[AAR] HSC Sleepers Death Squad (WH) - 25/02/2018

[Willow K]

HSC Sleepers Death Squad

It took us a while to come up with the second edition of “HSC Sleepers Death Squad” as it is not easy to find a C3 quite wormhole to run a fleet.

At Sunday morning, Kelle Damage was doing her daily routine, scanning WHs, so she was our scout to find a possible wormhole to run our fleet. After an hour or so, she found a C3 that had few combat sites. I jumped on my Heron and I scout myself a bit and we decided it was “safe” to run it.

We formed up as fast as possible as it was hard to find enough people Sunday midday European time but as the time passed, more people joined and swapped few that had to go, so we didn’t lose our flaw!

I started as FC and passed my FC to Susan Wulf due she wanted to practice FCing, so I kept the “Management” & "ISK Collector" of Fleet to switch people in and out so we keep going until we cleared all the wormhole.

We had a small incident before we started the fleet. We were forming outside the wormhole as we waited 2 more people to join, when a brave Imicus decided to get pass us and ignoring us and jumped into the wormhole. My PVP instinct kicked in so I jumped the fleet into WH and I shoot the poor Imicus with my Hurricane.

Susan Wulf AAR:
On the 25th of February I joined a gang of HSC dudes and dudettes heading out to farm Sleeper sites after running the whole night with the incursion fleet.
A couple of minutes after the fleet had jumped through the hole I asked then FC Willow K if it was ok for me to try FCing, as I’ve been looking to get some experience and someday, hopefully, FC an incursion fleet. I’m very glad Willow gave me permission to do so, and that the fleet got home without any incidents.
As Willow is doing the actual AAR, my contribution to it disregards preparations, intel, doctrine etc. – my focus will be on a couple of concrete lessons I lessons I learned about FCing in general.

I basically decided to jump into the deep end and improvised along the way, recalling the numerous fleets I’ve attended, the brilliant but oh so different styles of FCing I’ve been exposed to since being admitted to E-Uni. I picked my cherries and did my best trying to improve on things I remember struggling with as a newer bro myself.

Willow K made sure we had replacements and the rest of the fleet helped a great deal by answering questions on comms and fleet chat. Experienced pilots and staff from HSC joined after some time. Knowing I had a dedicated scout relaying intel in real-time and plenty of competent pilots should anything go wrong definitely helped.

I first realised I gone a little over my head, eager as I was to help the fleet have a good time while ensuring opsec and efficiency. I got the impression, however, that everyone was very patient with me, acknowledging that it was my first FC experience of significance, and helping me out according to their knowledge and abilities. I learned a lot, and the fleet helped me pointing out certain mistakes and suggested strategies.

- I attempted to assess rat priority by reading up on them while the fleet was in warp en route to the sites. A decision I found difficult was i.e. whether the trigger, which had a scram, should be killed first or last. The environment dictated that it should be killed sooner rather than later. The fleet composition that triggers should be watched carefully and killed last.

- I also did tagging – a task that, under ideal circumstances, would have been trusted to another fleet member in advance, as it eventually was.
- Our DPS was somewhat lacking all the way. I’m not sure if we had intel on or checked if there were any system effects responsible for this, and my report is a bit late, so I’ll check on this later.

- Attempting to somewhat help us focus DPS I assigned myself as dronebunny. As most ships after first wave were cruisers, I ordered light drones to be pulled in favour of mediums. This was challenging in several ways. I am definitely reading up on the rats more, not only their abilities, but speed, EHP and other variables that may come into play when assessing and assigning targets. After asking around and checking up on more or less reliable sources, I now realise that dronebunnying needs to account for some numbers, preferably in advance of form up. One issue, as far as I understand, was the mix of points assigned to drone skills in the fleet. Chatlogs show that Willow K anticipated this issue and asked the fleet to fit range augmentors.

- Situations like the one above clearly demonstrates the importance of careful preparations and a strict fitting doctrine. I understood that before, but I get it now.

- I asked for feedback shortly after we jumped back to high sec. I was pleased that some of the things I really tried doing right was appreciated. I’m also sure there was a lot that was less appreciated - I know I made more mistakes and could go on forever about all the lessons I learned or questions I have.

I really had a blast FCing and found C3 Sleeper sites an interesting environment for learning this trade. I love to think that someone had their first and interesting time in a hole, a fleet, or both and I love the spirit and attitude of the pilots in the uni.

I would also like to attempt a fleet like this in the near future with proper preparations regarding strategy, fits and composition. The isk isn’t that great, but the WH environment is cool for learning and keeps people on their toes, I believe

Losses: 0m
Loot: 475m
Kills: 1 - https://zkillboard.com/kill/68274152/

Sleepers Death Squad Part 1:
Willow K - FC / Boost / Hurricane
Kelle Damage - Logistic / Augoror
Nelliver Cadigal - Logistic / Augoror
Weadj - Logistic / Augoror
Susan Wulf - DD / Vexor
Tycho Tenebre - DD / Vexor
Owen Armel - DD / Vexor

Sleepers Death Squad Part 2:
Susan Wulf - FC / Vexor
Willow K - Boost / Hurricane
Kelle Damage - Logistic / Augoror
Nelliver Cadigal - Logistic / Augoror
O'Hearn - Logistic / Augoror
Airsick Lowlander - DD / Vexor
Capt Steele - DD / Vexor
Owen Armel - DD / Vexor
Devoros Vyndiver - DD / Vexor
Ersin Oghuz - DD / Gnosis
Enforcer7 - Scout / Nemesis

Please leave feedback about the Fleet as experience and FC Feedback is always welcome so we can improve!

I will run this fleet more often, so keep an eye.

Sign out....
HSC Sleepers Death Squad FC

[Capt Steele]

Great AAR write up, I had fun running in the fleet and I'm sure everyone else had fun as well! Definitely looking forward to the next Death Squad fleet if I can make it! I don't have any real criticisms to provide to Susan regarding FCing the fleet, you did an excellent job for your first experience. I would say my number one critic is: Be more confident in your abilities! I joined late in the 2nd group but I heard clear commands over comms and target prioritization. You listened to your fleet mates and accepted reminders well. If I had to nitpick, I'd say target marking could have been faster perhaps. By the time I joined there didn't seem to be a fleet anchor as folks were figuring out Drone Bunny Mechanics. And we should have killed that Venture!

Thank you to everyone who joined but special thanks to Willow K and Susan Wulf for stepping up to FC some fleets for HSC. And a double special thanks to Kelle Damage for her tireless work in scanning, identifying, and scouting these wormholes. These types of events would not be possible without everyone's combined efforts!

[Decklin Quark Reiger]

Combining intel gathering with tagging, giving commands, and drone bunny all at once for your first time FC'ing - that's no small job - well done

It's great to see you both stepping up to lead and provide content for the Uni - thanks guys

[O'Hearn]

I had a great time. It was my first time doing Logi (and first time flying an Augoror), although I'd done some reading ahead of time.

Funniest moment:

Code: Select all

O'Hearn: Need armor.
...
O'Hearn: Need armor.
...
O'Hearn: Guys, I'm going to need more reps.
...
Nelliver Cadigal: Are your active hardeners turned on?

My observations:

• If you want to FC, put yourself forward. Regardless of your level of experience, consider that you are offering a service that other people will be grateful for.
• Division of labour makes a big difference.
• The cap chain is a huge big deal for Logi, and cap transmitters have a range limit. Anchor up and know whether prop mods are on or off.
• It's standard practice to offer a role bonus to the scout when splitting loot afterwards.
• For fleets involving logi, it is even more important for the fleet to obey the FC's align command.
• An FC can greatly improve fleet obedience by calling align/warp objectives slowly. I often struggle with accents, and a slow, calm "fleet, align align align Foxtrot Hotel Alpha tack 4 2 2" really worked for me.
• If you're joining or rejoining the fleet, ask for permission to warp in (for a variety of reasons, including the possibility of missing a warp)).
• If you make mistakes that affect the fleet, call it out and then let it go: everybody understands mistakes and they don't need you to beat yourself up.

Thanks to Willow K for making it happen, Kelle Damage for finding a cool spot, Nelliver Cadigal and Kelle for coaching me through Logi, Susan Wulf for a stellar debut performance as FC, and everyone else for making it fun.

O'Hearn out.

[Nelliver Cadigal]

That was a fun ad hoc thing to do.

Some remarks that I did not make during the fleet because I did not deem them critical but may be worth considering next time. We went into a propper fleet channel on mumble but unfortunately I seem to have lost about half of about three discussions as people may not have checked their talk & whisper keys.
As for the issue mentioned by O'Hearn let me tell you a story of my first mission fleet. We ran Lvl 5 missions in lowsec due to an Incursion in Amy. Logi consisted of an experienced commander and two first timers (not me). First pocket things go wrong, Logi pulls all aggro and one ship goes pooof.
FC: I will loot your wreck for you.
Logi: Thanks.
FC: Oh you had your rigs in the cargo hold.
Logi Yes?
FC: They have to be fitted to work...

You never stop learning.

[Ersin Oghuz]

I joined the fleet at the part II. I don't know about how the fleet began and what problems you solved earlied but from my point of view (when I join the fleet) it was executed nicely by FC. The commands were very clear about where to align and when to align, the tagging was also good, though due to a little bit inexperience wrong targets led couple of multiple spawns but it was not intentional and it was handled later.

Recently we have many emerging content creators, fleets to different areas of space for various contents and I am very happy about it. Leading PvE fleets can be a good point to start your career as FC (PvE or PvP) and seeing many are eager to volunteer for various positions and duties in fleet give me joy really

So to sum up;
- Fleet commands were clear
- There were some minor issues on targeting primaries but it was sorted quickly and it was not a problem anymore
- Dronebunny mechanics was sorted and executed in the fleet. Even it is more of an incursion tradition to have a designated dronebunny, it was a good touch to have a dronebunny in the WH fleet. Although there was some issues on applications. Not all drones assisted the dronebunny as intended. We definetly had less the maximum drone limit so I could not understand why some drones engaged and some did not.