay. Wow. That needs to be a packaged product. Please do these again.
This breakdown was amazing. The visualisations you put together, both for Art of Flight, the start of missions and now for this hindsight style really makes for engaging viewing. I'd be curious to see if there'd be a way to look at what modules were hit/missed from a rocket strike against vehicles (similar I guess to War Thunder) as a post game/training type thing.
Dslyecxi, I cant imagine how long videos like these must take to make, but they are ABSOLUTLY FASCINATING, thank you!
Fuck yeah love these narrated videos!
Wonderful work, D! This system is an incredible and very useful tool. Post-action review is a perfect tool for improving training and individual efforts, because it inspires people to do better. A picture is worth a thousand words. I agree with everything you said, and the key element was air support for this mission. But I know they did their best and, after all, I wasn't there (but I wish I had been). Congratulations to everyone. Thanks for the video, I'm already looking forward to the next Hindsight.
This is a mix between fking awsome and educational. Keep it up!
Just fantastic. More people got out than I thought, but still a good learning experience.
That feeling when you make a 36 minute video just to tell Chris it was all his fault lol. Keep up the amazing work!
Edit: I was just pointing out the slander towards Chris. I do not support the Chris slander! No matter how much he may deserve it. /s
Haha, yeah I have a feeling there was some backstory and discussions prior to this video. Maybe this is just one big "I told you so" from Dslyecxi :)
Eeyup, can't argue with that :P
However, I will debunk the "I told you so" notion as it indirectly downplays members of ShackTac as people who 'need to be told when they've committed an error'.
The first person to open discussion on this mission *was me*, two minutes after the scenario ended. It was a discussion that multiple people participated in and gave insight to in order to create the clearer picture that none of us were afforded during the mission or the immediate aftermath. For example, I happened to be the first to solidly identify the critical point of disaster as when we moved to engage the no-factor UAZ. Dslyecxi was a part of that and had plenty of immediate insight as PltHQ and had among the clearest high-level perspectives; my pilot, Intel chimed in as well; Squad leaders were involved; etc. None of this was because they were asked to contribute, but because they voluntarily did so themselves - all while remembering that it's a video game at the end of the day.
@@the_christopher It's all love! I definitely agree with everything! Just had to point out the slander against you. Can't let him get away with it 24/7. Super easy to armchair when you have not been in that scenario before and you are watching from someone else's perspective with no stress. Super important to look at how to improve and why that mission went the way it did. The breakdown of multiple events and perspectives was amazing! Hope I get the change to play with y'all one day! Keep up the amazing content!
@@indianajones3636 oh nonono, the second part of my comment was never directed at you; rather the other reply!
You don't need to defend me for an obvious joke, especially when the assessment was right: The major fault goes to me. It's the thought that someone needed to be told they were in the wrong that I was replying.
@@the_christopher
The extract would have gone a lot differently if you had called it "PZ HOT MAMA" 😂
You joke, but it legitimately would have!
@@dslyecxi that was one thing I noticed as I watched the video, not naming it Specifically by an LZ lead to some problems,
Also couldn't the Platoon Medic step up as FAC/JTAC during the Evac? Seeing most efforts would be on that instead of healing people
@@Voron_Aggrav Being a FAC isn't as easy as just stepping into the role. Morrow is an FNG, perhaps not even experienced enough to know what to do! You also need a 152 radio, which I assume Morrow -- a medic -- wouldn't have. Besides, the mission explicitly didn't have a slot for a FAC, perhaps specifically to pose that as an obstacle.
@@headrockbeats all kinds of info I didn't have at the time,
wasn't assuming the medic had the experience just mused about the possibility that he possibly could've been that role in a different scenario,
And I might've made it look like I thought it'd be easy to "step up" but I am aware that especially a role as FAC/JTAC would be very difficult to fulfill
Any case I'm just someone that enjoys watching content and muse about things
@@Voron_Aggrav I wasn't expecting you to know, that's why I shared the info.
I was very impressed by both your narration and command ability.
I really like this style of video, It's really cool getting a higher-level explanation of a mission and the tactics/decisions that went into it.
I’ve missed these type of videos!!
simply brilliant deconstruction of a series of events - learn or repeat.....
3 snaps waaay up Dslyecxi. I can't fathom the effort put into this and the regular uploads. You're right, I enjoyed this one very much. Thanks.
Awesome - really interesting breakdown. I watched the mission yesterday and this was a great complement.
super interesting content, I hope you make more videos breaking down some of your operations.
Woo. It's been 10 years but TH-cam finally started putting Dslyexci videos in my feed
This is better than any war movie I have ever seen.
Thank you for taking the time to make this :)
First, holy hell this debrief is unbelievably exciting. Second, very excited to see someone within Shacktac working as a dedicated JTAC/TACP as FAC is one of my favorite combat roles.
Keep em coming, good learning experience and also like the POV of the boom booms
This is just fucking awesome. I...need...MOAR. The whole after action report feel along with the "birds eye" view and video of the action is just perfect. Not to mention the graphics are just stellar.
One recommendation would be to increase your voice when using POV footage since the gunfire kinda drowns you out.
Wow....this replays are so mesmerizing. Had to rewatch a lot of passages to hear what you were saying :D.
Just imagine if this was interactive and you could dive into anyones perspective at any time......
EDIT: After watching further: Wow the intercutting of perspectives is so great....I love it.
I wish this addition was public tool I imagine many organizations would benefit from it.
There are some 2D/web-based AAR tools out for the public, fwiw.
But this is so much better :( :D
Very well done Dslyecxi. Love the banter about Chris at the end, excuses excuses... A real masterpiece, cant even imagine how much time you put into these. :)
I've seen lots of ShackTac and Arma 3 videos over the years, but this must be the best of them all. o7
totally awesome!!! i cant imagine how much work goes into making your 'missions'...their so detailed and immersive, and intense (100 ei!) kudos to your mission makers ...id love to see similar video as this from the mission makers/zeus pov... just a kinda behind the scenes expose that would deepen our insights to the immense work involved! as always amazing work shacktac!
Your gameplay content is the best, and yet you make even better with videos like this one. Your after action tool is freakin' amazing. Thank you for taking the time to share it all with us!
This was a cool synopsis. Appreciate the effort taken to make it!
Great review Dslyecxi! Really enjoy seeing your groups missions from this perspective 👍
My takeaway is to just give all the AT to LanShark at the start of the mission.
I'm loving all the content you're putting out lately! It's good to have you back!
This is so good! I would love to see more of these!
Absolutely awesome man.
The one thing I found out from years of enjoying (Yes, really, I enjoy it. Already, I can hear you, "You masochist!") squad leading is that no matter what situation you find yourself in- never assume anything. (This also applies to FAC/FO/JTAC, and I've got my own stories of those situations.) Situations being situations, expect the most competent you could be, then half-it, and pretend your slightly hard of hearing, and 99% of situations that could've been avoided are. The down side to such thinking is that it can Frey competent players who think you are "Babying them", but so long as you clear your intent (something that all leaders of any number of people, team-lead through to regiment should do with superiors and subordinates) it can save a lot of miscommunication and bad blood building.
Now many questions come with that- such as the term "micromanagement!". It's funny, considering that with my ideas on SLing, there's *less* micromanagement in the long term! The randomness and chaos of battle will never be conquered (And I personally love the challenge) but a positive order conveyed twice with intent, covering all bases during a hot situation is better then a loose order requiring additional management given the assumption, at least in my experience. You can note the randomness of battle where a single BRDM is able to negate multiple LAT's though amazing dodging skills and "Just go fuck all your shit" ARMA moments. I always remember the quote from Black Hawk Down- "You don't control who gets shot, who falls out of a helicopter or not- Its war!"
I did want to mention that I've done Squad Leading and FAC, and that is a workload I never want to do again. I couldn't imagine doing it while leading a platoon sized element. FAC itself is a hell of a workload, cause one fuckup is all it takes to unleash a fuck-ton of lethal ordinance on friendlies by mistake. The one thing that I positively learned as an SL is to never *assume* , because you never assume as a FAC. That lesson was learned when I marked a PL for air to prevent follow-on-forces to engage friendlies, but I negated to mention the friendlies on a hilltop at the town (Though they we're behind the PL by 100-150 meters). The Pilot? An extremely competent man for the job. He saw people pushing up on friendlies, saw an AK and that's all that was required (As that was ROE, and as I *assumed* he'd be able to positively ID hostiles over friendlies, using CTAB) to let two hydras off the rail and ("thankfully", because of simple battle positions) frag only one guy, lightly injuring the rest. What you learn from that is to never assume anything, and that way of thinking, specifically because of that incident, has creeped into my way of thinking for some time now. Dedicated FAC is a must, for the same reasons you yourself found out about during this op- leading men, no matter the situation- is a full plate. It's pretty much standard for the unit I play in to dedicate both an RTO and a FAC. Hell, usually if we have the guys and the assets, an RTO, FAC and FO! Lessening the workload is always best, because you can become extremely skilled when you don't have to think of anything else other than "Flying the aircraft" ;).
I can tell just based upon this video alone, you have a great deal of competency towards how you handle yourself in leadership positions. Hell, I saw myself making the same calls you did in those situations if I had been in your boots. Take that experience, own it. Hindsight is always 20/20, though I can tell you already know the pitfalls of that.
May you find Victory, but let it not hide your mistakes. - Dude whos done a bit of SLing, gained a few nuggets of wisdom (Crossing my fingers there lol) in the process. (:
Every single time i hear you say 'Greetings, this is dslyecxi' it sounds like you've just remembered a joke. It brings joy
Awesome perspective. I really love deep dives like this. Great work! I know such care goes into it.
Like Saving Private Ryan in 2021. Again and again and again. Great content brother!
Fantastic analysis. Keep these coming, I'm heading over to support you on Patreon. Been watching your videos for years.
This is awesome. I absolutely want to see far far more of this!!!
Excellent video! Greatly apreciate the effort you put into it. I'll be sharing it with my group for educational purposes.
Always love the commentary videos
This is a hell of a lot of hours of good work for this video
Badass video and analysis. Thank you for sharing. These are always enjoyable.
I enjoyed every word and moment of this breakdown
This is super interesting! Always like to see that kind of information, seeing how things went and all. Educative and entertaining! And yeah, Communication is love, Communication is life.
Been a hot minute since the last hindsight. Love seeing this.
I would die to get my hands on that AAR tool. It is beautiful!
That was a great watch! Good job all!
I love this series of videos; thank you for sharing your thoughts!
outstanding video! Wow....you are a military man that is clear. Great AAR!
These are amazing please do more of this!
Thank you for the hindsight series! Few and far between, but each time most interesting.
One thing I personally am having trouble to wrap my head around: Why do you extract the main part of the platoon first leaving 5 ppl to fend for themselves who have to wait for a full extract cycle. Why not extract either in a staggered fashion, or a small element first and then the main force. I am aware that a staggered approach would need continuous clearing of threats to air assets. Also am I aware that picking up a small element first would require an approximate headcount. However personally I don't get why leaving a small group behind is beneficial if you in fact are aiming to extract everyone.
They weren't going to be fending for themselves. Like I say in the video, the goal was to have the Cobra support them, which is extremely straightforward to do and highly effective. The problem was that the Cobra crew was on a completely different page and dropped the ball when it mattered most.
@@dslyecxi I appreciate your reply.
I don't think what you say invalidates my point. Here are a few thoughts:
-- Disclaimer: I've written this down out of interest for strategy and analysis. In no way would I want this to be read as a "you should" or "ShackTac needs to". As I am not part of the community, that is none of my business.
-- Thoughts:
The cobra was a single point of failure in the plan and it did fail. Every other person/asset wouldn't have caused such a fallout (fmpov).
Was the crew briefed on that part of their mission in accordance with the importance it had? Did the crew just happen to lack in skill or was it also lack of information?
In addition, what steps were taken to take importance off the cobra? Even if the crew had performed flawlessly, external events may have made it impossible for it to fullfil it's role, leading to the same result but a different apparent cause.
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imho:
The cobra crew wasn't the problem, the single point of failure was. The crew was the trigger.
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I suggested a different exfil pattern in an attempt to cut down on the time the cobra support was absolutely essential for, attempting to make it zero.
From what it understand from the video, the exfil was delayed due to alpha getting late to the PZ. A different exfil pattern could have compensated for that.
Third, the high intensity event of exfilling a large force at once amidst a firefight required a lot of attention that took away from the awareness of platoon lead to what the cobra crew was doing as well as their radio messages.
--
I'd gladly hear any thoughts.
cheers!
The mistake you're making is thinking that you understand what would have happened if the extract had been planned in a different fashion, and thinking that it'd be a situation where
Here's another way to think of it, re: split extracts.
Say you have 30 people with medium ammo facing 100 AI, which is to say that each person needs to kill roughly three AI to nullify the threat. They're holding them off, but only just, and are getting wounded that need treatment by the ~3 medics that would likely be at play in that scenario. At the rate of fire they need to use to control the AI, they'll run out of ammo in ten minutes.
Now imagine a lift comes in and pulls out 15 of those people. There's still 100 AI, and now every person needs to kill ~6-7 AI - double what they previously did. The rate of fire has now increased to compensate, so this element that had ten minutes of protective fires is now down to five, and every person who gets wounded is making it that much worse both because of the smaller number of people able to defend it but also because there are now proportionally fewer medics.
Things get **extremely** hairy **extremely** quickly when you cut the number of people at a PZ by doing split lifts like you're suggesting.
Oh boi I'd wish to see this more over regular gameplay, but I get how labor intensive it is to make. Anyway the ST AAR tool looks incredible and would love to see it published one day.
Seeing that shot miss the BDRM right as it began backing up and turning hurt my soul. I've been the one to take a missed shot like that too many times in my day, it looks perfect and then they change the rules on you just as you click to fire.
The demo playback system for these AARs are absurdly powerful tools of storytelling; seems similar to how OG Doom recorded the inputs and outputs to save lots of space and processing power..
That AAR system is great! Wish you released it publicly, but I understand ShackTac is bit protective of its stuff.
this is a good format, love it. may i offer one piece of advise, employ a voice over ducker when you do your VOs. most audio compressors, virtual or otherwise, can do it with a sidechain input.
Hope to see more like these!
Great video, please do more of this!
Oh my god, the cobra not being aware that the extract is being overrun with EI ripe for picking with a 20mm strafe is so frustrating.
This was a fantastic breakdown of the mission, and really cool to see the overview. Only thing I would say is a criticism of the audio, where either you or the game audio becomes inaudible because of the other. I'd prefer you finish your explanation before playing the radio chatter, as it was sometimes hard to distinguish what was being said. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing more of these in the future!
Long time sub. This is the best content on the channel
Amazing to watch - if I had the means, I would be a patreon.
I don't even dare to guess how much time you put in to this.
Totally off topic: Any chance of getting a mission where the enemy are ShackTac members as well? I miss those.
I remember when you got opposing (new) members to tell you where there mates where, shooting them afterwards,
or while you were overrun and hiding in a little hut an enemy walking in and out without seeing you, while their HQ was talking outside,
members talking trash to the 'enemy' when they had them cornered...
Or the capture .......... missions. Playing cat and mouse. Or better; cats and mice.
Not saying you can tell there is someone knowing and watching what you're doing while guiding the AI, but... you know what I mean.
And I think it's very hard to set up, getting enough people having time to participate.
Anyway; I really enjoy your channel! This one is one of your masterpieces!
I hope you will do more mission review videos. could even become the best video series in YT arma
Finally :-)... i missed videos like these
This is really cool, amazing work!
20:00 I bet that AI was aiming at tag when Morty unfortunately ran straight into his firing arc. RIP
These kinds of Videos are awesome, I tend to go through this as I'm watching videos,
The LZ name, and not specifically noted as LZ was one thing I noticed as you where doing it as a potential problem which later also seemingly did
Honestly most of things that happened was human error under stress which is very understandable and expectable,
For the lack of FAC/JTAC I wonder if the Platoon Medic might've been an option at the Evac LZ but I guess he might've been unable due to Radio restrictions or not knowing the role
Just my opinion about this just musing out loud as an outsider
Also especially Bravo did a wonderful job in this one with only losing one member at the very end along with Charlie
The PltMed won't have the radio for it. In the context of a scenario like this, where the actual intent from the mission maker is that there isn't a FAC, I don't think I'd generally want to try to skirt around that to try to make it happen. It's interesting having to work through that problem without the role you'd normally lean on for such things.
@@dslyecxi I wholeheartedly agree with that, although that said ingenuity at the front made a lot of difference irl even if High command would raise an eyebrow
But this did a good job simulating the trouble a platoon commander would be in, in such a hectic situation
I don't usually consider watching the videos longer than 30 minutes or so but I've had some free time this week (largely owing to the winterpocalypse here in Texas) and watched Civil Affairs (and "Bring Them Home") yesterday.
This was fantastic and really interesting. Not to suggest there's anything missing from this analysis, but I'm still left wondering what the heck was going on with Ugly after the events depicted here.
Poor visibility from their flight profile, which evolved from the anti-AA coverage they did (they kept about the same crossing pattern over the city after that for a good while) pre-extract, which limited their visibility on *how* bad the situation was on the ground, and made it such that they didn't realize the need to re-prioritize targets on closer in infantry over further out mechanized elements. With the lack of response on their "Should we be doing A or B?", they stayed on the coverage they were on, rather than repositioning to get better fire, and visibility, around the PZ.
@@xxpoisonblxx Yes, but I meant after the extract was over. Ugly kept orbiting the PZ for some reason and eventually got pegged by a tank of all things.
The issues with Ugly after this video ends are just further demonstrations of the crew's failure to understand the scenario or react appropriately, to include hovering meters from shore and almost being RPG'd for it, then getting shot down by a tank. They'd just be rubbing salt in the wound of the failure to properly cover the extract, so I left them out. If you check the video description you'll see a link from Chris(CHA)'s POV which summarizes that whole situation.
@Dslyecxi
I was wondering what method the mission used to load the civvies.
I see the helis landing on marked pads yet no AI being loaded. Are they ohyscially being loaded one by one or is it a script based system in which AI is loaded into a heli when landed within an area?
Appreciate a reply if you see this, if you know the knowledge of course.