[FLEET] Clones BLAPPED Low-Sec

[Arashi Shizukana]

In a word, success!

More detail is probably required.
The night started off well. While the fleet was forming up and getting ready to undock, Kelon tackled a Clone Soldier in Agoze, and after taking the last 2 or so minutes to finish forming up, we went to go meet up with him. After breezing through Ost, we promptly killed the clone soldier and got our sec status boost for the night. Unfortunately, it seems that low-sec didn't want to provide us with any further bounties (pun intended), and by the time we got to Nen, no more clone soldiers were discovered.
Fortunately, there was a bunch of people we could kill. And did kill.
Our primary scout was now in Nennamaila, and was giving us a d-scan report of the system. We also had a secondary scout in there, reporting on the other parts of Nen. While getting a report from the secondary, the primary called out that he got tackled by a Kestrel. Confused why they got tackled, I jumped the fleet, and warped to his location. Unfortunately, it was a 90 AU warp, and the Kestrel managed to get away by the time we landed. That said, we would later kill it off of a gate. I did make sure our scouts knew to always burn safes if you don't have any, and never scout from a warpable position.

Executioner (4.6 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63286024/
Kestrel (12.6 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63286138/

At around this time, on the Nen gate in Aki, we had a Vexor jump into us. Considering Vexors are not the fastest thing in the world, we managed to pin it down and dissolve it fairly quickly. During the fight we lost Questlove, who did not (confirmed with pilot and logi) call for reps from the gate guns.

Caracal (31.6 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63286223/
Vexor (40.3 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63286197/

While one of our scouts was going for tackle on a magus in Nen (we were in system as well, but FAR off d-scan range), they unfortunately got tackled by it, and were unable to peel away. The magus itself was too far away, and we couldn't have reached our fleetmate in time.
Atron (12 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63286268/

Our next fight happened in Aki, on a plex. No one was lost, and we actually had a scavenger(?) try and loot the wrecks while we were still on grid.
Thorax (24.6 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63286374/
Magnate (2 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63286392/

The fleet now in Pyne, we encountered another massive fleet of about 15 (who had 3 BCs). Eager to try and take them on, we scouted them for about 10 minutes. This also involved warping and jumping into neighboring systems, as we would continuously miss them by several seconds. Finally finding them once again in Pyne at a large, I sent a scout ahead to get point on their Stork, and tell us how far they were off the plex. When the scout called point, I immediately warped the fleet to the large at 30 (the scout reported range), and the enemy fleet was about 30km away from us when we landed. Perfect. Calling primary on the Stork, we started to burn it down when it suddenly booshed itself out of the fight. Yes, itself. The enemy fleet now without a way out, we started burning down their logi and ENI, and aside from a Kitsune loss, the fleet came out unscathed. We also managed to get an Algos, but unfortunately our light tackle couldn't get to their BCs in time before they warped off (they were 100km off from the main fleet). The Stork had long since fled.

Kitsune (48 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287003/
Exequror (38 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63286993/
Exequror (24 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63286996/
Algos (12.5 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287002/
Exequror Navy Issue (85 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287006/

Trying to pin them down again, we spent a few minutes to loot the field and try and d-scan them down, though unfortunately our efforts were ISK-less. Of course, now it became time to whelp the fleet.

After taking a short break, in which the bulk of our logi had to drop (thanks again for the reps guys!), we reshipped from Ichoriya into tackle and Caracals, leaving logi for another day. As it turns out, we wouldn't need it where we were headed.

Taking a quick detour over to the Tama gate, we found an Enforcer on d-scan in the smartbomb hell, and tried to hunt it down, sending in Beavis (who had a point on his Caracal), to check as well. Unfortunately it seemed to have just been passing through.

Heading back home now, we once again found ourselves in Pyne, on the Hik gate. Several things were passing through, and we had local intel of a large gatecamp on the other side. A Hurricane happened to jump through to us at this point, and while we were able to point it, it managed to jump. A minute later, it returned, and our webs were much more successful. Curious what was on the other side, I had our sacrifice scout jump and report what was going on. He reported that several battleships, as well as large things like a BNI were there. It was at this time that Zarvox Toral came through the gate. Eager to be on TV, we primaried him, and he primaried me. A Stabber also joined in on the mix, and for reasons yet unknown, fired on me as well. Each of us going down fast, we managed to get him down to half-hull before I popped, and Ace Fear, our 2IC, took over. It was also at this time that the enemy gatecamp jumped as well, and it promptly became a fourway (another fleet joined in from the gatecamp). The BNI bouncing out of the fight once we lost tackle, the next primary became that Stabber. Once that was down, we fired on the Armageddon. Bouncing back to the fight in my pod to watch and designate targets I gave the call for the remaining fleet to start free-firing on whatever targets looked the weakest, as scattering was no longer an option. At some point or another, the BNI came back, and died (we brought it down below a quarter hull). Here is the kill report from that fight:

Lost:
Condor (7.4 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287313/
Kitsune (40.7 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287370/
Caracal (28.8 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287388/
Slasher (3.4 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287392/
Caracal (20.4 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287396/
Caracal (15.1 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287402/
Caracal (15.4 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287420/
Caracal (32.4 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287407/
Caracal (18.5 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287423/
Caracal Navy Issue (124.2 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287428/
Slasher (1.7 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287433/

Killed:
Armageddon (294.8 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287425/
Atron (2.4 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287430/
Brutix Navy Issue (233.2 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287588/
Hurricane (86.6 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287332/
Stabber (37.3 mil) https://zkillboard.com/kill/63287393/

After that, with all gates cut off due to fighting, I gave the order for the surviving members to dock up in a friendly citadel, and take pod express back home. I'd like to thank everyone who came out on the fleet, and if anyone has any pointers or tips, definitely let me know in this AAR.

~Final Kill Report~
ISK Killed: 924,900,000
ISK Lost: 372,600,000
Efficiency: 59.71%

[Budda Sereda]

I gave the call for the remaining fleet to start free-firing on whatever targets looked the weakest, as scattering was no longer an option

I was not there, but if 'scattering was not an option', then fleet did not fly BLAP Caracals right.

I understand reality makes its corrections, but you want the fleet to be 30-40 km from the fight. In this case, even if you have 3-5 ships in the fleet, you should be able to kill any tackle, especially if you fly Caracals.
Call fleet to align to the sun, turn on prop modes. and pull the range. Often you will end up in a situation when you are 60km from the BLOB and can even come back and land few more missiles

If you just jumped through the gate... keep burining from the gate. Your opponents most likely will point few ships in a fleet, but the majority will pull the range and be able to apply damage from the distance. In this case, the problem will be to keep opponents on the grid though.

[Arashi Shizukana]

Scattering wasn't an option because a fleet of 20+ people (in stuff much bigger than us), happened to jump through the gate, creating a giant cluster of ships. Add in some extra pilots, and everyone becomes pointed/scrammed. We were all orbiting the BNI (that just jumped through the gate) at roughly 35 km.

It could have worked out better if we had anchored and done it that way, but we still would have likely whelped from the other fleet. In terms of tackle, well just going by the killboard, it would not have been possible to off it that quickly. They had at least 1 Lachesis + other force recon ships, so the fleet would have been whittled down had we stayed (and we would have lost the kills in the process).

[Budda Sereda]

All these are valid concerns, yet you would be surprised how many times I was surprised ( ) that a number of ships that were able to escape were big enough. Again, don't scatter immediately, call to align to 'promising celestial and OH prop modes'. Even E-Uni is considered to be a teaching corp with many new pilots, there are many other corps old but not so good pilots. If whole you fleet pushes towards the same direction, chances are last 5 will be pointed or maybe even scrammed. But the rest will pull the distance and can pick up few small ships.

Anyway, you lose nothing from trying IMO.