First of all, thanks to all who responded and took part in the QRF! In my book, each loss we inflict on WTs makes them less eager to come and look for cheap kills, so they either will leave us alone or commit to good fights. The fact that we can always improve does not mean there were no positives.
POSITIVES vs POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS
-Cutecumber calls for frigates doctrines when dealing with kitey ships, giving us more chances to land tackle, which is a solid reasoning.
Cit 101 had zero armor frigates, be it logi or punishers, which forced some to either use their own stock or to go kitchen sink. It feels bad to play the ping/tactical game well and land tackle, only to see the Phantasm run away (because no web punisher is lame
We need some more contracts for logi/mainline/tackle armor frigs at 101, and a handful of fednavy comets, personally don't mind Jita prices.
-We formed up quickly and managed to fill the logi minimums. Ergan Eto has always been a reliable jack of all trades and he can take care of almost any role. Batto Ashitaka has been doing a great job as a logi in all the fleets he has been in. Props for newbro Triton for picking a logi role.
Being on the logi squad or x-ing up in fleet is a requirement for logi pilots, especially in cap chain situations. This being a QRF, we had to be in HSC main comms, and no logi channel means Logi Fc has to take some time from combat comms to sort things out and I'm sorry if I sometimes speak over Fc.
-The up-ship into cruisers was very fast, and we fielded a big fleet in no time.
The problem was that we had an FC and other ships fitted with MWD chasing kitey stuff, while logi and most fleet were AB fit. This almost jeopardized the fleet, as we were strung out many times. The fact that FC was careful and treaded well between logi optimal and fallof is a testament of both good Fc-ing and good piloting skills, but having him lead the charge was dangerous and we had to rep him from hull many times. We solved the problem by reshipping logi with mwd and smaller plates I had in hangar, but it's a duct tape solution, we need better options.
-A paradox we face when fielding these fleets is that tackle requires less SP but a lot of good piloting, while DD and logi require more SP, but can be covered by relatively junior pilots. Last night, almost half of the senior pilots had to cover logi/support roles, which meant we prevented more losses, but on the other hand we lacked expert tackle to go against our opponents, meaning Cutecumber had to be both tackle and FC at the head of the fleet. We need more tackle classes and basic training for combat pilots.
Until next time, fly fun!
Yto Itinen