We were not successful with our treacherous plans, but we learned many, many things about bubbles, booshes and null sec (well, I know I did anyway). We'll give this another try in the near future and see if we can apply our new knowledge...
Roam members:
Spoiler
Adree Jericho - DD
Amira Evolta - Instalocker
Anna Iwaira - 2 Scout, 2IC
Azador Delacroix - EWAR (ECM)
Beth Knell - DD
Doctor Kling - Dictor
DOOMLORE - DD
Garm Zandor - 1 Scout
Kernull - DD
Keuthein - DD
Kristopher Evans - DD
Ron Veda - DD
Sioban Mernher - DD, 3IC, Reship to Scout
Talman Drak - Boosh
Wokum - DD
Yuri Levnik - DD, FC
Amira Evolta - Instalocker
Anna Iwaira - 2 Scout, 2IC
Azador Delacroix - EWAR (ECM)
Beth Knell - DD
Doctor Kling - Dictor
DOOMLORE - DD
Garm Zandor - 1 Scout
Kernull - DD
Keuthein - DD
Kristopher Evans - DD
Ron Veda - DD
Sioban Mernher - DD, 3IC, Reship to Scout
Talman Drak - Boosh
Wokum - DD
Yuri Levnik - DD, FC
We started by heading up to PC9-AY and picking up some friends from the NSC. We then practiced our tactics in T22 and did OK, so I decided to head out. About that time, we got intel from NSC that there was a Legion in PC9. We tried to catch the Legion, but to no avail as the pilot cloaked up. We headed out and setup up our tents on the [REDACTED] gate in [REDACTED]. We missed a Helios because I forgot to post a picket on the other side of the gate and as a result I was slow to call for the bubble. Lesson #1 - have a picket on the other side of your gate camp to watch for targets.
NSC called that the Legion had headed to T22, so we collapsed the tents and hustled back. Alas, the Legion got back into PC9 just as we did and managed to slip past us again due to the cloak. We did send him/her packing though. Following that, we headed out into Syndicate again and played games with an Arbitrator but couldn't catch him. We proceeded to MHC-R3 and set up camp on Harroule. We had targets come though, but our bubbles were not big enough to cover the regional gate. Lesson #2 - interdictor bubbles do not work well on regional gates (presumably the same applies for constellation gates). I didn't feel like learning2dragbubble so we headed for an easier camping spot.
We ended up in X-BV98. There was a lot of activity in FD-MLJ and I hoped someone would come through to us. We threw a couple more bubbles but were too far away to prevent the target from jumping back. Lesson 3 - stay close to the gate and overheat webs when there is a target nearby. I decided to go looking for a fight and we moved into FD-MLJ. We lost Anna to a sneaky trick by another pilot who was patterning him as I ordered him to warp around and provide intel. However, we found out that there was a fight on the PF-346 gate and a Hyperion sitting on the gate. I ordered the fleet to warp to the gate at zero, anchor on the boosher and boosh the battleship out. Everything went right except that we had at least one scram on the BS, so we all booshed but the BS did not! Very sad ); We also lost a Catalyst who got pushed out of position by sneaky opfor. Lesson 4 - don't scram a target you're trying to boosh!!!
FD-MLJ 01:13
Crow -37.8MN
Catalyst -6.8MN
Capsule -0.01MN
We gathered up on a POS and healed up, then decided to head back toward Solitude. Unfortunately, the Mercenary Coalition guys had figured out our plan and sent a Sabre ahead of us to hold us. We jumped to X-BV98 and locked up the Sabre, but his buddies quickly followed and bubbles popped up everywhere. Our ISKalysts are not designed for fleet on fleet fighting, and we paid for trying to catch the Sabre. Lesson 5 - don't play with people who know your comp and have bigger ships than you unless you're sure you can fight on favorable terms.
X-BV98 01:23
Slasher -1.2MN
Catalyst -6.6MN
Comorant -4.0MN
Catalyst -8.5MN
Capsule -8.4MN
Catalyst -12.7MN
Capsule -2.6MN
Ouch... We limped home, throwing a couple more bubbles out on the way without success.
Stats
ISK Destroyed: 0MN
ISK Lost: 88.6MN
ISK Delta: -88.6MN
Efficiency: 0%
What went well:
- -The fleet did an excellent job of staying together. We were running advanced tactics tonight so anchoring was essential, and when we tried to boosh the Hyperion we had everyone but one pilot catch the boosh (probably scrammed), which is exactly what we wanted. Special thanks to Talman for joining in a snowflake on short notice.
-Our snowflakes did a great job of keeping themselves alive so we avoided expensive losses beyond Anna's Inty.
-Anna did a terrific job scouting and providing intel, though the warping around eventually proved costly, sorry );
-We got to try some really cool nullsec tactics!
-I learned a *ton* of new stuff. I'll be honest, I had never flown an interdictor fleet before, so this was all new to me; thanks for helping me try some things out, y'all.
-I had fun!
- -Obviously, not killing anything was a serious bummer.
-Sad face for the scram on the Hyperion that left him behind when we booshed. Everyone, remember that for next time!
-I got too eager to take a fight and ended up taking one on the enemy's terms, which does not work well with ISKalysts, as we found.
-Fleet probably should have started at 23:30 or 23:55 and gone for two hours. 23:00 was a bit early to start, and 3 hours is too long imo.
-We lost about 10MN in pod kills. Remember you're likely to get podded in null y'all, especially when we're throwing bubbles around.
-We didn't successfully apply our fancy tactics this time. However, we're prepared for next time. I may try for a busier weekend time for the next run...
Yuri
