[AAR] Magic Merlins - Jan 6th 2024

[Francie]

Roam members (23)

Spoiler

Aled Helugo - Merlin
Alex EpicPotato - Merlin
Ambrose Ashley - Merlin
Amfion Bravais - Merlin
Ashol Vokan - Merlin
Biodegradable - Merlin
Dev Terran - Merlin
Flando Prime - Merlin
Flax Harakeke - Harpy
Francie
Gabriel CHL - Merlin
Gurna Smunkle - Merlin
Harnser Kynes - Merlin
Harper J Sheen
JonseyJones - Merlin
JosephLuck - Merlin
Menelmir - Harpy, Malediction
Quattro Bazinga - Merlin
Smithsonion
Taka Bassam - Merlin
Volking - Merlin
Yuri Titov - Merlin
Zeus0x00 - Merlin

Welcome to 2024!

Started by taking a vote... slow and steady, or take ALL dps ships and 1 COV-OPS to Turnur. Fleet was almost unanimous in wanting the fight. Undocked, prayed the hole was still there (9 J away). Hole was critical, but keeping prop mods off our small ships bravely made it through.

Ti-di is nightmarish. Fleet vibes went into hull. Reps came by finding targets to lock, but station games are even more dreadful at 26%. Sent a scout to go check for content escaping from holes rather than content escaping from gates. We figured we were more likely to catch big scary coordinated fleets leaving through gates rather than stragglers once we'd seen the HUGE gf's in local.

We did, however, catch a hound and a Kiki on our way out. Brilliant. ISK positive if we park it here. We did not.
Bravely, we took the executive call to proceed with Merlin/Harpy scouts instead of reshipping to ceptors. No scout ships, no logi, we will endure.

We found a praxis. "It has no guns, it's probably smart bombs" called the FC. "NO BOSS, We've got him" called the fleet.
He was smart bomb fit. Luckily we only lost 3. We scratched his paint tho.

Onward.

We docked at an NPC station to repair smart bomb damage, and lost our two pseudo-scouts to RL commitments. Maybe scouting in Merlins is the worst torture imaginable, maybe it was coincidence. I'll chat to my therapist about that one. The NPC station is 3 jumps Thera. The plan is called; we break, we ping again, we burn to Thera. Reinforcements arrived. Thank you all who came late.

Menelmir gets the tap on the shoulder. Time for you to put your FCTO hat off and attach the cool hi-tech scouting hat. Harpy scouting hat.
It didn't take him long to find the right kind of trouble. Jumping into an Ashimmu and a Hecate he bravely burns towards them - cloaked FC trying to bring the fleet through. They're 80 off the gate. Such an awkward number. FC bounces the fleet to the adjacent celestial, and combat-probe-punts the fleet to zero on the hecate right as our harpy explodes. Worth it tho. Ashimmmu warps off. Station games approach.

One of our number was holding their ship together with duct tape after the hecate, so we dock in another NPC station. NPC station cleverly spotted by that very member. "Maller and [something else I can't remember] on station FC". "It's fine, dock up" "Tornado at 200 off the station FC", "Celestis landing FC". Darn. Try catch the tornado with probes, it's too smart. At least the fleet is at range. Maller locks up FC cov-ops ship at the undock, FC docks. Other ships now sitting on the undock, tornado sitting at zero on the other side of the station. Brief the crew. Francie is going to undock in his nullified cloak ship and check outgate, I'll tell you if it's clear. 2IC will call an undock and warp you there if it is.

Outgate clear.
Undock, undock, undock. Take this warp, gate is green.
FC they've bubbled us.
*Oh no song from TikTok*.

^^ A haiku if you don't count the syllables. I suggest you don't.

Luckily it was 2IC and one other member left in the bubble. The rest got out. Next system entirely empty, good. We can hide the fleet there. 3IC gets invented and field-promoted to squad commander in the magic window. 2IC plays station games of their own. They undock, Tornado tries to alpha them.

New plan. Nullified cov-ops ship will warp to the structure as eyes. Fleet is sitting on the other side of the gate into system. Our Harpy scout has JUST caught up to fleet in a reshipped Malediction from PC9. FC Cov-ops ship is going to sneak behind the tornado on a direct vector to the fleet's gate. Fleet will jump gate and warp to cover-ops at range, but therefore ZERO to the tornado. Either the tornado warps off and we kill the bubblers to spring our trapped flatmates, or we pop the tornado with 20 Merlins. Both are a win.

The station's model uncloaks the FC cov-ops: wasn't careful enough. Was only counting the distance on the overview. Tornado almost insta-locks the covops ship. Can't hit the frigate with its AB on. FLEET JUMP JUMP JUMP, warp to FC at 20.

Scout lands 7km from the tornado.
Tornado warps off.

THIS WAS PART OF THE PLAN. BURN TOWARDS THE TWO BUBBLERS.
Scram both.

They dock.
Bubbles disappear.
Fleet escapes as one.


2IC gets their feet wet as FC on the way home. Astero tries to prey on FC's uncloaked cov-ops ship on the hole back to Stacmon. Cov-ops ship jumps the hole. Astero follows. Cov-ops ship makes sure they're unlocked and seen to be slow-boating back. Astero aggresses on K-space side. Cov-ops jumps again. Astero thinks he's got him! That covert-ops is polarised. Astero jumps in after the bait, and uncloaks right as 20 Merlins land from a 150AU warp right on top of them - they promptly explode.

We make it home to Stacmon.
Also, we scratched the paint on a crane leaving Turner while it played ti-di station games. We're keeping that one in the AAR for our troubles.

Kills and Losses

(21:40:36) Turnur, Y-MPWL, D61A-G
Hound +34.39m
Kikimora +115.69m
Capsule +1183.2m
Crane +232.74m
Merlin -2.71m
Merlin -3.99m
Merlin -19.65m
Capsule -4.85m
Capsule -0.01m
Capsule -0.01m
Velator +1.84m

(21:56:04) 4B-NQN
Mobile Tractor Unit +15.44m

(22:40:13) RPS-0K
Harpy -42.15m
Hecate +125.25m

(22:46:17) RPS-0K
Merlin -7.85m
Merlin -7.95m

(23:17:44) Thera
Astero +359.4m
Capsule +0.01m

Stats
ISK Destroyed: 2,067,957,843.85
ISK Lost: 89,159,337.76
ISK Delta: 1,978,798,506.09
Efficiency: 95.867%

[Aled Helugo]

Great fun! Thanks for the fleet

[Biodegradable]

Great fleet - nice FC'ing by all the FC's, likewise the Merlin Scouts did an excellent job. Will take fleet again

[Amfion Bravais]

A little personal AAR from my end:

Francie fleets are always fun and I join every one that I can! Got to experience TiDi for the first time, which was one hell of an experience. You know that feeling of trying to run in a swimming pool, but you just end up like a sort of limbering giant? TiDi is exactly that, but with spaceships, in the swimming pool of space. Maybe this allegory doesn't hold up that well.

We did manage to grab some catches in the big fight in Turnur. Not the fights we were hoping for, but we came out very much ISK positive and trying to point/scram people and play station games with TiDi was very funny. Fleet vibes were immaculate, and we got a 1.1 billion ISK pod.

I was lovingly volun-told by Francie to do some Merlin scouting once we made our way to Nullsec. Despite having no scouting experience whatsoever, and with it certainly made no easier in a Merlin, I think I managed to get by okay enough. I've watched some Dscan/scouting videos before, and tried to learn from when other people scout in fleet, so I had a rough idea of what to do. Almost got caught by a Caracal on one of our outgates while scouting, but I managed to outrange his scram and make it back to the fleet safely, with not even the slightest scratch on the paint of my Uni emblem-adorned Merlin.

Fleet took a short break to reform and repair and I unfortunately had an IRL situation in the background that needed my urgent attention. I promise you, FC, it wasn't your fault and I would have loved to pseudo-scout some more for you, but unfortunately this was aggro I could not escape.

Thanks for the fleet and I look forward to the next one!

[JosephLuck]

Fantastic fleet a lot of fun, Francie and all the crew was splendid.....hope to fly with you asap

[Taka Bassam]

Good times, Magic Merlins are great fun! Thank you all for the entertaining evening
Loot of the hecate is dropped into donations corp hanger.

[Sir Blackstone III]

What a great AAR Francie, really enjoyed your writing style!