[Fleet] Kitey frigate tour ends on a bang

[Decklin Quark Reiger]

Today we went on a tour of low sec in a motley gang of kitey frigates. It was a good excuse for a few people to bring out their blingy pirate frigates, and practice our piloting to survive using range and ewar.

The fleet was scheduled for 17:45, and I started form-up a bit early to answer fitting questions from anyone who wanted advice for fitting their frigate.


Roam Members:

Spoiler

ashahara
Aeliyah Thor
B'aldrick Aivoras
Beavis Alland
bringdapain
DeanSherman
Decklin Quark Reiger (FC)
DonkeyPunch Udan
Ersin Oghuz (Scout)
FrankTT2
Gatt2111
Jax Renalard
Jeracho Dorne
Kernull
Kora K
Laser Skaron (2IC)
Luca Goh (Scout)
Monarch Guardian II
Oh' Leeador
Rider Isleman
SketchyManDan Williams
Trillian Ituin
Turlough Dominian
Wokum
Yrgrasil

Luca and Ersin scouted ahead of the fleet on our way towards Vlilrier.

While Luca went +1 ahead of the fleet, Ersin toured the Brarel pocket, and found this AFK plexer for us. The fleet practiced locking from the broadcast history.

(18:15:16) Brarel
Burst +0.34m

We moved up the pipe towards Renarelle. There was a destroyer that warped away from Ersin a few times, clearly more interested in plexing than fighting, so we moved on.

Luca checked the Oulley gate, but Black Flag Syndicate wasn't doing anything there yet.

(18:35:52) Renarelle

In Renarelle, our vanguard managed to grab a Phantasm. Our speed meant that we could keep up with him, and tracking disruptors minimised the damage he dealt, so we didn't take any losses. Great job Donkey on overheating to pull range and escape
After the fight, the MC pilot, who is an ex-unista was very friendly and bid us farewell with "LSC Best C" and congratulated Donkey on his tanking.
Phantasm +173.35m

(18:42:07) Aldranette
Here, Luca went for tackle on a Maulus Navy Issue. The MNI scram range bonus meant that this was a difficult tackle. Unfortunately, the MNI got a scram on Luca's Condor, and killed him before the fleet could catch up. This MNI pilot was extremely fast - much more so than a MNI usually would be, so I'm pretty sure he had snakes and/or a blingy MWD.

Condor -5.09m

(18:48:30) Ichoriya
Looks like the locals in Ichoriya were waiting on the station to catch flashy pilots going to reship... oops. (Don't forget to use your insta-dock bookmarks in Ichoriya while reshipping)
Capsule -0.01m

(18:56:27) Nennamaila
In Nennamaila, we saw a group of ships at a large including a Ferox, Stiletto, Punisher, and a couple cruisers. I asked Turlough to get eyes on them for us, to see if we could engage the Ferox. Turlough warped at 50km to the large. The Ferox was sitting at 0, and the other ships were spread out all around the site, and they appeared to be flying together, as opposed to fighting each other. Unfortunately for Turlough, there was a Punisher very near where he landed, so he got caught right away. As the fleet landed at 100, the Ferox popped Turlough, and switched to me. He was hitting me pretty effectively from over 100 km away, and Maxine's Stilleto was closing in on the fleet, so I called for us to align out, and warped the fleet away.

We didn't have a good way of closing on the Ferox, in order to apply our ewar on him, with all that support around, so I decided we would have to avoid that fight.
Punisher -6.73m


(19:02:49) Hikkoken
Here, our scouts found a small gang of 4-5 destroyers. Our scouts and vanguard entered the small plex together, and caught a Dragoon, but the rest of the ships were at range from the beacon and managed to escape.

Dragoon +27m

(19:14:25) Pynekastoh
Here in Pyne, our two scouts worked together to tackle a comet. I'm especially impressed that they both escape the comet's blingy Afterburner, scram and web, in order to establish tackle and stay alive. Very nicely done Luca!
Federation Navy Comet +64.13m
Bonus reward from Bob for the good piloting:
Capsule +1391.15m


(19:23:56) Kedama
In Kedama, Luca spotted Mr Chunky in a small plex, flying a Thrasher. I joined Luca so we could slide together, expecting that he would be artillery fit, and that the tracking disruptor on my Hookbill would enable us to close range on him and hold him safely. Unfortunately, Mr Chunky bailed the moment he saw us slide together. I sent Luca to check a nearby site, and waited to bait Mr Chunky. Sadly, the bait backfired, since Mr Chunky killed me with Autocannons, and me orbiting him at 12 km did nothing to stop that. I should have looked at his ship to see what guns he was using, and kept range from him, with range disruption, instead of fighting him as if he was artillery fit. Oops. While we were fighting, the fleet was in warp to the plex, and killed an Algos that landed at the same time. Mr Chunky waved goodbye in local. Well done Mr Chunky (as much as it pains me to say so).
Caldari Navy Hookbill -26.52m
Algos +15.83m


From here, Laser took over the fleet for a while, as I went to grab a fresh Hookbill. The fleet toured the systems around Kedama looking for fights. There was a potential bait Merlin in Tama that smelled like a recon trap, that Laser was rightfully wary of, given the 7 Snuffed pilots in Tama. Luca kept d-scan on the medium, while a Thrasher landed. Luca was looking to see if the Thrasher suddenly and unexpectedly died. Meanwhile, Kora also went to spring the trap, but it turned out to be just a stabbed plexer.

(19:33:02) Sujarento
Here the fleet caught and killed a triple-stabbed Executioner.
Executioner +0.49m

(19:37:06) Tama
Back in Tama, the fleet found the Thrasher that was around earlier, and polished him off without any losses.
Thrasher +9.51m

I rejoined the fleet around Sujarento, and we travelled down towards Heydieles, without finding much to fight. Revolution was around, with a Lachesis, Cynabal, and Confessor, but we didn't find a way to separate them in order to engage effectively. Jax nearly got the Cynabal separated off on his own, but had to crash back through the gate, and the Cynabal warped off before the fleet could grab him.

From Heydieles, I asked if there were any volunteers who haven't FC'd before who wanted to lead the fleet the rest of the way home.

Luca volunteered, and did a good job managing the 'first fleet jitters' which happen to every FC - the first few systems you go through, issuing clear align, warp, jump commands etc, and managing intel from the scouts. B'aldrick stepped up to take Luca's place as scout.

As we neared Ostingele, Luca was hungry for targets, so that he could get a fight during his first time FC'ing, and we looked part-way down the Alperaute pipe, but didn't see much. There was a CFT pilot around Cumemare, but he wasn't anywhere Ersin could find him.

(20:20:36) Ostingele
Back in Ostingele, I found a Thorax at a medium plex. While I was warping to get tackle, a Brutix also appeared on scan at the site. The Brutix landed just as I did, and the Thorax was about 80km away from the gate. I suggested that we primary the Brutix, since the fleet would be landing pretty much on top of him. Luca led this engagement, and encouraged people to focus their dps on the Brutix, while Kora and 1-2 other pilots established secondary tackle on the Thorax. Ersin lost his Breacher to the Brutix, and Turlough escaped in low structure, but the rest of the fleet kept our distance and wore the Brutix down before swapping to the Thorax.

Breacher -4.37m
Brutix +83.43m
Thorax +32.3m


Stats
ISK Destroyed: 1,797,512,133.65
ISK Lost: 42,713,241.87
ISK Delta: 1,754,798,891.78
Efficiency: 97.679%

From my perspective this was a really fun fleet, and shows just how survivable you can be, even without logi. Great job applying your ewar to minimise incoming damage, and also good job escaping when in danger.

Congratulations to Luca for a very successful first fight as FC as well


For any other feedback or questions, or other things that anyone learned throughout the fleet, please do leave comments below

Take care,
Decklin

[bringdapain]

You missed me out

[Decklin Quark Reiger]

You missed me out

oops! sorry - totally not intentional - the tool I use to generate the AAR grabs the name of everyone who types in the fleet chat - I'll add you in now.


Welcome back to Eve, by the way

[Ersin Oghuz]

As a scout I missed two intertia stabbed ships and could not hold tackle on those ships but tackling of Navy Comet was very succesfull as well as other minors frigates and destroyers. Luca and me /ehm Decklin / got him tackled and not get caught. That was very good micromanagement of modules and piloting I presume.
We engaged good number of fights and ended the fleet with a good fight against Brutix and Thorax. In that engagement I did not see Thorax is coming for me tackling in time and got myself scram and webbed and hence died to his blasters easily. If i could detect him earlier I could probably evade destruction. Also I did not cycle my Medimum Ancillary Shield Booster which could have saved me some time to move out of his range.

I used a custom fit Breacher I designed for Fight Club originally and i find it very entertaining ship to fly recently.

Thanks for the fleet Decklin and all!

[bringdapain]

You missed me out

oops! sorry - totally not intentional - the tool I use to generate the AAR grabs the name of everyone who types in the fleet chat - I'll add you in now.


Welcome back to Eve, by the way

Lol no worries, fleet chat wouldn't play to start with so never typed in it. Thanks for a good fleet, especially the end. I will definitely be up for the next one

[Laser Skaron]

Great fleet, ton of fun! Pleasure having your back as 2IC and disrupting all the guns.

I did feel like I missed a couple of targets as I committed to most of my first decisions, but it all went ok. Also took a while to get my bearings... Until I got to dotlan and picked a random green system nearby.

Beyond that, wow. That capsule, way underestimated in space at a 4th of the price.

[Kora K]

It was fun roam, even if I arrived at the end and lemminged a bit.

Nice first time FC-ing Luca. I'm now waiting for your first fleet on the calendar

[Budda Sereda]

How did they manage to lose that pod? Just slow to warp off?

[Luca Goh]

Here, Luca went for tackle on a Maulus Navy Issue. The MNI scram range bonus meant that this was a difficult tackle. Unfortunately, the MNI got a scram on Luca's Condor, and killed him before the fleet could catch up. This MNI pilot was extremely fast - much more so than a MNI usually would be, so I'm pretty sure he had snakes and/or a blingy MWD.

This was a frustrating engagement for me because while a difficult tackle I did a very poor job with it. Part of this was due to circumstance: I was sitting at or near a station I believe when the MNI landed flashy, so while I had seen him on my D his sudden appearance forced me to react quickly. He landed 15-20 km from me so at more or less his scram range, and being in a tackle mindset my instinct was to ensure I was within range of tackling when I finished locking rather than establishing the subtle range difference needed to avoid his scram. In the end there was a lot that I didn't process or processed poorly and I paid for it.

On the flip side, it was indeed a tough tackle and the pilot's killboard is as impressive as I've seen, so I don't feel too bad about it. It's unfortunately we didn't pop him, though; he doesn't seem to lose many ships and the MNI even less so.

Looks like the locals in Ichoriya were waiting on the station to catch flashy pilots going to reship... oops. (Don't forget to use your insta-dock bookmarks in Ichoriya while reshipping)
Capsule -0.01m

Yes, I am not well-versed in insta un/docks, and I paid for it here. Bummer.

(19:14:25) Pynekastoh
Here in Pyne, our two scouts worked together to tackle a comet. I'm especially impressed that they both escape the comet's blingy Afterburner, scram and web, in order to establish tackle and stay alive. Very nicely done Luca!
Federation Navy Comet +64.13m
Bonus reward from Bob for the good piloting:
Capsule +1391.15m

Cheers! This was exciting to me; evidence that my piloting skills are improving if only incrementally. I imagine it was a very frustrating engagement for the pilot, who seemed to me to split his focus between Ersin and I and he paid for it. I can't believe he let us snag that pod; a reminder to always go for the lock if he's flashy to you! I was glad Ersin had the guns to pop him as I don't run any on my tackle Condor.

From Heydieles, I asked if there were any volunteers who haven't FC'd before who wanted to lead the fleet the rest of the way home.

Luca volunteered, and did a good job managing the 'first fleet jitters' which happen to every FC - the first few systems you go through, issuing clear align, warp, jump commands etc, and managing intel from the scouts. B'aldrick stepped up to take Luca's place as scout.

As we neared Ostingele, Luca was hungry for targets, so that he could get a fight during his first time FC'ing, and we looked part-way down the Alperaute pipe, but didn't see much. There was a CFT pilot around Cumemare, but he wasn't anywhere Ersin could find him.

(20:20:36) Ostingele
Back in Ostingele, I found a Thorax at a medium plex. While I was warping to get tackle, a Brutix also appeared on scan at the site. The Brutix landed just as I did, and the Thorax was about 80km away from the gate. I suggested that we primary the Brutix, since the fleet would be landing pretty much on top of him. Luca led this engagement, and encouraged people to focus their dps on the Brutix, while Kora and 1-2 other pilots established secondary tackle on the Thorax. Ersin lost his Breacher to the Brutix, and Turlough escaped in low structure, but the rest of the fleet kept our distance and wore the Brutix down before swapping to the Thorax.

Breacher -4.37m
Brutix +83.43m
Thorax +32.3m

...

Congratulations to Luca for a very successful first fight as FC as well

Many thanks for the opportunity; I was really glad to get my feet wet FCing a fully-fledged fleet without a whole evening riding on my success or failure. I was glad that the engagement took a bit of coaxing in which we moved out of D scan range and had you hang back. Everyone flew really well and it just so happened that our fits were perfect at avoiding their blasters. I found myself wondering if they would have taken the fight if they'd had known we were all kitey: an interesting aspect of this kind of doctrine is its cohesion is not immediately apparent.

Nice first time FC-ing Luca. I'm now waiting for your first fleet on the calendar

Hah! Much obliged. I'd be lying if I said the thought hadn't crossed my mind. It will be hard to compete with a fleet name like "Armor AssFrigs" but maybe I can come up with something; perhaps a fleet of neut Tristans called "The Eunuchs"?