AAR: The Art of Exploding Gracefully

We were in a large Enyo fleet backed by Navitas logistics suppport and a number of ewar and tackle ships in support. Roaming the warzone looking for trouble, we finally found something of a challenge when a Razor fleet appeared in Muninns and Scythe/Scimitar support.

We decided to try and take the fight by setting up in a medium plex and letting them come to us. The plan was to primary the Scythes and then Scimitars while keeping the Muniin's tackled so they could not make range as much as possible. The Razor fleet warped into us and we put the plan in action, taking down two Scythes quickly. But then the Muninns got the range they needed and Enyos started popping in two volleys as the logi could not react fast enough.

Our DPS depleted rapidly and the Razor logistics started to hold and our fate was sealed as a Cal Mil fleet in Merlins warped in to join the fun. The order was given to warp off and we took that battle on the chin, 8 Enyos and a number of other ships lost to just two Scythes killed. Nicely done, Razor.

In hindsight our Enyo fleet doctrine is poorly matched against the arty Muninn doctrine, not enough raw EHP to survive the volleys long enough for significant reps to help. Our Rogue Squadron doctrine would have been better suited.

We reshipped into Vexors and Exequrors and went looking for trouble with Razor again but it appeared they were content with spanking us once and had docked up. I logged off as it looked like the action was over for the night but I got told this morning our fleet ran into a Cal Mil 20 minuts after I logged off and had an awesome winning fight including killing a Loki, Vulture, and Sleipnir. Dammit!

I miss all the fun.

Close Call

The fleet was small as it was early in the evening and more would be on later. Me and two other pilots were in Enyo assault frigates primed for dealing destruction. Four Navitas logistics frigates formed the support wing; two more than I usually would have had for this size of fleet but we were expecting more Enyos in a bit and one of the logi pilots was new to the vessel. For tackle we had 3 pilots in Atrons and a veteran in a Malediction interceptor.

My scout, the Malediction pilot, sees several war targets in the next system, and picks up a Hurricane on scan. We move into position on the stargate ready to jump in if he calls point. "Hurricane warped off," my scouts calls from within system. "I think he warped to the gate...Yep! He's here!"

"Jump jump!" I call on comms and we go in. As the system resolves I see more war targets landing, a Caracal and a Blackbird. "Blackbird is primary," I call as we uncloak and move to engage.

We start into the Blackbird and two more hostiles arrive, a Loki strategic cruiser and a second Caracal. Looking back I should have disengaged, especially after seeing the timeline. In the time it took us to burn down that Blackbird, surprisingly well tanked as a bait ship I expect, we lost all three Atrons and two Enyos to the firepower of those Rapid Light Missile Launcher Caracals. I overestimated the repair ability of my small Navitas wing.

I called the Stabber Fleet Issue as the next primary, not realizing at that time that my fleet was pretty much gone. I started taking damage but the navis kept me alive... I suspect the Caracals entered a reloading cycle after killing one of the four Navitas pilots... and that's when I realized it was just me and my Malediction pilot left doing damage. I was scrammed by the SFI so I overheated all the things and burned him down to try and bring some balance back to the killboard. Just as the Caracals got reloaded we went kaboom and I fled the scene of the crime. Unfortunately my interceptor pilot was not as lucky.

F - Atron 00:57
F- Atron 00:57
F- Atron 00:58
F- Enyo 00:58
F- Enyo 00:58
H - Blackbird: 00:58
F - Navitas 01:00
H - Stabber Fleet Issue 01:00
F - Malediction: 01:01

In hindsight I should have been more cautious about continuing to engage with two anti-frigate Caracals on the field, especially in light of our less than overwhelming DPS. Also, I will need to watch out for bait Blackbirds in the future as I suspect had I ignored that ship and went after the Caracal we might have had a bit better outcome.

Oh well, not every battle can be a victory.

Ships to Command From

Last night I ran another public Aideron fleet and we got up to about 30 members before I turned the fleet over to Marcel and logged off. It was a decently productive evening, picking up on 12 killmails for myself and I know the fleet got more where I was too slow. I did take us into one losing engagement and lost my Enyo to a very prepared and powerful Soultakers fleet (pirates local to Old Man Star) but I had to try for that bait Vigilant before the logi and Stabber Fleet Issues came in. Really, I am surprised we didn't lose more than we did that fight!

I'm continuing to try and determine the best ship for me to be a Fleet Commander from. Two weeks ago I had started in an Enyo and switch to an Ares interceptor and found myself too distracted in the latter as I spent too many of my limited brain cycles worrying about tackling targets instead of thinking about the big picture.

This week I started off in my trusty Enyo once more but lost it early on, as mentioned, to the Soultakers. I liked the ship for its simplicity of use which is basically a shotgun approach with its big blasters and only a single drone... its like a bigger hitting Incursus and my love for that ship is well documented. However, in the fleet last night it was the only Tech II frigate and hence was a primary target for the pirate fleet to take out. It wasn't a big deal in that little fight as we were bailing already when I was going down, but in a longer even fight it would be detrimental to the fleet to have its FC taken out early (barring having secondary FC ready to step up of course).

I reshipped into an Algos destroyer to lead the fleet figuring its longer ranged railguns with Spike ammo and flights of light drones would allow me to fight at range and worry less about piloting and more about FCing. I found I was mostly right and that the ship flew well in some of the engagements where we were on top of the enemy, but any fights where the enemy was fast and running I was frequently out of the action. This is not necessarily bad as it gave me more time to look at the big picture, but when we were scrambling and warping around a lot I found the slower align and warp time taking its toll pretty fast and a couple times I had to designate on-scene FCs to call targets until I got there. Not a big deal, but it had me considering alternatives again.

So to summarize:
- Ares : fast and agile but required too much of my divided attention
- Enyo : solid and simple to use but attracted too much hostile attention in a fleet where everyone else was T1 and faction frigs
- Algos : good range and not too hard to use but slow and fat.

I might try another interceptor but a more combat oriented setup that allows me to get around the field but is not too dedicated on catching targets.

Op Success

On Friday night I ran a corp fleet that was open to public interested in flying in low sec and faction warfare. This was a big deal for me because over the past year I've been trying to step into a Fleet Commander role after years of sitting back and letting others do it. And after 11 months, I can really see the difference the practice has made.

We rallied up in Fliet with mostly Tech 1 frigs and a couple destroyers and an assault ship. We started with plexing while people were still joining, making sure to get a few Navitas to make the fleet robust (dear god, what a difference T1 frig logistics have made to the frigate scale warfare!). While we were plexing a Caldari fleet came in and engaged us. They had heavier ships than we did, a couple assaults ships, some faction frigs, a destroyer... but we had a few more pilots and all important logistics. We crushed the first wave, and when a second wave with a couple cruisers showed up, we sent them packing too.

We continued to form up, taking out a few more enemy ships including a RLML Caracal looking for easy frig kills, but the targets dried up in Fliet so we took the fleet on the move into the dangerous and active Black Rise region. We visited Tama and picked up a destroyer and Keres kill before getting word from our allies in the Quantum Cats Syndicate that they were in a cruiser fleet and getting ready for round two with a Templis CALSF fleet. We moved at best speed towards Eha and in Aivonen we met the enemy cruiser fleet. We put the tackle on the Osprey and Scythe logi they had and moved in close. We lacked enough firepower to easily break the cruisers' reps on each other but the QCats showed up in their Vexors and put some hurt on the Scythe to break its reps which allowed us to kill the Osprey. We then chased the remaining enemy fleet a bit, catching two Ruptures in which we killed one and helped the QCats kill the other.

Hitting the 3 hour limit, I turned the happy fleet over to Marcel and docked up.

Thoughts:

What a difference a year makes! Back in Feb of 2013 the thought of taking ~25 pilots out in a fleet and commanding them in dynamic fluid battles across multiple plexes and grids would have filled me with terror, and the notion to send them careening towards heavier ships with the intent to win would have paralyzed me in doubt.

That being said, its not all sunshine and roses. I started in a DPS ship which I find it a good platform for leading from, but shipped to an Interceptor halfway through to increase our long ranged tackling ability. It was fine until we got into the bigger fight where I found myself distracted from FCing by the act of trying to be a good tackle. Maybe in a small gang that would work, but I need more brainpower on leading right now rather than fiddling with my orbits. Fortunately, we didn't suffer any big losses and racked up some very respectable kills.

My next step is to continue to get practice and work up to larger ship classes and more diverse fleets.