[AAR] Soli 10MN SP Party/Viking Funeral (Nov 26 1900)

[Yuri Levnik]

Howdy do,
OK... So... This fleet was obviously a crazy idea. Devinnis Pollard asked me to FC a going away fleet for him as he is leaving the Uni (best of luck!!!). The "plan" was for me and him to undock in battleships supported by a kitchen sink armor fleet. We would then roam until both battleships were dead. However, y'all are apparently a bunch of crazy folk who wanted to get in on this suicide mission, so we undocked with 10 battleships, four BCs, around 15 miscellaneous cruisers and frigates including a pair of Exequorors, and two hyperspatial rigged shield tanked carriers. Yes, that's right folks, we undocked carriers and we warped them gate to gate. We were roaming null but had no bubbles, no boosh and no combat probes. As mentioned, this was obviously not "strategically optimal".

Nevertheless, we carried through and were granted violent deaths at the hands of an elite squad of Center for Advanced Studies pilots in BMNV-P.

Vikings:

Spoiler

Alaik - Battleship
Alto DeRaqwar - Interceptor
Anna Iwaira - Chimera
Arashi Shizukana - Thanatos
Calder Ormand - DD
Coaxster - Tackle
Crimson Herring - DD
Devinnis Pollard - Battleship, 2IC/Scout, Strategic Commander of Finding Fights (SCOFF)
Dunbartian Wonderwood - Battleship
Erwin Madelung - Logi
Farzol Nassan - ECM
Fergus Echerie - DD
Gemma Solett - EWAR
Ghorram Reaver - DD/Scout
Hirmuolio Pine - DD
I Skip Legday - Tackle
jammer Atruin - DD
Jax Renalard - DD/EWAR
Jeracho Dorne - DD
JohnPlayerNotSpecial - Battleship
Kai-Alon Deninard - Logi
Kirsid Tannaway - Battleship
Kontxesi Buchanan - DD
Kora K - Battleship
KraK Oziane - DD
LOCO BUTU - EWAR
Maximus Hert - Logi
Mihir Karani - DD
petosorus - Battleship
POG Actual - Tackle
Sonic Reducer - Tackle
Space Warfare Development - DD
Sturym - Battleship
Tika On - DD
Union Pivo - DD
Waldy Droog - DD
Yrael Oramara - Battleship
Yuri Levnik - Battleship, FC, Senior Officer of Bad Decisions (SOBAD)
Zeon Alabel - DD

We undocked around 19:15 and fumbled around for a bit as those of us with little/no battleship experience tried to figure out what was going on with the align times and constant bumping. We eventually made it to the Pertineere gate where we sent our interceptor scout Devinnis' battleship through to face scout the system. There was a Tengu pilot sitting 20km off the gate. Apparently he liked to camp that gate in his super blingy Tengu. He badly miscalculated our numbers and got scrammed/webbed/grappled by our battleship scout, then swarmed by the rest of the fleet for a big kill. Alas, we lost a Maulus to gate guns (I did not take the time to explain mechanics since I only expected one jump through low, sorry LOCO!!!).

(19:21:00Z) Pertnineere
Tengu +1566.08m
Maulus -0.78m

We made our way through Null to a rendezvous with NSC in JH- and with LSC in 6E-. There was a gate camp in 6E- composed of kiting garbage and we deployed our carriers and played around with them but did not get any kills or take any losses.

We roamed on and got to the edge of the CAS staging system RF-. I originally deployed long range DD and logi 30km off the gate and the rest of the fleet on the gate itself, but we ended up collapsing onto the gate in case we needed to jump through. That turned out badly as (after some futzing around) the CAS guys jumped a Naglfar in, meaning our fragile bombers and EWAR were right on the gate when we engaged. Regardless, we eagerly engaged and the rest of their fleet trickled in, becoming increasingly unmanageable. I swapped targets as we weren't going to break the Nag easily and there were softer targets on grid, but they dropped a pair of FAXes and multiple additional caps which gave them capital reps we were unable to overcome and enough DPS to wipe us out. Overall, we took a solid beating, losing 8.4BN including both carriers and only killing about 1BN. So... Devinnis and I got exploded, as we desired, and we did get some kills to go with it. Could have killed more, but overall, mission successful.

(20:21:55Z) BMNV-P
Battle Summary: 8.4BN lost, ~1BN killed.

Spoiler

Rattlesnake -703.8m
Griffin -2.19m
Brutix +67m
Hyperion -292.82m
Manticore -54.12m
Brutix +119.18m
Raven -200.85m
Hyperion +247.1m
Megathron -214.94m
Dominix +284.74m
Maulus -1.01m
Incursus -4.56m
Tristan +3.01m
Merlin -3.05m
Hyperion -286.48m
Capsule +0.01m
Capsule -0.01m
Capsule -0.01m
Nemesis -65.86m
Incursus +8.58m
Thanatos -2057.8m
Hyperion -308.95m
Incursus +10.88m
Capsule -4.08m
Capsule -0.01m
Typhoon -228.23m
Chimera -2295.88m
Brutix -82.85m
Vexor +29.82m
Hurricane Fleet Issue -180.89m
Tristan +2.96m
Velator +1.6m
Ashimmu -205.03m
Vexor -23.08m
Capsule -0.01m
Brutix -84.59m
Vexor -42.86m
Hurricane -105.69m
Typhoon -247.28m
Oracle +133.10m
Exequror -37.9m
Hound +52.91m
Vexor -21.42m
Capsule -0.01m
Exequror -37.09m
Vexor -19.47m
Vexor -19.71m
Stabber -22.05m
Vexor -21.52m
Typhoon -203.68m
Capsule -0.01m
Capsule -0.01m
Armageddon -281.34m
Capsule -0.01m
Capsule -30.49m
Capsule -0.01m
Capsule -0.01m
Firbolg I -3.37m
Capsule -0.01m
Capsule -4.08m
Firbolg I -3.37m
Capsule -0.01m
Capsule -0.01m
Capsule -0.01m
Firbolg I -3.37m
Firbolg I -3.37m
Firbolg I -3.37m
Capsule -0.01m
Capsule -0.01m
Capsule -0.01m
Firbolg I -3.37m

For reference, opfor comp included 4x dreadnaughts, 2x carriers and 2x FAXes along with a healthy number of battleships and ABCs. I captured their comp as best I could for future reference:

Spoiler

Apocalypse
Apostle x2
Armageddon
Brutix x2
Dominix x3
Ferox
Hyperion x2
Incursus x2
Naglfar
Oracle
Phoenix
Prophecy
Punisher
Raven x2
Revelation x2
Stabber
Stiletto
Talos
Thanatos x2
Tristan x2
Typhoon
Vexor
Vindicator

After posting good fights in local, most of us took the pod express home, either voluntarily or involuntarily.

Stats
ISK Destroyed: 2,526,956,527.71
ISK Lost: 8,416,828,487.34
ISK Delta: -5,889,871,959.63
Efficiency: 23%

Some thoughts on the fleet:

• -Battleships are slow. Put short range weapons on them and you're kind of limited to fighting whatever is already in range. I called secondary targets but my Blaster Hyperion couldn't realistically get to the target to engage. However, if you fit the battleship with long range guns you can't hit anything small or fast. This made for a huge contrast with the FCC Feroxes I've flown recently, which have a great engagement envelope with different ammo types and are also reasonably nimble for their size. I would not recommend building a Uni battleship doctrine or roaming in BSes regularly based on my experience today.
  -Our fleet composition was really bad. The plan was to take kitchen sink everything and go get killed so I was OK with a terrible composition. However, with as much ISK on grid as we had, if we were going on a serious roam we definitely should have at least one and preferably two HICs, more logi and ideally both a combat prober and 1-2 command destroyers. We could have used another interceptor or two as well.
  -Carriers are cool and hit *hard* but make for very expensive lossmails. Don't warp them gate to gate either, use cynos like responsible hot droppers and *always* make sure to have an extraction cyno.
  -Don't sit your fleet on gates waiting for fights unless you want all of your fragile stuff to die. Have EWAR, bombers, logi at range with a ping so they can ping up/ping down if you need to move.
  -Opfor caps applied well to our small stuff through a combination of "short range" weapons and target painters.
  -My target calling was mediocre and we had a lot of split DPS, though I was one of the opfor's first targets and got dropped early. I got back on grid in a pod but was at range and could not tell what was within good shooting range of the fleet nor could I see opfor shield/armor/hull bars.
  -Who ships into battleships and carriers on a fleet where the FC tells you he's going to do his very best to welp *everyone*? Y'all are crazy. Don't ever change.
  -Devinnis will be missed. Best of luck with whatever comes your way next!!!

That's all I've got. Good times y'all! Expensive times, but good times all the same (;
Yuri

[Anna Iwaira]

we almost tripled my old total kill worth so we got that going for us

personal note to self after advice from random guy: get lots of drugs

criticism: didn't have long enough to get drunk, FC must supply harder drinks next time

[Dunbartian Wonderwood]

This was easily one of the funnest fleets I've been on in a long time. I'm super glad I got blow stuff up and get my own thing blown up. Soon, I'll actually have ships in GW that I actually fly, and not collect dust. Thanks so much Yuri and Devinnis for this extravagant encounter. I hope you have fun in your future corp!
I LIVE, I DIE, I LIVE AGAIN.

Afterthought Edit: Also, Yuri, You said in your original post that we'd lose 10b+. I feel personally lied too.

[Coaxster]

"some guy"???? I feel....old. Or perhaps cuz I was one of the few survivors...

another amusing time with the ol unista gang.

See ya in space at the end o my lazors!

[Anna Iwaira]

sorry coaxster, i appreciated your comments but i instantly forgot your name

[Yuri Levnik]

Update - this fleet pushed me past 10BN in kills across all fleets FC'd! Though it also dropped my ISK efficiency from 77% to 49% );

[Mihir Karani]

Got my first 'kill' in this fleet!!


Glorious!

[Devinnis Pollard]

I called this the "absolutely idiotic fleet of death" and it delivered. Thank you so much Yuri for setting this up and thank you everyone for coming out in something a bit bigger and a bit more expensive than usual.

[Laser Skaron]

And there goes basically all the mining op moneyz XD

[Yrael Oramara]

Good fun all round, and my pod lives on unscathed!

[Fergus Echerie]

Despite the fact my situational awareness on fleets needs some serious work (I only got on killmail for a Brutix and an Oracle) and my cloaky drone focus shows on my 4% damage it was fun and delivered all that was promised

Look forward to next adventure I am able to contribute to

[Sturym]

Sadly, I wasn't even able to whore on killmails... somehow I got primaried. I guess my King's Ransom "Battlesnake" was shiney...

[LOCO BUTU]

Thanks you Yuri for the Fleet.Im newbie but very Enjoy join with your fleet. I loss 2 maulus but i got 1 shiny kill. GBU

[Alaik]

Sadly, I forgot to whore on the two carriers. *cries*

Otherwise it was fun - and ended exactly as Dev had promised. It was a significantly larger fleet than the expected 3 battleships I had signed up for, but was just as much fun. =)

[Yuri Levnik]

Necroing this thread - got video of the fight from the CAS guys, so if you ever need proof that the Uni can fly caps, here it is.