[AAR] NoP Monday Roam - 2018.02.13@02:00 (Harai Rex Edition)

[Harai Rex]

Fleet Members:

Spoiler

Aiden Chance
Arashi Shizukana - Scout
Barrett Chanlin
Budda Sereda - Scout
Cal Gates
Calder Ormand - 2IC
Darkfoe Eto
Drake Shea - Scout
Farzol Nassan - Vanguard
Ford Andedare - 3IC
Gemma Solett
Harai Rex - FC
Klue Pythious - Vanguard
Kristoff Lohengrin - Scout
Nicki Steel
Professor Academiac
Sagittarius Griffins
Satoshi Tomeii
Sone Eto
Tom Endares - Vanguard
Vrix Torqueo
Wokum
Z0X Ambrye

Hello all! Last Monday, Reise Amatin was unfortunately sick and couldn't FC the NoP fleet. Through an arcane and random selection process I still don't fully understand, I was voluntold to take over as FC for the night. Since I was not at all comfortable commanding the BLAP Vexor doctrine, and it was far too late to swap out for another doctrine, we simply went out in kitchen sink frigates instead, but we managed to have a good time anyway! I took the opportunity to test out a new scouting strategy that I had been interested for a while. Instead of the normal 2-3 scouts who only scout out the next system on our route, we had 4 scouts: 2 scouts in charge of scouting the next system as per usual (Drake and Kristoff), and 2 'roaming' scouts who were given free reign to fly off-doctrine and sniff out content anywhere within a 3-4 jump radius of the fleet (Arashi and Budda). Overall, I think the new scouting system was a success, and I'll go into more detail about it after discussing what exactly we killed.

The fleet undocked around 02:30, when one of our scouts, Arashi, spotted a Gila in Uphallant and a Vexor in Iges (I would like to take a moment to mention that Arashi, taking full advantage of his off-doctrine scouting privileges, chose to fly a 1bil+ Loki). We chased them for a bit, but ultimately couldn't catch anything. Things were pretty quiet until we got to Vlillirier, where Drake managed to scram a Taranis at the Sun in his scouting Venture. We all dogpiled in, and got a nice inty kill to start off the fleet.

Taranis +52.03m

"Post the D-Scan if you can't count"
- Harai Rex, EVE University Fleet Commander, 2018

After killing the Taranis, the fleet gathered up on the Oicx gate in Vlillirier while Drake jumped in to scout. While Drake was trying (and arguably failing) to communicate the size of a gatecamp on some gate in Oicx, a flashy confessor jumped into us. We played gate games with him for a minute or two, before catching and killing him on the Oicx side of the gate. After the fleet moved on, Kristoff was caught by a random Svipul trying to get back to Vlillirier.

Executioner -1.67m
Confessor +74.57m
Capsule +1.55m
Capsule -0.01m

Next, Drake spotted a nice Jaguar in Eha, and went in for tackle. Alas, his trusty battle venture couldn't survive long enough for reinforcements to arrive, and the Jaguar got away after killing him. RIP battle venture.

Venture -5.6m

"AHHHH SMARTBOMBS AHHHH"
- Drake Shea, Scout, Eve University, 2018

"This is some multi-headed hydra scouting bad*** fleet coordination"*
- Sone Eto, Fleet member, Eve University, 2018

"We need more scouts ... we need a greater than 1/4 share of the fleet"
- Gemma Solett, Fleet member, Eve University, 2018

Following some less then serious debate on the merits of my new scouting system and a near-death experience with some smartbombs, the fleet found some more content in Akidagi, in the form of an unlucky Tristan that suddenly found themselves becoming Uni food. Dead Tristan, dead pod.

Tristan +11.52m
Capsule +0.01m

We took a 5 min bio break in Akidagi (during which I convinced Arashi that a Loki was not, in fact, a good scout ship for a kitchen sink frig roam), before heading out again in search of more content. We didn't find any until Reitsato, but it was worth the wait. We found a Myrmidon at a large plex, and managed to get the whole fleet on top of it and kill it with 0 friendly losses. Go team!

Myrmidon +100.97m

"it's not NoP if you don't explode"
- Darkfoe Eto, Fleet Member, Foe Ventures, 2018

After Reitsato, we turned around and started heading home, but there was still plenty of killing to do on the way there. Our next sacrifice was a Griffin Navy Issue we found in a plex in Abune. GNI's have teeth, so we lost a scout and a vanguard taking it down, but it was a pretty nice kill.

Slasher -5.99m
Kestrel -15.67m
Griffin Navy Issue +36.71m

We later caught a Incursus and a Tristan on the Heydieles gate in Abune, thanks in no small part to Z0X in his instalocker. Unfortunately, gate guns weren't feeling very forgiving tonight, and we lost a few pilots in the process. Drake, who had died in the last fight, also asked for pod express home around this time.

Crucifier -0.83m
Kestrel -5.26m
Incursus +12.91m
Tristan +17.54m
Capsule +0.01m
Capsule - Genolution 'Auroral' 197-variant -0.01m
Capsule +0.01m

"I need to complete my collection of unista corpses"
- Gemma Solett, Fleet Member Psychopath, Eve University, 2018

Our next bit of content came in Indregulle, and hoo boy was it a treat. While we were sitting on the Murethand gate, a flashy Curse jumped into us and, inexplicably, didn't immediately crash gate. The whole fleet piled on top of him and burned it down in quick time, with exactly 0 friendly losses. A 625 mil killmail for free? Yes Please!

Curse +625.8m

Our last kill for the night came in the form of a Tristan sitting in a plex in Melmaniel. Ship and pod both went down, with no friendly losses.

Tristan +11.73m
Capsule +0.01m

We got no more kills after Melmaniel, but the road home wasn't completely boring. The Curse pilot from earlier came back in a hyper kitey Omen Navy Issue, and teased us on gates a bit along with a friend in a Vagabond. We didn't lose anyone to them, but Aiden was apparently sniped by a Worm in Oueletta on the Melmaniel gate. Hazards of being flashy, I suppose.

Punisher -9.21m
Capsule -0.01m

Except for the harassing Cruisers, we all got home safe and sound after Melmaniel. Quite the exciting fleet, if I do say so.

Stats
ISK Destroyed: 945,381,666.86
ISK Lost: 44,258,950.36
ISK Delta: 901,122,716.5
Efficiency: 95.528%

Overall, I think the fleet was a great success! We got some very shiny kills in some fairly cheap ships, and never really lacked anything to do. All the fleet members were great, including a few newbros who seemed to learn very quickly, and our scouts were always on the ball. While comms were fairly lively most of the time (it seems my *ahem* behavior in fleet becomes contagious when I'm FC), everyone did an excellent job holding comms discipline when we needed to. As FC, I was a bit more stressed than usual because the responsibility became mine so suddenly and on such short notice, and I think I let that stress slip into how I communicated with the fleet a few times. However, I think I avoided any truly boneheaded mistakes, and everyone seemed perfectly comfortable insulting me, so I don't think I was too mean.

Overall, I think the addition of the 2 roaming scouts was a moderate success, and I'll be using it in my future fleets. My intent in adding 2 additional scouts with more freedom to act independently was twofold: first, give veteran Unistas something to do in more newbro-oriented fleets while still leaving the door open for less experienced scouts to get some practice, and second, provide more content for the fleet. I think the first objective was accomplished; the second one, not so much. Budda and Arashi were able to roam semi-freely, while Drake and Kristoff were able to familiarize themselves more with the role of scout. Unfortunately, I don't think Budda and Arashi actually found much more content for us than we would have had otherwise. If I remember correctly, drake and Kristoff found most of our content. Of course, it is entirely possible that Budda and Arashi just got unlucky, and there wasn't much in space our fleet could catch or engage off of our yellow brick road. In the end, I can't possibly imagine how having more scouts and, therefore, casting a wider net would result in less content for us, so I will continue using the 4-scout system for now.

Once again, thank you all for joining me on this fleet, I had a blast and I hope you did too! Also, I hope you all enjoyed the quotes included in the AAR, please let me know if I included too many, or if you want even more!

see you all around, and happy hunting o7

*decided to veer on the safe side of the Uni's no swearing policy for this quote. I'm fairly certain you all can figure out what was said.

[Professor Academiac]

Our next bit of content came in Indregulle, and hoo boy was it a treat. While we were sitting on the Murethand gate, a flashy Curse jumped into us and, inexplicably, didn't immediately crash gate. The whole fleet piled on top of him and burned it down in quick time, with exactly 0 friendly losses. A 625 mil killmail for free? Yes Please!

Curse +625.8m

That curse was actually fighting us, she neuted me completely dry in an instant, and by the time you killed I was in 13% structure. I'm not sure whether she thought she could solo a small fleet of frigates with that or get a quick kill and bail. Either way, I only held long enough because of the overheated ancillary repair and drugs! Great kill.

[Drake Shea]

Battle venture best scout
10/10 quote from my deteriorated mental state

[Budda Sereda]

I think the idea to have few scouts is good, it is messy, but with some experience, it can be made working well.
I would like to comment on content which I found as a scout. Not sure about Arashi, but 2 things will mention about myself:
1. I was scouting in an Enyo (whatever MWD ship I had nearby), which is a poor scouting option for t1 kitchen sink as everything small run away
2. Enyo is good to spot big things and I do remember few things I found (2 Augorors+Falcon+something else in the beginning of the fleet? something else later, don't remember details), but unfortunately, FC called to leave them alone. I do agree with the decision to leave them alone: it was your call, targets were on the edge of our ability to engage so that's fine. Though, once you get more experience, I would recommend picking these targets too: roaming BLOB of frigates and killing lonely targets is a relatively easy job, but it won't train you to fight strong opponents.

Again, good fleet Harai, was fun flying with you. Keep learning and taking fleets out!

P.S. The only one thing I would recommend you to avoid: don't harass people so badly for jamming. In kitchen sink fleet you won't have many fleet fights and Griffins pilots won't have many targets. By preventing them engaging solo pilots you essentially asking: don't bring ECM at all. While this could be a very useful addition to fleet in some cases, for instance, fighting fleet with 2 Augorors. Jam 1 and the rest of DDs and you can kill them all with almost no losses. Risky though, I admit

[Kontxesi Buchanan]

I like that the quotes are catching on.

[Eddie Dante]

I like that the quotes are catching on.

There honestly is no reason to include anything other than quotes in an AAR.

For the roaming scouts, i can imagine ceptors are almost a must-have. Every time you check a side system, youre gonna need that extra warp speed to catch up with the fleet again. Might be one of the reasons the roaming scouts didnt find that much, not being able to check very many systems?

[Budda Sereda]

I like that the quotes are catching on.

There honestly is no reason to include anything other than quotes in an AAR.

For the roaming scouts, i can imagine ceptors are almost a must-have. Every time you check a side system, youre gonna need that extra warp speed to catch up with the fleet again. Might be one of the reasons the roaming scouts didnt find that much, not being able to check very many systems?

Valid point, extra warp speed would help, though I can't say I did not have time for scouting

[Decklin Quark Reiger]

P.S. The only one thing I would recommend you to avoid: don't harass people so badly for jamming. In kitchen sink fleet you won't have many fleet fights and Griffins pilots won't have many targets. By preventing them engaging solo pilots you essentially asking: don't bring ECM at all. While this could be a very useful addition to fleet in some cases, for instance, fighting fleet with 2 Augorors. Jam 1 and the rest of DDs and you can kill them all with almost no losses.

Without being there, I have no idea to what degree Harai may have told people not to ECM solo targets. It's a very good point to communicate, though. The reason is, if the person is jammed then they can't aggress, which means they won't have a weapon timer, which means they can jump through the gate to escape.

Another situation where it's helpful to be careful about applying ECM / damps is if you are chasing down a distant cruiser or battlecruiser. Here, you want the target to think, "maybe I can kill a few and warp off before they catch me”. Meanwhile, you will need to trust your tackle pilots to stay alive, spiraling in on the target, to land a point without dying. Once you have the target caught, then you can jam and damp him. If you jam or damp him before he's caught, he'll just warp away.

A third scenario to avoid using ECM is if you have an agreed fight with a friendly solo pilot. There's nothing more frustrating for the solo pilot than agreeing to a good fight, only to end up literally unable to do anything at all. By using ECM in this situation, you're less likely to get that fun fight in the future.

there are many situations where using ECM is worth using, and where it will definitely turn a losing fight into one you can win. However, there are also situations where it's helpful to not use it.