In the Beginnings
So the University has ran various fleets over the years, of varying scope and capacity, to go after or accomplish specific goals. Recently the introduction of Forward Operations Bases held by the Guristas Pirates and the Blood Raiders has caused no small amount of interest from the curious types like me to miners who just warped their Orca to a belt or doing something else pretty dodgy and found out that the NPCs probably like that belt more than you do.
In particular, the University has ran or semi-ran 4-5 fleets towards these structures in recent days, and ALL of them have been failures. Most of them were due to a number of highly controllable circumstances. Today, those circumstances were reduced to fewer uncontrollable factors, but the problems with them remain.
Therefore it fell upon me, as a bit of an expert (more like, "He knows a bit about them, but is not an authoritative expert") to tackle one of these sites myself.
No Fear
Myself. I want one of those structure killmails myself, I said. So I tried: Most people used shiny expensive faction **** like 500MN storyline fit Cerberus cruisers and stuff. Usually you'll find that while I do like shinies, I'm allergic to actually using them. So figured I'd show them up a bit and just use a T1 hull.
That's how that went.
This AAR isn't about me, it's about a fleet, so we'll move back on track. No you can't do it solo outside of some ridiculous 15000 EHP/sec Marauder. We'll find out how well that works the next time we get a SISI mirror.
Therefore
Previous attempts were laid part due to the failure of the pilots and FC to account for the known properties of the NPCs. They are not normal NPCs. However the Gurista ones do exclusively Thermal damage, namely Dread Guristas Inferno Rockets, Dread Guristas Inferno Heavy Assault Missiles, and Guristas Inferno Cruise missiles. Nice.
When choosing a ship to perform a particular job, especially in a fleet, the designer must take into account a number of variables concerning each weapon system and hull type. The intricacies are many, but I'll split out the basics as below:
1) Drones: Selectable damage, allows DPS to continue if host is jammed, drones are subject to travel time and can be eliminated
2) Missiles: Selectable damage, delayed damage, can have projection (HAM) or application problems (HM) or just low DPS on the hulls they use (HM)
3) Autocannons: Semi-selectable damage, suffers from falloff problems
4) Hybrids: Fixed damage, tracking concerns our scope, application requires Recons, damage is reduced with range
5) Energy: Fixed damage, same as last
6) Smartbomb: Not suitable for this endeavor
I settled on the Prophecy as a DPS hull because going with Rapid Light Missile Launchers means fewer problems with application. The NPC ships use afterburners, except for the tackle frigates, but there's different types of those, as 1 type uses MWDs and the other type uses ABs. Then the drones allowed us to have some hope for application against the same stuff, but with more range. The Prophecies also have a utility high slot that allows us to spread links across the fleet to improve our effectiveness.
Furthermore, the Prophecy's tank bonus to armor resistances, its generous low slots and capable midslot arrangement, suit it well for fitting up for extremely high Thermal resistances, in excess of 94% with decent skills, permitting a tank of roughly 380.000 EHP against Thermal damage. This allows the fleet to concern itself more with its logistic wing to handle itself.
Speaking of that, the only choice for this job, at least UNI-wise, is the humble Augoror. This vessel was also specified for an very high Thermal damage resistance, approximately 92%. Combined with remote sensor links across the cap chain, amplified with Information links, means a good Augoror pilot can have a sensor strength over 80.
Previous fleets indicated problems with ECM and neuting shutting off hardeners as being principle culprits for logistics deaths. Learning from their successes and failures, I implemented the doctrine as such.
The Going
After reasonable attempts to advertise and snuggle the fleet in a nice murky cloud of smoke our fleet began on time on this homely day. Some early birds made me proud by Actually Having A Doctrine Ship Ready. Form-up was about an hour long. While I'm not an accomplished FC by the most remote of measures, there's one thing I made sure I don't repeat and endure since that 2.5 hour BB formup:
I HATE LONG FORMUPS
There.
After sorting out ships and stuff, I noticed a conspicuous lack of numbers. I had only half the numbers I needed. Kinda odd I felt, but I'm not left with much choice. I work weekends, since time began, and the 19:00 timeslot is a fiercely contested slot, so I figured I'd start at 18:30 to get going sooner. But at peak we had 16 in fleet including myself. I wasn't feeling easy. But let's try anyways: blueballs suck, so at least perhaps we can try for some PvP on the way? Because of our low numbers, I could only afford one scout, good old Decklin, and a Hyena pilot who can support said tackle pilot and slow down pirate-grade nonsense, and nobody else. I looked for a command destroyer, 3 scouts and 1 Crucifier pilot (mainly for PvP on the way and back) and 12-15 Augorors and 12-15 DPS.
Actually we only had 5 logistics pilots. 5. Decklin borrowed my Guardian (he probably noticed the trimark/ACR config: yes, double ACR is for w-space only boys, outside of w-space that'll get you killed). We had the remainder in Prophecies and myself in a double web Ashimmu because a Huginn costs too much. I have Recon V too...with skirmish links, the Ashimmu has respectable web range, at least for this work.
Nobody knew my destination. Any fleet like this without some chance of PvP is a waste of time in my sight: How could I, as a low-end wannabe PvP pilot, ignore a chance to get shot at and try to blow someone else up? But I shrouded the fleet in some level of mystery, as I had us go to one destination, then move next door, dock up, refit without warning, warp to a wormhole?
I found it amusing, but barely. I'm not much of a scheming kind but I felt that if I said right out we're going to shoot a FOB I probably would have gotten as much as if I made a fleet of WHAT ARE WE GOING AFTER? Mystery works. It sells billions of real world monies every year. People love it.
We then made our way to a specific highsec system where I had located a suitable FOB and made bookmarks on it. 2 Perches, Two bookmarks North East West South High and Low at 200km and 400km distances.Hideo Date > i think we will get trolled
Except there is One Small Problem
I fleet warped us to my first perch off the FOB and prepared us for a battle. When we landed, it wasn't there. Sure? I checked my overview tabs. Nope, not there. Quickly load NPC Mining Op, it's on there. Nope. Not there. It moved. That's new.
So I had to have Taq go out and make a bookmark for us off one of the other FOBs in system 400km off. You absolutely do not want to fight citadel EWAR and nuets while dealing with the NPCs. Previously you could ignore it, but not anymore. That was a second fatal mistake previous fleets made.
After warping us to the 400km bookmark, the battle was on. I specifically made sure to delete Kestrels (their only tackle) followed by logistics cruisers, confident that the very high sensor strength of our Augorors would make them very difficult to jam. Because we were below safe margins for logistics, this was a case of hairline work, which is why I had to have Decklin in my Guardian because simply didn't have enough logistics. You need enough logistics for redundancy - if they jam 2, you still need more than enough logistics to meet DPS requirements. Their alpha damage is going to be high with missiles.
My plan was to first delete Kestrels, wipe out logistics as fast as possible, then blow through DPS faster than they can update the field with more ships. It seems as part of the December update they spawn a new wave roughly every 60 seconds or so: if I can remove the first wave before the second hits, it'll be much more manageable rather than being upshipped in the order of roughly a dozen battleships, 50 Caracals and probably half a dozen Gilas. That's Capital Grade and we are not really ready for that yet.
Initially we went fine. Tackle got removed fast, but we had some problems shooting stuff, the NPCs were warping around. I was watching my watchlist of everybody in the fleet and I saw an Augoror in low armor. I knew we were in trouble. Late broadcast? Probably not, I held a warm-up drill before hand, but maybe overwhelmed? I decided to hang out for a bit longer, then saw a Guardian taking damage, then another logistics pilot, aggro was shifting around. Then suddenly another Augoror pops. Nope, we're done here.
We regrouped at the Sun, the best place for things to happen, and the safest place to be (lol). Some debriefing, chatter about how we did, and some nice discussion.
Let's go home
We then headed back to Ich to fit back into more normal tanks, and made way for home. Decklin caught an ONI, but the ONI is a slippery beast, so we had to call it off. We didn't get much else on the way.
Aftermath
Positives:
+ Formup wasn't too long, wished it was shorter though
+ People who brought the stuff, brought the stuff specified
+ We only lost two Augorors
+ I believe we almost met DPS numbers called
+ Decklin was a great scout. Never run a fleet without a competent scout. A newbie is NOT a scout: your fleet's direction and course depends on your scout's experience
+ People offered very constructive feedback and thoughts
Nobody's fault (but since I was FC, the fault is mine):
o I think I will agree that in spite of our flexibility of DPS and DPS application, hitting things was still a problem
Negatives (Also my fault as FC):
- Short on logistics. Future FCs: Bring a FULL logi squad (10) at least. Probably 2 would be better.
- The mess involving the repositioning of the FOB was annoying (I guess I didn't need those bookmarks after all)
- I think I should have brought a Recon instead, while I had web range with the Ashimmu, it wasn't enough
- We didn't kill anybody on the way
- I think we really needed T2 logi, but we can't really field those in the numbers we needed
There's more on my head. Gotta clear my head and think about this.
Will there be another fleet?
Of course.
I have another idea.
Folks, next time, you'll have to spend a little extra money, but I promise that you'll have another use for the hull after we're done with it. Set aside 300 million ISK. Train all 4 battleships to at 3, at least.
"What time?" Maybe end of the month/very early March?
I'll be back.
;
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