[AAR] FOB hunting in Zorrabed (2019/01/28)

[Tau Hopper]

A FOB spawned next door, in Zorrabed, so we took it down before any unsuspecting campus member could lose a mining ship to the rats.

Roam members (7)

Once again, the fleet approach was the usual method based upon multiple Dominix for taking on the FOB, and a frigate to keep the miners –and their associated response fleet– busy somewhere else in the system. Additionally, two Nestors and one Absolution were also included in the fleet. All of these being piloted by:

Spoiler

Tau Hopper - Dominix
Zeerse Solaris - Dominix
Korm Rayh - Dominix
JohnPlayerNotSpecial - Nestor
Lisa Loser - Nestor
Jesrebi Fera - Absolution
Ary Karimozov - Atron

The Dominix were provided by the campus, with the following fit for the aforementioned battleships:

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

Imperial Navy Praetor x5
Acolyte II x5
Infiltrator II x5

Scan Resolution Script x2

Spoiler

[Nestor, Nestor (FOB)]
1600mm Steel Plates II
Reactive Armor Hardener
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor Thermal Hardener II
Armor Thermal Hardener II

Large Cap Battery II
Large Cap Battery II
Large Cap Battery II
Large Cap Battery II
Parallel Enduring Target Painter
Large Micro Jump Drive

Large Remote Armor Repairer II
Large Remote Armor Repairer II
Large Remote Armor Repairer II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II

Large Remote Repair Augmentor I
Large Egress Port Maximizer II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit II

Infiltrator II x5
Acolyte II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
Warden II x5
Federation Navy Ogre x5

Damage Control II x1
Drone Damage Amplifier II x2
Large Remote Armor Repairer II x1

, and, as for the miner-puller:

Spoiler

[Atron, Atron (FOB)]
Nanofiber Internal Structure I
Nanofiber Internal Structure I
Damage Control I

5MN Microwarpdrive I
Small Shield Extender I
Small Shield Extender I

150mm Railgun I

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

Antimatter Charge S x120

Kills and Losses

The operation went rather smooth, aside from the belt with the FOB miners being initially misidentified due to some other rats spotted via d-scan. Once the right asteroid belt was located, the Atron went in and pinned the subsequent response fleet there.

Given the inexperience of one of the pilots, a brief rehearsal of the fleet mechanics and action plan was then conducted next to the sun before proceeding with the actual assault. Once the key elements of the Dominix fit were reviewed, and a drill on establishing the cap and armor repairer chain was conducted, we warped at 300 km of the FOB.

The FOB response fleet consisted of just 8 battleships, 1 Auguror and 1 Cruor. The latter were dispatched with light and medium drones; and we went on to warp at 0 km, tanking the battleships while the heavy drones did their job on the base:

(22:47) Zorrabed
Blood Raider Forward Operating Base +83.05m

The only noteworthy aspect was the fact that, due to the Armor Rigging skill of one of the pilots and the drawback of the Large Remote Repair Augmentor I rig the Dominix were equipped with, his battleship was slower than the rest. So, when the fleet was ordered to approach that of the FC, and this started to orbit the FOB to gain some transversal velocity, said battleship started to lag behind. This should be taken into account in future fleets, e.g. by orbiting the base at half-speed, to keep all ships together and the cap and armor repairer chain intact.

Stats

ISK Earned: 239,138,665.42
ISK Lost: 0.00
ISK Delta: 239,138,665.42
Efficiency: 100%

Overall evaluation

• ✔ (Positive stuff)
  - We made the AMC constellation safe again before any campus member got hurt.
  - Even with the additional ships and DPS, the response we got from the rats remained mild.
  
  ✘ (Negative stuff)
  - The FOB loot seemed to have depreciated since last time.