[AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

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Rohan Amadeus
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[AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Rohan Amadeus »

NSC Pop-Up Fleet Goes Bubbling
Ton of guys were bored...so a gate camp was proposed by Mike Shlecton.

Location:
System - JH-M2W on the M2- gate

Time: Around 02:00 to about 05:00 EVE

WHO:
Spoiler
Fletch Christian
Kardessi Amilupar
Luc Arbosa
Mike Shlecton
Nunnery Michigan
Omnicious Shardani
Reichat Oughto
Rohan Amadeus
Soul Vapor
Tazaran Reese
Tsuwen Sun
Drag bubbles were set up to catch from multiple places - one to catch from PVH, EZA, and the Citadel in JH- along with another bubble to catch people warping from PC9- - in addtion to all of this, we had an interdictor sitting on the gate to bubble up whenever a ship pops through the M2- gate.

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:
:arrow: 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

:arrow: 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.

:arrow: 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?

:arrow: 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.

:arrow: 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?
Last edited by Rohan Amadeus on 2017.07.03 09:12, edited 1 time in total.
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Prime Lancelot
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Re: [AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Prime Lancelot »

Good job folks! I could've hop on but I still want to keep my degree on failing to blow things up.
Should've start learning how to hunt, bite, and chew...
Last edited by Prime Lancelot on 2017.07.03 10:31, edited 1 time in total.
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Krios Sertan
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Re: [AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Krios Sertan »

Sounded like you guys had fun, I would have liked to be there but had shopping to do in Jita. Next time!!
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Mike shlecton
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Re: [AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Mike shlecton »

Nice job guys. Ya make sure we are warping to tackle or ship on grid to your optimal or optimal - tackle distance from enemy. We lost a couple ships to warping at 0 or to close. Ewar stay back...even if your out of range at warp in adjust once on grid. Ewar is no good when dead better to be careful. Great job guys I learn something new each time.
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Tazaran Reese
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Re: [AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Tazaran Reese »

My Talos loss was all my fault. It does not mean I would not have died in the engagement, but I made a really dumb move right from the bat. I was in a ranged DPS setup (without much tank) and I warped to zero on the battle... dumb dumb dumb....

I did have one other thought on the bubble thing though. I know you need to keep them pinned down, but if you have elements of your force that need different ranges, wouldn't throwing up a bubble suck everyone in to zero as they warp in? Now I know I clicked warp to zero in this case.. cause stupid... but if I had warped to 50, and you guys threw up a bubble, could it not suck me in anyway?
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Omnicious Shardani
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Re: [AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Omnicious Shardani »

I like bubbles. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Tsuwen Sun
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Re: [AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Tsuwen Sun »

It was excellent fun and a great learning experience. First time for me gate camping. Great advice on flying ecm. I lost my Griffin because I warped to zero. I'll have to remember to warp to optimal of zero. Another piece of advice I heard about ecm camping was to hold jams until the target had red boxed someone. Otherwise they would crash the gate.

Tsuwen Sun
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Fletch Christian
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Re: [AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Fletch Christian »

Excellent Job everyone was a great couple hours of content. \o/

Gate Camps are often overlooked as an activity in the uni being the evil ganky tactic that it is yaar :twisted:

However to a small Null sec corp/gang (or low for that matter) operating much as we do these days it can be a valuable tool as well as being a more relaxed informal fleet with open comm's for the most part ... people can come/go from home station 1 or 2 jumps away at leisure allowing more people to join without the whole were going roaming for 2 hours straight commitment . you can take stock of what you have on gate with you at the moment just before an engagement to decide on if you can take the fight well before it happens(usually) ((a small wolfpack gang of assault frigs and desi's really excels here with its high mobility and gtfo ability when the inevitable large gang shows up ))

Speaking of gangs showing up. As probably demonstrated by the small thorax/bellicose gang towards the end and the appearance and attention of a solo roamer from a nearby corp when we were finishing up. who was probably seeing if he had enough backup to come out to "break up our gate camp" as it were . as you grab 1 or 2 occasional kills that wander into your well laid trap the dotlan (and other map tools) kill statistics start ticking up providing a beacon for whatever gangs may be roaming in an area .. "well syndicate seems real quiet on a holiday Sunday except for M2 which seems to have a few kills in the last hour"... "well lets go down and see what's going on" and next thing u know u get a good fleet fight 8)

Individual merits and tactics aside Like our acting fc suddenly deciding to warp to zero and hero tackle an enemy gang (that we had cloaky eyes on) ... in his cruiser.. while the whole gang sits stunned on the gate with a big question mark over there heads wondering what just happened as he starts calling out a warp in ...ROFL ...priceless.. awesome job Rohan way to show enthusiasm ! definatly a lot of fun was had by all and we even learned a little!

\o/ OPS SUCCESS \o/

Moral of the story .. less time shooting the breeze in station... more time cracking jokes on gates and shooting ships :twisted:

oh and

:rainbowhuh: MOAR PONY'S! :OHMAHGAWD!:

u cant gatecamp without ponys.. its a rule in new eden look it up
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Rohan Amadeus
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Re: [AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Rohan Amadeus »

Fletch Christian wrote: Individual merits and tactics aside Like our acting fc suddenly deciding to warp to zero and hero tackle an enemy gang (that we had cloaky eyes on) ... in his cruiser.. while the whole gang sits stunned on the gate with a big question mark over there heads wondering what just happened as he starts calling out a warp in ...ROFL ...priceless.. awesome job Rohan way to show enthusiasm ! definatly a lot of fun was had by all and we even learned a little!

u cant gatecamp without ponys.. its a rule in new eden look it up
Hahaha...That was definitely my bad. I didn't remember that our eyes on them were cloaky. Thought they had been seen warping to the custom's office and I didn't want the small fleet to freak and bail before we could get on them. Definitely need to remember who flies what and have everyone call things out in third person to assist with that. hahaha.... Patience will definitely serve better the next time. heh.

hmm....we'll need to have ponies join next time...
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Fletch Christian
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Re: [AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Fletch Christian »

I personally thought it was brilliant !!!!

we would have gotten the other thorax he got out in low structure when I dropped point on him as I warped out to save my own skin in supper low structure and all the drone agro .. and lucky for them no one else was able to get tackle on it

small gangs have to react/work quickly and efficiently in order to hit above there weight Rohan did give the order to warp in at 100 it however did get buried in chatter and confusion a bit. Your instinct in recognizing a opportunity to warp right in on them and reacting to it and capitalizing on it immediately is exactly what needs to be done . The opposing gang is not expecting you to suddenly land at zero on them when there a 100 of a customs office (sometimes maybe but lets keep it general) and seizing the imitative is critical to any fight.

As recon pilots and FC's start chattering about a certain target every pilot needs to start assessing there own situational awareness and what they need to do to get themselves into the correct place to do there job correctly. If your ewar or logi its better to arrive a touch late in order to get into a good optimal to do the most good while staying safe by warping in off range of the initial tackle.. Tackle though in the case of inty's are often kitey needs to get right in zero at first to get points on and then pull range. Ranged heavy DPS need to warp in at zero + somewhere close to there optimal to get in at there effective ranges . Each pilot needs to do this individually as well as maintain there own situation in a fight pull range if you have to and/or bounce off if you have been primary'd and you cant rep the hits your able to get away (especially ewar logi and inty's) .. and bounce back.

But hey in the end we held the field we got a bunch and we learned how to be better next time

Super fun!! Excellent Job Rohan for taking up the helm and Mike for leading the chant to go gate camp I hope to see ALOT more of these in the future it is an excellent content driver for small groups that are on to be active constantly no one needs to FC or make any official calls just grab a couple Bros and camp the gate and work as a small gang
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Rohan Amadeus
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Re: [AAR] SURPRISE! YOU'VE BEEN BUBBLED!

Post by Rohan Amadeus »

Thanks. Feedback and insight are very much appreciated. Glad to know I'm somewhat on the right track.

Definitely looking forward to doing this a bit more and possibly FC a small roam fleet eventually.
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