[AAR] 2018.02.01 Kitchen Sink Frigates

[Padraic Musbrandt]

Roam members (10) - NOTE: This section is NOT usually included in AARs.

Spoiler

Airsick Lowlander
Auric Fulcrum
B'aldrick Aivoras
DeanSherman
Glen Burney
Kelle Damage
Kirsi Isrik
Padraic Musbrandt
Thelith
Toma Heleneto

This was my first fleet as an FC. I tried to prepare as well as I can - meaning I poked Ersin Oghuz for an MOTD template an hour before the fleet. I also stashed some ships in Stacmon and Ichoriya to give to people as reships - but they were all Tormentors with T2 fits, so when Thelith started asking for a ship I couldn't help him as he was 1) Gallente oriented 2) not able to use T2. As some people got into the fleet, Airsick Lowlander started asking me for an advice about flying Maulus, specifically, what scripts to use. That caught me completely unaware since I never used damps, but I looked at our fleet composition and figured that the majority of the fleet is brawly, so range damp won't do any good. Thinking back about it, I should've probably asked for a different ship, since I have no idea if damps are any good in a brawly composition.

We undocked around 15:25, avoiding WTs who were docked in a station, jumped to Dastryns and warped to Ostingele. Kelle Damage was my scout there. Dean Sherman staged from Uphallant alone and he got into a fight on Uph gate. I'm not really sure what happened there, since he didn't say anything on mumble, but I saw 'www' in chat and the sole neutral in system going flashy, so I while I was trying to find my way around, Dean landed on us in a capsule. I warped people to Uph gate but the offender was long gone. Dean reshipped and joined the fleet some time later.

Kills and Losses
(15:29:26) Dastryns
Atron -3.29m

We jumped past a few near-empty systems to Nennamaila, taking a peek into Oicx. Somewhere on the way we found a seemingly AFK Punisher in a plex. My scout held a point, we started piling in, a secondary point was called, but suddenly the villain woke up and warped off just a few seconds before being pointed by the whole fleet. Stabed!

We looked around and found another AFK target. Eventually he woke up too but didn't manage to get away like the last one. I called to hold DPS for some time, and then to start shooting a few seconds later. Whole team was on the kill except B'aldrick who had connection problems so maybe he was away from the fleet at the time of the kill.

(16:13:45) Hallanen
Coercer +7.37m

I got my spirits up. My scout spotted another Coercer and a Firetail in Hikkonen. It seemed they followed him around though I'm not sure if they were working together. So I asked Kelle to slide the novice, pull 15km range and try to bait. I was hoping to get the Firetail. We waited for a few minutes, Kelle called a Coercer in a small, and I decided we should go for it. Just as Kelle said he/she (not sure, I'm sorry!) was sliding the gate, I ordered the fleet to jump and warp. That didn't help, Kelle was dead about 10 seconds before our fleet started landing on grid, and the offender got away. Kelle went to reship, and I asked who wants to scout and after an awkward minute of silence Glen filled the shoes.

(16:23:28) Hikkoken
Slasher -2.27m
Capsule -23.04m

I don't remember how the next death happened, but apparently Glen went for the same guy and the fleet was late again.

(16:27:16) Hikkoken
Tristan -9.33m

At this moment we took a short break and welcomed two other people to the fleet soon after. I plotted a route that would take us around Kedama and to Old Man Star. Again, a few uneventful systems, and we arrived in Abune, when my scout, who was now Kirsi Isrik, called a big fleet in Heydieles on Abune gate. I asked her to keep a d-scan on the gate, pondered for a while and decided I'm not jumping my fleet into a gate camp, and we'll be going back to Stacmon the way we came. I called for Kirsi to come back just as I heard that she's dead. As I understood later she was sitting in a plex d-scanning, and someone warped to her while she didn't notice.

(16:57:29) Heydieles
Atron -0.6m

Glen went to scout again and we stumbled upon the same guy in Hikkonen. Glen landed on him in the plex but this time he warped away. Glen called the sun, and I called for the fleet to warp to the sun at different directions. When we arrived, noone was there, so I decided to abandon this prey and asked Glen to go scout the next system and the fleet to align to the gate. We were spread with 3 people at 30, me at 70, 2 at 100. A minute later, maybe, that Coercer actually landed at 30. I called for everyone to burn at him and engage. A few seconds later one of our ships popped. I realized the rest of the fleet is too far and called to scatter. Another ship popped but the last one within his range managed to get away.

(17:08:41) Hikkoken
Maulus -0.76m
Incursus -5.81m

After that, we burned straight to Stacmon with scout support.

Stats
ISK Destroyed: 7,371,676.15
ISK Lost: 45,108,154.06
ISK Delta: -37,736,477.91
Efficiency: 14.047%

What went good:
- Not much. But I managed to keep the fleet on the planned route. I mean, wherever we went, that was the planned route.
- I must confess I've intentionally put my first fleet into a less than prime time slot so that I don't get too many stressful encounters and will be able to catch my breath inbetween. That worked perfectly.

What went bad:
- Losing a lone ship who came from Uph to Das was embarassing. Was that just unfortunate or should I've regrouped the fleet differently knowing one or two people are coming from Uph?
- Sometimes I lost track of what my scouts were doing. I was afraid to interrupt them in case they're in trouble but in reality I should've kept asking them where they are and what do they see if I was starting to lose it.
- Engaging a destroyer? Uhh I'm not sure how long is a T1 frigate supposed to last vs a destroyer and if I should've sent that for a tackle in the first place.

Thanks to B'aldrick, who worked on the broadcasts, and my scouts - Kelle Damage, Glen Burney, Kirsi Isrik, Auric Fulcrum, most of whom died honorably.

[DeanSherman]

I jumped from Uph to Dastryns. I saw coercer on d-scan, switched to 5 degree, found him in small plex. I called it on comms and broadcasted the plex. Twice. As my gate cloak was running out and fleet spiked local i decided to go for tackle. Coercer can have high dps, but poor control with only 2 mid slots, and Atron is very fast ship. What could go wrong? Unfortunately, that dishonourable coercer had no prop mod! He had both scram and web.

[Padraic Musbrandt]

I don't think I heard you. Could it be that your mic was turned off? That, or I really wasn't paying attention. And I didn't have history tab open yet as I didn't expect anything to happen that early. I'm sorry about that, could've been a great catch.

[B'aldrick Aivoras]

It’s testament to your comms that I didn’t realise it was your first fleet. Good communication and decision making. Things will certainly get smoother as you progress. Definitely happy to fly again with you fc.

A fleet in prime time EU would be good especially if you try a doctrine you like to fly.

o7

[O'Hearn]

Thanks, I got a lot out of reading this AAR. Reports about one-way traffic are fun, but reports that cover mistakes are so valuable.

[Kora K]

I was not on the fleet, but thanks for stepping up as FC and taking your fellow unistas for a roam

Airsick Lowlander started asking me for an advice about flying Maulus, specifically, what scripts to use. That caught me completely unaware since I never used damps, but I looked at our fleet composition and figured that the majority of the fleet is brawly, so range damp won't do any good. Thinking back about it, I should've probably asked for a different ship, since I have no idea if damps are any good in a brawly composition.

Damps are valuable on pretty much any fleet. Sure sometimes another EWAR would be better, but it's usefull. If you're in a kiting fleet, you can use range damps on the ennemies and they either can't hit you, or have to burn to you. As long as you stay ahead of them, you're good.
With a brawling doctrine, it's a bit different. Personally, I still load range by default, as a protection against kitters (they have to burn to you, so better chance to scram them and bash them to death) or against ennemy EWAR (damp their Maulus first, it's ou or has to come close and die). If you're frigates, and are against a BC/BS, you can switch to scan resolution damps. It'll make switching targets a pain for the ennemy, and the guy who is primary can warp off and the ennemy will have to lock another target, losing time again.

Losing a lone ship who came from Uph to Das was embarassing. Was that just unfortunate or should I've regrouped the fleet differently knowing one or two people are coming from Uph?

When people are both in Stac and Uph, you can regroup in Dastryns, and ask someone from uph/stac to scout for their group. At least, let them know that if there is something on gate, they need to let the FC know. I then usually warp the full fleet to the uph gate, and either scare the baddie or kill it

Sometimes I lost track of what my scouts were doing. I was afraid to interrupt them in case they're in trouble but in reality I should've kept asking them where they are and what do they see if I was starting to lose it.

It's not really optimal and good practice, but if you're a new FC, try to always have a scout doing the +1 thing. So you at least know what's just in front of you. If you have more experienced scouts, you can some them roam around and report intel as they go. It can be overwhelming at first, but since they are more experienced, they should know what kind of intel you need and when so you're not drowned in information.
Scout is the most important position in a fleet, and should be more of a "forward FC" than a simple local / d-scan reader. Also, don't hesitate them to repeat stuffs, or ask them where they are. You can have them with you in a command channel if you feel more confortable like that.

Engaging a destroyer? Uhh I'm not sure how long is a T1 frigate supposed to last vs a destroyer and if I should've sent that for a tackle in the first place.

Destroyer are frigate killers, it's their main job I usually send at least 2 ships, usually a fast one with a point, and a tanky one (punishers are nice for that). One of them will probably die, but the other one should be able to to hold the target until the fleet arrive.

Keep taking fleet out, and sory for the typos o7

[Thelith]

I had fun, so don't be too hard on yourself. It was more bad luck with finding targets than anything wrong with your FC abilities. I don't have much experience, so I can't really give much advice, but I'd gladly go out on a fleet with you again. Thanks for leading!

[Airsick Lowlander]

I guess I should of warped off as soon as the Coercer landed on grid. I was trying to follow the instruction to engage the Coercer, but we both were at warp to 30km, and they pretty much instantly destroyed me. Should e-war warp and bounce back when they're closest to the enemy?

[Calder Ormand]

I guess I should of warped off as soon as the Coercer landed on grid. I was trying to follow the instruction to engage the Coercer, but we both were at warp to 30km, and they pretty much instantly destroyed me. Should e-war warp and bounce back when they're closest to the enemy?

Yep. Your maulus is very thinly tanked, so your best bet would've been to warp off immediately and warp back at range.