Spoiler
Auric Fulcrum
Bruice Almighty
Falling Snow KumaMoto
Giacomo Belenos
Iam Nota Bot - Caldari Shuttle
Larkvi - Talwar
Marcel Eriker
Nathan Blackmane
Nienke Solette - Talwar, Rifter, Heron
Titus Empire
Tolerin Escipion - Slasher, Rifter
Yto Itinen - Slasher, Rifter
(20:02:42) Harroule
Caldari Shuttle -0.02m
(20:44:01) Moclinamaud
Talwar -4.52m
Slasher -1.58m
Slasher -2.54m
(20:54:45) Moclinamaud
Rifter -3.86m
(21:18:41) Oicx
Rifter -3.49m
Rifter -3.82m
(21:31:39) Oicx
Rifter -3.83m
Rifter -3.8m
(21:38:50) Pavanakka
Talwar -5.59m
Rifter -3.83m
(22:54:44) Ouelletta
Heron -9.54m
Stats
ISK Destroyed: 0
ISK Lost: 46,416,185.2
ISK Delta: -46,416,185.2
Efficiency: 0%
I came into this fleet at the last minute, as Psychotic had to bow out due to a real life situation that came up, and delegated to Nienke, who asked if I would be willing to take over the fleet. This is my first time flying Minmatar ships (I just finished BLAP a few days ago, and Minmatar was the last racial category I trained), and I was looking forward to learning about them by flying, but I was game to step it up and give it a try. From the start, I was not particularly familiar with the ships and had no considered doctrine, but it was a kitchen sink fleet anyways, and there were contracts up at Amy, so I switched into a Talwar (from my planned logi ship) and we started forming up. I asked for two logi, not because I really knew whether or not they were appropriate, but because that seemed like something that we should have. Two scouts I was much more confident we needed. In practice, the opposition we ended up going against had high alpha and we did not make particularly good use of them. This was my first time giving the newbro speech, so of course we all disconnected due to the DDoS attack and took a few minutes relogging before we got under way at around 20:25. I let the fleet know that I was a bit unfamiliar with both FCing and the ships themselves, and asked them to speak up when they knew something relevant and they consistently did throughout the fleet, helping keep things going.
Perhaps setting a theme for the night, we lost a shuttle before we even undocked, as a Unista coming to the formup was hit on the way in.
We passed a Loki piloted by Taylor Moon Mahyisti on the way into losec, and there was some discussion about whether this was a pilot that Psychotic had an arrangement with that we did not know about, so we decided at the time to give her a pass. As it turned out, she did not take a pass on us; after inconclusively engaging targets which we could not lock or could not keep scram on (we did not have enough webs) and another disconnect that hit the FC hard and necessitated a dockup and bio break, she caught up to us as we were engaging with a (presumed bait) Brutix on a gate in a sniper-fit Loki, and managed to take out both FC and 2IC almost immediately. 3IC took over and got the fleet off of the gate and to the reship station, where we got in whatever was available and kept going. Apparently, we lost the Brutix, but I was unclear how, as I was off-grid at that point. The Loki dogged us for the entire roam, and was almost completely un-engageable with our fleet setup, even though we tried on multiple occasions to lock it on an out gate. She even sent a note:
[21:56:04] Taylor Moon Mahyisti > i wanted psychotic flickity to see my leet loki skills
[21:56:11] Taylor Moon Mahyisti > could you tell her pls
Despite valiant attempts to engage a variety of targets (and losing the scouts twice) we were on our way out of losec, having detected an unegageable gatecamp, when Yto found a Gila in an Abyssal in Ouletta. Nienke went back and got a combat probe Heron fit (without a cloak--I should have asked, as I specifically supply a cloaky combat probe fit on contract at Amy) and scanned down the Abyssal trace, but the trace disappeared without a Gila appearing, leading us to think the Gila was lost in an Abyssal. While the scanning was going on a Hecate which we had followed earlier came onto grid with Nienke in the Heron. Everyone warped on grid, but we were too late and were not able to tackle the Hecate. At this point, it was truly over, and we went home.
Overall evaluation
- ✔ (Positive stuff)
- Wonderful support from the more experienced players, notably 2IC Nienke Solette, 3IC Auric Fulcrum, Scout Yto Itinen, and Boosher Analee Tsasa.
- When FC and 2IC were alpha'd by the Loki, 3IC decisively took over, kept the fleet together, and got everyone else to the undock.
- Despite disconnect problems, we managed to get out and roam.
- Based upon my own first experience as a scout, I had Yto take the new scout into a separate channel and give a separate briefing.
- Fleet members were very game to engage anything and rolled with the punches.
- Got to see a boosh in action for the first time.
- Multiple fleet members were following what was going on better than the FC and communicated well and clearly their appraisal of the situation.
✘ (Negative stuff) - I asked for logi without any real plan or understanding of how they would interact with our fleet.
- I did not check whether we had an appropriate balance of point, scram, and webs before undocking.
- In the first fight, where we scrammed the Legion but then lost it due to speed/range issues, I and several members were out of position and I should have ordered everyone who was not in range to bounce and warp to the tacklers instead of just sitting at useless ranges. I think we were all surprised at its speed.
- I absolutely should have called for the Brutix to be booshed before we engaged it.
- At one point, Yto called for us to come to a small complex, but I misunderstood the (very clear) communication and held the fleet at the gate instead of warping in.
- I have a very shaky understanding of how gate guns work, which is not great on a losec roam.
- We tried to engage on outgates a lot, and having one instalocker with a scram might have made this more practicable.
- I would have preferred to have some specific roam ships up on contract at the start, rather than the BLAP ships we took, as I would have understood their roles better.
- Multiple fleet members were following what was going on better than the FC, who was confused about what was going on several times.
- A three hour roam with no kills to our name. While I was prepared to welp the fleet, none of the fights we could find seemed worth welping on, since we either could not engage or could not take anything out.
- I need to learn more about ships that I do not fly, espcially those favoured by other PvPers. I was completely unprepared for how effective the Loki pilot was. Scouts would call out targets and I would have to ask if they were engageable.
- I need to fly logi, so I actually understand how to make use of them.
- I need to pay more attention to who in the fleet is flying what.
- I need to pay more attention to fleet balance: do we have speed, do we have snipers, do we have a balance of webs, point, and scram.