[AAR] 2 Newbie FCs on a Lowsec Roam 28Jan

[Auric Fulcrum]

Roam members (11)

Spoiler

Ana'ander Lamora - Punisher
Auric Fulcrum - Atron
Ged Sinak - Maulus
Kirsid Tannaway - Sentinel, Griffin
Ky Hanomaa - Merlin
Lost Eagle1 - Merlin, Punisher
Lucia en Cedoulain - Griffin
Meliodas Zateki - Tormentor
Neemo Beer - Merlin
Noah Atoms - Punisher
Talon Mayaki - Merlin

How this even happened: a few newbros in HSC decided they wanted to go on a Lowsec Roam, one of them volunteered as FC and I decided to join them. And so, with Meliodas Zateki as the FC we started planning the Fleet. I myself have never FC'd before, but wanted to try it for a long time and decided to help Meliodas as best I could with deciding the doctrine (Kitchen Sink Frigates) and planning the route we we're going to take, as well as quickly briefing him on some of the FC conventions used by the Uni (manuvering the fleet, how to call for things, how to find and engage targets in lowsec, etc.) and after getting 7 people together we were on our way with me as our scout.

Black Rise turned out to be pretty quite at the time (except for Nennamaila, but engaging T2 cruisers and T3Ds in frigates seemed like a bad idea) and
we we're moving through systems pretty quickly as everyone got the hang of fleet movement.

Kills and Losses

I found a Fed Navy Comet I had been chasing around earlier on a Novice in Nisuwa where he was engaging a Kestrel. After getting point on the Kestrel I called in the Fleet and let my point cycle out while I waited for one of them to go down so I could quickly point the other. After some fleet member arrived we quickly killed the heavily damaged Comet and were pretty excited about our first kill of the fleet.

(03:45:54) Nisuwa
Kestrel +6.35m
Federation Navy Comet +22.98m

Right after we finished killing the Comet, Meliodas dropped connection and I quickly took over as FC as a flashy Stabber landed on us. After quickly talking with Kirsid we decided to engage the Stabber. Our Griffin pretty much died instantly to his drones and a Merlin followed soon after. I called to kill his drones after realizing that those were dealing most of his damage and after loosing one more Merlin it was actually looking pretty good. He was getting neuted so his active shield tank couldn't have kept him alive for much longer and most of his damage was gone. However, that was when a non-flashy Scythe Fleet Issue landed and I immediately called SCATTER since I couldn't risk loosing the entire fleet to potential enemy reinforcements (as it turns out, I was correct and the SFI was a friend of the Stabber).

Griffin -0.76m
Merlin -3.65m
Merlin -3.71m

After scattering I warped to a safe and called the fleet to me while we we're assessing the damage and waited for a few of our new members to join up with us! A few from the Thorax fleet decided to come over and pew with us. At this point a returned command of the fleet back to Meliodas who had rejoined us shortly after the we engaged the Stabber but let me FC the rest of that fight. After that point we we're doing some sort of "dual-FC" thing where we were kinda FC'ing at the same time, him when it was calm and the fleet was moving system to system, with me taking over when it was getting a bit too hectic or when someone had a question about ships, the route, etc.

(I'm still not sure if it was the right thing to do. We never explitily stated we we're doing it like that now and I just sort of "took over" every time I felt like it was necessary, from that point on. I felt bad, and still do, for just taking his command away at times, but Meliodas seemed to be fine with it and everyone else just sorta rolled with it)

I was organizing everyone and getting a new route set up when while we were sitting at the safe. That turned out to be a fatal mistake as the SFI from earlier warped on top of us thanks to a combat prober we/I didn't notice and blapped Kirsid (I'm still sorry about that, I should have docked us at a station)

(04:09:38) Nisuwa
Sentinel -51.65m
Capsule -0.01m

After everyone met up in a Station is Nisuwa our new sorta scout Ged found another Comet which I proceeded to tackle and die to because I forget to burn away first and then start locking him, not the other way around. Scrammed, webbed, popped.

(04:18:37) Nisuwa
Atron -9.23m

As it turns out, said Comet ended up dying to a Hookbill soon after!

(04:27:45) Nisuwa
Federation Navy Comet +36.92m

At some point around here, Meliodas had to drop fleet and I took over permanently as the FC.

After roaming around a bit more we found a plexing catalyst and got everyone on the kill this time!

(04:40:44) Asakai
Catalyst +2.84m

After tackling an Enyo, who turned out to be rail-fit, on a Novice I called scatter after it became clear that he could outrun the entire fleet and would just pick us off one by one. One of us got tackled however, but managed to get out thanks our Griffin jamming the Enyo and heroically sacrificing himself.

(05:17:57) Villasen
Griffin -10.73m

After that we continued roaming around, looking for any possible targets, but finding all of the systems to be either empty or filled with things that we were not equipped to deal with. The Enyo from earlier was following us around and was playing games with us. At one point we were warping to the Kehjari gate to chase it away, as we had a fleet member in another Griffin incoming, and it decided to engage one of us. We pointed him and threw everything we had at him, I called for overheating everything and it looked like he was going down, but then... his weapon timer ran out and he jumped. At 19 Hull left. 19. Not percent, actual hp. Needless to say, it was quite infuriating. (Picture generously provided by the Enyo pilot: https://pasteboard.co/HYunNum.png)

After that dissappointing fight we made our way back to Stacmon and arrived there safely with no content on the way.

At this point some people were sad they made it home intact so I made a proposal: "Let's just kill each other!" After some confusion, everone that wanted to die warped to the sun for a glorious, bloody, free for all melee, so that we all may enter the halls of Valhalla.

"3, 2, 1 Ged Sinak is primary" - Auric Fulcrum

(05:47:48) Stacmon
Maulus -12.08m
Punisher -6.71m
Atron -4.78m

Stats
ISK Destroyed: 69,081,306.13
ISK Lost: 103,312,807.25
ISK Delta: -34,231,501.12
Efficiency: 40.072%

Overall evaluation

• ✔ (Positive stuff)
  -Despite using a weird FC'ing style, the fleet was generally well organized and everyone did a good job both following and giving orders!
  -The entire fleet was really relaxed and everyone had lots of fun (at least it looked that way to me).
  -Both me and Meliodas learned a lot about FC'ing and the "relative" newbros that joined us got more comfortable and better at fleet PvP. (You could really notice how with every command that was given the fleet worked just a little bit faster and smoother, everyone getting more and more used to following/giving orders and roaming around as a cohesive unit. It was awesome to be a part of that!)
  ✘ (Negative stuff)
  -Don't just leave everyone in space at a "safe", otherwise it's not gonna stay safe for long!
  -Two different people calling for what the fleet should do leads to confusion at times, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.
  -I need to become more confident in my decisions as FC, I was constantly debating in my head if what I was doing was the right move.
  -I really should have talked more with Meliodas about who is going to do what instead of just taking over when I felt the situation called for it. I was the scout (at least at the start), not the FC. It wasn't my place to make decisions for him, but I did anyway because I wanted to help him and everyone else get through this better. What I'm writing here sounds a lot less light-hearted and relaxed than it was in practice, but I still feel bad about it.

[Kirsid Tannaway]

After tackling an Enyo, who turned out to be rail-fit, on a Novice I called scatter after it became clear that he could outrun the entire fleet and would just pick us off one by one. One of us got tackled however, but managed to get out thanks our Griffin jamming the Enyo and heroically sacrificing himself.

-I really should have talked more with Meliodas about who is going to do what instead of just taking over when I felt the situation called for it. I was the scout (at least at the start), not the FC. It wasn't my place to make decisions for him, but I did anyway because I wanted to help him and everyone else get through this better. What I'm writing here sounds a lot less light-hearted and relaxed than it was in practice, but I still feel bad about it.

The Enyo was indeed point and rails. We engaged on the novice, but you called scatter, and we all made it to the citadel. I saw them at the medium a few minutes later, and it was the second extraction that was a bit messy, although we all got out.

I was aggressed by them on the other side of the gate, in Kehjari, but they took gate guns and left w/o getting scrammed. I waited around while the rest of the fleet warped to the other gate, and he returned and aggressed me again, but I jumped, then crashed gate and jumped again. This was when I called for the fleet to back me up. ^_^ I let them aggress me again when the fleet landed, but didn't hit the jump in time and died. This time they were scrammed, but survived.

As for the FCing, more clearcut roles would have helped. Mayhaps Meliodas could have more or less run the fleet, and then asked you to take over whenever he ran into serious problem (With a cry of Help Auric!). That said, it was already made clear early on that you were supporting him as a backseat, and you fufilled that role admirably(like in the stabber fight). You both did great, for firsttime FCs. ^_^ 5/7 would fly with youse again.

[Auric Fulcrum]

I waited around while the rest of the fleet warped to the other gate, and he returned and aggressed me again, but I jumped, then crashed gate and jumped again. This was when I called for the fleet to back me up. ^_^ I let them aggress me again when the fleet landed, but didn't hit the jump in time and died. This time they were scrammed, but survived.

Ah, ok. I couldn't quite remember how it went when writing the AAR so I just kinda guessed based on the Killboard. Thank you for clearing that up!

[Staberinde]

Just to echo what Kirsid has said, it sounds like the biggest issue you ran into was combining FC's.

I can understand that running fleets can be very daunting, so I'm not opposed to people FC'ing part of a fleet, especially if they've organised it together.

What might work better in a situation like this would be to more clearly alternate between FC'ing (for example, FC until the next engagement or for a set period of time) that might help keep things clear to people in the fleet who they are listening to keep direction a little more focused.

Otherwise some decent kills there and sounds like there were some engagements that were well escaped as well that are not as simply reflected in the numbers, but just as important to develop as an FC - good job!