[AAR] Solitude C3 WH Dive (Sep 10 16:00)

[Yuri Levnik]

Howdy all,
We had a good dive overall today, with 13 pilots taking in 510MN in loot over two hours, including one hour of combat.

Divers:

Spoiler

Amira Evolta - Scanner/Picket/Hacker
Ann'Dra Padecain - Logi
Devinnis Pollard - DD, 2-Wing Commander, co-2IC
Elihugh Beecher - DD, co-2IC
Ghorram Reaver - DD
Kai-Alon Deninard - DD
Khemzor Morand - Logi
Martin Wods - Logi
Rider Isleman - Salvager
Sioban Mernher - DD
The Jojosh - Logi
Yuri Levnik - DD, FC, 1-Wing Commander
Z0x Ambrye - DD, 3IC

We identified two promising holes, one in low sec and one from high sec. The low sec hole was home to a carebear corp and had a decent number of sigs. The high sec c3 had less combat anoms and there was a Cheetah somewhere inside. I decided to take the low sec WH, only to hear there was a Gila inside. No problem, we'll blow him/her up or scare 'em off, right? As we arrived at the hole, we heard that there was a Legion inside, so I turned the fleet around and headed for the high sec hole. Alas, someone had rolled it, so we turned around again to take our chances with the Gila, Legion and whatever friends they might have.

As it turns out, the Gila and Legion were not friends. We arrived in system to find a combat site on the last wave and a left behind Hammerhead II. Presumably the Legion jumped the Gila and they both ran off somewhere. In any case, that was the last we heard of other players in Bob's space. Bonus points to Amira for spotting the Legion!

We had a bit of a quandary with our fleet composition. We had four logi pilots, but not enough damage pilots to form two strong wings. I decided to run the first couple of sites, and the system's only data site, as a fleet. From there, we would split into two wings and see if three BCs was enough to push through combat sites. We did just fine on the first three sites, but the wing split was confusing for everybody, and the DPS from only three BCs was slow to clear sites. Lesson learned - we need at least four, and preferably five BCs per wing if we're going to split wings.

Overall, the hour spent in the wormhole was uneventful. We blasted many sleepers and collected a good pile of loot, valued at 510MN. We contributed to the Gravity Well fuel and/or Event Horizon construction fund and made pretty good ISK ourselves. My Brutix has been paid for several times over by the dives.

What went well:

• -Everyone kept together for the one wing portion of the fleet. We shot the right targets (mostly). Nice work y'all!
  -We made pretty good ISK and also added a nice contribution to the campus.
  -No double spawns.
  -Our logi folks were on point and kept us alive. Great work!
  -Amira logged in to scan. He and I did the scanning and found a couple of holes to dive.
  -Having PVP capabilities meant I could take us into a wormhole with possible PVP targets.
  -Form-up time was faster this time. We were out in space in about 30 minutes and on our way to the hole in 40. I'd like to bring the time down further, but that's a start anyway.
  -I had fun!

What could have gone better:

• -Splitting wings was confusing and ultimately not helpful to our rate of site completion. I do want us to learn to run two wings, but I think we need minimum 7 pilots per wing (2 logi, 5 BCs) for it to work.
  -While split, we did a good job of whispering to just our part of the comm channels, but I did a bad job of alerting the fleet to the changed comms protocol. As a result, a couple of pilots were not getting comm commands.
  -The hole I found got rolled and we wasted time moving back and forth before we settled on our original C3.
  -Sundays at 16:00 aren't great. Saturdays at a similar time or later on Sundays would probably be better.

Overall, a good day out in Bob's space. Thanks for coming all!
Yuri

[Khemzor Morand]

Thanks for the fleet Yuri. As always, had a blast. Let's keep these dives coming. Enjoying them and I'll continue to logi as long as you'll have me.

[Rider Isleman]

Thanks for the fleet Yuri. Was my first trip to Solitude and I dropped a clone there as I want to take part in more of these fleets and other Soli fun in the future. Look forward to running these sites in a DD and with a little ship hauling advanced prep I'll have a Brutix in system. Thanks again and to Kai for giving me a quick rundown on how to get to the WH you were running.

[Kai-Alon Deninard]

Yuri, your WH dives are always a blast. Appreciate the time you put in to make things work well.