Location:
System - JH-M2W on the M2- gate
Time: Around 02:00 to about 05:00 EVE
WHO:
Spoiler
Kardessi Amilupar
Luc Arbosa
Mike Shlecton
Nunnery Michigan
Omnicious Shardani
Reichat Oughto
Rohan Amadeus
Soul Vapor
Tazaran Reese
Tsuwen Sun
We had a cloaker sitting in the M2- system to warn us of incoming ships and what they were flying and one sitting in JH- at the PVH- gate to watch for ships coming from PVH and EZA.
Our story started with one of the alts of a uni member flying into a bubble and trying to make his way slowly back down to the M2- gate. About midway through, he gave up and asked to be sacrificed so that our bounty would be plentiful. Thus, first blood had been drawn in a tank of sharks....
Sacrificed Pod of Hawk-eye One +0.01m
Thank you, Hawk-eye One; your sacrifice was not in vain...
Next, we received word that M2- had neuts and a caracal was approaching the very gate we were camping and was about to jump. Not only that, but another caracal was on dscan as well, so our team began preparations on the gate.
As soon as we saw the gate flash, our first interdiction bubble of the night was popped. The caracal remained cloaked from the jump for a bit, most likely warning his buddies not to jump into the gate camp. When he decloaked, we pointed, and webbed him right away and started pounding on him. He tried to go back to the gate, overheat of weapons was called, and we managed to blow him up before he could reach it. We also managed to get his pod. Turns out, his pod also came with a morsel of tastiness to whet our appetite.
Weiune's Caracal +33.87m
Weiune's Pod +55.09m
...and thus began a slight wait where songs were traded back and forth to entertain ourselves during a bit of down time. A few ships flew in from other gates and managed to avoid us so it was all nothing worth mentioning. Some of the videos were:
How to Stay Aligned
EVE online: Noir Paradoy Album
Smooth Jazz Elevator Music
...along with some fun gifs:
...and now we wait.
Gate camp like...
Suddenly, we have a hit in M2- again and a magnate was approaching gate. We all got back on the gate and bubbled up the moment he entered. There was a long period of silence where someone thinks they heard that someone had just soiled themselves and meanwhile the neut maintained gate cloak. Finally, the inevitable was accepted and the magnate came out of cloak to try to run, but our webs and scrams were too much for them...
Cynn Allwais' Magnate +0.85m
...and it seems Hawk-eye One's capsule sacrifice was received well to the powers-that-be.
Cynn Allwais' Pod +369.30m
HUZZAH!!! Things were looking fantastic!
Little did we know what awaited us around the corner....
After another period of silence, we had two thoraxes and a bellicose in system. They appeared on dscan from our gate, but never actually came to the gate. So a few of our people began to dscan them down and found out they were 0.1 AU away from us. So one of our courageous pilots warped to an asteroid belt to check to see if our elusive preys were there, only to have no luck. Another warped to the custom's office at Planet V and *DING DING DING* Jackpot!. However, they were about 100km off the custom's office. Align to Planet V CO was called and I volunteered to warp there at 100km in hopes that I would land somewhere close enough to begin a battle. Little did I know, they were EXACTLY 100km off of the CO from the M2- gate and I landed smack dab in the middle. I quickly called for backup to assist me and called primary on the bellicose and our interdictor jumped in and put up a bubble.
Unfortunately, landing directly within arms reach of the thoraxes did a number on our team:
Tsuwen Sun was the first to go down - Tsuwen Sun's Griffin -2.29m
Suggestion for griffins down the line: since griffins are so easily popped, when warp is called to a certain location, be sure to warp at range so that you can assist from outside the brawling range, while staying alive to help the rest of us.
Next my own ship went down in a ball of flames - Rohan Amadeus' Caracal -29.96m
Followed by our interdictor - Omnicious Shardani's Heretic -76.02m
...then the most painful loss of the night - Tazaran Reese's Talos -135.58m
By this point, our fleet was finally able to take down the Bellicose -
Freen Hult's Bellicose +21.55m
Point was called on one of the thoraxes and by then our dps was significantly reduced, but our team kept pounding away at them with point being called on one of the thoraxes. Sadly we would lose another 2 before our prey would manage to get away.
Reichat Oughto's Rupture -28.73m
Nunnery Michigan's Thorax -25.14m
Our preys take off, but we still had some ships on field, so we started looting the field with all the other ships nearby to help protect in case the thoraxes came back and the ones who had lost ships quickly made their way back to PC9 to reship. While we were reshipping, one of the thoraxes came back to fight since they didn't want to fly all the way back. Sadly, however, only one of them felt this way.
QueenEmeraldas' Thorax +28.88m
Queen Emeraldas' Pod +0.01m
After reshipping and looting the field, we went back to wait at the M2- gate for a bit longer. A ship came in from 404 alliance and landed at a tactical off the M2- gate. However, upon arriving, it burned to a far distance away from the M2- gate and just sat there. We figured he was calling for backup and there was a group of us already about to call it a night. So we decided to pack up the bubbles and head back home.
End results:
ISK Destroyed: +509.56
ISK Lost: -297.72
ISK Delta: +211.84
SUCCESS!!!!
Thanks to everyone that came out to join us! Definitely had a great time!
Couple of thoughts and ideas:
Burn more tacticals while waiting on the gate - this way, we aren't stuck sitting at the gate and trying to chase down people who have tacticals all over the gate
Make sure to have everyone in one squad to make it easier for people to warp to others and possibly use fleet warp to prevent one person from going in and dying so quickly - meanwhile those who need to keep range would stop their own ships and warp in at a different distance.
I'm not sure if the bubble 100km off the custom's office at the end was necessary since they were already engaged and we had people coming in to point. Not sure if that slowed down our group more than necessary or not. I'm interested in hearing ideas from others and their perspectives on this. Either way, the thought was good and I would have done the same, but for future reference, would that be something others would also do?
Perhaps I could have waited long enough to find out the exact location of the opposing fleet before warping myself there and landing in the middle, but two things were going through my head at the time -
1. Most times when we find someone, their fleet tends to warp off quickly and find another tactical
and
2. If one of our smaller frigates/destroyers went in, they probably would have been popped really quickly.
So my caracal at least had a chance to stay alive and keep them engaged while the others came in.
One of the ships that managed to evade us did so because we didn't have things set up properly when we went to another gate. In general, we should always have a point on both sides of the gate. When someone jumps into us, we should have one of the pointers get on the other side and the moment the interdictor pilot bubbles up, they should jump gate and reapproach the gate to optimize the potential bubble on the other side should the pilot crash back into the gate. I was thinking about it and had mentioned this, but I never directly asked anyone to do it. That was definitely shortsighted of me.
Thoughts?