[AAR] Soli/NSC ISKalyst Inauguration

[Yuri Levnik]

Howdy all,
I got to take my ISKalyst doctrine on its inaugural fleet tonight. Hooray!!! We were light on content in Syndicate, but we got one solid Brutix kill that is proof of concept for what the doctrine is trying to achieve. Additionally, we terrorized all of the nullsec gate camp systems I usually fear to pass through without my trusty travelceptor - very empowering!

We had a strong turnout after picking up a few folks from the NSC:

Spoiler

Amira Evolta: EWAR (Vigil)
Andrew Nightshade: DD
Arashi Shizukana: DD, 2IC
Calder Ormand: DD
Crimson Herring: 2 Scout
Furtive Anstian: 1 Scout
Hillybilly Hinken: DD, 3IC
jammer Atruin: DD
Kai-Alon Deninard: DD
Sioban Mernher: DD
Siyoel: DD
Sophia Canarius: DD
Sturym: DD
Symeon Severasse: DD
Yuri Levnik: DD
Z0X Ambrye: Scout FC

We departed from Gravity Well around 2:15 and made our way up to NSC. There were a few ships around on the way up, but nothing we could track down. We formed up with the folks from NSC and I wasted everyone's time checking the NSC pocket. Following that pointless activity, we headed out into Syndicate.

Space was quiet, unfortunately, until we got to 6-CZ49. There was a gate camp consisting of Armageddon/Drake Navy Issue/Hurricane Fleet Issue/Megathron sitting on a medium bubble. Sadly, we were not ready for smart bombs and did not take that fight (;

We buzzed Poitot and tethered up for a break, having killed nothing but some rats over the hour we had been undocked. A couple of pilots decided to head home as it was late, and as luck would have it they found a Brutix piloted by an experienced PVP pilot who had recently killed a few fellow Unistas. Our "scouts" followed (chased?) the Brutix back our way. I was all ready to jump in and haul after him when he jumped into our main fleet and saw 12 catalysts orbiting his in-gate:

• [ 2017.08.16 03:15:42 ] Bubbles Amelana > RIP

Having learned about gates on my last fleet (thanks Z0X!), I ordered a scram and a couple of our returning pilots to stay on the other side of the MHC gate in case the Brutix crashed it. He decloaked and we locked him up and opened fire, but he crashed the gate and jumped through. Most of us had weapons timers, and he realized the longer he held gate cloak the shorter our timers got, so he decloaked, was tackled, and aggressed the pilots on the other side of the gate. I assume he was hoping to kill our tackle with his blasters/drones and get away before our timers dropped. He came close to wiping our tackle, and his reps were holding against our rearguard, but our weapons timers dropped before he could escape. Once we got on grid, we melted him alarmingly quickly. His reps could not hold against our vulgar DPS output and his blasters couldn't blap us fast enough. We did lose a couple of boats, such bravery!

MHC-R3 03:18
Catalyst -5.1MN
Catalyst -11.1MN
Catalyst -10.3MN
Brutix +88.1MN

Sadly, while we roamed a while longer, we failed to catch anything else, though we could have gotten a couple of nice targets if we had a bubble or combat probes. I decided to kill two battleship rats to see how our damage did against battleships. We melted them once we got in range, but lost a pilot who got blapped while burning in to the rats. After melting the rats I called the fleet at two hours.

A-ZLHX 03:54
Catalyst -5.1MN

Stats
ISK Destroyed: 88.1MN
ISK Lost: 31.7MN
ISK Delta: +56.4MN
Efficiency: 74%

We ended up doing pretty well numbers-wise, though I do wish we could have engaged more targets.

What went well:

• -The new doctrine melts faces, as expected. We blasted an experienced Brutix pilot to bits in seconds once we had everyone on grid.
  -I think the doctrine also did very well for "ease of use". Easier to fly than Talwars or other kiting boats, cheap to throw together in a fleet.
  -Everyone flew extremely well. Keep it up like y'all have been doing on the past few fleets and I'm gonna start taking that for granted (;
  -We tanked better than expected. The Brutix was blaster fit and had drones and our rear guard still held up long enough for our one minute timers to clear.
  -Stopping by NSC to pick folks up resulted in us getting a few more pilots and close to 2000 additional DPS. Thanks for coming NSC buddies!
  -We did a great job of straddling a gate and catching a kill.
  -We owned eastern Syndicate for a while (well, except for the gate camp in 6-CZ49 anyway).
  -Roaming null was fun! I loved not having to worry about gate guns and security status loss. I'll do this again for sure.
  -Scouts did well - keep practicing y'all, I'll find more content for you to hunt down (;
  -Arashi and Z0X deserve special commendations for their hard work. I threw a lot of random tasks at Arashi in particular and he picked them up. Big thanks y'all, you helped keep things moving for everyone!

What could have gone better:

• -An interdictor would have been *fantastic* for this roam. We lost targets that we could have taken if we had a bubble. I will try to recruit one next time.
  -We didn't find very much content to fight. A dictor would have helped. Flying earlier would probably help as well since the gate camps are usually up earlier - I think I'll shoot for 00:05 departure next time.
  -Combat probes would have helped us find a couple of ganks, notably a Moa running a combat signature.
  -I sold out of ISKalysts in Boystin - Gravity Well. Sorry y'all, will post more for next time!
  -I was tired and made the embarrassing mistake of taking us into the wrong system while hunting. Womp womp );

Overall, it was a good, if somewhat quiet, initial test for the new doctrine. I think if we add an interdictor and some combat probes we could really tear Syndicate a new one. Mwahaha!

Thanks again to all who attended,
Yuri

[Andrew Nightshade]

Thanks Yuri! I had a good time, and I really appreciate how fast the Brutix went down. I came through when my timer cleared and held point once I got across. Thanks to the the lack of pure iskalysts available in Boystin, I was (fortunately! it turns out) flying a tankier version with a long point instead of the standard. I think that and the face melting DPS is all that saved me.

I'll get a real iskalyst for next roam! I'm sure you will be able to get me killed then.

--Nightshade

[Sturym]

Admittedly, as this was my first time out in a fleet like this, I had no idea what to expect.

I loved the comms - I felt we all had a fairly decent understanding of what was going on, and Yuri did a great job keeping everyone in the loop. I know a few times someone had to get caught up, but otherwise we did a good job keeping on point and following commands. Everyone did a great job, at least in my eyes, as part of this fleet. I look forward to future fleets of this nature.

Thanks for the good time,

-Sturym

[Yuri Levnik]

Sturym, thanks for coming out and for the positive feedback! Agreed that everyone flew well - y'all kept up and pewed bravely, very nice work. RE comms, glad I was able to shed some light on what we were up to. Credit also to Arashi and Z0X for taking on administrative duties as that frees me up to talk strategy, and to everyone who knew more than me about something and shared their knowledge in comms (;

Andrew, this may be the first time that being underprepared (not enough ISKalyst contracts) helped me get a kill. Maybe I should be underprepared more in the future... (;

Yuri

[jammer Atruin]

I was excited to see a brawler DD fleet. I enjoyed myself, but had to leave early and missed out on the content. I'd do it again in a heartbeat and 00:05 works great for a start time.