Over the past few months my weekly fleets have been quite successful, earning a variety of good kills including the occasional battle cruiser, battleship, and even a Chimera carrier once (to be fair, he was looking for a fight). In exchange I've been posting very few losses so I've been very happy. Its easy to forget how often the pendulum swung from green to red back in the day when Calmil was serious about roaming and contesting space.
So of course, karma decided I was due for a beating.
I decided to run a kitchen sink fleet comp last night so I could play with one of my favourites, an old Oracle battle cruiser fitted with mega pulse lasers. Hits like a brick to the face. The fleet started out OK getting a Thorax and Enyo in two skirmishes earning me a killmark on the golden hull. That should have been a clue I was in for trouble.
In Pynekastoh we got a report of an Orthrus hanging out on the outside of a PLEX. I moved in to bait him to tackle me and he did, but it turns out he was bait tackle for a cloaked Hel carrier 250 km off that quickly dispatched drones and reduced my Oracle to space dust. Worst part is, that same pilot has been doing that trap for months and I knew about it but just forgot. Even worse, in one of our intel channels another pilot 30 minutes earlier talked about the exact same trap... and I read his account!
I reshipped and rejoined fleet in a Hawk assault frigate.
In Akidagi where Templis CALSF alliance lives we got reports from our scout of a Dominix on scan, then landing on the Nennamailia gate. Since this is exactly the same gate we caught and killed a Hyperion last week, I ordered the fleet to dive in and attack. I should have been suspicious when the cal mil pilot opted to fight instead of try to crash gate, but blood was in the water and I wanted to make up for the Oracle loss. He was active tanked with neuts and drones and reinforcements started to drift in. Our fleet was not large and without serious logi and I waited too long and allowed myself to get caught and killed. And on my way back to Fliet I was too slow on the draw reporting another Cal Mil fleet of a couple Confessors and Thrashers and I lost my pod with mid grade snakes! So stupid!
I ordered the fleet to abandon the Dominix fight as we were losing pilots and more reinforcements were inbound. Podded back to Fliet and wanting to rejoin the fleet quickly I jumped in an Incursus and moved towards the fleet... only to get insta-locked and trashed by yet another small cal mil gate camp fleet of Thrashers and a Svipul in Abune! I rushed back to Fliet, got in an Algos, and went to help bust the gate camp but was too eager and lost the Algos as well before a fleet member in a battleship forced them off for good.
Four ship losses and an implant pod loss later, I was feeling quite beat up. We formed up the fleet and went looking for more fights, killed a couple destroyers before I had to call it quits due to tiredness. Definitely ended up in the red this time!
Showing posts with label Fleet Commander. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fleet Commander. Show all posts
Monday, May 29, 2017
Monday, April 03, 2017
It Was a Quiet Night When Suddenly It Was Quite a Night
Lately the Sunday Night Fleet I fleet command for has been an informal affair where doctrine is not strictly adhered to and people can pretty much bring whatever ship suits their fancy. This is primarily because the organized opposition we typically face has been largely absent last couple months since Caldari ran out of steam in their push and we pushed back hard in the South of the warzone.
Some weeks I call for frigates and inevitably see a cruiser heavy fleet we need to avoid, other weeks I call for cruisers and/or battlecruisers and try in vain to catch frigates and destroyers. This week I called for armour destroyers in hopes that I could get the best of both worlds: fast enough to catch smaller stuff and big enough to engage smaller numbers of bigger stuff.
So there we were, halfway through our roam in Aubenall in Placid region, we only a blobbed Black Shark Cult Thorax on our killboard when the scout calls out:
"There is brutix navy, hyperion, ferox, ferox, cerb, cynabal and chimera on gate."
Whoa. That was unexpected.
Our fleet was tickling the underside of 20 pilots with about 8 tech I destroyers (Algos for the win!) and my Hecate, with 3 or 4 tech I logistics frigates and a smattering of frigates. Even discounting the Caldari carrier we would be very hard pressed to engage those heavy ships and come out with even one kill if they were well tanked.
But our foes, an alliance called "The Glory Holers", had stumbled into an unfortunate occurrence of a perfect storm for them.
Before I could decide what to do, a pilot in my fleet pipes up "hey, I have a dread in this system I'm willing to throw at them". After checking its able to hit sub cap targets it seemed we had more DPS, but I was still skeptical...until a handful of Pen Is Out pilots, another Gal Mil alliance and long time friends of Aideron Robotics, we nearby and coming to the fleet bringing a Megathron with 4 days left on its insurance policy and a smattering of cruisers. On top of all that, we quickly pinged Gal Mil intel channels and reinforcements began to form in Black Rise. That gave me hope that we could engage and hold on to some targets while we mustered the DPS from these sources to contest the fight.
I sent my scout in to see what was going on in Renarelle.
"They are all zero on the gate."
"Even the carrier?" I ask.
"Yep."
At that point the Navy Brutix jumped in. He re-approached gate and I stalled for time by not engaging him since he was neutral and I didn't feel like dealing with sentry guns. Would he advise the rest to warp off? Or are they coming in...?
"They're jumping in."
And the fight was on. They brought the last piece of the Perfect Storm, a driving desire to fight.
They decided to engage a Comet and Algos first, but those pilots were not pirate sec status so that the enemy took suspect flags. That was an unexpected bonus and makes me suspect these guys are not normally from low sec; any low sec denizen would have known to attack the flashies like me first to avoid the suspect flag. This allowed us to pile on our first target, a Ferox, without worrying about gate guns. Indeed, the gate guns helped our cause a lot in the opening salvos.
We then traded four of our destroyers and a few frigates for killing a Vexor and Caracal. Our DPS was dwindling. Our destroyers killed another Ferox and the Phoenix dreadnought killed the Hyperion and the situation started to turn around. We lost another Algos but in exchange nuked the Brutix Navy Issue, Cerberus, and Osprey Navy Issue as the dreadnought continued to make its presence known and the reinforcements began to arrive.
We killed the last sub-cap enemy ship and tore into the tackled carrier and its fighter squadrons. It was well tanked and fought to the bitter end but it could not resist the fully armed and operational Phoenix and soon exploded.
There was a moment of panic as an unrelated Tengu appeared and scrammed our dreadnought before it could warp back to safety of a station, someone crying out that it was part of Northern Coalition come to get a capital kill themselves, but a desperation play by a Drake with only one module fit, a handy ECM module, got the jam and the dreadnought slipped into the cold safe embrace of the tunnel.
We lost a lot of ships in the fight, but killed far more than our ISK worth and earned some glorious kills. Its not often a random encounter works out so beautifully for us.
Some weeks I call for frigates and inevitably see a cruiser heavy fleet we need to avoid, other weeks I call for cruisers and/or battlecruisers and try in vain to catch frigates and destroyers. This week I called for armour destroyers in hopes that I could get the best of both worlds: fast enough to catch smaller stuff and big enough to engage smaller numbers of bigger stuff.
So there we were, halfway through our roam in Aubenall in Placid region, we only a blobbed Black Shark Cult Thorax on our killboard when the scout calls out:
"There is brutix navy, hyperion, ferox, ferox, cerb, cynabal and chimera on gate."
Whoa. That was unexpected.
Our fleet was tickling the underside of 20 pilots with about 8 tech I destroyers (Algos for the win!) and my Hecate, with 3 or 4 tech I logistics frigates and a smattering of frigates. Even discounting the Caldari carrier we would be very hard pressed to engage those heavy ships and come out with even one kill if they were well tanked.
But our foes, an alliance called "The Glory Holers", had stumbled into an unfortunate occurrence of a perfect storm for them.
Before I could decide what to do, a pilot in my fleet pipes up "hey, I have a dread in this system I'm willing to throw at them". After checking its able to hit sub cap targets it seemed we had more DPS, but I was still skeptical...until a handful of Pen Is Out pilots, another Gal Mil alliance and long time friends of Aideron Robotics, we nearby and coming to the fleet bringing a Megathron with 4 days left on its insurance policy and a smattering of cruisers. On top of all that, we quickly pinged Gal Mil intel channels and reinforcements began to form in Black Rise. That gave me hope that we could engage and hold on to some targets while we mustered the DPS from these sources to contest the fight.
I sent my scout in to see what was going on in Renarelle.
"They are all zero on the gate."
"Even the carrier?" I ask.
"Yep."
At that point the Navy Brutix jumped in. He re-approached gate and I stalled for time by not engaging him since he was neutral and I didn't feel like dealing with sentry guns. Would he advise the rest to warp off? Or are they coming in...?
"They're jumping in."
And the fight was on. They brought the last piece of the Perfect Storm, a driving desire to fight.
They decided to engage a Comet and Algos first, but those pilots were not pirate sec status so that the enemy took suspect flags. That was an unexpected bonus and makes me suspect these guys are not normally from low sec; any low sec denizen would have known to attack the flashies like me first to avoid the suspect flag. This allowed us to pile on our first target, a Ferox, without worrying about gate guns. Indeed, the gate guns helped our cause a lot in the opening salvos.
We then traded four of our destroyers and a few frigates for killing a Vexor and Caracal. Our DPS was dwindling. Our destroyers killed another Ferox and the Phoenix dreadnought killed the Hyperion and the situation started to turn around. We lost another Algos but in exchange nuked the Brutix Navy Issue, Cerberus, and Osprey Navy Issue as the dreadnought continued to make its presence known and the reinforcements began to arrive.
We killed the last sub-cap enemy ship and tore into the tackled carrier and its fighter squadrons. It was well tanked and fought to the bitter end but it could not resist the fully armed and operational Phoenix and soon exploded.
There was a moment of panic as an unrelated Tengu appeared and scrammed our dreadnought before it could warp back to safety of a station, someone crying out that it was part of Northern Coalition come to get a capital kill themselves, but a desperation play by a Drake with only one module fit, a handy ECM module, got the jam and the dreadnought slipped into the cold safe embrace of the tunnel.
We lost a lot of ships in the fight, but killed far more than our ISK worth and earned some glorious kills. Its not often a random encounter works out so beautifully for us.
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Snowstorm
Not only did my area of Canada get inundated with snow the past few days, my poor wife has been sick with a nasty virus so I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off around here lately. Hence my lack of posting.
I did get to command a fleet on Sunday night and has some fun scouring the warzone for some targets and kills including some battlecruiser kills against a roaming NCDot fleet, so I have that going for me.
I do want to talk a little about the end of the fleet though. The fleet had been running for over two hours and while at peak we were over 30 pilots of kitchen sink destroyers/frigates with a handful of frigate logi, at this time as we were heading home we had shrunk down to about 20 tired pilots with less logi and less coherent thinking.
That's when my scouts reported a fleet of 25-30 Templis pilots in catalysts in the system ahead.
Now I know the power of the massed attrition catalyst fleet, and even though we had some Tech 3 destroyers and a few logi pilots, I knew that was going to be a losing fight from the get go. Kill a few catalysts at 4 mil ISK a pop while losing multiple T3 and T2 ships? At best case scenario? Bad idea. Yeah, no thanks.
Since we were close to home I ordered the fleet to dock up and take a powder. I felt a little bad for the Templis pilots that formed to fight us, but I have a responsibility to my pilots to not make them throw their ships away needlessly. Too many times in the past I fought Templis when they brought the perfect counter to my ships after seeing what we were flying and I like to think I've finally learned that lesson ;)
I did get to command a fleet on Sunday night and has some fun scouring the warzone for some targets and kills including some battlecruiser kills against a roaming NCDot fleet, so I have that going for me.
I do want to talk a little about the end of the fleet though. The fleet had been running for over two hours and while at peak we were over 30 pilots of kitchen sink destroyers/frigates with a handful of frigate logi, at this time as we were heading home we had shrunk down to about 20 tired pilots with less logi and less coherent thinking.
That's when my scouts reported a fleet of 25-30 Templis pilots in catalysts in the system ahead.
Now I know the power of the massed attrition catalyst fleet, and even though we had some Tech 3 destroyers and a few logi pilots, I knew that was going to be a losing fight from the get go. Kill a few catalysts at 4 mil ISK a pop while losing multiple T3 and T2 ships? At best case scenario? Bad idea. Yeah, no thanks.
Since we were close to home I ordered the fleet to dock up and take a powder. I felt a little bad for the Templis pilots that formed to fight us, but I have a responsibility to my pilots to not make them throw their ships away needlessly. Too many times in the past I fought Templis when they brought the perfect counter to my ships after seeing what we were flying and I like to think I've finally learned that lesson ;)
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Nerve Wracking
Sunday night as fleet was forming there were reports of an Astrahus citadel being anchored in Ostingele in Placid and its 15 minute repair cycle would fall right in the middle of my fleet. For those unaware, a citadel or engineering complex take 24 hours to anchor, and then have a 15 minute repair cycle before coming fully online. That 15 minute window is the best opportunity to attack and destroy them before the full defenses come online and its only open to attack at certain vulnerability windows throughout the week. And Ostingele is of particular importance to us right now as its where we are clashing with Black Shark Cult of Caldari Militia for control.
Since it was Superbowl Sunday the fleet was smaller than normal, only 12 of us to start, swelling to 15 by the time we got underway. After an unproductive fight with a clever Nightmare pilot in Fliet, we arrived in Ostingele with 11 minutes left in the repair cycle. Not a problem; any shooting at the structure pauses the repair cycle so if we decided to attack, we had all the time we needed.
We arrived on grid with the structure at the Fedmart NPC station 3800 km off. There was no defense fleet. The structure was owned by a 4 man corporation, alts we figure. Rumours in intel put them as alts of Northern Coalition Dot however, so we figure attacking it will bring some attention.
But we're in tech 1 cruisers (except one snowflake in a tier 3 Legion) so what do we care? We engage and wait for the defenders to show up.
90% structure remaining - Haha this is funny, we're so gonna die.
70% - OK, this is weird.
50% - We're halfway through. We might actually do this?
30% - Cyno 24 AU away, is that them coming for us? Thanatos on grid! No wait, its on the Fedmart station... getting ready to launch fighters? No, it docked.
10% - This is so nerve wracking!!!! They are going to chase us off in the last few percent, I know it!
Then it counted down the last few percent counted down and it exploded in an extremely satisfying flash of light as it gave birth to a new sun. I got top damage in my humble Thorax and the whole effort took ~45 minutes for 15 of us, 3 in logistics cruisers.
Good to know.
Since it was Superbowl Sunday the fleet was smaller than normal, only 12 of us to start, swelling to 15 by the time we got underway. After an unproductive fight with a clever Nightmare pilot in Fliet, we arrived in Ostingele with 11 minutes left in the repair cycle. Not a problem; any shooting at the structure pauses the repair cycle so if we decided to attack, we had all the time we needed.
We arrived on grid with the structure at the Fedmart NPC station 3800 km off. There was no defense fleet. The structure was owned by a 4 man corporation, alts we figure. Rumours in intel put them as alts of Northern Coalition Dot however, so we figure attacking it will bring some attention.
But we're in tech 1 cruisers (except one snowflake in a tier 3 Legion) so what do we care? We engage and wait for the defenders to show up.
90% structure remaining - Haha this is funny, we're so gonna die.
70% - OK, this is weird.
50% - We're halfway through. We might actually do this?
30% - Cyno 24 AU away, is that them coming for us? Thanatos on grid! No wait, its on the Fedmart station... getting ready to launch fighters? No, it docked.
10% - This is so nerve wracking!!!! They are going to chase us off in the last few percent, I know it!
Then it counted down the last few percent counted down and it exploded in an extremely satisfying flash of light as it gave birth to a new sun. I got top damage in my humble Thorax and the whole effort took ~45 minutes for 15 of us, 3 in logistics cruisers.
Good to know.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Making Mistakes
One of the hardest things to learn as a new Fleet Commander (aka FC) is that you will constantly make mistakes.
Some mistakes will be due to inexperience. Some will be because your opponent is crafty or lucky and got the drop on you. Some will be because you were too confident or too eager for the kill. But the worst mistakes are the ones that happen because you just got careless.
Take last night for example. I logged in to form my usual Sunday Night Fleet in Fliet and I get on voice comms to hear about a RvB gang that was passing through. The fleet is not formed yet but I don't want this target of opportunity to pass us by because I know RvB came to fight and not just gank.
So I jump in my Abaddon and try to muster the people coming into fleet to get into a fight on the Heydieles gate where RvB has seemed to caught wind of us and might engage. The ensuing battle did not go our way; we killed an Armageddon, Scythe Fleet issue, a Stork, and a couple Mallers but lost my Abaddon, two Hecates, a Hurricane, a Falcon, Vexor, Algos, and a handful of frigates. All in all, not a good exchange.
The big problem was I didn't communicate clearly that for the most part sentry guns would not be working for us and we didn't have logistics to cover any missteps. I rushed in to try and get a fight and as a result, some of our losses had a considerable amount of sentry gun damage on their loss mails.
The good news is, we reshipped our losses, formed up a fleet and went on to have some really good fights and kills for the rest of the night, including getting some revenge on that RvB fleet later on in Nennamailia. To the pilots which quit the fleet after the first misstep, you missed out.
Take last night for example. I logged in to form my usual Sunday Night Fleet in Fliet and I get on voice comms to hear about a RvB gang that was passing through. The fleet is not formed yet but I don't want this target of opportunity to pass us by because I know RvB came to fight and not just gank.
So I jump in my Abaddon and try to muster the people coming into fleet to get into a fight on the Heydieles gate where RvB has seemed to caught wind of us and might engage. The ensuing battle did not go our way; we killed an Armageddon, Scythe Fleet issue, a Stork, and a couple Mallers but lost my Abaddon, two Hecates, a Hurricane, a Falcon, Vexor, Algos, and a handful of frigates. All in all, not a good exchange.
The big problem was I didn't communicate clearly that for the most part sentry guns would not be working for us and we didn't have logistics to cover any missteps. I rushed in to try and get a fight and as a result, some of our losses had a considerable amount of sentry gun damage on their loss mails.
The good news is, we reshipped our losses, formed up a fleet and went on to have some really good fights and kills for the rest of the night, including getting some revenge on that RvB fleet later on in Nennamailia. To the pilots which quit the fleet after the first misstep, you missed out.
Tuesday, December 06, 2016
Surviving by the Skin of My Teeth
Sunday night's fleet was Speed Swarm, i.e. fast frigates that swarm on targets of opportunity and kill them before escaping from superior forces. Microwarp Drives On!
We roamed the warzone looking for targets of opporunity, and at one point we contacted by allies in Black Fox Marauders corporation (aka BLFOX) to assist on a hot drop on a roaming hostile cruiser gang. BLFOX had a bait Megathron with cyno fitted and a Slasher for tackle and a handful of carriers ready to jump in, but needed more tackle to prevent more of the cruisers from escaping the wrath of the fighters.
The Megathron moved into position and engaged the enemy, and we swooped in as the fight started and spread our points on all the targets. Once pointed, the carriers jumped in and began melting the cruisers in short order. The Megathron died, but so did all the cruisers:
Our frigate fleet survived intact, and as a bonus one of our new pilots scored this amazing podmail worth an estimated 2.4 billion ISK.
Later on we were heading home when we saw a war target in an Omen Navy Issue in a quiet system. He was strategically positioned on the outside of a complex such that any frigates trying to close the 100 km plus gap would have to contend with his drones and lasers. Nevertheless, we tried to circle him with our super fast interceptors and my speed Garmur, dodging in and out of his targeting range to try and tackle him. Finally I got a point on him and called in the rest of the frigates but was taking serious damage. I tried to warp out and watched in horror as my favourite ship's armour dissipated and I dipped into hull... but finally pulled into the warp tunnel.
I checked and had 6 out of 560 hull points left. A true 1% escape.
He warped off but an eagle eyed pilot saw where he warped too so the fleet followed and got point again, and proceeded to tear him up. Good fight, and good fleet!
We roamed the warzone looking for targets of opporunity, and at one point we contacted by allies in Black Fox Marauders corporation (aka BLFOX) to assist on a hot drop on a roaming hostile cruiser gang. BLFOX had a bait Megathron with cyno fitted and a Slasher for tackle and a handful of carriers ready to jump in, but needed more tackle to prevent more of the cruisers from escaping the wrath of the fighters.
The Megathron moved into position and engaged the enemy, and we swooped in as the fight started and spread our points on all the targets. Once pointed, the carriers jumped in and began melting the cruisers in short order. The Megathron died, but so did all the cruisers:
Our frigate fleet survived intact, and as a bonus one of our new pilots scored this amazing podmail worth an estimated 2.4 billion ISK.
Later on we were heading home when we saw a war target in an Omen Navy Issue in a quiet system. He was strategically positioned on the outside of a complex such that any frigates trying to close the 100 km plus gap would have to contend with his drones and lasers. Nevertheless, we tried to circle him with our super fast interceptors and my speed Garmur, dodging in and out of his targeting range to try and tackle him. Finally I got a point on him and called in the rest of the frigates but was taking serious damage. I tried to warp out and watched in horror as my favourite ship's armour dissipated and I dipped into hull... but finally pulled into the warp tunnel.
I checked and had 6 out of 560 hull points left. A true 1% escape.
He warped off but an eagle eyed pilot saw where he warped too so the fleet followed and got point again, and proceeded to tear him up. Good fight, and good fleet!
Monday, September 26, 2016
Smacked Around the Head
Last night was not a good night.
I started the fleet off in our traditional Tristans and Navitas, a decent comp for any Novice complex fighting, when we stumbled across a Mercenary Coalition Navy Comet fleet. We setup in a plex and allowed them to come to us, but their numbers and sheer firepower burned through our reps before we could kill more than a couple.
We regrouped into Algos and Navitas fleet, the thought being the bigger buffer and DPS would give us the chance to whittle them down faster, but they left the area. However we came across a neutral/pirate cruiser fleet that we decided to engage. I made a couple unforced errors in commanding the fleet, taking gate guns and not primarying one of the two Augurors, and we were forced to disengage with bloody noses and only a single Blackbird in exchange.
I tried to reship us into crusiers to engage again but our cruiser stockpile was too many jumps away so we decided to try Algoses again with a couple more pilots and a resolution to correct the mistakes of last fight. We found them at the sun one system over and engaged, but this time they had three Tech 1 logistics cruisers and we were just short of the damage required to break them.
We were closer to home in Fliet this time so we swooped down the pipe to there and reshipped into cruisers, Vexors and Exeqs. For sure this time we had the firepower required to win this fight! We raced back towards the enemy and were surprised to find them racing towards us! But they went right past us (although we did make one Augoror pay).
Turns out they were running from a SniggWaffe cruiser fleet which was bigger than their fleet. As they warped in on us I make a snap decision to take the fight and we tried to break their logi but it was to no avail, we took some losses and extracted the rest to home.
Four fight attempts, four lost fights. Not my best night.
At least it was not boring.
I started the fleet off in our traditional Tristans and Navitas, a decent comp for any Novice complex fighting, when we stumbled across a Mercenary Coalition Navy Comet fleet. We setup in a plex and allowed them to come to us, but their numbers and sheer firepower burned through our reps before we could kill more than a couple.
We regrouped into Algos and Navitas fleet, the thought being the bigger buffer and DPS would give us the chance to whittle them down faster, but they left the area. However we came across a neutral/pirate cruiser fleet that we decided to engage. I made a couple unforced errors in commanding the fleet, taking gate guns and not primarying one of the two Augurors, and we were forced to disengage with bloody noses and only a single Blackbird in exchange.
I tried to reship us into crusiers to engage again but our cruiser stockpile was too many jumps away so we decided to try Algoses again with a couple more pilots and a resolution to correct the mistakes of last fight. We found them at the sun one system over and engaged, but this time they had three Tech 1 logistics cruisers and we were just short of the damage required to break them.
We were closer to home in Fliet this time so we swooped down the pipe to there and reshipped into cruisers, Vexors and Exeqs. For sure this time we had the firepower required to win this fight! We raced back towards the enemy and were surprised to find them racing towards us! But they went right past us (although we did make one Augoror pay).
Turns out they were running from a SniggWaffe cruiser fleet which was bigger than their fleet. As they warped in on us I make a snap decision to take the fight and we tried to break their logi but it was to no avail, we took some losses and extracted the rest to home.
Four fight attempts, four lost fights. Not my best night.
At least it was not boring.
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Bigger Is Better
(... on the killboard at least.)
One of the advantages of joining in with larger Gallente Militia fleets is that we get to fly big battleships in fleets that have a chance to score some pretty sweet kills: Nagflar and a bunch of Megathrons and Rattlesnakes in July for example, or a Moros last weekend.
Aideron has often steered clear of using battleships in the past for several reasons. First, our recruitment welcomes lower skill point and newer players so the ability to fit and fly a battleship in a fleet can be hit or miss. Secondly, our numbers are in the mid teens most of the time which translates to about 8-9 battleships with logi, large enough to prompt a response but not large enough to appropriately handle the response our known enemies can muster. Third, we have almost zero capital experience so escalating a battleship fight to FAXes and dreads is questionable at best, doomed at worst. And fourth, we lack FCs with experience in battleship-capital-triage warfare.
So joining GalMil fleets solves all of those issues: our pilots that can fly battleships add to the fleet numbers while less skilled pilots fly suppport/tackle, the fleet is larger and more on par with enemy fleet sizes, they have experience using capitals, and FCs willing and able to handle that mess. Plus being in these fleets gives our pilots experience in this direction and perhaps more willingness to try these things out.
On that last point, my personal concern is figuring out how to manage yet another ball in the air in terms of capital assets and their status while still managing calling targets, maneuvering fleet, worrying about logi, watching for incoming enemy reinforcements (more DPS ships, EWAR, command destroyers, neut ships, etc). At some point delegation plays into the mix here, and I need to wrap my head around what needs to be delegated and what needs direct management. I *think* I know but I need to do to be sure I suspect, I just dread the thought of getting some capitals whelped in the process of learning.
One of the advantages of joining in with larger Gallente Militia fleets is that we get to fly big battleships in fleets that have a chance to score some pretty sweet kills: Nagflar and a bunch of Megathrons and Rattlesnakes in July for example, or a Moros last weekend.
Aideron has often steered clear of using battleships in the past for several reasons. First, our recruitment welcomes lower skill point and newer players so the ability to fit and fly a battleship in a fleet can be hit or miss. Secondly, our numbers are in the mid teens most of the time which translates to about 8-9 battleships with logi, large enough to prompt a response but not large enough to appropriately handle the response our known enemies can muster. Third, we have almost zero capital experience so escalating a battleship fight to FAXes and dreads is questionable at best, doomed at worst. And fourth, we lack FCs with experience in battleship-capital-triage warfare.
So joining GalMil fleets solves all of those issues: our pilots that can fly battleships add to the fleet numbers while less skilled pilots fly suppport/tackle, the fleet is larger and more on par with enemy fleet sizes, they have experience using capitals, and FCs willing and able to handle that mess. Plus being in these fleets gives our pilots experience in this direction and perhaps more willingness to try these things out.
On that last point, my personal concern is figuring out how to manage yet another ball in the air in terms of capital assets and their status while still managing calling targets, maneuvering fleet, worrying about logi, watching for incoming enemy reinforcements (more DPS ships, EWAR, command destroyers, neut ships, etc). At some point delegation plays into the mix here, and I need to wrap my head around what needs to be delegated and what needs direct management. I *think* I know but I need to do to be sure I suspect, I just dread the thought of getting some capitals whelped in the process of learning.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Aideron Robotics Evolution
About 2 years ago Aideron Robotics moved from the then capital system of Gallente Militia, Nennamailia in Black Rise region, to Heydieles in Essence region (and later to next door to Fliet), to work on developing the corporation in terms of identity and membership.
Over the intervening time we've had some membership fluctuations, some wins, some losses, but overall we were successful in establishing a unique corp culture and relationship with the rest of Gallente Militia and other low sec entities.
When the Gallente Militia Civil War started this past year we were able to leverage that unique position to remain friendly with both sides and keep neutral, hopefully providing some use as a friendly go between for the two camps to remind them that Caldari Militia is always the ultimate threat.
This summer we looked at our current state and we felt we needed to expand beyond our comfort zone of frigates, destroyers, and cruisers and look into integrating with the larger Gallente Militia culture. Part of this is because our members have matured and want to explore larger fights against more dangerous enemies than we alone can face, and part is because the miltia has thinned down due to the stagnant state of faction warfare and our presence in bolstering fleets can be more acutely felt.
The result this summer has been a few instances where Aideron pilots have joined a forming Gallente Militia fleet and doubled its size, allowing some amazing fights against Cal Mil and pirates that otherwise would not have happened with battlecruisers and battleships. These victories and experience work into a positive feedback loop where our pilots want to join more fleets and increase enthusiasm for other pilots.
The next step for Aideron is to develop our own Fleet Commanders in these larger doctrines and work with the leadership of the larger Gal Mil to support and lead more fleets. That involves me getting out of my small fleet comfort zone and getting more bold but I feel up to the challenge.
In other news, Aideron Robotics is recruiting so if you are interested in PvP in low sec as part of Gallente Militia, check us out on the web and in game in the "Aideron Robotics" public channel.
Over the intervening time we've had some membership fluctuations, some wins, some losses, but overall we were successful in establishing a unique corp culture and relationship with the rest of Gallente Militia and other low sec entities.
When the Gallente Militia Civil War started this past year we were able to leverage that unique position to remain friendly with both sides and keep neutral, hopefully providing some use as a friendly go between for the two camps to remind them that Caldari Militia is always the ultimate threat.
This summer we looked at our current state and we felt we needed to expand beyond our comfort zone of frigates, destroyers, and cruisers and look into integrating with the larger Gallente Militia culture. Part of this is because our members have matured and want to explore larger fights against more dangerous enemies than we alone can face, and part is because the miltia has thinned down due to the stagnant state of faction warfare and our presence in bolstering fleets can be more acutely felt.
The result this summer has been a few instances where Aideron pilots have joined a forming Gallente Militia fleet and doubled its size, allowing some amazing fights against Cal Mil and pirates that otherwise would not have happened with battlecruisers and battleships. These victories and experience work into a positive feedback loop where our pilots want to join more fleets and increase enthusiasm for other pilots.
The next step for Aideron is to develop our own Fleet Commanders in these larger doctrines and work with the leadership of the larger Gal Mil to support and lead more fleets. That involves me getting out of my small fleet comfort zone and getting more bold but I feel up to the challenge.
In other news, Aideron Robotics is recruiting so if you are interested in PvP in low sec as part of Gallente Militia, check us out on the web and in game in the "Aideron Robotics" public channel.
Monday, February 01, 2016
After Action Report - I didn't Want That Proteus Anyways
I don't often talk about my PvP efforts on this blog but last night was a great night for the fleet so here is the After Action Report from last night:
Last night I called for Black Ops again to improve on the issues we experienced last week and right out the gate I want to say we were much better organized and successful, despite fewer targets of opportunity this week.
We formed up with a nice core of Nemesis Stealth Bombers and a few recons, and two Proteus cruisers.was cyno baiting in a Myrmidon and I had my alt out in a Rupture again. In order to free up my main for another proteus assigned an alt to Black Ops jump portal duty.
Our first drop was on a Shadown Cartel Myrmidon in Vifrevaert (role reversal!) and as the cyno wore down we caught a snooping Harbinger and killed it just as his friends in a BC fleet arrived. Everyone got out fine except for me, since we were fighting at the Sun and I tried multiple times to warp out... to the sun. FAIL. So my proteus was destroyed in an otherwise perfect couple of ganks. Oh well.
As we reset in Fliet on the pigand (in a Breacher scouting) engaged a Templis frigate fleet in Abune that they spent 13 minutes destroying (at one point for the last Harpy we needed to send over to help finish it off as it killed all of drones).
Later, my alt was back in Tama and hanging out 100 km off station looking juicy and after a few sniffs a trio of neutrals in dessies burns towards me, lead by a Magus command destroyer. He jumps me (for whatever reason, I dunno, to get farther from sentries?) and I point him. I tried to make sure I had a good point before lighting the cyno as I didn't want him to get away once I was immobilized, but by the time I lit the beacon and the Riders of Rohan came in I had almost solo killed it (Open with the late web https://zkillboard.com/kill/51750072/) and the other two got away :( However, they came back in a Corax, Caracal, and Phantasm which we killed (Open lost his Astero though) and the Phantasm kill was quite juicy: https://zkillboard.com/kill/51750154/
It was getting late and the number of target to drop on was low so we went back to Fliet and reshipped straight up into Armour Destroyer fleet with 4 frig logi. We went back towards Nagamemen and got into a fight in Oto against some neutrals at the sun killing 7 ships including two Hecates, a Vexor, and a battle Nereus. We then went up to Tama, found nothing, and while heading home to Fliet we crossed paths with a CalMil dessie hull fleet including a few Tactical Destroyers. We had about equal numbers, maybe we had a few more, but we had Logi and they did not. We played cat and mouse a couple times with both sides trying to get a favourable engagement and finally in Deven they were 100 km off and burned in fast on us and started shooting at two of our logi.
Fortunately, without weapon timers and right on the gate they (Ash and Nyjil) jumped into Fliet, repped each other, and jumped back. Meanwhile we lit up the enemy fleet (good job Griffin hunters) and blew up four tactical destroyers and a Bifrost command destroyer. An amazing result for a fight that could have gone badly.
Big thanks to all the important pieces that allowed the fleets to work so well, and a big thanks to the GalMil Bros from RDRAW, Red Horde Rising, and Spaceship Bebop would dropped into Mumble and joined us! Overall an amazing night for the fleet.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Fleet Commander Credo
Fear is the joy killer.
You are flying spaceships made of pixels that someone else actually owns.
Death is temporary.
Let go of the fear.
I will run the fleet from fights I know we cannot hope to win;
I will attack enemies I know we will crush in victory.
In between those extremes lies glory and adrenaline.
Fire on the primary.
You are flying spaceships made of pixels that someone else actually owns.
Death is temporary.
Let go of the fear.
I will run the fleet from fights I know we cannot hope to win;
I will attack enemies I know we will crush in victory.
In between those extremes lies glory and adrenaline.
Fire on the primary.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Goodbye Fleet Warp, I Hardly Knew Ye
Last week on the o7 show it was announced that some major changes are coming to fleet warp mechanics:
First, the short term. As a small gang Fleet commander in low sec, I admit I don't make very much use of fleet warp mechanics for no reason other than with a small group of pilots I work with on a consistent basis, I don't need to worry that people don't warp to where I specify. To assist with the smooth operation of the fleet, I try to give clear and concise instructions multiple times to avoid any mistakes.
But other FCs may operate differently, either out of personal choice or necessity. A large fleet with lots of newer players or inexperienced PvP Pilots can use fleet warps to ensure pilots don't warp in at the wrong range or to the wrong celestial or bookmark. These changes will make the herding of cats more hazardous and fraught with mistakes. Even if a person only makes a mistake 1 out of 100 times, a fleet of 200 pilots is going to have 2 pilots going off the reservation every time.
Another advantage of fleet warping was that it made all the ships in the warp travel at the same warp speed of the slowest ship class in the warp. With that gone, its another factor to play into sending your fleet at a target where you must be concerned parts of your fleet do not arrive too much sooner than others.
However, let's look at the long term implications of this change.
The death of the Sniper Battleship fleet really started with the "New Probing Mechanics" of Apocrypha. Prior to that, getting a warp in on a target enemy took far longer and a lot more skill. After Apocrypha, getting warp ins on enemies took merely seconds meaning often battleships were still locking and aligning when the other fleet landed on top of them. This forced engagement ranges shorter than 150 km to avoid on grid warps as much as possible but this in turn allowed smaller and more mobile ships the ability to fight at range. The battleship simply became too big and too slow to compete.
But now? An FC can no longer both probe and fleet warp the ships onto the enemy in one smooth motion. At the very least, the person doing the fleet warp has to put himself in harms way to warp to the probed target and then wait while the fleet warps to him. More likely you will have two pilots, one doing the probing and another leading the fleet. Plus the mistakes that can occur when ordering the fleet to warp the prober at the right range and angle.
Does this mean the return of the sniper battleship fleet doctrine? I don't think so, mainly because there have been a lot of changes over the years that impact that class of ships and simply giving them a reprieve from insta-probing fleets landing on them does not address all of them. But its interesting to watch the outcome nonetheless as the big Null Sec doctrine masters apply their trade.
Overall, I see why CCP is making this change, its part of a pattern of taking control from centralized actors and moving it to individuals so that the emergent gameplay is not dictated as much by a handful of people. Drone Assist, fleet warps, and soon I am willing to bet off grid linking.. its all part of a design to give player skill and training more of a factor in a group's overall success.
As announced on the o7 show we are making some changes to fleet warp. Fleet Commanders, Wing Commanders & Squad Commanders will no longer be able to warp to anything a fleet member couldn’t warp to on their own. This includes –This will have an immediate obvious impact on how fleets operate in the short term, and a less obvious impact on fleet dynamics as a whole in the long term.
- Probe Results
- Bookmarks
- Any private deadspace item (missions, etc.)
Commanders will still be able to warp their fleet to other fleet members, and all other ‘public’ objects.
The goal of these changes is to encourage more individual fleet member participation and reduce the speed at which fleets can get on top of targets (e.g bombers).
First, the short term. As a small gang Fleet commander in low sec, I admit I don't make very much use of fleet warp mechanics for no reason other than with a small group of pilots I work with on a consistent basis, I don't need to worry that people don't warp to where I specify. To assist with the smooth operation of the fleet, I try to give clear and concise instructions multiple times to avoid any mistakes.
But other FCs may operate differently, either out of personal choice or necessity. A large fleet with lots of newer players or inexperienced PvP Pilots can use fleet warps to ensure pilots don't warp in at the wrong range or to the wrong celestial or bookmark. These changes will make the herding of cats more hazardous and fraught with mistakes. Even if a person only makes a mistake 1 out of 100 times, a fleet of 200 pilots is going to have 2 pilots going off the reservation every time.
Another advantage of fleet warping was that it made all the ships in the warp travel at the same warp speed of the slowest ship class in the warp. With that gone, its another factor to play into sending your fleet at a target where you must be concerned parts of your fleet do not arrive too much sooner than others.
However, let's look at the long term implications of this change.
The death of the Sniper Battleship fleet really started with the "New Probing Mechanics" of Apocrypha. Prior to that, getting a warp in on a target enemy took far longer and a lot more skill. After Apocrypha, getting warp ins on enemies took merely seconds meaning often battleships were still locking and aligning when the other fleet landed on top of them. This forced engagement ranges shorter than 150 km to avoid on grid warps as much as possible but this in turn allowed smaller and more mobile ships the ability to fight at range. The battleship simply became too big and too slow to compete.
But now? An FC can no longer both probe and fleet warp the ships onto the enemy in one smooth motion. At the very least, the person doing the fleet warp has to put himself in harms way to warp to the probed target and then wait while the fleet warps to him. More likely you will have two pilots, one doing the probing and another leading the fleet. Plus the mistakes that can occur when ordering the fleet to warp the prober at the right range and angle.
Does this mean the return of the sniper battleship fleet doctrine? I don't think so, mainly because there have been a lot of changes over the years that impact that class of ships and simply giving them a reprieve from insta-probing fleets landing on them does not address all of them. But its interesting to watch the outcome nonetheless as the big Null Sec doctrine masters apply their trade.
Overall, I see why CCP is making this change, its part of a pattern of taking control from centralized actors and moving it to individuals so that the emergent gameplay is not dictated as much by a handful of people. Drone Assist, fleet warps, and soon I am willing to bet off grid linking.. its all part of a design to give player skill and training more of a factor in a group's overall success.
Monday, March 02, 2015
FC 101 - The Cross Jump
I make no claims to being a great Fleet commander but I want to share something I did last night that worked out for our fleet and seemed to surprise a few members who had not see it before.
WARNING: Terrible MS Paint Images Incoming
Scenario
You're in system A with your fleet and forward scout reports a hostile fleet that is heavier/bigger/better than your fleet. You don't want to engage as you will obviously lose and you have only moments to decide what to do.
Option 1 - Run Away
You tell your forward scout to escape and you turn your fleet around and run away. This has the advantage of being very straight forward, but runs the risk of some of your slower members being run down by faster elements of the hostile fleet, and you need to find shelter to get away from the hostile fleet, either a safe spot of somewhere to dock.
Option 2 - The Cross Jump
But let's say you don't want to go back. Perhaps the systems behind you are far from your ultimate destination, or another hostile fleet is back there and you don't want to barrel into it. What you can do is get your fleet on zero on the gate and when you see the enemy fleet jump in, jump out to system B.
Now you have the time it takes them to burn back to gate and jump to make your escape in the direction you want to go. It does run some risk if the enemy FC is willing to split his fleet and only jump some of the ships and keep some tacklers on the far side to catch the cross jumpers but often times fleets jump as one and an FC will be unwilling to split his fleet in a sudden encounter like this and you can make a clean get away like we did last night. This option is most likely to succeed when the hostile fleet doesn't have adequate forward scouting as well.
WARNING: Terrible MS Paint Images Incoming
Scenario
You're in system A with your fleet and forward scout reports a hostile fleet that is heavier/bigger/better than your fleet. You don't want to engage as you will obviously lose and you have only moments to decide what to do.
Option 1 - Run Away
You tell your forward scout to escape and you turn your fleet around and run away. This has the advantage of being very straight forward, but runs the risk of some of your slower members being run down by faster elements of the hostile fleet, and you need to find shelter to get away from the hostile fleet, either a safe spot of somewhere to dock.
Option 2 - The Cross Jump
But let's say you don't want to go back. Perhaps the systems behind you are far from your ultimate destination, or another hostile fleet is back there and you don't want to barrel into it. What you can do is get your fleet on zero on the gate and when you see the enemy fleet jump in, jump out to system B.
Now you have the time it takes them to burn back to gate and jump to make your escape in the direction you want to go. It does run some risk if the enemy FC is willing to split his fleet and only jump some of the ships and keep some tacklers on the far side to catch the cross jumpers but often times fleets jump as one and an FC will be unwilling to split his fleet in a sudden encounter like this and you can make a clean get away like we did last night. This option is most likely to succeed when the hostile fleet doesn't have adequate forward scouting as well.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Next Step, Stepping Up
My goal of 2014 was to become a Fleet Commander, comfortable in the role and competent enough to be trusted by corporation leadership and the line members to take a fleet out and not whelp it pointlessly (unless whelping was the point).
I feel that the year was a resounding success to the point where if I'm in a fleet and not the FC, I really really want to be. In control of all the ships, directing them to the next position, getting scouts to report from neighbouring systems, its all very addictive... FLY MY PRETTIES, FLY!
Surprisingly, I think that becoming an FC has increased my desire to lead and direct at work as well, leading me into a more architectural and design role rather than simply an awesome developer and scrumlord... er... scrummaster.
But the question now is what is the next step for my Eve personal development? (Its sad I agonize more over this question than my next step for work development at my job.) I think my next goal is to raise my profile within the militia with the other core Galente corps and try to make a name and good reputation for myself such that I can be counted on to lead larger and more diversified fleets. This will require me stepping out of another comfort zone (that of approaching strangers and relative unknown quantities) but I feel I'm ready for that step.
I don't harbour any illusions I will be mentioned on the same level as some current excellent and well known GalMil FCs, but I want to be considered as an acceptable one outside of Aideron Robotics.
To that end, I'm planning a large open fleet sometime near the end of February or beginning of March. More details coming.
I feel that the year was a resounding success to the point where if I'm in a fleet and not the FC, I really really want to be. In control of all the ships, directing them to the next position, getting scouts to report from neighbouring systems, its all very addictive... FLY MY PRETTIES, FLY!
 |
| Rare image of Kirith FCing. |
Surprisingly, I think that becoming an FC has increased my desire to lead and direct at work as well, leading me into a more architectural and design role rather than simply an awesome developer and scrumlord... er... scrummaster.
 |
| I'm a scrummaster, I scrummast. |
But the question now is what is the next step for my Eve personal development? (Its sad I agonize more over this question than my next step for work development at my job.) I think my next goal is to raise my profile within the militia with the other core Galente corps and try to make a name and good reputation for myself such that I can be counted on to lead larger and more diversified fleets. This will require me stepping out of another comfort zone (that of approaching strangers and relative unknown quantities) but I feel I'm ready for that step.
I don't harbour any illusions I will be mentioned on the same level as some current excellent and well known GalMil FCs, but I want to be considered as an acceptable one outside of Aideron Robotics.
To that end, I'm planning a large open fleet sometime near the end of February or beginning of March. More details coming.
Monday, December 15, 2014
Riding the Unicycle on the Cliff-side Trail of Doom
Last night was crazy in a good way.
I decided I wanted to fly and probably lose an old Abaddon battleship I had in the hanger from my Paxton Federation days. Specifically, an armour buffered Large Pulse Laser behemoth whose purpose is to kick ass and chew capacitor... which is not a great fit for Aideron where doctrines are light on cap transfer logistics. But I was out for insurance fraud so that was OK.
Usually when I start the Aideron Sunday Night Fleet we get about 7 pilots at first and build up slowly over the next hour to our normal size around 22-24. Last night we started at 14 pilots and peaked later at 32. I guess people were excited at the thought of watching my battleship go boom.
So we immediately shipped into Vexors and Exequrors with supporting frigates and my Abaddon Mace and went looking for trouble in all the right places. Specifically, we started with Tama.
The Nourvukaiken gate (aka Nourv because spelling is hard) had a small group camping so Bait Abaddon is Best Abaddon and in I went. It was nice being in something with heft to it, no fear of being blapped off the field by 7... no wait, 10... no... 14 hostiles... OH SHIT! "Jump and warp to Kirith now!"
What enfolded was a crazy fight between us and possibly multiple groups of hostiles in a variety of ships including frigates, cruisers, logi, recons, stealth bombers, and at one point I swear I saw a Redeemer. Calling targets was tricky due to ranges and security status as I wanted to kill some things but didn't want to stress our logistics wing with gate guns until it was necessary, then we turned on the weapons on some neutral recons and stealth bombers to clear the area. We held the field with minor losses and scoring some nice kills including a Navy Omen, Rapier, and Armageddon, scooped loot, and headed home to drop it off and let some pilot reship.
The next hour was quiet excepting a scuffle in a medium plex I could not fit in so Marcel took over that fight. We heard rumblings that frequent sparring partner Templis CALSF of the Caldari Militia so we ran some plexes down in Sujarento while keeping eyes on the Templis home system of Hasmijaala where their numbers slowly increased. We moved into Nagamanen and waited for reports on the enemy fleet. When they showed up, they did not disappoint so we set up in a Large complex and prepared to fight.
We had about 24 cruisers including my battleship, with 7 of them being Exequrors, one blackbird, and the rest Vexors and Vexor Navy Issues. The Templis fleet was more of a mixed bag of Thoraxes, Vexors, Vexor Navy Issues, a couple Ashimmus, a Sacrilege, a Rupture, 2 Blackbirds, and supported by some Exequrors and Oneiroses (I think 2 of each to start), a total of 23 cruisers. Both sides had a smattering of frigates and there might have been a Destroyer here and there.
The Blackbirds were a serious threat to our logi wing and nice and squishy so they were primaried early to remove the jamming. Our ECM pilot met the same fate as the Templis FC had the same concerns apparently. I ordered our DPS to start into the hostile Exequrors and we took one down in what felt like an eternity but was probably closer to 2 minutes. Then our Logi anchor reported an Ashmmu was on them and neuting hard so we diverted attention to it but it could not break with the CalMil logi firing on all cylinders. I ordered switching primary to one of the Oneiros pilots but Marcel wisely suggested we keep blasters on the Ashimmu and only send the drones after the logi pilot. I agreed so we split our damage and this seemed to work by unsettling their reps enough for one, then the other Ashimmu to be worn down before the Onerios pilot died. We went after the other Onerios pilot to remove their reps (or so I thought as I missed one of the Exes #FCfail) and once it was gone taking out a third Ashimmu before concentrating on the last Exe someone finally pointed out to me.
Now, we were losing ships in this process over the 5 minutes since the fight started, and our logi commander was reporting that reps were not holding. I asked what was hitting them and they said "drones!" HEY! That's our shtick! So with enemy logistics and neutralizers removed we started into the high DPS and drone cruisers taking down the Sacrilege followed by 2 Vexors and 2 VNIs and then tearing into the vulnerable trio of Thoraxes. Templis, seeing the tide turning against them as their DPS failed ordered the retreat and we held the field, battered and bloody.
The end tally showed that both sides caused a lot of damage with Aideron losing 17 cruisers and Templis losing 17 cruisers plus 3 Tech 2 cruisers. However, the faction and Tech II ships' costs gave us the ISK advantage, plus holding the field means we declared this a victory. Hard fought and won, but victory nonetheless.
Great Fight Templis CALSF, you guys bring the fight and its always a pleasure.
I decided I wanted to fly and probably lose an old Abaddon battleship I had in the hanger from my Paxton Federation days. Specifically, an armour buffered Large Pulse Laser behemoth whose purpose is to kick ass and chew capacitor... which is not a great fit for Aideron where doctrines are light on cap transfer logistics. But I was out for insurance fraud so that was OK.
Usually when I start the Aideron Sunday Night Fleet we get about 7 pilots at first and build up slowly over the next hour to our normal size around 22-24. Last night we started at 14 pilots and peaked later at 32. I guess people were excited at the thought of watching my battleship go boom.
 |
| Source |
The Nourvukaiken gate (aka Nourv because spelling is hard) had a small group camping so Bait Abaddon is Best Abaddon and in I went. It was nice being in something with heft to it, no fear of being blapped off the field by 7... no wait, 10... no... 14 hostiles... OH SHIT! "Jump and warp to Kirith now!"
What enfolded was a crazy fight between us and possibly multiple groups of hostiles in a variety of ships including frigates, cruisers, logi, recons, stealth bombers, and at one point I swear I saw a Redeemer. Calling targets was tricky due to ranges and security status as I wanted to kill some things but didn't want to stress our logistics wing with gate guns until it was necessary, then we turned on the weapons on some neutral recons and stealth bombers to clear the area. We held the field with minor losses and scoring some nice kills including a Navy Omen, Rapier, and Armageddon, scooped loot, and headed home to drop it off and let some pilot reship.
The next hour was quiet excepting a scuffle in a medium plex I could not fit in so Marcel took over that fight. We heard rumblings that frequent sparring partner Templis CALSF of the Caldari Militia so we ran some plexes down in Sujarento while keeping eyes on the Templis home system of Hasmijaala where their numbers slowly increased. We moved into Nagamanen and waited for reports on the enemy fleet. When they showed up, they did not disappoint so we set up in a Large complex and prepared to fight.
We had about 24 cruisers including my battleship, with 7 of them being Exequrors, one blackbird, and the rest Vexors and Vexor Navy Issues. The Templis fleet was more of a mixed bag of Thoraxes, Vexors, Vexor Navy Issues, a couple Ashimmus, a Sacrilege, a Rupture, 2 Blackbirds, and supported by some Exequrors and Oneiroses (I think 2 of each to start), a total of 23 cruisers. Both sides had a smattering of frigates and there might have been a Destroyer here and there.
The Blackbirds were a serious threat to our logi wing and nice and squishy so they were primaried early to remove the jamming. Our ECM pilot met the same fate as the Templis FC had the same concerns apparently. I ordered our DPS to start into the hostile Exequrors and we took one down in what felt like an eternity but was probably closer to 2 minutes. Then our Logi anchor reported an Ashmmu was on them and neuting hard so we diverted attention to it but it could not break with the CalMil logi firing on all cylinders. I ordered switching primary to one of the Oneiros pilots but Marcel wisely suggested we keep blasters on the Ashimmu and only send the drones after the logi pilot. I agreed so we split our damage and this seemed to work by unsettling their reps enough for one, then the other Ashimmu to be worn down before the Onerios pilot died. We went after the other Onerios pilot to remove their reps (or so I thought as I missed one of the Exes #FCfail) and once it was gone taking out a third Ashimmu before concentrating on the last Exe someone finally pointed out to me.
Now, we were losing ships in this process over the 5 minutes since the fight started, and our logi commander was reporting that reps were not holding. I asked what was hitting them and they said "drones!" HEY! That's our shtick! So with enemy logistics and neutralizers removed we started into the high DPS and drone cruisers taking down the Sacrilege followed by 2 Vexors and 2 VNIs and then tearing into the vulnerable trio of Thoraxes. Templis, seeing the tide turning against them as their DPS failed ordered the retreat and we held the field, battered and bloody.
 |
| Not 100% accurate but close. |
Great Fight Templis CALSF, you guys bring the fight and its always a pleasure.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Shaking off the Rust
I lost two EVE sessions in October due to Thanksgiving travels one weekend and my fall Board Game Day another. Which sucks because I get rusty at FCing pretty damn quickly.
Sunday night I logged in and started putting together a fleet for the corp. We quickly grew in numbers and swtiched from a kitchen sink frigate fleet to a Rouge Squadron doctrine Algos fleet supported by interceptors and Navitas logi.
We got word of a Caldari Militia assault frigate fleet movign around Tama and we swung through Fliet's back door to try and engage them. In the battleground of Sujarento we jumped in on them and engage at point blank range on the gate. They had a couple Griffins and my target calling was rusty because at one point I primaried a couple of Harpies that I should have left for some softer Tech 1 Frigates.
Not a big deal and I internalize the lesson and we won the fight and held the field, losing 5 Algos and a single Atron and Navitas while killing 2 Harpies, an Ishkur, a Wolf, a Jaguar, a Retribution, a Kitsune, a Merlin, a Burst, and two Bantams.
We went back to Fliet and reshipped, then proceeded to scour the warzone looking for more targets. It was going pretty quiet until we got reports of two hostile pirate fleets in the Fliet area while we were deep in Black Rise region. We ran back to Essence and while an allied Gallente Militia fleet took on one fleet, we engaged the other in Heydieles.
We executed the attack a lot more smoothly this time and we only lost our initial scout Algos (don't ask, but really Marcel deserved it) and killed 4 Coercers, 2 Cormorants, an Ishkur, a Thrasher, a Jaguar, a Harpy, and a Hawk in return. Our Logi were hero's in that conflict and props to Ordo Mortis alliance who gave us that exciting finish to the night.
All hail the mighty Algos!
Sunday night I logged in and started putting together a fleet for the corp. We quickly grew in numbers and swtiched from a kitchen sink frigate fleet to a Rouge Squadron doctrine Algos fleet supported by interceptors and Navitas logi.
We got word of a Caldari Militia assault frigate fleet movign around Tama and we swung through Fliet's back door to try and engage them. In the battleground of Sujarento we jumped in on them and engage at point blank range on the gate. They had a couple Griffins and my target calling was rusty because at one point I primaried a couple of Harpies that I should have left for some softer Tech 1 Frigates.
Not a big deal and I internalize the lesson and we won the fight and held the field, losing 5 Algos and a single Atron and Navitas while killing 2 Harpies, an Ishkur, a Wolf, a Jaguar, a Retribution, a Kitsune, a Merlin, a Burst, and two Bantams.
We went back to Fliet and reshipped, then proceeded to scour the warzone looking for more targets. It was going pretty quiet until we got reports of two hostile pirate fleets in the Fliet area while we were deep in Black Rise region. We ran back to Essence and while an allied Gallente Militia fleet took on one fleet, we engaged the other in Heydieles.
We executed the attack a lot more smoothly this time and we only lost our initial scout Algos (don't ask, but really Marcel deserved it) and killed 4 Coercers, 2 Cormorants, an Ishkur, a Thrasher, a Jaguar, a Harpy, and a Hawk in return. Our Logi were hero's in that conflict and props to Ordo Mortis alliance who gave us that exciting finish to the night.
All hail the mighty Algos!
Monday, October 06, 2014
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!
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. |
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Aideron Open Fleet This Sunday
Aideron Robotics is having an open fleet this Sunday with Yours Truly as Fleet Commander where anyone curious about Aideron or Faction Warfare or even PvP in low sec can join us.
We'll be flying an armour doctrine and have ships available for your purchase, including super cheap Atrons we can give away (limited quantities). Please feel free to join us in any ship you want, just be prepared to lose it!
Rally point is Fliet FDU station in Essence and fleet assembles at 0015 EVE Time. Hope to see you there!
We'll be flying an armour doctrine and have ships available for your purchase, including super cheap Atrons we can give away (limited quantities). Please feel free to join us in any ship you want, just be prepared to lose it!
Rally point is Fliet FDU station in Essence and fleet assembles at 0015 EVE Time. Hope to see you there!
Monday, August 25, 2014
Still Learning
With the Gallente Militia working together to take the entire warzone, I logged in last night to run my weekly fleet and found only nearby Heydieles and Ladistier systems the last holdouts. I organized the fleet starting with Algos destroyers supported by Navitas logistic frigates, and we headed out. There were many engagements but I'm going to cover the big fights.
#1 - UHurt fleet in Assault Frigates
We were in Heydieles and checking things out in Old Man Star when a scout reported fighting by other GalMil pilots in the large complex in Heydieless against Assault Frigates, apparently part of a UHURT fleet run by famous streamer SirSqueebles. I turned the fleet around and we warped to the plex only to find a metric crap-tonne of hostiles. In the ensuing fracas our fleet was overwhelmed and while we took down two Enyos, we lost 11 Algoses and a number of Navitas and Atrons.
Lesson Learned: Get a proper scout report before jumping into a fight.
#2 - Eve University Fleet in Cruisers
We reshipped into Algos and Exequorors and tried to engage that assault frigate once more but they had moved on. We had several near engagements with various other entities but then an Eve Uni fleet was spotted with a decent number of cruisers and logistic support of their own, so we upshipped to Vexors really quick and moved to engage them. With our allies in system piling on we completely smashed the fleet, killing 14 cruisers of the enemy while only losing an interceptor of our own (to the villianous Kelon Darklight none the less!). It was a perfect execution of our Rogue Squadron doctrine and the power of a practiced fleet execution. Props to Eve Uni for taking the fight in a system full of blood thirsty GalMil pilots.
#3 - Soul Takers in Battleships, Battlecruisers, and Cruisers
So things quieted down after Eve Uni was sent packing and we were back on the Old Man Star gate in Heydieles considering our next move. We were going to check out a Ghost site in Old Man Star so we jumped through .... only to have a Soul Taker gang land forty klicks away. Soul Takers, for the unawares, are the local serious pirate group that live in Old Man Star and though they have low numbers compared to other groups they compensate with blingy ships and excellent tactics.
This time was no exception as their fleet included Tech II cruiser logistics, about 4 or 5 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, and a number of other ships. After getting my bearing and letting our allies know there was a fight happening, we engaged and focused our firepower on their first Guardian in an effort to remove their logistics. Then the smartbombs started and our drones, our main DPS, started to whither and die.
Sadly, I froze like a deer in headlights.
I've had lots of practice in small gangs and small fleets, but battleships with smartbombs? I didn't know what to do and the current action of banging on the Guardian was not working. Fortunately, Marcel was in fleet and overseeing the adventure and realized something needed to be done. He took over and gave the order to recall drones and start bumping the battleships away from the logi. Relieved that someone knew what to do I watched as the plan worked and we were able to send our remaining drones on the Guardian with the battleships out of the way and finally worked out a victory. We lost 2 Vexors, 2 Algoses, and 5 frigates (and an obscene number of pods) but we killed 2 battleships, 1 battlecruiser, and 2 Tech II Guardians and held the field.
Lesson learned: bump smartbombing battleships out of the way of the targets we want our drones to kill.
#4 - Templis CALSF in Cruisers
We went back to Fliet and repaired damage and reshipped as needed. There were reports of a rare Caldari militia fleet in system so we went back in and played cat and mouse with them for a bit. Finally we were at the Abune gate waiting for our scouts to find them when they landed about 80 kilometers from us, a Caracal fleet with logistics support from Scythes and some Moas.
Now we've engaged similar fleets before with our Rogue squadron cruiser doctrine and came away clean so I got a little overconfident and had the fleet charge at the enemy to get some tackle. I watched the kilometers flip by and I aimed at a juicy Moa, got the scram and ... "Kirith, you are out of range of our reps!"
Ah shit.
In my bloodlust, I forgot that our logistics could be outrun and put myself into a sticky situation that ended with my Ishtar exploding. I had Marcel take over the fleet while I ran back to Fliet and reshipped to a Vexor. I made it back with the fight still in progress. We lost 8 cruisers (7 Vexors and my Ishtar), 3 Algos, and 4 frigates and in return we killed 16 cruisers including a Cerberus. Good fight and props to Templis for bringing it.
Lesson Learned: Don't outrun your own logistics. Curb the bloodlust.
* * * * * *
After that we tried to get into a fight with a Black Legion fleet with Augoror Navy Issues and logsitics, but they were hesitant to engage our larger fleet and lost an Onerios while trying to evade us.
Despite getting in on a lot of kills for one night, it was not my best outing as a Fleet Commander. I'm getting better, but still need work in some areas.
Post Script:
Later that evening Heydieles fell to the GalMil forces. For the Federation!
#1 - UHurt fleet in Assault Frigates
We were in Heydieles and checking things out in Old Man Star when a scout reported fighting by other GalMil pilots in the large complex in Heydieless against Assault Frigates, apparently part of a UHURT fleet run by famous streamer SirSqueebles. I turned the fleet around and we warped to the plex only to find a metric crap-tonne of hostiles. In the ensuing fracas our fleet was overwhelmed and while we took down two Enyos, we lost 11 Algoses and a number of Navitas and Atrons.
Lesson Learned: Get a proper scout report before jumping into a fight.
#2 - Eve University Fleet in Cruisers
We reshipped into Algos and Exequorors and tried to engage that assault frigate once more but they had moved on. We had several near engagements with various other entities but then an Eve Uni fleet was spotted with a decent number of cruisers and logistic support of their own, so we upshipped to Vexors really quick and moved to engage them. With our allies in system piling on we completely smashed the fleet, killing 14 cruisers of the enemy while only losing an interceptor of our own (to the villianous Kelon Darklight none the less!). It was a perfect execution of our Rogue Squadron doctrine and the power of a practiced fleet execution. Props to Eve Uni for taking the fight in a system full of blood thirsty GalMil pilots.
#3 - Soul Takers in Battleships, Battlecruisers, and Cruisers
So things quieted down after Eve Uni was sent packing and we were back on the Old Man Star gate in Heydieles considering our next move. We were going to check out a Ghost site in Old Man Star so we jumped through .... only to have a Soul Taker gang land forty klicks away. Soul Takers, for the unawares, are the local serious pirate group that live in Old Man Star and though they have low numbers compared to other groups they compensate with blingy ships and excellent tactics.
This time was no exception as their fleet included Tech II cruiser logistics, about 4 or 5 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, and a number of other ships. After getting my bearing and letting our allies know there was a fight happening, we engaged and focused our firepower on their first Guardian in an effort to remove their logistics. Then the smartbombs started and our drones, our main DPS, started to whither and die.
Sadly, I froze like a deer in headlights.
I've had lots of practice in small gangs and small fleets, but battleships with smartbombs? I didn't know what to do and the current action of banging on the Guardian was not working. Fortunately, Marcel was in fleet and overseeing the adventure and realized something needed to be done. He took over and gave the order to recall drones and start bumping the battleships away from the logi. Relieved that someone knew what to do I watched as the plan worked and we were able to send our remaining drones on the Guardian with the battleships out of the way and finally worked out a victory. We lost 2 Vexors, 2 Algoses, and 5 frigates (and an obscene number of pods) but we killed 2 battleships, 1 battlecruiser, and 2 Tech II Guardians and held the field.
Lesson learned: bump smartbombing battleships out of the way of the targets we want our drones to kill.
#4 - Templis CALSF in Cruisers
We went back to Fliet and repaired damage and reshipped as needed. There were reports of a rare Caldari militia fleet in system so we went back in and played cat and mouse with them for a bit. Finally we were at the Abune gate waiting for our scouts to find them when they landed about 80 kilometers from us, a Caracal fleet with logistics support from Scythes and some Moas.
Now we've engaged similar fleets before with our Rogue squadron cruiser doctrine and came away clean so I got a little overconfident and had the fleet charge at the enemy to get some tackle. I watched the kilometers flip by and I aimed at a juicy Moa, got the scram and ... "Kirith, you are out of range of our reps!"
Ah shit.
In my bloodlust, I forgot that our logistics could be outrun and put myself into a sticky situation that ended with my Ishtar exploding. I had Marcel take over the fleet while I ran back to Fliet and reshipped to a Vexor. I made it back with the fight still in progress. We lost 8 cruisers (7 Vexors and my Ishtar), 3 Algos, and 4 frigates and in return we killed 16 cruisers including a Cerberus. Good fight and props to Templis for bringing it.
Lesson Learned: Don't outrun your own logistics. Curb the bloodlust.
* * * * * *
After that we tried to get into a fight with a Black Legion fleet with Augoror Navy Issues and logsitics, but they were hesitant to engage our larger fleet and lost an Onerios while trying to evade us.
Despite getting in on a lot of kills for one night, it was not my best outing as a Fleet Commander. I'm getting better, but still need work in some areas.
Post Script:
Later that evening Heydieles fell to the GalMil forces. For the Federation!
Friday, May 30, 2014
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.
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.
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