[AAR] Combat Interceptors 23/08/2017

[Adrien Claremont]

Having not had much luck finding anything in Cloud Ring the last time I took out a Combat Interceptor roam, I wanted to try and stage into Providence to see if that would be any better. We covered a huge around of ground (close to 50 systems) before we hit any trouble. While I think we did find a lot out there, we were just unlucky in securing tackle. Perhaps a higher number of fleet members would help with this, or we just need more practice to get quicker and quicker at shotgunning a system... I don't know. Either way, I did manage to catch some stuff though.

Roam members (21)

Spoiler

Adrien Claremont
Alf Saissore
Altar Kabal
Anthony Fenrir
Barbara Blast
Beavis Alland
Decklin Quark Reiger
DonkeyPunch Udan
Glen Burney
Jormah Yaken
Kora K
Kramnath
Lexara Ellecon
Luca Goh
Ra'zok Zateki
SketchyManDan Williams
Space Warfare Development
Trillian Ituin
Union Pivo
Ursa Izia
Xana McBash

The basic concept was very simple. There are no scouts. We all jump blind into a system together, and scatter immediately to as many different combat anomalies as possible. Kora, in our Interdictor, would warp to a station if there was one and throw up a bubble. If anyone finds anything in their anomaly, they'd call tackle and the rest of the fleet would warp to them and secure the kill. We aimed to do this in as many systems as possible, spending no more than a minute or two in each.

After a couple of practice systems, we got our first taste of blood when a Epithal warped to our station bubble.

(18:51:53) Shintaht
Epithal +89.26m
Capsule +0.01m

While we missed the initial tackle here, Decklin was still on grid with the VNI's drones as the main fleet left system. Luckily for us, the VNI pilot wanted those drones and warped straight into Decklin who got the tackle and called the rest of us in.

(19:18:51) 0B-HLZ
Vexor Navy Issue +168.27m
Capsule +0.01m

In 18XA-C, we managed to catch two seperate VNIs at the same time. This just goes to show that even with just a small gang you can go roaming for ratters in Interceptors.

(19:25:55) 18XA-C, 0B-HLZ
Vexor Navy Issue +84.76m
Vexor Navy Issue +96.12m
Capsule +0.01m

At this point we all realised that there was a Gecko left in the wreck of the first VNI we killed in 0B-HLZ. We headed back and popped the MTU that had looted the wreck, but there wasn't a Gecko on the MTU killmail. Sad face. Either the pilot had come back and looted just the Gecko leaving everything else, or someone had ninja looted it from the wreck.

Mobile Tractor Unit +20.56m

We just missed a Caracal in BK4-YC but popped his MTU in anger.

(19:45:25) BK4-YC
Mobile Tractor Unit +12.83m

The MTU in BK4 was the last bit of real action that we saw. We spent the next hour shotgunning systems without catching anything. It was getting late but I want to check just one last pocket before heading back. Turned out that was a little bit of a mistake. There was a substantial gatecamp happening on multiple gates in AY-YCU. We had a Cynabal gang on our in gate and a Battleship/HIC gang on our out gate. We lost a number of pilots and made the call to head home.

(20:14:59) AY-YCU
Crusader -40.17m
Sabre -88.81m
Capsule -0.01m
Executioner -4.39m
Atron -3.25m
Capsule -0.01m

On our way out, Decklin tried his luck with a 1v1 however his ship wasn't exactly fit for purpose.

(20:18:57) S9X-AX
Taranis -47.03m

Stats

ISK Destroyed: 471,825,052.06
ISK Lost: 183,679,812.71
ISK Delta: 288,145,239.35
Efficiency: 71.979%

The Good

The fleet pace was great throughout I thought and we didn't lose anyone or have anyone lagging behind.
We managed to spent close to two and half hours roaming Sov Null before anyone put up any real fight
We covered probably 75% of the entire region during the roam
Everyone quickly picked up the fleet concept of shotgunning leading to a couple of nice kills.
For the second fleet in a row, FC's comms didn't die.

The Bad

FC's first time taking a roam into Providence. We had large periods of quietness which makes me wonder if the route we took or our target systems could be tweaked if we choose to do this again.
FC's greed for content lead us into a trap (not entirely sure it was set for us, but either way...) which cost us ships.

Overall I think we made a good start at using Combat Interceptors. The more we do it, the slicker we will become both in execution when we jump into a system and choosing which systems to target. I enjoyed the fleet even though we had a large period of emptiness towards the end.

A big thank you to Kora for bring a Interdictor to the fleet, and to our T1 frigate newbros who wanted to come along to the fleet in hard mode.

Cheers guys.

[White 0rchid]

If you ever need a hand with provi stuff, give me a shout as we live right on the edge. I know most of the good systems and where to find people.

[Kora K]

o/ Adrien

It was a fun fleet, I'm a big fan of inty roams, and I was glad to lose another sabre in one of your fleet I was pretty sure I was not going back in my ship anyway.

Regarding me bubbling on station, we got unlucky yesterday, since they always landed on the wrong side of the bubble for us. I usually just warped to the station, and bubbled if I saw something on D. I then burned outside the bubble and waited for instructions. If anyone has advice on how to be better at bubbling station game, I'll take it

Regarding leading the fleet, it was pretty on point, although we could have moved faster. I'll post what Ounar and I wrote a while ago on an AAR for an inty fleet :

1) I'll post what I already wrote on the general process of inty fleets :
* Prepare a route of the ratting systems in a region
* Shotguns the busiest ones, going for Sanctum, Heaven and Forsaken Hubs (+ ore / ice anoms)
* In the systems in-between, we won't stop if there are only 1-2 guys in system. We will burn and regroup 1-2 systems before our next pit stop.
* When someone has tackle, (s)he "www" in fleet, and everyone warp to the target
* Kill, die in glory, sing, rince and repeat.

Ounar post : https://forum.eveuniversity.org/viewtop ... 57#p840040

Basically, the main thing is to never stop unless you can have a kill. Just go best speed 1j before a busy system, and regroup there. The FC and experienced people can check local/D-Scan on the way, but you more have chance to summon a QRF than to find a juicy kill with 3 people in local.

Another advice, since we had some T1 ships and a Sabre : At the end, when we jumped into the big bad gang, you asked us to warp to a pocket entrance and jump on contact. Even in inties, it's best to avoid going somewhere where the ennemy gang can camp you when you try to go back.

Thanks again for the fleet and the baby seals kills

[Adrien Claremont]

Thanks for the advice Kora and I'll definitely take you up on the offer, White, the next time we head over that way.

Regarding the call to jump into the pocket systems at the end, when we jumped blindly into the initial Cynabal gang I just wanted to get people off that gate as quickly as possible. The out gate (entrance to the pocket) seemed as good as any gate initially, as I totally was not expecting another fleet to sat there too. The call to jump was made purely to get people to safety, allow us a quick moment to all compose ourselves, and then look to get the hell out of there. I never had any intention of running that pocket once we knew the entrance was camped, which is why the fleet was basically over at that point. In hindsight I should have probably called scatter initially rather to given a destination, which would have saved more people (including your dictor).

[Luca Goh]

Thanks for the fleet, Adrien. I really enjoy the pace and the hit-and-run tactics.

We had a bunch of close calls at stations too in which Kora had some bad luck in where he dropped his bubbles or we just couldn't get bodies on grid in time. While there were some lulls, there were also a fair few systems in which we had action without landing kills for one reason or another, many of which seemed like they would have been hard to help.

My loss was completely my fault. I decloaked aggressively when I spotted the first cruiser on grid and failed to check D scan / wait for much of a word from FC. I switched to warp out mode quickly, but got webbed which slowed my alignment and subsequently got tackled before getting off grid. I think the relative imperviousness of combat interceptors to most tackle and the aggressive nature of the fleet had me lulled into a false sense of security and high aggression. I mention this mostly to make sure it's clear that the only interceptor loss on both these fleets you've ran was due to my dumb errors and itchy trigger finger.

One question for future reference: there were one or two sites I warped to where an MTU was left behind by a fleeing ratter. I didn't call these because it seemed you valued keeping the pace up and looking for juicy kills above all else. I also am really loathe to clutter comms especially when the pace is high. In the future, should I mention these such finds to you?

Finally, I'm trying to complete the CCI; which campus should I attribute this fleet to?

[Kora K]

but got webbed which slowed my alignment and subsequently got tackled before getting off grid.

Actually, you'll warp faster if someone web you after you hit warp. Since you max speed will suddendly drop, your current one can be greater than that or close and so you'll warp faster since you're close to 90% max speed. I hope the explaination is clear

[Adrien Claremont]

One question for future reference: there were one or two sites I warped to where an MTU was left behind by a fleeing ratter. I didn't call these because it seemed you valued keeping the pace up and looking for juicy kills above all else. I also am really loathe to clutter comms especially when the pace is high. In the future, should I mention these such finds to you?

I guess it depends on how much of anything else we are finding during any particular roam. If we are swapped with ratters and need to move quickly to keep killing them, then I'd be inclined to ignore the MTUs. If we're starting to get content starved, like we did on this roam, then I'd always be up for shooting an MTU. They probably take less than a minute to pop.

Finally, I'm trying to complete the CCI; which campus should I attribute this fleet to?

That's a good question and one I don't know the answer to. I'd probably say it wouldn't count towards any particular campus as we based from Dital, but Croixant would be the man to give a definitive answer.

[Luca Goh]

Finally, I'm trying to complete the CCI; which campus should I attribute this fleet to?

That's a good question and one I don't know the answer to. I'd probably say it wouldn't count towards any particular campus as we based from Dital, but Croixant would be the man to give a definitive answer.

I finally got around to checking with Croix. For those wondering, he said it can be applied towards NSC participation.