[AAR] NSC goes BOOM! (Cloaky Bomber Sucess)

[Jaha Preynar]

Last night we formed a 5 person bomb squad in nsc, with a mauler as bait. and SUCESS!!!! Vaporized a Jackdaw(?) AND got his pod too!!! and a 400mil one at that!!!! Ouch he shoulda clean cloned!!!

Unfortunately a second jackdaw jumped in before we had a chance to scatter and nailed 3 of us. But Still wa a sucess!! Hopefully a regular thing and maybe get a bigger bomer fleet going!

[Glasi Vookto]

Unfortunately a second jackdaw jumped in before we had a chance to scatter and nailed 3 of us. But Still wa a sucess!! Hopefully a regular thing and maybe get a bigger bomer fleet going!

It doesn't sound like a success really. Losing half your bomber fleet to a single target is far from tha. I can see how you got surprised by a second Jackdaw jumping in and how managed to catch one of you. But I can't see how he got the other two

I'm not writing this to discourage you from doing bomber fleets, but I see too many pilots trying to make bombers be what they are not an failing miserable.
Also, rule number one in flying bombers, be it bombing or shooting torps, is to not be uncloaked one second than necessary. So after killing your target, immediately warp off and cloak. If you get shot at, you did something wrong. If you get tackled, you screwed up really bad.
Also, trying to kill anything smaller than a BC in bombers after you lost the element of surprise never ends well. Torpedo application to moving frigs/dessies is almost inexistent, regardless of how many application mods you stack. Bombers are a glass cannon platform designed to deal large amounts of dps to BC and above hulls. They have no place even uncloaking in the presence of anything smaller than a cruiser, except for doing a bomb run.

[Shesocold Arkaral]

Unfortunately a second jackdaw jumped in before we had a chance to scatter and nailed 3 of us. But Still wa a sucess!! Hopefully a regular thing and maybe get a bigger bomer fleet going!

It doesn't sound like a success really. Losing half your bomber fleet to a single target is far from tha. I can see how you got surprised by a second Jackdaw jumping in and how managed to catch one of you. But I can't see how he got the other two

I'm not writing this to discourage you from doing bomber fleets, but I see too many pilots trying to make bombers be what they are not an failing miserable.
Also, rule number one in flying bombers, be it bombing or shooting torps, is to not be uncloaked one second than necessary. So after killing your target, immediately warp off and cloak. If you get shot at, you did something wrong. If you get tackled, you screwed up really bad.
Also, trying to kill anything smaller than a BC in bombers after you lost the element of surprise never ends well. Torpedo application to moving frigs/dessies is almost inexistent, regardless of how many application mods you stack. Bombers are a glass cannon platform designed to deal large amounts of dps to BC and above hulls. They have no place even uncloaking in the presence of anything smaller than a cruiser, except for doing a bomb run.

I was acting FC at the time of the fight and was a bit too tired to write the AAR last night. What happened was we saw a hecate landing on the PC9 gate in JH- and when he jumped through we launched off bombs while a maller provided help tackling so it would be forced to try and burn out of point range. It was destroyed by a small volley of bombs that also destroyed the pod. By the time we destroyed him we had already warped safely out to the sun having been prealigned and heard intel on the rest of what I assumed was his gang coming in to try to help him with the Maller (that also escaped safely). They had an Omen, Gila and Jackdaw and did a quick loot of the wreck before leaving PC9.

Getting a bit greedy I asked everyone to refit with sensor dampeners so that when they came back we could bomb and then torpedo with sensor dampeners on what I was expecting to be a lone surviving Gila. However while getting into position again the Jackdaw came in solo, I'm not sure how but during the warp to our position 34km off of gate I became decloaked. The Jackdaw burned up to me and engaged me, knowing there was nothing in JH- at the time, panicking and underestimating the Jackdaw's signature radius I told everyone else to decloak and engage resulting in the additional ship losses.

In retrospect I should've given the command to scatter the minute I was engaged but my inexperience with bombers led to more losses than should have happened. Overall while isk positive we were point and ship negative but it was a good experience, we proved the feasibility of our bombing tactic. I learned it's better to call for a scatter when engaged like I was and have some ideas to improve on the bombing tactic to try later. That being said it felt pretty cool to drop bombs, warp off and then get a killmail midway to the sun.

Relevant kills:
https://zkillboard.com/kill/63229043/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/63229044/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/63229146/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/63229150/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/63229151/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/63229154/

Apologies to everyone who lost ships because of me but I hope the bombing run was fun and that you guys don't mind giving it a go again later.

[White 0rchid]

I mean with a 700mil pod that's not too bad to be fair. And don't be too hard on yourself, people lose ships, it's part of eve, as long as you learn from the encounter then that's good.

[Jaha Preynar]

For sure getting popped is never the intention... but despite his self-deprecation, the FC (who WAS admitedly tired... it was REALLY REALLY late/early) did a really good job of keeping everyone vocused, he didnt groan or sigh when someone asked for the 20th time... How far off the gate again? Align where? Which side of the gate? Do you mean ORBIT the gate? But now im pointed in the wrong direction!!! Oh THAT side of the gate!! Whats a maller??? ..... you get the idea... I was fully convinced we'd blow OURSELVES up let alone anyone else. so when the hecate came through and we got it and its pod in FLAWLESS fashion, everyone was cheering, good show FC good show!!!! The nsc people many of which get weary of loss after loss after loss.... which isnt to say they are just throwing away ships...cause most certainly are learning... and at a steady pace. They make content , they help each other , and they keep buzy. But they get tired of feeling like the punching bad of syndicate.

I think the MOST valuable thing about this little late night impromptu bomber test... was NOT the 700mil pod etc... it was the morale it provided and the infectious excitement that rippled through the NSC for at least a couple days. it re-awoke interest in a REGULAR, organised and purposeful uni bomber fleet.... of which we have had great sucess with in the past but with the most recent 2 attempts they fizzled....not through lack of interest... in the first case the FC who's baby the Bombers were at the time just moved on as people and FC's tend to do.... a newbro last fall expressed interest in cloaky bomber fleet.. .so I told him we DID have one.. but it had sort of just evaporated with the FC... BUT that if that was something he was interested then by ALL means... put a fleet of bombers together and try his hand at FC'ing... as this is a place of learning.. theres nothing wrong with learning to FC while teaching others about bombers... and not only did he do just that,.... he went from the NEWEST of newbros ... to running the Bombers... .. but again... he outgrew us or found greener pasture... either way, Bombers got mothballed again.

This little fleet just goes to show that there's ALWAYS an interest in having this kind of standing fleet and that a huge ka-BOOM is space from a bumch of a bombs is a fantastic tonic for taking the sting out of some ugly losses on your KB.... and that if there's bombers... they will come... some people just didnt know that a bomber fleet WAS a thing... so GOOD SHOW FC !!!!! GOOD SHOW!!!! a good leader provides things OTHER then just an isk positive roam and completing a roam with more then 2/3 of his pilots still alive......
You did great.

Thanks again!

[Budda Sereda]

I approve surprising bombing!

This made me want to buy few and ship them to NSC

Shesocold Arkaral: I would recommend to call a camping fleet and if that is in my TZ I will join for sure!