Fleet composition was almost perfect. We had around 9 Omens, 3 Logi, 1 Hyena, 1 Ashimmu, 1 Blackbird, 2 Scouts, and my Magus. Really nice split of roles for a small fleet like this.
FC: Breeze
Scouts: Union + Kora
Logi: Dean + Decklin + petosarus
We started out with a very nice gank in Iges, where Union got great tackle on a Vagabond in a large plex. We followed up and dispatched swift justice! The omens for this fleet were looking very good indeed!
(18:36:40Z) Iges
Vagabond +452.46m
The pipe up to Vlli was as quiet as usual. As we jumped Oicx though, a gang of 4-5 flashy caracals jumped through with us. We decloaked on the other side, caught one and killed it, then started chasing another. The Caracals started picking off our smaller ships, and we got a bit spread out. While we were doing this, a Revolutions gang of Vigilant and Vagabond jumped in behind us. They got a tackle on our furthest back member, Raxon, and also got our Hyena as he tried to help screen them off.
In retrospect, FC was very rusty here. We should have doubled back as soon as the Vigilant and Vagabond appeared and tried to kill them while they were killing Raxon. The Caracals were flying smart, and weren’t particularly blingy killmails anyway.
(18:59:26Z) Oicx
Caracal +32.82m
Stiletto -43.25m
Ares -49.23m
Caracal +30.17m
Omen -30.26m
Hyena -34.27m
Eventually we disengaged, but as we moved to Vli to catch repairs, the Caracals had the same idea and landed on gate with us. I quickly went for a boosh off the gate, and we caught a lone Caracal who was too slow to jump through! Nice kill
(19:11:44Z) Oicx
Caracal +30.24m
We were about to head into Nennamaila, when we encountered a team of two Machariels. We followed them a bit, trying to engineer a favourable engagement, but they were savvy. Too fast to quickly chase down, and determinedly sticking at 40-50km so we couldn’t use the boosh. We waited probably a bit too long (2bn+ ISK worth of kills there…), hoping they’d jump through a gate into Oicx and us, but eventually I just decided to move on.
Felix reshipping to an Inty and got caught and popped while scouting out a Medium plex (can’t remeber details)
(19:37:12Z) Oicx
Malediction -57.29m
As we left Oicx, we cross-warped Holy Cookie’s usual Wednesday public fleet. This time it was a shield fleet, a bunch of T3Ds and Merlins with the usual T2 frigate Logi, and Command Destroyer support. They dared us to a fight at a Medium they were already in, but I decided instead to jump into Eha, and wait in our own Medium, expecting that boredom would get the better of them.
After a few minutes, just as I was about to go back and engage them on their own terms, they entered system and headed for us. We anchored up on me, and pulled range from the beacon, to force them to chase us a bit. In part this is because we have a slight range advantage, with 20km Scorch damage, but also with our medium turrets tracking is an issue against small targets, and by burning away, we forced them to burn straight towards us, maximizing our damage.
We popped 2 Kirins, then killed 2 Merlins in quick succession. With only a single Logi left, and dropping DPS fast, they decided to flee, but we got a great last tackle on a Svipul to round off a fast but decisive victory. We lost our Blackbird sadly, but overall a great win guys!
Logi did a great job there keeping us alive, and everyone did a really professional job on that fleet. They had roughly similar numbers to us, and most people will know how tough opponents Holy Cookie can be with their T2 and T3 fleets, so I was really happy with how we executed that. Props to everyone!
(19:45:30Z) Eha
Blackbird -13.42m
Merlin +20.81m
Kirin +78.04m
Kirin +78.21m
Merlin +6.29m
Svipul +92.01m
After the appropriate back slapping, our search for fights continued. We regrouped with Raxon who had reshipped by this point, and spotted a gang of Phantasms while doing so, but unfortunately lost track of them while we were regrouping. Still not entirely sure where they went…
We spotted a Hurricane Fleet in Akidagi, but he was able to blap Union when he went for a scram pass before the fleet could secure secondary, so he MJD’d away. Should have sent a Vanguard there.
(20:06:32Z) Akidagi
Ares -49.53m
We were heading up towards Okkamon (chasing Cookie home to see if they’d be up for a rematch) when Union spotted a VOLTA Confessor gang with Deacon Logi just behind us. I warped us immediately to a nearby Medium, and we set up just as they landed. Originally I set us up at range like before, but remembering how good Confessor range is, I brought us back in a little closer. They landed, and we went straight for their Logi again. They only had 2 Deacons, but rest of the gang was remote rep fitted. We popped both Deacons really quickly (I believe Jax’s Neuts on the Ashimmu helped there!), then switched to the DPS. As a couple of Confessors died, they had their Command Dessie boosh them out of there. We tried to quickly regroup to boosh onto them, but were a bit too slow to catch the remains of their gang.
Again, really nice fight guys, good coordinated DPS, Logi did great work keeping us up, and Jax did great work in the Ashimmu. VOLTA are good pilots, and on paper that was another pretty fair matchup! Great execution. Only points for improvement would be that I should have scrammed their Command Dessie much sooner to prevent that boosh…
(20:16:45Z) Hikkoken
Deacon +76.98m
Deacon +112.85m
Confessor +109.3m
Confessor +106.43m
Imperial Navy Slicer +38.98m
With two successful fleet fights under our belts, we headed home. Demands for one final kill led us to chase a gang of 5 Comets in Fraire. They were reluctant to engage our scouts and Command Dessie, but I caught one outside a plex to get us our final kill!
(20:32:54Z) Frarie
Federation Navy Comet +23.68m
Stats
ISK Destroyed: 1,289,262,691.05
ISK Lost: 277,242,431.76
ISK Delta: 1,012,020,259.29
Efficiency: 82.302%
So….that was the end of the fleet right?
Well, almost. A few people dropped out into Stacmon, but with what we had left, we moved to Iges to engage what seemed to be a Maelstrom on the station. He dodged my boosh by docking, but was subsequently joined by a Dominix. We went for a second boosh…and got them! Unfortunately that was their plan. As the fleet warped in to secure the battleships, they undocked 2 Carriers. Rather than scattering immediately, I called for DPS and webs on the fighters, but they killed Jax’s Ashimmu really fast, and with those long webs being our only real chance of defanging the carriers here, I called scatter. We lost some blingy stuff here.
In retrospect, the warning signs were there (I blame rusty FC!). We knew there was a bunch of guys docked up in the station, and from previous experience I knew that they had carriers in there. At the least, I should have just called scatter when the carriers undocked, rather than trying to kill fighters, but you know the rule. Never not take the bait!
Overall a great fleet guys! Some rusty engagements to start and finish, but two great fleet fights in the middle, and great victories in both. Thanks for coming out!
(20:45:36Z) Iges
Condor -4.07m
Magus -119.84m
Ashimmu -178.3m
Omen -80.97m
Pontifex -113.28m
Spoiler
Roam members (20) - NOTE: This section is NOT usually included in AARs.
B'aldrick Aivoras
Breeze One
DeanSherman
Decklin Quark Reiger
Felix Jugo
Glen Burney
Hideo Date
Jax Renalard
Jonathan Wolf
Kora K
Kordun Naskingar
Oh' Leeador
Raxon Noseworthy
Tika On
Trillian Ituin
Union Pivo
Wokum
Zana Fehrnah
ashahara
petosorus
B'aldrick Aivoras
Breeze One
DeanSherman
Decklin Quark Reiger
Felix Jugo
Glen Burney
Hideo Date
Jax Renalard
Jonathan Wolf
Kora K
Kordun Naskingar
Oh' Leeador
Raxon Noseworthy
Tika On
Trillian Ituin
Union Pivo
Wokum
Zana Fehrnah
ashahara
petosorus