[AAR] [WHC] No Whales in WHs / Sone Eto's favorite activity

[Willuw Everquest]

Disclaimer: This is probably *not* Sone's favorite activity (moon mining), though it seemed fitting given his recent 32 minute moon mining attempt in Innuendo.

Jumped into one of many new WH systems that WHC is exploring on a daily basis. Immediately upon entering and warping around encountered a Retriever and an Orca on DSCAN. At the time we only had three folks online, myself in a Stratios (undoubtedly the best hull in the game) and three available pilots in fleet 3 jumps away. Utilizing "awesome-sauce" DSCAN skills I quickly ascertained that the Orca and Retriever were in fact moon-mining 100km off an Athanor (Sone Eto's favorite activity). On warp in, I created a perch 400(ish) km off the moon rocks and observed.

LEARNING POINT: Always...always...always, use DSCAN before dropping probes. If the system is larger than 14.3AU … warp around. If I had dropped probes the Orca and retriever likely would have docked up to never be seen again.

I called for Small Ships and was concerned that due to the proximity of the athanor and the Orca's ability to field multiple flights of combat drones we could be in trouble without Logi ... however we simply lacked the numbers and this seemed more fun than spinning ships in ALI. I lit the "Beacons of Minas Tirith" (nerd alert - I slack pinged) and informed my tiny fleet of 3xDD frigates located on the other side of the target system of my plan - Face melt the retriever and then potentially bounce due to lack of Logi.

In WHC fashion, my cries for help were answered and we quickly gathered enough folks to field 2xDeacons plus DD. In the meantime the Orca and Retriever warped to the Forti dropped their cargo and warped back to continue mining. As the fleet grew in size, my plan changed from face-melting a retriever to engaging the Orca, holding it and killing it in a prolonged battle of Athanor (within 100km) Neuts, Orca EHP and good-guy DPS.

I instructed the fleet to jump in and I decloacked warped to the ORCA and tackled it (+3 Scram) - at this stage I instructed the fleet to warp to me (20+ AU distance!!) and grab the Retriever if they could.

LESSON LEARNED: Loron (I believe) asked me the distance from the Wormhole to the target, and frankly I disregarded the question as I was more concerned about the Orca warping off again. Had I taken the 5 seconds to check, I could have had the fleet jump in, decloack and initiate warp before I started to warp to get tackle. Though this is also double edged sword - as the enemy could have had eyes on the hole and it would have given us away...thoughts to ponder.

The Retriever was able to get away before the fleet arrived. At this stage the athanor did its best to harrass us w/neuts (he neuted me at the start, which was interesting as this Stratios is AC fit and AC and drones don't require CAP). I asked the Retri to defang the Orca and we were able to hold against its drones and whatever the Athanor was throwing at us easily - heat was called with 15% of the Orca Hull left and POOF it went.

https://zkillboard.com/kill/79573246/

Roam members (7)

Spoiler

Eir Geiravor - Deacon
Kashug Sotken - Enyo
Loron Garns - Deacon
Shizuka Shinano - Retribution
Willuw Everquest - Stratios
Zokr McLan - Federation Navy Comet
xtx loki - Federation Navy Comet

Kills and Losses

(13:25:36) J104903
Orca +714.92m

Stats
ISK Destroyed: 714,916,111.39
ISK Lost: 0
ISK Delta: 714,916,111.39
Efficiency: 100%

Overall evaluation

• ✔ (Positive stuff)
  - Slack Ping was answered quickly
  - Correct fleet comp did wonders (no Jag due to Stratios tackle)
  - Logi did an outstanding job
  ✘ (Negative stuff)
  - Should have ascertained distance from Hole to Target

PS: WHC IS Recruiting

[Eir Geiravor]

I'll get the KM for my deacon eventually...

Great Job from the FC and Loron - my logi brother

[Talenelat Stonesinew]

I see that Hob II on the Logi ship.

GJ Deacons, MVP!

[Willuw Everquest]

I see that Hob II on the Logi ship.

GJ Deacons, MVP!

So thinking through this engagement a bit more as I am replaying it in my mind - had the Athanor neuted the Deacons; this could have ended differently...hmmmm...well better lucky than good I guess I am unsure whether the Athanor had 2x Neuts (can it?) or just 1.