[WHC] No PvE day

[Budda Sereda]

I logged in with goal to kill few sleepers, checked bacon, found a new signature... and noticed activity in citadel.

There were people (https://zkillboard.com/corporation/1257277643/ - TMERG) moving in citadel back and forth with T1 cruisers (Thorax), epithal, BC (Brutix, Talos)... I wrote into "aboutping" but... did not get much support.

Later I saw few ships coming into 3b1 and back... was on grid (in astero) with Harbinger... and made a PvP ping.

Somebody joined the fleet... more T1 ships were coming from Citadel into 3B1... and I thought they have a battle there.

I made 2nd ping. We got numbers: 2 guards, 1 HIC, few DDs (later i learned we got 2 zealots, Pilgrim, Mirmidon).

Plan was bait them from citadel by Myrmodon, while fleet was forming up i've noticed capsule coming from 3b1, i warped to hole and noticed more capsules coming...

I got it: they were fit by somebody, and hit badly... so it was late to do anything other than trying to kill a capsule or two.

So plan changed and was to stay on hole in 2b3 on and catch anybody coming into 3b1 or from 3b1. I called HIC to go into 2b3 and stay on hole to 3b1. Rezda did. Myself I jumped into 3b1 to have intel on incoming.

We saw capsule, Rezda dropped bubble, but could not kill it. it jumped back into 3b1 and saved.

Rezda was staying on the hole and those guys reshipped to what they had and send a Vigilant to Rezda. I was in 3b1 (probably should jump back?) asked to wait 'victims' to engage and call fleet for the rescue when it will become dangerous.

What happened was: they dropped more ships and Rezda waited for a bit longer than needed and was few seconds from been saved by our guardians.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/56557990/ -573M
When our fleet landed they all scattered (as Rezda died) and we only caught a Vexor.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/56557995/ +45M

Unpleasent. We discussed this after the battle and Rezda admitted he should call fleet to warp earlier. in this case we would kill of them inside the buble.

Ok, we came back... jumped into bacon. i was on citadel, saw few ships undocked (T1 CR and BC)... and asked Giai to come into 2b3 to bait, she noticed Ares not far from the hole, we took the bait. More people from TMERG warped to the grid. Ares retreated, but we killed Ashimmu https://zkillboard.com/kill/56558069/ +209M

Things were going well...
Surprisingly Falcon landed to the grid and was killed: https://zkillboard.com/kill/56558076/ +334M.

After that we got a Broadsword, he dropped bubble, we tried killing it, but he jumped into bacon. I asked Gaia to go to Bacon to and prevent it from escaping (though, she was in a BC and could not catch it, i understood that later).

Few seconds later... 3rd party landed in superior numbers: 20 ships, maybe even more...

We jumped into bacon, but they bubbled and we got loses:
- https://zkillboard.com/kill/56558106/ -323M
- https://zkillboard.com/kill/56558116/ -401M
- https://zkillboard.com/kill/56558122/ -663M
- https://zkillboard.com/kill/56558134/ -461M and https://zkillboard.com/kill/56558136/ -131M

3 (Rezda, Gaia, and myself) of us ended up in 2b3 with hole bubled, so I asked to bounce expecting campers will leave. When they started scouting with combat probes I asked Rezda and Gaia to hide in 3b2 while i scan 3b3 and 3b4 (that were C1 holes) for high-sec connection. Which we successfully did in the end.

Balance: +588M -2421M, efficiency: 19.5%

Unpleasent, but was really interesting fight. After the fight we learned that my original assumption was right:
TMERG (https://zkillboard.com/corporation/1257277643/) were hit by LOWXP (https://zkillboard.com/corporation/98458317/)
Dunno how, but LOWXP dropped on us later.

After engagement we've seen ships from both corps sitting on one hole without fighting each other. I assume TMERG understood they don't have enough numbers and invited LOWXP for content.

Lessons:
1. Keep Mobile Depot, probes launcher and probes for the case when you left alone and need extraction. It costs almost nothing but can help.
2. Consider baiting on HIC as too expensive.
3. Luckily I scanned 2b3 and we had escapes into other holes: prefer fighting in a scanned systems.

4. If somebody saw your 2 guardians and still take a bait... it means something. Most likely, it means they know how to beat your fleet.

Though, it was a good fight, we got kills. Yes, we lost few quite expensive ships, but had fun and hopefully learned.

P.S. I still prefer to win Maybe next time?

[Vidork Drako]

Look like a busy time. For now, I only have one thing to add. In wormholes, one of the most valuable thing you need is intel. If you have more informations than the opponent, you almost already won. This past month, the few fights we lost (In wormholes ) was all the result of a lack of intel. If you want sucessful fights, get the maximum of intels.

As I read, at first, you was very good at scouting these guys and manage to understand they was fighting "someone". But after that, its look like you was more interessed by killing them than to understand who they was fighting and what they was fighting. There is not a lot of corporations who can kick us out of the field, glory holers is one of them because they have the numbers and they are forming fast. (They also fail gank sometimes (yes I remember ))

A quick look at the killboard https://zkillboard.com/corporation/1257277643/ had learn you who the guys you was about to kill was fighting and the kind of fleet. You have to know than glory holers dont engage a fight without full intels has we should do. Thats mean they had probably eyes on you the full time in 2b3.

So remember, glory holers / hole control / A band Apart / laserHawks and some others are names you have to be extra carreful when you see them and if you want to fight anything near, get eyes around. They have good scout, they are pro at baiting and if they land on you they will have the numbers and a *almost* always a good plan.

[Budda Sereda]

Thanks Vidork.

Few more lessons I forgot to mention:

- keep dscanning been scout CONSTANTLY
- heck, even during the fight calling primaries...
- FC should be on grid with main fleet
- that means more scouts are required, and/or more numbers
If you are FC and scouting, maybe scout in a Stratios: it is also tanky