[AAR] Police Academy IV - The one with gate guns

[Breeze One]

Alrighty! Second Tristan fleet! Do I like the doctrine any more? Not really. Do I like killing blingy Russian Deimos's and yet more Caracals? HELL YES.

Seriously....every fleet I FC we end up killing a Caracal gang! Fear me kitty cats!

Feedback Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... rm?c=0&w=1

FC: Breeze One
2IC: Noah Ather
Scout: Laser Skaron
Scout: Eddie Dante
Scout: Jax Renelard

I decided this fleet to be more aggressive with the doctrine, and take fights on gates, and gave an extensive chat about bounding off under fire. In Ostingele, we caught a neutral Osprey warping through and engaged with me shouting so much about watching for gate guns that I failed to realise I was taking the guns. FC fail - Also the Osprey was unfitted, annoyingly

Osprey +7.77m
Tristan -6.96m
Griffin -1.27m

In Nennamila, I sent Vanguard to get tackle on a gang of a Firetail, Tristan and Rifter. They held long enough for us to get the kills, but we lost Razha's Vanguard Dramiel

Dramiel -63.45m
Republic Fleet Firetail +23.35m
Tristan +18.77m
Rifter +16.46m
Slasher -9.26m

Moving into Akidagi, we played plex games with a CALSF NOsprey gang. They refused to slide into us, which was a bit disappointing as it looked a decent fight, and even possibly one slightly in their favour. A few people got picked off as we moved between plexes looking for an opening, then Cookie's T2 Dessie gang entered, and we knew the game was up. Sadly, Razha had reshipped to a Vexor at this point, and got caught by Cookie outside a small plex.

Slasher -3.49m
Capsule -5.36m
Tristan -3.45m
Capsule -0.01m
Vexor -29.31m

Moving away from the Nen/Aki fight zone we chased down a Exeq Navy Issue and Scythe Fleet Issue, before catching them outside a plex. we primaried the SFI, but he was too fast, so we settled by finishing off the Exeq at the cost of one scout

Exequror Navy Issue +97.69m
Slasher -2.37m

Its worth pointing out that the SFI played some games with us here, and kited us one gates several times, and I stupidly played his game. Luckily we didn't lose anyone. The debate for me is always - if we can scram we can kill, but can the scrammer hold long enough for the fleet to catch up? I repeatedly got sucked into the fantasy that we could effectively scram him long enough to get the kill. I know better, and should have stuck to it.

In Kedama, we engaged a neutral Worm on a gate. He was obviously faster than us, but Decklin managed to grab tackle with his VFI's long webs, and hold him long enough for us to catch up. Sadly we lost Decklin in the process, and a Tristan to gate guns

Vigil Fleet Issue -31.91m
Worm +167.24m
Tristan -4.52m

In Asakai, it was our civil responsibility to kill off an AFK Merlin. We then got buzzed by a couple of Confessors. We chased them round the system before managing to get a lucky tackle at the IHub

Merlin +0.36m
Capsule +0.01m
Confessor +51.86m

Moving back through towards Southern Blackrise, we encountered a flashy Deimos from the Russians. I was an idiot here, and called engage while he was sat at 0 on the gate. He obviously jumped, leaving half the fleet with weapons timers. The others jumped and grabbed tackle, as the rest of the Revolutions gang of Kiting cruisers joined him. Eventually we all got through and took the Deimos down, but we lost quite a few in the process, which was more than likely down to the fact we only had half the fleet on grid for a while. FC fail

Still, I LOVE killing these guys!

Imperial Navy Slicer -32.98m
Slasher -2.38m
Maulus -7.15m
Tormentor -3.45m
Griffin -3.59m
Tristan -5.05m
Deimos +339.37m
Tristan -6.91m

I moved us back towards Ichoriya for reshipping, dodging Cookie and others along the way, until we ended up tethered on the Citadel by the Ichoriya gate in Akidagi. First Cookie joined us on the tether, then a Caracal gang warped at range on the Ichoriya gate - 100km between us on the Citadel and the gate.

While we discussed possible attack plans with Cookie, Decklin returned from reshipping in an Interceptor, and bravely approached them from the gate. While he couldn't get too close and risk getting blapped, he could hold at 150km off us (50km off the Caracals), and we warped to him at 50km...right on top of the Caracals (numbers might be a bit off, but that was the basic plan)

We set about doing what we do to Caracals, while Cookie also used their C-Dessie to boosh themselves into the fight to join us. I bounced at one point, and great job Union for stepping up to call targets! Between us and Cookie we cleared them out. We didn't lose much considering the fleet we were fighting, which made more sense when we discovered later that they had primaried Cookie's Command Dessie (as the most valuable target on grid)

Great work everyone! Especially Decklin for getting us that warp in!

Imperial Navy Slicer -30.99m
Tristan -3.78m
Tristan -6.75m
Caracal +30.97m
Slasher -3.49m
Tristan -1.26m
Caracal +33.95m
Caracal +33.95m
Caracal +34.05m
Caracal +33.79m
Bellicose +21.37m
Caracal +26.99m
Caracal +30.36m

Moving into Ichoriya I forgot some of us were flashy, and Zana got caught on the gate. FC fail

Tristan -8.57m

On the way home, we ganked a Comet on the Akidagi gate in Nennamaila, but were then joined by a Russian Phantasm gang looking for revenge. We lost a Slicer extracting from that, which was largely my fault getting us strung out on the gate.

Federation Navy Comet +32.35m
Imperial Navy Slicer -24.2m

In Aldranette we warped after a Coercer who warped to range on a plex. Decklin managed to get tackle, but we had a long burn to catch up to him. This was made worse when a Garmur suddenly landed at 0 on us. I was blinded by the chance of a blingy kill and called to target the Garmur...but of course all our scrams were up front with the Coercer, so the Garmur slid away, while the Phantasms also landed. The Coercer blapped Decklin and escaped, while the Phantasms picked off a couple of us as we scattered.

Malediction -52.25m
Slasher -12.55m
Tristan -8.59m

A bit of a messy way to end the roam, and annoyingly indecisive from me, but hey, total of 1bn ISK destroyed guys! Not bad for a couple hours work.

Stats
ISK Destroyed: 1,000,653,462.98
ISK Lost: 406,907,056.6
ISK Delta: 593,746,406.38
Efficiency: 71.091%

Spoiler

Roam members (33)
Ahvei Myrha
Atanii Yeva
Azrael Feanorian
Barbara Blast
Breeze One
DeanSherman
Decklin Quark Reiger
DonkeyPunch Udan
Eddie Dante
Eldar Parmala
Eleeyah Myrha
Gandar Thiesant
Gatt2111
Glen Burney
Jax Renalard
Laser Skaron
Lexara Ellecon
Maximus Hert
Muzzy Chuck
Noah Ather
Oh' Leeador
Ra'zok Zateki
Razha Gala
Rebulah Conundrum
Rikali Laru
Sn v1 cosunoo
Tika On
Tom Endares
Trillian Ituin
Union Pivo
Wokum
Zana Fehrnah
Zeerse Solaris

[Breeze One]

* I felt we handled Intel and Scouts much better than last week - every fight we had we took on our own initiative (for better or worse), no surprises or getting caught this week!

* The maneuver to get the warp in on the Caracals was really fun. I discovered tonight that you can warp at range to someone at 150km+ from you, EVEN if the range means you end up landing less than 150km away. So, you can do a short warp of, say 50km by having a scout 150km away, and warping to him at 100km. Even though 50km SHOULD be too short a distance to warp. Thats valuable knowledge!

* A few times we literally had the fleet chasing a guy round a system, shotgunning between belts/moons pretty fast. I can see that as confusing for people, but it got us one or two nice kills, and I let it happen as we were a bit starved of content at times. One thing I could do better though is not shotgun myself, but wait with the fleet and warp us all once tackle is called

* I let us get stretched out several times chasing faster opponents. Thats something I should just stop as soon as I see happening

Thoughts on Kiting Tristans:

I mentioned after the event but, on balance, I don't feel that the extra speed the Tristans get is worth it compared to, say Magic Merlins, when you also lack scrams to lock anything down or Logi to stay alive while you're in scram range. It feels like we spent time chasing the same fast ships we do in Brawling doctrines, but without a way to effectively hold someone down when we do catch them.

While Kiting Tristans are great as a small gang you can throw together and roam in, I feel like in a 30 man fleet, you get far more utility and effectiveness with a Logi wing, and a doctrine with more DPS/EHP. Something like Magic Merlins or Punishers lets you punch above your fleet size with 30 people, but Tristans feels like the fleet is actually less than the sum of its parts.

So....next week we're going back to brawling guys!

Magic Merlins!
https://forum.eveuniversity.org/viewtop ... 6&t=104716

[Muzzy Chuck]

I enjoyed this a lot. I've only ever flown a Tristan a couple of times but it's fun to see a few dozen drones head off to swarm around a target shortly before he goes down
Comms were generally nice and clear although it got a bit chaotic now and then with people talking over each other, but I didn't get confused... which is unusual for me!
I had the same problem that I had on a fleet yesterday where everyone was able to warp to an on-grid fleet member at a crucial point whereas the only option I got was 'approach' even though I wasn't - and hadn't - been burning there in the first place. I could warp to someone who had already warped to the same person though, but that made me late to the party. I'll have to investigate further next time it happens because it's pretty annoying.

Anyway, yes, good job. A fleet at a UK-friendly time is always going to get the thumbs up from me too, so I'll see everyone on the next one

[Eddie Dante]

Wonder what the caracal gang mustve thought when 2 seperate fleets managed to get seperate warp ins on them

[Captain Cean]

TFW multiple fleets wait that someone start the fight

[Trillian Ituin]

I had the same problem that I had on a fleet yesterday where everyone was able to warp to an on-grid fleet member at a crucial point whereas the only option I got was 'approach' even though I wasn't - and hadn't - been burning there in the first place. I could warp to someone who had already warped to the same person though, but that made me late to the party. I'll have to investigate further next time it happens because it's pretty annoying.

This happened to me too in this fleet! I'm not sure why but I stubbornly tried to burn to the designated fleet mate which certainly is a mistake. It probably would be better if I had warped off and bounced back instead.

As to why I couldn't warp in the first place, still hope someone can enlighten me

[Zeerse Solaris]

Just a correction on the Aldranette Coercer engagement, as my killmail and my killer's mail are missing (he didn't get away).

I guessed the right distance to warp to and landed on top of him which got me conflag'd to death pretty quickly.

https://zkillboard.com/kill/62900432/ me, 6m Tristan
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62900442/ him, 13.9m Coercer

I did start off with webbing drones with the navi computer and rig to try speeding them up but they got left behind (a problem not being able to target lock and deploying them too early so I basically left them in space then we got fleet warped). I might try that again some time.

[Decklin Quark Reiger]

a Caracal gang warped at range on the Ichoriya gate - 100km between us on the Citadel and the gate.

While we discussed possible attack plans with Cookie, Decklin returned from reshipping in an Interceptor, and bravely approached them from the gate. While he couldn't get too close and risk getting blapped, he could hold at 150km off us (50km off the Caracals), and we warped to him at 50km...right on top of the Caracals (numbers might be a bit off, but that was the basic plan)

So, what I did here, was warp from the Ichoriya gate to the citadel at 100km, ( since the citadel is something like 1000km away, they would see me coming if I just burned from the gate).

As I exited warp, I immediately burned back towards the gate, with my pre-heated MWD. A handful of the Caracals managed to yellow-box me, but by the time they did, I was already far enough away that none of their missiles reached me. Once I was safe, I made sure you were ready to warp the fleet, and then closed the distance between myself and the Caracals to 100km. Then, you warped the fleet to me at 100. It took their anchor a minute to realise what was happening, because for a while he was still chasing me. ( I even managed to go back in for a scram pass on the anchor, because the Caracals had lost their lock on me)


Sadly, my tackle on the Coercer a few minutes later was much worse. I was distracted by the Garmur, and didn't keep transversal up vs the Coercer, plus I burned in close enough for him to web me, which meant he got a couple of solid hits on me, and killed me as I was aligning away. Bad piloting on my part there