On friday evening I was looking at the regional kills in zKillboard and certain kill caught my eyes. A porpoise was killed by a Guristas "♦ Kestrel" in Niballe. Solitude doesn't have any natural Guristas presence so I quicly deducted that there must be a Guristas forward operating base somewhere nearby. I send some mails and not long after the FOB is located.
Last time the FOB was cheesed with single pilot before we could even test the high TH resist doctrine so I decide to form a fleet. Being optimistic on turnround I schedule the fleet for Saturday morning.
The doctrine is written down in here. With this high thermal resist I believed we could laugh at the incoming damage.
Expecting a fleet to form with 20 hour warning may have been a bit unrealistic and only around five pilots (mostly locals) showed up. We decide to not try fighting the FOB.
Kirsid Tannaway however decides to take a look at the asteroid belts in Niballe and is caught by wandering Guristas ships. (Yes those pirates partrol the belts in system. You can track their progress here. One orca down already)
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66489672/ -23 mil
With the low turnout I decide to give the people a bit more time to prepare and schedule the next fleet for monday.
On monday the fleet forms with respectable 15 pilots in fleet. We go with 4 augorors for logi and rest in DPS ships. All fitted with extreme thermal resist. We were able to get the structure to half HP, but even with 96% thermal resists the Guristas fleet is able to break our tank and we had to retreat (they brought battleships to the fight). The frigates are able to hold some of us on grid resulting in total seven losses.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66538594/ -27
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66538607/ -28
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66538641/ -21
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66538653/ -31
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66538675/ -22
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66538680/ -96
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66538691/ -26
Total lost: -251 mil
Guristas fleet moments before retrest:
With most of the fleet still intact we decide to try again. This time with more logi. With EIGHT augorors and seven DPS ships we return to the structure with healthy 50% logi to DPS ratio.
The Guristas weren't too happy about the logi and focused their fire on logi wing. First augoror dies after the pilot forgets to broadcast but the second and third dead augorors are honest kills for the Guristas. The structure neuted the logi cruisers turning their hardeners off after which the augoror would go down very fast. After second augoror goes down I again call for the fleet to warp out. Out of the eight augorors only two managed to escape.
The cap chaining logi had issue of being neuted out resulting in collapsing cap chain, inactive hardeners and being alphad off. Perhaps passive fitted logi ships with extra buffer is needed (T2 hull?).
This time the Guristas didn't bring out their battleships, perhaps that happens at certain HP level.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66539317/ -10
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66539370/ -11
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66539384/ -15
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66539396/ -22
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66539410/ -20
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66539421/ -30
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66539435/ -15
https://zkillboard.com/kill/66539436/ -89 Hellford Rothman. the hardeners don't help much in cargo.
Total lost: -212 mil
Guristas fleet moments before logi started dying:
So far we haven't managed to kill any FOB. I'd say this test shows that this cheap doctrine is not able to laugh at the incoming damage. Maybe we need a bit more shine on our ships. Maybe tests on SISI are needed or this research can get quite expensive.
I also confirmed that the Guristas do pod you https://zkillboard.com/kill/66539475/
Eve University VS Guristas FOB
Guristas 5
Eve University: 0 (cheesed solo kill doesn't count)
