[LSC] Rider Rolls's Low Kitchen Sink Roam

[Rider Isleman]

I put this fleet together after being inspired by a conversation with Unistas Rooster Cogburnn and Reise Amatin to stop being scared of screwing up and just go out and FC a fleet. First and foremost thanks for the pep talk guys. So I went and scheduled a Low Sec Roam fleet for 5/10/17 04:00 ET with a Kitchen Sink doctrine of T1/2 Frigs or Dessies. I hoped that forming this fleet at the chosen time would give USTZ evening players a chance to participate in a fleet. I had to delay fleet departure for 30 mins. due to RL dinner eating. I posted this delay a good hour before original fleet deptart. time. Fleet formed and left from Stac. We had 9 members who were mostly in frigs with a couple dessies. I was prepared to give a brief NewBros intro to fleets but it wasn't needed since all members were familiar with basic fleet ops. Set destination for NEN and off we went. Jyo Chip was our able and experienced scout. I also asked for a second scout and had a volunteer that had not done it before (whose name I can't recall, my apologies). I had intended to give them the opportunity to scout a couple systems to start to learn the ropes but forgot to. What follows is a description of our engagements though I am realizing my memory sucks and I need to jot some notes down in order to give a more detailed account in the future. So here is an account of my first fleet as FC.

Left from Stac and made our way down the Yellow Brick Road (YBR). Activity was very light for the first several systems so we made quick progress through the YBR systems until....

Nennamaila - Our scout located a Thorax sitting outside a Med. We knew there were a lot of other active pilots in system 3 of whom we knew to be Cruisers that we'd last seen camping a gate and a Magus that was on Dscan. I decided to take the fight and our scout tackled. Warped to scout and engaged. Very shortly into the fight the Magus showed up and then other stuff (eg cruisers) started to third party. Fleet members were starting to drop but it was clear we were breaking the Thorax. As third partiers started arriving and as the first fleet members were going down I debated scattering but dang-it, I wanted that Thorax. We got the Thorax but also a semi whelping. We lost 6 of 8 member ships tho I don't believe anyone got podded.

Stiletto -21.02m
Kestrel -3.70m
Rifter -5.85m
Tristan -11.28m
Atron -4.06m
Thrasher -9.16m
Thorax +34.05

Ohhhhh, I was worried my first FC gig was not going well. However, my fleetmates were gung ho to reship and eager to press on which I must thank them for. And hey, things started looking up. I took the fleet to Ichoriya so anyone who needed to could reship. A couple members ran to Jita. We took about a 15 minute break in station while people reshipped. At this point the fleet composition got a little beefier with a couple of frigs being replace with dessies. Once reshipped we set course for JOV with the intention of heading back to Stac from there.

In Hikkoken we ran into this guy and for the life of me I can't remember the details. Will take notes next time.
Republic Fleet Firetail +19.78

In Old Man our scout spotted a Myrmidon outside a plex and, well, that wasn't a great idea on the Myrmidon's part. Scout got tackle, fleet warped in and ....
Myrmidon +47.13m
Capsule 0


The rest of the way back to Stac was fairly quiet with few potential hostiles out and about.

Thanks to my fleet mates for having a great attitude and making my first time FCing a great experience for me. I learned quite a bit and also recognized some areas I made mistakes. I would greatly appreciate any feedback from members in the fleet, especially about things they think I could have done better or better decisions I might have made.

Stats
ISK Destroyed +100,950,000
ISK Ships Lost -55,084,000
Net +45,865,000
Eff. 45%

[Atum Petros]

Rider,

Thanks again for getting out there and leading us through space. As this is only the third official fleet that I have been a member of, I am at a loss for any sort of constructive criticism. The only thing I can say is continue to be positive, lead without fear, never second guess yourself in the heat of battle. When you are the FC if you don’t have a ton of confidence…FAKE IT. For the rest of us, we will feed off of said confidence. Then lead us into battle with our teeth clinched, eyes on our target and the knowledge that this FC will lead us to glory. And for those times that we earn ourselves a real beat down, take note of how we lost, regroup us, and show us the light.

Regarding Nennamaila, I came in close with my haphazardly fit Rifter and contributed 11.7% to the eventual take down of the Thorax. I was able to orbit the Thorax closely until eventually getting webbed by said Thorax and then becoming primary to the Vagabond and Magus that dropped on grid after the fun began. That may seem lame to some but it was my first PvP kill. Period. My newbro mistake of locking onto Christine Ambramotte (fellow Unista) back on 4/26/17 in Placid, resulting in this hilariously sad killmail against said pilot... https://zkillboard.com/kill/61840306/ ...just doesn't count. Sorry, Christine.

Link to relevant kill mails:
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62174174/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62174183/

For my kill in Old Man, another somewhat respectable 10.8% damage contribution to the take down of the Myrmidon that decided to stay for some melting action. I had reshipped into a Cormorant and stayed further out on this one. Just let loose (F1 monkey style!) on the target and this time I came out alive. What a feeling. Yeah I know the odds were in my favor, but the kill was so sweet.

Link to relevant kill mail:
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62174679/

Also, thank you for allowing me to FC for a few moments while you handled business during our trip back home. I am glad nothing happened, as I am sure that I would have led us all down into a ball of glorious molten metal glory!

Rider, again, thank you man. I had fun.

o7 to you all,

Atum Petros

[Jyo Cbip]

Thanks for putting this together- always happy to get an opportunity to scout in an inty. I've known you to be a competent pilot around LSC so it's good to see you step up and FC in this timezone.

I'm glad we took the fight in Nennamaila even though we knew other stuff was lurking. The Magus pilot in that engagement was former unista Arkady Olenard- he almost took my Malediction down, had me scrammed and webbed and into ~30% structure when he briefly flew out of scram range allowing me to warp off. I'm sure he was as surprised as I was that I managed to slip away- regardless, I probably should have just bounced when the rest of the fleet called tackle so as to not present another target without much additional DPS or utility in a point blank brawl with cruisers.

Also, the Vagabond that took a bunch of us down there died immediately after, I somehow got on the kill mail. That counts as an assist, right?
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62174186/

[Chagrin Case]

Never not take the bait, even though we lost some ships in Nennamaila i say it was worth it. It provided us content and gave you some more experience FCing. The reship went smoothly and was awesome that everyone wanted to get right back into the fight. But for the sake of completeness we should add the Vagabond kill to our total.