I was trying to arrange a fight with some acquaintances so we would be guaranteed some content.
However, I had a much larger group then expected for a Monday night. So I let my friends know our numbers were excessive for their fleet comp and they noped out. I had been rushing the fleet to the engagement when they said no... so I changed my plan for a roam out to Black Rise. I had 2 scouts + an alt with eyes, and 4 or 5 logi, plus 20-some bloodythirty Merlins with lovely application. So I wanted to fight something significant.
Roam members (27)
Spoiler
Archemide - Merlin
Auchar Baarus - Executioner
Branclem Bobbus - Merlin
Caladius - Merlin
Conci Furiram - Merlin
CyberBlackEagle - Merlin
Drault Sarn - Merlin
Durnik Risalo - Burst
Ged Sinak - Atron
Gol-goroth - Merlin
Gymea Tsutola - Merlin
Kirsid Tannaway - Merlin
Ky Hanomaa - Merlin
Lucia en Cedoulain - Merlin
Marcus Arilia - Tristan (joined later)
Meliodas Zateki - Merlin
Neemo Beer - Merlin
Penelore - Merlin
Poul Vynneve - Merlin
Redpoint Lu'Varro - Bantam
Satoshi Tomeii - Merlin
Talon Mayaki - Merlin
Thorkel Forste - Merlin
Z0X Ambrye - Executioner
jammer Atruin - Burst
timber justinlake - Merlin
So at first I ran. I ran us around a whole weird area, through some high sec, to another low sec area. I had scouts and eyes moving in opposite directions around a loop, scouts looking for some content to keep my newbros happy, and eyes watching this fleet moving towards us.
But truth was... I wanted this fight, and we weren't going to avoid them completely anyway. So I told my scout to set us up in a Medium plex. I told the merlins to sit at 0 and the logi to pull range to 10km. And then I went and talked a bit of smack on discord until the other fleet engaged.
And this happen...
Kills and Losses
(02:52:53) Odamia
Merlin -5.1m
Merlin -3.73m
Capsule -0.01m
Stabber +31.08m
Stabber +30.97m
Merlin -11.94m
Stabber +47.85m
Merlin -5.26m
Stabber +30.69m
Executioner -6.41m
Stabber +30.79m
Capsule +0.01m
Stabber +30.87m
Hyena +53.33m
THE FIGHT SUMMARY
I thought I did okay with the target calling and positioning. Admittedly I missed changing targets to the Hyena when he landed on zero. I was tunnel vision a bit on a few people in Stabbers who I KNEW were very good pvpers. I called Chessur and Analiese primary and secondary... but Analiese pulled range on me fast so I let him go and started moving through the rest of the Stabbers.
I did pretty good at moving the fleet from target to target, and telling them when to turn MWD on to get to the next target fast. We traded 5 merlins and one tackle for their Stabbers. The Hyena got away since once I missed it's initial tackle it was uncatchable, but someone killed it for us later so o7 thanks random_pvper_01.
So then the friend I set up the fight with in the beginning wanted to play... and sat a Raven on a gate near us looking to trade.
He went after logi first and I traded a few more Merlins and a couple Bursts.
(03:12:42) Aldranette
Merlin -3.22m
Burst -3.83m
Burst -3.6m
Merlin -3.73m
Merlin -11.72m
Raven +194.23m
Executioner -2.72m
Heretic +86.91m
But what I really wanted was that Heretic. The Heretic had been watching the fight with the Raven the whole time and was probably hoping to get in on the killmails. He was keeping range and I didn't feel he was much of a threat, but I wanted him none the less. As soon as the Raven popped, I called the Heretic as primiary and MWD on and a mass of crazy newbro Merlins zerged him. I'm betting he peed a little. \o/
The rest of the roam turned into what a low sec roam usually is. Moving the fleet through systems, scouts +1. We caught a few things. On the way home I started moving the scouts to +1 and +2. Take tackle 2 systems out and trade points... and move in a quicker pattern to get us home.
(03:34:59) Hikkoken
Rifter +9.73m
(03:53:26) Eha
Tristan +7.06m
(04:05:51) Vey
Retribution +63.51m
All and all a pretty fun fleet. Mostly because we won the initial engagement that I had feared in the beginning so handily. It gave me the confidence I needed to keep moving and having fun.
To those who died for EUni content and learning... I salute you o7.
(Even if you did scare the crap out of me at first.)
Lesson learned once again... sometimes you can win things you don't know if you can win.
Stats
ISK Destroyed: 617,012,397.8
ISK Lost: 61,252,775.36
ISK Delta: 555,759,622.44
Efficiency: 90.969%