The weapon of choice was the Derpatron, a hull tank MWD brawling Atron. Extremely cheap and Alpha friendly.
The initial form up only put the fleet at roughly 10 pilots, however we managed to pick up a few more than trickled in during the newbro speech. Of the final 12 we had, 4 of those were newbros with less than 3 fleets experience. Our primary scout, Union, was also new to the role with this fleet being only the second time he has given the role a go. He did an excellent job of finding us some good fights and managed to get himself out of some sticky situations.
The route we took was the usual pipe up to Aldranette, then a little play around Black Rise, before coming back down via Ouelletta in Verge Vendor.
In Renarelle, Union found us two destroyers sitting a small. An Algos and a Sunesis. I asked Decklin to support him, and when they both slid the gate the fleet jumped in and followed behind. The Sunesis quickly noped off while Union managed to secure point on the Algos. Taking heavy damage, Union managed to extract while Decklin held point long enough for the fleet to arrive.
Algos +15.45m
Around this time my mumble, yet again, started to play up. I had to take a pause at a nearby station and sort it out while Decklin took over for a few minutes. I really don't know what the sketch was, but by muting and unmuting myself it seemed to fix things and comms then remained stable for the rest of the night. I can only apologies for that guys, sorry.
While in Vlillirier, the fleet was holding on the Aldranette gate while Union was scouting +1. A flashy Scythe Fleet Issue landed around 70km off us, then began to burn in while targeting one of us as we were flashy now from the previous engagement. As he got close to 35km, he red boxed so I called him primary and we burned over. I was really happy with who fast the Atrons go and we quickly managed to close the distance. Point was called, however he still managed to get away. I'm not entire sure what happened there. We did lose one Atron here, so possibly he was the guy who called the initial tackle.
B'aldrick gave us a ping off the gate for the fleet to reset (I'm a bad FC, burning my own pings is literally at the top of my to do list right now). As we warped up, there was also a flashy Holy Cookie Stiletto at range from the gate. Decklin quickly burned into him and the fleet warped down, securing the kill. As he was going down, the rest of the Holy Cookie fleet landed. I initially called for everyone to warp to the sun, however as more and more Cookies began to land that quickly just changed to scatter scatter scatter. Unfortunately they still got one of our newbro Atrons and his Pod.
Atron -16.56m
Stiletto +30.36m
Atron -4.59m
Capsule -0.01m
Having lost two Atrons, I wanted to quickly head over to Ichoriya to get them back into the fight. After two jumps though, I realised that neither pilot was with the fleet. I'd missed that Aelius had actually been podded back to Amarr and Noah had made his own back to Uph to reship. Oh well, guess we best turn around and carry on our way.
In and around Hikkoken we were still being pressured by both Holy Cookie and a few other flashy gangs. We headed to a novice plex to catch our breath (Decklin was having overview issues) when a lone Condor slid into us. Once again our fleet went flashy, which is something I seem to constantly forget about having spent a lot of time in NullSec.
Condor +0.95m
Now flashy, we were hassled by a Hawk on the Abune gate in Oinasiken. Again, name tanking with the letter A doesn't really work. He targeted me first and forced me to jump, so Decklin took over. Gate rats didn't help the situation, but we didn't lose anyone. We took a pause to repair at a citadel and have a quick bio.
Moving on, the fleet was on the Murethand gate in Indregulle, when Decklin called that he was baiting a Firetail over in Old Man Star. We made best speed but sadly were only 10 seconds too short.
Atron -5.16m
Back in Indregulle, Union caught a Catalyst for us but sadly went down with it.
Atron -2.97m
Catalyst +5.64m
Finally, passing through Ouelletta, a flashy Drake offered to meet us at a small. He was at range on the acceleration gate, at a random angle that did not lend to us bouncing from a celestial either. Decklin scouted for us, and gave us the best distance to warp in from the Loes Gate. We landed 30km off and quickly burned into him. At roughtly the same time, a Scythe Fleet Issue also landed just off from the Drake, another 20km from the fleets current position. I called the SFI primary but he swiftly noped out again, leaving the fleet free to focus on the Drake. We lost a few in the process. Decklin's loss was pricey here but that was from the loot he was carrying.
FC also called for people the load short range ammo if they had it and then derped by saying Null was short range. Rather than switching myself, I'd just reloaded Null. Bad FC, however it was quickly pointed out in comms that I was being an idiot again.
Atron -14.98m
Atron -4.51m
Atron -5.37m
Drake +66.8m
One question that was raised during this fight was "Why are we switching targets when we are already at zero on the Drake?". For me, the SFI was a real danger to our fleet if he could get to range and start to unload some rapid light Jesus missiles in our faces. He would also have been lightly tanked, and possibly a shiny kill, so given the option to pounce while he was in range I wanted to take it. I think he was also aware of the risk he was in when he landed, which is why I think he noped out, which further makes me think that this was the right call to make at the time.
After that last bit of excitement, we headed home and wrapped up with a verbal debrief.
ISK Destroyed: 119,200,148.89
ISK Lost: 54,148,748.69
ISK Delta: 65,051,400.2
Efficiency: 68.763%
The Good
As always, we had a nice disciplined fleet with only the odd couple of lemmings. Comms were nice and relaxed, and I think we all had a good time.
We covered a lot of ground in the time we had, which highlights that everyone did a great job of keeping up and staying together.
Nice turn out from newbros who want to take part in our fleets. Considering we had only half the numbers that typically show up, I think we still achieved a decent amount.
Union did a great job as scout. Thanks Union.
The Bad
FC yet again had comms dramas. Hopefully by reinstalling mumble it fixes things, we'll see...
FC hasn't made his own pings and/or safes around the LSC. It's definitely on my to do list now that I'm spending more time in the area.
FC constantly forgets that attacking neutrals makes everyone flashy, which allows others to pick us off or we suffer gate guns, if we fight back.
FC needs to learn the difference between long and short range ammo names.
Fleet Doctrine
I just wanted to wrap things up by talking about the Derpatrons themselves. I haven't flown one before, and picked them because they were hull tanked (who needs logi anyway) extremely cheap and available to Gallente alphas. With the numbers that we had, I don't think we really had the swarm capability that the doctrine truly needs to be successful to engage other fleets or larger targets, which I think was reflected by the amount of dancing around we did near Akidagi and Nennamaila to avoid other fleets. That said, I was a big fan of the speed they put out and how quickly they can get on top of targets. I'd definitely like to take them out again, perhaps to NullSec and obviously hopefully in greater numbers. I imagine 30+ could be quite fearsome, actually.
One question in my mind is do people think it is better to upgrade to T2 guns, if players have the skill, or to stick with the meta 4 and keep the neut? I don't see how you can have the fitting space to fit both without changing something else on the fit. I know the neut allowed Union to escape at least once and the added pressure that 20 or 30 plus neuts could add up fast, but faction ammo allows us to fight outside of smartbomb range.
As always, thanks for coming out to play guys.
Everyone who lost a ship can claim a replacement hull through the Uni SRP.
Those taking part in the CCI, this fleet will count towards your LSC participation.
Cheers guys.
