When in roam - Sunday/Monday October 1st

[Staberinde]

Preamble
After spotting a rather tasty Megathron rolling a hole in the back pocket T22 system an impromptu fleet was formed with a handful of bombers (3-4) and some light fast tackle.

The Megathron had significant help though from an Armageddon, 1-2 Navy Vexors and possibly 1 Stratios so the hole closed before we could get together on gate. A cloaky T3C was stranded on our side and caught in PC9 so we waited 10 minutes covering all the exit gates. Obviously a wormhole veteran though he stayed cloaky out of sight.

Not to let a fleet go to waste we formed up again with 4 Vexors and a Helios and scouted around the pocket and further into Syndicate.

Encounter at farpoint, or I-YGGI
A quiet night but eventually came across a Raven doing an 8/10 Serpentis site in I-YGGI
The site was 4 rooms and we dived hard onto the Raven, it managed to warp off thanks to it's MJD in the final room - our team stayed and soaked some of the rats.

The buffer fit vexors had to bounce out and we managed to do so with a couple of flaming ships - travelling back up the pipe 2 jumps to repair. On returning the Raven was joined by a Bhaalgorn and our two fleets danced around the site trying to catch the other warping in on us. Eventually we engaged them at the entrance, catching them off the acceleration gate. (Raven was 140k out so we went for the juicier target first)

The fight was short and bloody, unfortunately due to some poor FC from myself some of us had to bounce before engaging so our DPS was delayed - This might have been the turning point as the Bhaalgorn (Primary) was burnt down to under 33% armour through its active tank before we lost our first Vexor. After that the fight turned and with the second vexor (me) popped, retreat was sounded.

Losses on our side (If someone replies with the Zkills I'll edit them in here)
Vexor - x3
Griffin - x1

We killed a few mil of drones but unfortunately no kills. - GF's issued by both sides -

Fleet scattered back to PC9 to regroup, Garm Zandor remained behind and in an act of devious brilliance scooped the site loot (~80mil) from under the Raven's nose

Isk break
The fleet stuck together in PC9, picking up a couple more Uni bros to take a Serpentis site in 5-D in the back pocket, unluckily no loot or escalation but watching 3 full flights of sentry drones massacre pretty much everything in site with a few hammerheads weaving in and out was enjoyable

Another site-runner
Garm came across another pve'er, this time a Rattlesnake 3J from PC9 - we formed up again, this time with two mwd-scram cruisers and some bombers + ishtar.

Again he was in the last room when we landed but the MJD distance meant he managed to warp out before the Stabber and Vexor could point. This time as our fleet was even less tanked we split and called it a night. (We killed the MTU but he'd obviously scooped the good stuff if there was any into his own hold)

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Main Lesson Learnt
Catching modern PVE site runners with MJD's is more complex than it used to be

What went well
Props to Garm Zandor for exceptional scouting, finding targets on a quiet Sunday Night for us to shoot at
Only warpscrambled bros went down, people didn't forget to align or warp out when needed
Fleet discipline getting repaired and back through without spreading out too much or getting caught out

What could be improved
Calling out in third person over coms when catching up with a fleet, a couple of times ships appeared I had no idea were with us. Simplest way is to "X - Shiptype - No.Jumps away" when you are joining a fleet built out of NSC Standing

Patience - Instead of tackling a PVE battleship asap in the final room of a high end DED, it would have been better to wait off gate in a safe 1j out for the last room to be at least partially completed, this would have meant easier cleanup if we didn't catch it + the battleship would be more relaxed as the threat level decreases as well as more invested in not having loot stolen

Warping in deadspace - Ensure the entire fleet is out of deadspace before warping back in to engage on the entrance