[Fleet AAR] Headhunt!

[Eleeyah Myrha]

Good day to one and all!
And welcome to my first fleet!

Today at 1400h EVE time, I practiced first command for the FCC on a fleet of my own design - the Headhunt!
At its heart, this fleet is meant to bring security to high danger systems for the newest of our newbros.
Every now and then I will launch a headhunt on any one of multiple targets, with the aim of making these aware that they are at danger of losing their bling-shipness. I hope to, by repetition and uncomfortable presence, create zones of safety for low level players, so that they can run difficult operations without fear of being ganked while the fleet is active. That would allow them to focus fully on their task and help them stop the drain on their wallets.

Anyhow, back to the AAR:

After going through the newbro speech (Wow Xana, you must've drunk yourself dead, yesterday...) I undocked the fleet and immediately didn't tell the fleet to go to yellow safeties. I believe most did so anyway, because I did mention it during the speech itself. Oh well. Onwards!
Setting the destination to Vlilliliererer (as if I'd know how to spell that), we set off at a brisk pace to said system (Shut it.). I planned and applied a short biobreak of roughly five minutes in this system (THOU SHANT SPEAK THE NAME!), after which we undocked and left for the Black Rise region, in which the target clocked his first kill of the day (as far as we were concerned, anyhow...) in the system of Innia.

What? Oh right. After having staunchly declared that "the fleet is on a headhunt, therefore we will head straight to Vrrlllrlr and avoid all content on the way", we of course immediately killed a target before we got there. Go me. Sticketh not to thine own word, o content creator!
Good tackle by, I believe - send me hate mail if I'm wrong, Alf Saissore and Breeze One secured the fleet a chance to kill the target with great efficiency. It may have been a touch too efficient, as I would have liked to have everybody take part in the kill (most did and anyway), but the target was dead before I thought to call a slow kill. So that's entirely my own fault, being too slow.

(14:23:57) Renarelle
Tristan +22.18m

Well, after that we took our break in Vroom Vroom and after that we went and sort of failed getting kills for almost all the rest of the fleet.

Huh? You want me to elaborate on my shameful FCing? Alrighty then, let me compose my face into a faceless mask.
*punches face until face disappears*
Now, properly prepared and unable to look my fleet in the face with my face, let me talk you through what I probably remember almost not at all correctly.

Having set the destination to the last kill by the target, I sent Breeze One to plus one for me. He quickly reported the target (yep, not mentioning names intentionally) in local in system Aivonen and the fleet made haste to catch up. On the way there we caught sighting of a Worm in combat with another ship, which left in short order as we appeared on D-Scan. We slid the gate on contact, but the Worm warped out just as we hit the site. During this time, the target hadn't left Breeze One's local and he was able to locate him at a Novice Outpost I believe. This is the part I'm most misty on, so I can't tell exactly how it went down.
I had the fleet warp to the outpost and Aisair slide the gate to hopefully catch him, but by the time we got there, Airsair got blown up instead and we had no kill.

(15:05:34) Aivonen
Atron -5.09m

We decided to set up in the Novice Outpost and stuck to the beacon. On D-Scan we were able to see the target and a few members of his corp gather up and eventually arrive at our acceleration gate. They slid through and we very, VERY nearly managed to kill our priority target. Xana McBash had the epic idea of fitting a scram-Punisher to fly really fast in one direction. Sadly, it was the wrong direction. We got scram on the Garmur for about five seconds, but the velocity of the Garmur enabled him to just slide out of range anyway. Since all his other buddies were also in Garmurs, they scooted into their own optimal range leaving us hopelessly in the dust. Nonetheless that was our closest tackle and I learned a few interesting things from it. How to look like appetizing bait for one thing, by fitting ships in unexpected ways. Nobody would have thought a punisher could have the potential of catching a Garmur in a normal setting. Also, we need to use remote sensor boosters to allow the punisher faster locking. In this engagement I got my first feel for a fleet, how things work (or don't work) and next time, I'll be more able to create a fleet fit for purpose.

I fairly quickly called a warp-out to another outpost as the Garmurs gained their range, and most of us were able to run and set up inside another gate. Sadly, our logibro in the Navitas and Kirsi in the Tristan got disrupted on the warp-out and murdered. My hope was to make them slide in on us again, and to this end I had us orbit on the beacon at 5000m, so that we would hopefully have an easier time of scramming and webbing. Because we just lost a fight, we should've looked like REALLY tasty bait. They didn't take us up on it. Instead we watched each other over several AUs and kept a close eye on everything happening in the system.

(15:15:33) Aivonen
Navitas -7.4m
Tristan -11.92m

They eventually left and we followed to Martoh, with lots of bouncing between gates and celestials on the way. The fleet did a pretty good job at keeping up, and i didn't even use the align and fleet warp very often, as my aim was to have the fleet go fast.
There, we found some of their ships sitting outside an acceleration gate. My command got fairly messy at this point, because I failed at directing my own ship properly. As a result, Ailise and I got caught and pointed on the wrong side of the gate and lost our ships. I gave command to Breeze and spent the next half hour reshipping (Should've been faster and already had access to almost everything, but two missing components required almost 15 jumps total to find. I just haven't played this game enough to figure out what I need to stash where.)

(15:56:53) Martoh
Ares -33.91m
Tristan -17.7m

While I was reshipping, Breeze led the fleet to Reitsato and lost a few more ships in combat. I cannot say what happened, as I wasn't around, but I trust it was fun.

(16:26:39) Reitsato
Punisher -4.67m
Condor -8.22m
Punisher -3.61m
Tristan -8.73m

After that, Breeze picked up another kill in Ostingele. That saved the ISK efficency of "my" first fleet. From the killboard, I could imagine that this was a call for help by Arashi Shizukana, but once again, I wasn't around to actually know. Thanks Breeze, at least on paper the fleet was a success. XD

(16:59:55) Ostingele
Gnosis +88.93m

Because the fleet had gone on for so long, we decided to end it and mostly burned homeward under primarily Breeze's command, as I only caught up with the fleet in the middle of the journey home.

Total Fleet Stats:
ISK Destroyed: 111,112,983.98
ISK Lost: 101,258,102.87
ISK Delta: 9,854,881.11
Efficiency: 52.32%


Thank you, everbody, for participating. I learned a lot in this fast-paced fleet, saw some decisions I had made prior to the fleet pay out and figured out a lot about engagements, how to create a favorable situation to get engaged on and why it might be favorable. I'm very sorry for the loss of your ships, but I hope they were too small to be of serious bother!
Please don't hesitate to give me feed back and your own version of events.
Here is a form to give feedback: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... rm?c=0&w=1 but comments below are just as welcome!

[Breeze One]

This was a nice change of pace - in ways I hadn't expected going in. The focus on a single target was actually great - it kept us motivated and gave us purpose even when there was little happening - which meant that even if the ISK efficiency isn't there, it felt like a fun fleet.

You did really well as FC Eleeyah, especially when we were constantly bouncing around between locations trying to engage the Garmur Gang.

As I said at the time, I think the lesson to be learned is that the ship fits need some work - and need to be a little more specialized for the job than just usual PvP Frigates. The targets were willing to slide into us, knowing that our ships (in their usual PvP setup) would be unlikely to grab them fast enough to get a scram on. That would have been a great time to surprise them with an unusual fit.

Lessons for next time though

The losses afterwards were me trying to take on the Navy Harbinger - we spiraled into him very nicely (well done everyone!), but the drones were just eating us alive faster than we could take him down. It was always a long shot.

The Gnosis was part of a gang that Burak and Sketchy found in Ostingele shortly after we got back. Gnosis (weirdly not a gate camper), Cynabal, Caracal, Maller, and couple of Frigates. We had a very fun fight after we re shipped, and took them all out at the cost of (I think) a Thorax and Hookbill. Very fun fight.

[Laser Skaron]

Haha! I love this drive to take that target down! I wonder when he'll start commenting around here in the forums...

[Eleeyah Myrha]

This was a nice change of pace - in ways I hadn't expected going in. The focus on a single target was actually great - it kept us motivated and gave us purpose even when there was little happening - which meant that even if the ISK efficiency isn't there, it felt like a fun fleet.

You did really well as FC Eleeyah, especially when we were constantly bouncing around between locations trying to engage the Garmur Gang.

As I said at the time, I think the lesson to be learned is that the ship fits need some work - and need to be a little more specialized for the job than just usual PvP Frigates. The targets were willing to slide into us, knowing that our ships (in their usual PvP setup) would be unlikely to grab them fast enough to get a scram on. That would have been a great time to surprise them with an unusual fit.

Lessons for next time though

The losses afterwards were me trying to take on the Navy Harbinger - we spiraled into him very nicely (well done everyone!), but the drones were just eating us alive faster than we could take him down. It was always a long shot.

The Gnosis was part of a gang that Burak and Sketchy found in Ostingele shortly after we got back. Gnosis (weirdly not a gate camper), Cynabal, Caracal, Maller, and couple of Frigates. We had a very fun fight after we re shipped, and took them all out at the cost of (I think) a Thorax and Hookbill. Very fun fight.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to spend some time creating a specific headhunting fleet. I intend to stick with T1 ships (so they can all take advantage of novice outposts), maybe there is a way to get a tackle flying fast enough to web down a Garmur without dying immediately. It'll be fun I'm sure.

I was very happy that the target showed activity exactly on time and I feel my research really paid off.

Haha! I love this drive to take that target down! I wonder when he'll start commenting around here in the forums...

I'm looking forward to that... I hope that we will have multiple targets for the headhunt by then, so that I can use names in these AARs without worrying about a reduced efficiency during the hunt. I wonder when the first smart bombing BS will show up...

[Aisair]

Have to say that Garmur is looking pretty sweet. Skilling into one as we speak. Guess I know where to invest the isk I made missioning

Was totally a great fleet with a very specific objective. Was proud to be a part of it. Now working on tweaking some of my ships to take down specific targets and stockpiling the mods for multiple fits and hulls.

I had the fleet warp to the outpost and Aisair slide the gate to hopefully catch him, but by the time we got there, Airsair got blown up instead and we had no kill

Thing was we were jumping to the acceleration gate to slide in when that Garmur showed up. I tried to activate the acc gate but I was pointed immediately (that guy had a really fast lock). Then the order was to bounce and try to get him while he was still busy with me.

On hindsight I would have survived if I had an active rep. Ironically I dropped the rep for a nano plate just as we were leaving haha.

[Eleeyah Myrha]

Have to say that Garmur is looking pretty sweet. Skilling into one as we speak. Guess I know where to invest the isk I made missioning

Was totally a great fleet with a very specific objective. Was proud to be a part of it. Now working on tweaking some of my ships to take down specific targets and stockpiling the mods for multiple fits and hulls.

I had the fleet warp to the outpost and Aisair slide the gate to hopefully catch him, but by the time we got there, Airsair got blown up instead and we had no kill

Thing was we were jumping to the acceleration gate to slide in when that Garmur showed up. I tried to activate the acc gate but I was pointed immediately (that guy had a really fast lock). Then the order was to bounce and try to get him while he was still busy with me.

On hindsight I would have survived if I had an active rep. Ironically I dropped the rep for a nano plate just as we were leaving haha.

Hmm, yeah, it might be worth it to have both active and passive tank fits in the cargo until we know which ship the guy is going to be in. The repper would have been no help against a neuting ship, but against the garmur, sure.
I'll certainly keep that in mind. Thanks for the tip.

The Garmur is an incredible ship, but also ridiculously squishy. You'll probably need to prepare to lose a dozen or two. XD

[Aisair]

Oh most definitely ready to lose those ships But one thing for sure is I'm gonna have a hella lot of fun doing so. I love the concept of far missle bombardment with a fast ship... something I haven't experience much due to my being Gallentean hehe.

[Kontxesi Buchanan]

I was sorry to miss the fleet, but I'm really glad the work I did figuring out his schedule was beneficial. Looks like he showed up right when I said he would! Hopefully you'll be able to grab him next time.

[Eleeyah Myrha]

I was sorry to miss the fleet, but I'm really glad the work I did figuring out his schedule was beneficial. Looks like he showed up right when I said he would! Hopefully you'll be able to grab him next time.

We got REALLY close. I'm thinking that with a more specialized T1 frigate fleet, we're gonna have him dead.

Yes, your pointers were very helpful. I hadn't thought of using the killboard that way until you told me, but after you did, tracking his activities became fairly easy. He's reliably monotone. XD