[HSC] FOB Assault Fleet (2018-04-14)

[Ersin Oghuz]

Since we are still gathering intel about FOBs and their behaviours I decided to compose AAR for FOB Assault fleet.

At Friday after downtime, Guristas FOB was established in Jufvitte that could pose real threat to our mining operations in Jufvitte. We read the AARs and information about the FOBs and previous engagements again and decided on a RR-Dominix fit used by Solitude Campus before. I originally anticipated a force of 2-3 RR-Dominix to engage FOB and its defence fleet and 1 Speedy Frigate to distract FOB Mining Operation Defense Fleet and seperate them. After fleet was announced, we gathered a force of 4 RR-Dominix, 1 Command Myrmidon, and 1 Fast Atron. Also while gathering fleet, it was a noticable moment that De W Javqe tried to dock to FOB with a pod, but Guristas did not like it .

Fleet

Ersin Oghuz, Dominix (FC)
Raskyn, Dominix
Kordun Naskingar, Dominix
Marn Vermuldir, Dominix
LeFleur, Myrmidon (Booster)
De W Javqe, Atron (Bait)
Christoph Patrouette, Stabber (Initial Locator & Bait)

Mainline RR-Dominix Fit

Spoiler

[Dominix, ILN ✪ Commander]
Reactive Armor Hardener
1600mm Steel Plates II
Armor Thermal Hardener II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Armor Thermal Hardener II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Armor Thermal Hardener II

Sensor Booster II
Large Cap Battery II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II
Large Micro Jump Drive
Sensor Booster II

Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Large I-ax Enduring Remote Armor Repairer
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Large Remote Armor Repairer II
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Large I-ax Enduring Remote Armor Repairer

Large Remote Repair Augmentor I
Large Egress Port Maximizer I
Large Egress Port Maximizer I



Hobgoblin II x5
Hammerhead II x5
Federation Navy Ogre x5
Federation Navy Garde x5

ECCM Script x2
Navy Cap Booster 800 x33

Christoph Patrouette located the FOB Mining Op Fleet and warped to them, FOB Mining Op Response Fleet responded and warped to the belt and began chasing Christoph while we are still forming. After we formed, we warped to Jufvitte gate and jumped. We aligned to the FOB site via Corp Bookmarks (that was created by De W and me) and De W took over the bait role from Christoph by warping to the belt with Gurista Fleet and they started to chase him instead of Christoph. Christoph left the belt to form another fleet that was announced before, and De W took his place as bait.

I fleet warped combat fleet to the FOB bookmark ( 100km away from "200km away from FOB" BM ) but somehow my alignment was broken beforehand and i missed my own fleet warp . When I landed on grid with the fleet moments later there was no response yet, but Marn warned me about that we are still at E-War range of the FOB so I warped the fleet back to 400km away BM that is well outside the FOB range. While we are at warp to 400km BM, the response fleet undocked with considerable force (1 Condor, 1 Osprey (?) and 18 Caracals). I first began with Opsrey but then quickly switched to Caracals since I did not think Osprey would repair the Caracals that much to tank our damage so we could clear some damage from frield at early stage. But the fleet was so eager, before I switch to Caracals, Osprey was down moments later I call it as primary. Then we began working on Caracals while they are inflicting damage on us one by one, but we were repairing and holding nicely since the fleet was all thermal resist tanked and reacting quickly to the broadcasts. Here I must add, Booster Myrmidon was not attacked once in the whole engagment. That was quite shock for me since I expected that it would have a hard time coping with the damage, and that is why I wanted to clear Caracals first. But it was not engaged even once and its boosts helped us for sure. So even though I was a bit skeptical about having Myrmidon (originally LeFleur wanted to take out Augoror but there were two issues, first bringing logistics to FOB always escalates things and second he was the only logistics in fleet, so he reshipped into Myrmidon) in the RR-Dominix fleet but it turned out it was really helpful and it is good to have it, instead of logistics, in our future fleets I believe.

Caracals went down one by one and Condor did fall as well and even though we expected another spawn there was none. We waited for a minute or two before deciding to warp to FOB directly and began shooting it. When we warped to FOB, we began shooting it with our drones and in return FOB tried to jam and neut us one by one, but thanks to our ECCM scripted Sensor Boosters, and Cap Battery and Cap Boosters , we hold very nicely. Cap Battery made us resistant against neuts while ECCM made us harder to jam while Cap Boosters were there to be used in Emergencies in case they neut the whole fleet and we needed to activate our tanks and MJD to escape. Even though there were minor jamming and neuting incidents (2-3 of them in total i believe) the fleet was mostly uncontested and we achieved to destroy the FOB without any losses on our side (my first succesful FOB fleet operation )

Report

DED paid us 28 million each on grid and we also looted the wreck to share the income from its sale.

So in the fleet there was two issues that needs to be improved in next fleets;

- Fleet warp. All fleet aligned but the FC! FC needs to check his alignment double or triple time. This time I got lucky since the Response Fleet was a bit late to stage so I had time to land and warp the fleet another BM but it needs to be improved.
- Warping to correct BM. I Warped to 200km BM with 100 km range assuming we will land 300km range which should be safe from FOB range but it was not.

. Form up time was a bit long, but that is due to the late announcement and the requirements were higher (RR-Domi fit worths more then +250 million ISK and that is quite investment).

+ The overall response was good. Newbros wanted to join but since it was not suitable for newbros, we had to turn many of them down, sadly.
+ Everyone was on primaries, damage application was really succesful on our side
+ Fleet established the cap chain quickly and responded the armor broadcasts in time. Fleet discipline was very good.

x We will probably keep these ships in Amygnon for future fleets, so it is safe to say that we are also forming FOB Response Task Force to engage FOBs in the region.

I hope this AAR, will be helpfull to all who attended the fleet and/or want to stage more fleets like this and want to learn more about the FOBs and their behaviour & mechanics. And of course all feedback is welcome.

Regards.

[LeFleur]

As the booster, I was in the smallest ship, but my tank was almost equal to the Dominixes since I only fitted one DDA. I even had a pretty bonused local repairer in case the dominixes could not help me. It was surprising to me that not myself r any of my drones were attacked. After the fleet talking it out, I fiddled a little bit with the fit and the drone loadout, making it a better fit for the fleet for future uses.

[Hirmuolio Pine]

force of 2-3 RR-Dominix

You may not want to do this regularly. 3x Dominixes is not enough to safely take the FOB. The FOB and the defense fleet will pick different targets to jam and the chain can collapse suddenly when two of the three ships are jammed. With 4x Dominixes the chain stays somewhat functional (cap flows to keep harddeners on, some repairs work) even if occasionally two pilots may get jammed.

If you are lucky with the spawn and don't get any blackbirds then 3x Dominix can work.