[AAR] FOB hunting in Hoona (2019/01/11)

[Tau Hopper]

Last week, a FOB spawned in Hoona, interfering with the mining operations of a few AMC members –and other third parties– so, after doubting for a moment, I stepped up and called for some Rohirrim to come to their aid before the weekend started...

Roam members (5)

The fleet approach was the well-tested method we have used in other occasions, based upon four Dominix for taking on the FOB, and a frigate to keep the response fleet distracted at an asteroid belt, somewhere else in the system. These were piloted by:

Spoiler

Tau Hopper - Dominix
Ismaroo - Dominix
JohnPlayerNotSpecial - Dominix
Netan Emerson - Dominix
Lisa Loser - Rifter

As usual, the ships were provided by the campus, with the following fit for the battleships (N.B. the drones were replaced by meta versions as required, depending on the skills of each pilot):

Spoiler

[Dominix, Dominix (FOB)]
1600mm Steel Plates II
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor EM Hardener II
Damage Control II
Armor Thermal Hardener II
Armor Thermal Hardener II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Large Micro Jump Drive
Large Cap Battery II
Large Cap Battery II
F-90 Compact Sensor Booster
F-90 Compact Sensor Booster

Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Large Remote Armor Repairer II
Large Remote Armor Repairer II
Large Remote Armor Repairer II

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

Praetor II x5
Acolyte II x5
Infiltrator II x5

Scan Resolution Script x2

, and a Rifter as miner-puller:

Spoiler

[Rifter, Rifter (FOB)]
Type-D Restrained Overdrive Injector
Type-D Restrained Nanofiber Structure
Type-D Restrained Nanofiber Structure
IFFA Compact Damage Control

5MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Small Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extender
Small Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extender

150mm Light Carbine Repeating Cannon I

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I

EMP S x160

Kills and Losses

The aforementioned plan requires two bookmarks next to the FOB to be available, one at 0km and another one 300-400km away from the station, out of its neut range (i.e. 250km). I thus headed there in advance with a frigate, warped at 0km and made the first bookmark; then warped away and came back at 100km... making next a mistake.

Instead of warping off again and back at 100km from the new position two or three times, I thought I could simply fly to the desired distance using a MWD to outrun the FOB rats. In practice, a Cruor catched up with me 50km later, warp scrambled me and, since I lacked the DPS to kill it fast enough, well:

(17:41) Hoona
Slasher -4.17m

Having learnt the lesson, I quickly bookmarked the wreck before warping to a station and obtaining a Corvette - which I then used to fly back and recover the surviving ammo and modules. Warping away and back at 100km from the wreck, I made therefore a new bookmark; and repeating the procedure led to the desired one at 350km from the station.

The remainder of the operation was rather smooth: when we gathered a while later, JohnPlayerNotSpecial used his alt to fly to the belt where the FOB mining fleet was, triggered the response fleet, and kept it at range at 500-750km. We then warped the Dominix to the 350km bookmark and, after establishing the usual cap / rep chain, waited to see what kind of response we got.

To make things even easier, no Cruors or Ashimmus spawned, only battleships which posed no additional risk to our capacitors. Hence, we simply ignored them and proceeded to warp to the FOB at 0km, reestablished the chain, and deployed the heavy drones to start digging slowly into the station shields, armor and hull.

Only two remarks are to be made about the time we spent at it:

1. by the time we were into about a quarter of the station shields, I made a comment that I had the impression it was taking somewhat longer than last time we attacked a Blood Raider FOB. I should have inquired further, as it turns out I was right, and one fleet member had mistakenly deployed his medium drones instead of the heavy ones; and
2. at some point, the station managed to neut most of my capacitor and, since the damage which the pilot I was repping was receiving wasn't too much and the fleet was merrily chatting in Mumble to pass time (again, it takes quite some time to kill the FOB with this method), I decided to simply switch on and off my reppers for a while without interrupting the conversation. While this didn't result in any dangerous situation, it startled said pilot a bit when he eventually noticed the slight damage I had allowed his armor to take - which could have been avoided had I informed him of what I was doing (-1 point on me).

That said, the FOB was destroyed without incident; Lisa Loser flew in in a DST to collect the loot; and I later hauled it to Jita, where I managed to sell it for 122.89m after fighting the 1-cent wars for a while at the market - PvP at its best.

(20:32) Hoona
Blood Raider Forward Operating Base +120.98m

Stats

ISK Earned: 228,586,089.64
ISK Lost: 4,174,981.73
ISK Delta: 224,411,107.91
Efficiency: 98%

Overall evaluation

• ✔ (Positive stuff)
  - We managed get enough pilots involved to take on the FOB on short notice...
  - ...thus making the system safe to mine during the weekend.
  - Despite the expectations to the contrary, I didn't wreck the Domis
  
  ✘ (Negative stuff)
  - I should have been more careful when creating the bookmarks, as the loss of that Slasher was totally unwarranted.
  - As this was my first time as FC outside of the mining domain, I relied to a certain extent on the expertise of the weathered fleet members.
  - Communication on my part should have been more frequent, with no assumptions on what the others were aware of or concerned about.
  - Moreover, as FC, I shouldn't have been hesitant to talk over other fleet members in a couple of occasions to inquire or deliver updates.