[WHC] This time we did spread points

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Tylenos Targas
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[WHC] This time we did spread points

Post by Tylenos Targas »

I’ll recycle a small part of the draft AAR I wrote for this fight since it ended up as a reply, and I enjoyed writing it :).

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Wormholes have connections to other locations. Connections to known space, anywhere on the map. Connections to unknown space, other wormholes. These connections can be static. They will always be there, pointing to something, and it will always be the same kind of thing. The wormhole campus home has two static connections, one always ending up in high-sec we call Eggs, and one always ending in a C3 class wormhole we call Bacon. These connections can be forced to respawn (‘Rolled’) and can be an endless source of exploration and discovery. An endless source of content, in other words, when the stars align just right. This is another one of those stories.

Monday found WHC with a nice expansive chain of connections leading to various forms of higher class WH space. Higher class wormholes can have gas clouds that are quite valuable (think many hundreds of millions of ISK for a Vital or Instrumental) and will often result in a ‘ping’ for PVE rather than PVP: blowing up stuff can lead to expensive kill mails on both sides, losses that need to be replaced, and there is ISK to be made , damnit!
"California High Class wormholes presented to people a new model for the American Eve dream—one where the emphasis was on the ability to take risks, the willingness to gamble on the future."
Some capsuleer, probably, somewhere at some point in time.
While scouting out a an instrumental and a vital further up the chain multiple ships where spotted on D-Scan in a C4 a mere three jumps from home. (‘Loki Cerberus astero and a few others’). WHC formed a small gang in response and set out to try and engage. One pilot that was not paying as much attention to fleet movement (and/or comms) as he should have and found himself isolated on a hole while under fire. Forgetting that yes, you can jump through a wormhole with a weapons timer, a shiny ship was needlessly lost and revenge was to be had.

Spending tons of time in either known or unknown space kind of makes you forget about some basic mechanics from time to time. Real men never make stupid mistakes like that.

Scouting out the source of this rude and totally called for destruction the enemy’s home system was found in short order (The Astronomer's Collective). Our scout reported something immensely interesting: a Phoenix tethered to a Fortizar. A Phoenix that followed by warping to the C4-C4 connection leading to our home. A Phoenix that then…. Disappeared.

After a quick ping for interested party’s we formed two Guardians, a small flock of Sacrileges, a Devoter and a fleet support Prophecy of my own device (basically, three armour command burst, two remote sensor boosters for the Guards, and a target painter because nothing else will fit) My intention was to not appear to scary from the get go. To this end we left a third Guard docked in Innuendo together with Neuts and whoever logged in late. Burning to the aptly named 3 B3 we gung-ho jumped into their home to illicit a response. Since a C4 connection is not cap-capable (a capital ship is simply too massive to fit in the hole) and it was not reported to have warped back to the citadel we assumed it to be somewhere, on grid, cloaked, watching, pondering, planning. Probably giggling too.

We burned around a bit with drones out but found absolutely nothing. After some time spent in the merry go round with no response I called for all but our Devoter to jump back out and burn around on that side for a bit (Maybe this Phoenix was special. Or maybe I was). This Is where a random Stratios decided to land at 0 and jump through. With a bubble in place and two Sacs sent after him to either kill or force back he was quickly dispatched of. Revenge was had! Everybody back home, shows over. But let’s keep eyes on their and the adjacent system, just in case.

This is where I went to grab a quick drink and returned to a significant amount of comms chatter. Astronomers had placed a fleet on *3 B3 consisting of three Ravens, a Scorpion, Sleipnir, Myrmidon, and yes, the Phoenix was back on grid. We rage re-formed our fleet and made our way back post-haste to grab tackle. (Since this time I was late I ended up undocking in my Proph again, and yes, I do know I need to grind for extra Damnations.) Even burning as fast as we could the Phoenix had already decided to bounce. Smart man.

We engaged the fleet on grid and soon found the Phoenix to have literally bounced. He landed back on grid a good 80km from the hole. Since we already had Kyle out in a Lachesis at the time we were quite able to get tackle, get control of the field and call in backup. Going in to the fight health pools where bouncing around somewhat sweat inducing (logi must have had fun right there) but with a third guard following fast, and with both offensive and defensive Ewar available to us, I felt confident in simply burning down enemy battleships.

With 3 B3 having a black hole effect I suspect Astronomers either hoping to out-kite our brawling fleet, which was negated by our Lachesis’ and Devoters with scram scripts, or they underestimated the willingness of Uni pilots to respond to pings involving Capitals. Their battleships where held down, and smaller stuff micro jump drived out. After a random Curse and Caracal three tinker-setup Rattlesnakes where undocked but not squad-warped to the fight. They trickled in and died before being much of a problem. Where the Drunk Instructors of the previous capital fight had a plan, executed it fair enough, and got overwhelmed, here I suspect minor panic was involved. Still it takes guts to undock and commit a Phoenix in any wormhole fight, especially while you can count on being outnumbered.

We did lose a Stratios to the Phoenixes alpha. If you are targeted by a Dread, Don’t. Stop. Moving. (I do recommend not bringing a Stratios to a fleet fight. Bring a BC or HAC.)

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A very pretty explosion left us close to 8 billion ISK positive yet again. The role of the Lachesis’ certainly had a positive effect on this outcome. Well done!

Battle report: https://zkillboard.com/related/31001690/201709042100/
More screens thanks to Ekto: https://imgur.com/gallery/BgXdY
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Troven Smalvard
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Re: [WHC] This time we did spread points

Post by Troven Smalvard »

TIL, Bastion will not let poor exhausted logi hoare on the final desert with ecm drones :cry:
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Bora Vyvorant
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Re: [WHC] This time we did spread points

Post by Bora Vyvorant »

So is the conclusion that the dread actually used that cloak it had fitted to hide from us the first time round?

That would be... unconventional, right?
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Zako Maken
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Re: [WHC] This time we did spread points

Post by Zako Maken »

Yeah it had to be cloaked on the hole the entire time. I was the scout and I was on grid or within d-scan the entire time so it definitely didn't warp out till later. It also couldn't have safe logged because it "disappeared " almost immediately after arriving on grid at the hole.

Was a great learning experience for me. Thanks to all the WHC Vets answering questions and helping me out. First Cap kill!!
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