Killing Team Mates with the Bullets You Don't Fire - Micro AAR - ArmA 2

There are places in the mechanized warfare battlefield where the IFVs don't go and where the infantry is asked to dismount and do their thing. A situation like this came up during a counter insurgency presence patrol against Taliban forces.

This US infantry squad has just dismounted from their Bradley IFVs and is preparing to move to a group of walled houses where insurgents have been observed. Due to the risk of RPGs, the Bradley IFVs are to remain behind providing support by fire. The whole operation is to be executed by a US platoon (-) sized force. 

This is from a custom-made, single player mission played with ArmA 2. I am commanding a US infantry squad. The events affecting the other squads are not included in this AAR.



As the platoon fans out to assault their respective objectives, we become very uneasy to the very likely event of loosing contact with our neighbor squad (the walled houses compound is a couple of hundred meters wide and will result in the loss of visual contact with the other formations).

First contact is early and brief. One of Bradleys opens up with the 25 mike mike (note explosions in the far background). Our objective is that house where the first rounds are falling.

As we close in towards our objective, I start positioning my key weapons accordingly. In this case the LMG makes quite a dent onto the insurgents' ledger.

Just in front of our objective. The firefight intensifies. Somebody is shooting at the small door in the wall, but I don't know what's their target. Note the enemy casualties in front of the house. This is likely the handiwork of my LMG.

Conscious that I can't trust the AI team mates to navigate safely around this maze of walls and houses I take only one grunt with me to clear as much ground as we can. We skipped the small door somebody was shooting at and carefully go to the opposite side of the compound. We find insurgents positioned in an ambush against anybody walking through that damn small door.

We quickly engage and neutralize the ambush. We move onto the walled compound very carefully where we find one insurgent who is quickly dispatched.

I call the rest of the squad to rejoin. The order turns out to be premature and lethal for one of my guys. As I finish issuing the order, I move to the last un-checked crevice of the compound and to my utter dismay I find an insurgent firing upon the tiny door on the front. The insurgent rounds catch one of my men and kills him. 

I quickly kill the insurgent, but it was too late already for my man. Note how I am re-loading: not only I haven't completely cleared the compound before moving in my forces but also I was down to the last rounds ...

A critical mistake that came at a very high cost. There should be no slack for your tactical awareness once you are in contact.

Cheers,