We had an eventful wormhole dive today. TL:DR; version - we had a great turnout, learned a lot, no losses, but only took 696MN ISK in loot so payout was lower than it could have been, mostly because I called for us to bail on the first hole we dove.
Fleet attendees:
Spoiler
Amira Evolta Salvager
Andrew Nightshade DD
Arashi Shizukana DD, 3IC
Atticus Vex DD
Calder Ormand DD
Crimson Herring Scout/Picket, Scanner
Dunar Dolorgiet Logi
Elihugh Beecher DD, 2IC
Etienne Oort DD
FrankTT2 Logi
Genwhi Thellere DD
Hillybilly Hinken DD
Hirmuolio Pine DD
Ildinaur Logi
Kai-Alon Deninard DD
Khemzor Morand Logi
Luca Goh DD
Rrad Ekanon DD
Serendipity Wolfson DD
Sioban Mernher Scout/Picket, Scanner
Symeon Severasse DD
Tom Endares DD
Yuri Levnik DD, FC
All started out well. We had a number of scanners out, and found a pair of promising wormholes from [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. The former hole had a possible resident corp and multiple WHs in systems but the entrance system was in a part of space that is very quiet. The latter had no resident corp, more sigs/anomalies, and only one WH in system but would require passing through either Y9G or the high sec system occupied by a corp that frequently hunts Unistas. I made the call to take the latter WH, which would later prove to be a bad call.
We undocked at about 17:15 with 20 pilots, including two pickets, one salvager and four logistics pilots who I had pressed into service. We had four pilots who had been in three fleets or less and three of our four logi pilots were flying logi for the first time. I ran the fleet through the full new bro speech and a short practical exercise in which we used a hapless rogue drone frigate to practice logistics and shooting tagged targets. Arashi Shizukana ran our boosters (a few pilots added boosts during form-up) through an armor boost check. We departed Boystin around 17:45.
Here things started to get complicated. Passing through the system that is home to [REDACTED] we saw 10 of their pilots in local. One of them, who has killed many Unistas in his day, followed us to the gate in a Svipul. I knew the corp in question had brought a 20 pilot PVP Hurricane fleet to PC9-AY yesterday and that fleet had left un-whelped, so the ships were intact. Uh-oh...
We proceeded and sure enough, the Svipul followed us. Hoping against hope to lose him, I took the fleet at high speed to the hole. Our pilots did an admirable job of keeping up, but BCs cannot outdistance destroyers, and we jumped the hole just as the Svipul entered system behind us. We split into two wings and started running sites and made it through one and half of another when our picket reported, "Break Break Svipul jumping in to wormhole". We confirmed arrival on DScan and I had to make the hardest decision I've yet made in my career as an FC - stay in and hope the corp doesn't form a QRF, or bail?
I decided to play it safe and bail. The opposing corp was on the Solitude side of our WH, meaning they could come in and bubble us away from home. Our fits did not have any prop mods, so if we tried to run a bubble we would have to do it at 150m/s. Our realistic choices in case of bubble would be to fight our way out or dive deeper into WH space via the C5 that had opened. I decided I didn't want to risk a fight with whatever the enemy brought on whatever terms they decided and ordered the fleet to get out of the hole. We exited the hole and hightailed it back to [REDACTED], past our possible opponents. Our scout reported another 10+ of their pilots in another system off our route, so they had enough people online to respond. Footnote - I spoke to one of their pilots after the fleet and he passed along that they "had a timer in null" and the pilot who followed us was keeping an eye on us in case we tried to jump them. This may or may not be true, but in any case they did have a fleet in space that could have fought us, though it was probably busy.
PART 2: GETTING THAT SPACE PAPER
Having bailed from the hole, we made best speed to [REDACTED] and the 2nd choice hole. Some pilots decided to drop fleet, as we were approaching two hours, but we still had a strong fleet upon arrival. After a break, we collapsed the two wings into one huge wing as we had dropped to three logi pilots. We jumped the hole with 17 pilots still in fleet. We started running sites when once again I heard the dreaded call, "Break break Helios on DScan".
Again, I had to decide, "Do we bail? Do we warp to a safe and wait and see?". Fortunately, a lucky bit of intel came through when the Helios landed on grid with our salvager. We learned that the pilot was not from the possible WH resident corp, nor from any corp that lives in Solitude. I decided to proceed with caution, and we stayed on the site and kept fighting. Fortunately, the Helios pilot left us alone (not much choice there) and no QRF jumped us. It was time to shoot some rats!
We started with combat anomalies and ran those for an hour. I am pleased to say that there is little to report from this part of the fleet except that we shot many sleepers, received many reps, and generally flew like old WH pros. With fatigue creeping up at the three hour mark, I asked the fleet to take two relic sites and call it a night. For those who are unfamiliar, the sleeper relic and data sites have more, tougher rats than the combat anoms, but drop 1.5-2x the loot and have cans to hack. We wiped the relic sites in no time and I called the fleet. Total take was 696MN over the course of about 3.5 hours, of which we spent an hour and a half actually running sites in the second hole.
PART 3: WE DONE PRETTY GOOD
What could have gone better:
Spoiler
- -Our ISK/hour wasn't great, partly due to the lesson I gave prior to departure (which was worth it, judging by how well everyone flew) and partly due to losing an hour bailing on the first hole and getting to the backup choice.
-I could have started us on data/relic sites earlier. We were doing well enough to take the hard sites after about 30 minutes in the hole. Harder sites would have earned us a bit more hard cash.
-I had a dickens of a time tagging targets. As a result, my guns were often off, and my drones idle. I need to use some hotkeys or something so I can pew my guns too!
-The Brutixes need more navy ammo than 4800 rounds. I ran out of navy ammo at about 1 hour 15 minutes in, even though I was doing a mediocre job of turning on my guns.
-My scanning rewards program is far too complicated. I need to simplify it. I was online to guide and clarify for scanners, so we got what we needed, but no thanks to my very long forum post.
Spoiler
- -Everyone, from the greenest newbro to the saltiest bittervet, flew *extremely* well. I cannot stress enough how impressed I was with how everyone did on the fleet. Fantastic work y'all - so proud!!!
-Several pilots in key roles learned to scout/fight in my previous classes and fleets. Teaching and leading PVP roams paid off for me in a big way on this fleet.
-We did not lose any ships. I don't think we even lost any *drones*. Pretty sure that's a first for me as FC (;
-Our logi pilots were incredible. Three of them were first timers and one was a first time logi pilot *and* new to fleets, but you wouldn't have known it. We increased the difficulty when we collapsed to one wing (more targets to watch) and again when we moved to harder sites and the logi wing took both increases in stride.
-We did not trigger any double spawns. I tagged the right targets, the fleet shot the right targets. Seems trivial until it goes wrong and you suddenly have four sleeper battleships on grid.
-We had a couple of times in the fleet where we had to travel fast. Everyone kept up.
-We now have a bunch of experienced WH divers with dive-appropriate ships, both for my next dive and for any other dives folks want to run.
-Devinnis Pollard's new doctrine worked great. The armor tank is strong and using armor means the logi folks have a bit more time to respond when someone starts taking damage. We blasted frigates without mercy and burned down the larger boats quickly.
-Posting the fleet two weeks in advance meant we had a ton of pilots who had the skills to fly combat ships. I was worried I would have all salvagers and pickets and not enough BCs, which was not at all the case. We also had a great turnout.
-Having fits on contract made it easy for people to ship up at fleet time.
-Our scout/pickets provided incredibly valuable intel, both when in the hole and when we were on the run. Y'all earned your share!
-Our salvager had a very busy night as we cleared sites fast. All of that blue loot and sweet salvage got out safely.
-Elihugh Beecher and Arashi Shizukana served as 2IC and 3IC and were enormously helpful for me. In particular, I threw many random tasks at Eli, which he picked up without complaint. Me being able to pass things off to the 2IC and 3IC speeds up the fleet significantly.
-Scanners found holes and provided bookmarks, safes and intel for us before fleet. Intel is absolutely critical to success in spooky space, so the scanners' contribution was huge. They were compensated accordingly.
-Though the haul wasn't as big as it could have been, we all made money.
-I had a heap and a half of fun!
Spoiler
- -Next time we will limit ourselves to WHs that do not involve going through hostile space unless there are none available. We lost an hour on the hole we bailed on. I think bailing was the right decision, but we can probably avoid the "hostiles on the friendly side" issue altogether next time.
-I will ask someone to run a mini "newbro" fleet 30 minutes prior to fleet to cut down on form-up time. Can't do it myself as I'm too busy trying to get the fleet into space.
-No matter what, our ISK/hour will never be as high with an "anyone can join" fleet as it would be if we had a fleet of 8-9 pros who frequently fly together. I will continue to lead fleets that are newbro-friendly and flexible on fleet composition. However, folks who want to maximize ISK/hour can form their own dive (we have pilots and ships after tonight!). Optimal fleet size is probably 8-9 pilots, with two logi, one salvager, one picket (ideally an alt) and 4-5 battlecruisers.
-We should officially add armor command bursts to our fits. We used armor boosts x3 with great success.
-We could drop one of the webifiers and add another module, ideally a propulsion module (will be tough to fit, especially alongside boosts).
-I paid equal rewards regardless of time in fleet, but I would like to use a spreadsheet like we use for shared cans to track pilot "guns on/guns off" times next time.
-Brutixes were by far the favorite BC fit. BLAP Vexors training seems to have directed a lot of folks that way, which is just fine with me.
Yuri
Edit: updated ISK from the fleet with the loot I picked up from the two sites in the first WH.