Roam members (23)
Spoiler
Asuka Rossi - Corax
B'aldrick Aivoras - Talwar
Brock Carlisle - Kikimora
Christoph Patrouette - Cormorant
Falling Snow KumaMoto - Corax
Flatline Kasenumi - Maulus Navy Issue
Helen Dorothy Sharman
Hippla Tsero - Corax, Dragoon
Johnny Raygunn - Thrasher
Kelly Saraki - Talwar, Catalyst
Liet Wu - Catalyst
Marcel Eriker - Dragoon
Marv Edwoods - Algos, Cormorant
Raas Caslo - Dragoon, Catalyst
Sophia Ligeti - Coercer
Squin Ti - Corax
Stogal Severasse - Catalyst
Tolerin Escipion - Dragoon
Toma Heleneto - Caldari Navy Hookbill
Yto Itinen - Algos
Zairnix Onren - Talwar
eoiles - Thrasher, Catalyst
manda doomsslayer - Corax, Catalyst
B'aldrick Aivoras - Talwar
Brock Carlisle - Kikimora
Christoph Patrouette - Cormorant
Falling Snow KumaMoto - Corax
Flatline Kasenumi - Maulus Navy Issue
Helen Dorothy Sharman
Hippla Tsero - Corax, Dragoon
Johnny Raygunn - Thrasher
Kelly Saraki - Talwar, Catalyst
Liet Wu - Catalyst
Marcel Eriker - Dragoon
Marv Edwoods - Algos, Cormorant
Raas Caslo - Dragoon, Catalyst
Sophia Ligeti - Coercer
Squin Ti - Corax
Stogal Severasse - Catalyst
Tolerin Escipion - Dragoon
Toma Heleneto - Caldari Navy Hookbill
Yto Itinen - Algos
Zairnix Onren - Talwar
eoiles - Thrasher, Catalyst
manda doomsslayer - Corax, Catalyst
Maiden voyage of the fleet through some hisec, we practiced all fleet movements, discipline would pay off later that night!
Fought Taylor on an Orthrus for a bit, no casualties by either sides, our independent scout tells us of an SNI next door. We blue Taylor, go for the SNI.
Why did I decide to take the SNI fight under gateguns:
I valued that 23 ppl in fleet would be upwards of 2.3k DPS with min skills. That is a lot of damage.
Dragoons and Algoses have the ability to put decent neut pressure.
I have pings on the gate that allow me to go in and out gategun range.
People who live there are often time ratters with fits that are not appropriate for PvP. A passive regen fit would have died.
The shock and awe effect of 23 people attacking and putting pressure on a single pilot is not to be underestimated.
I believed a spooling Kiki and an Orthrus would be a decent tipping point in our favor, knowing both pilots are quite skilled.
The fight on paper was uphill to say the best, but the baptism by fire of gateguns was something I was eager to try: swim or sink.
Kills and Losses
(21:13:42) Ruerrotta
Algos -4.41m
Corax -6.34m
Corax -5.96m
Capsule -0.01m
Thrasher -12.74m
Dragoon -4.68m
Dragoon -8.91m
Thrasher -4.58m
Maulus Navy Issue -22.87m
Dragoon -4.69m
Caldari Navy Hookbill -17.11m
Corax -5.29m
Talwar -4.47m
Talwar -10.51m
Kikimora -154.54m
Talwar -3.23m
Algos -7.28m
Catalyst -3.85m
Coercer -8.77m
Dragoon -4.72m
Scuts engaged the SNI and he fired back, even while being too close to the gate. This encouraged me to believe he might either be tricked or panicked into firing, anyway, hello aggression timer! Now I committed all fleet and made sure at no point he was de-agressing.
What bothers me is that FC had a problem with TACs, as I could see my deep safes but not gate pings I had on the same folder.
Some bounces were decent, but they were not on-grid pings. I went again at the place of the fight the next day, my TACs are now all showing...
We had a huge dps spike that was slowly curbed by gateguns and the SNI itself, although he was terribly fit to apply to small stuff, his drones did well.
Algoses defanged him for a while, but his dronebay was still full. SNI was pretty well omnitanked, as we had a variety of types of damage we dealt, and he also had active tank that held neut pressure well. I was waiting for the moment his capsticks would end, as he had dipped in hull, but instead we got a Typhoon. Oh well, that was the tipping point that turned the fight and we had no more hope in reships coming from 3 j out to turn the tide.
Now I did an anylisis of the kilmails and some things could be improved upon:
1)Some people died with their active repper fully charged. I think I gave them enough time during the maiden voyage to familirize with ships,
seems the PvP shakes got someone For next time: cycle your tank. Some people did not have loaded reppers, although reminded to do so, we will do better next time.
2) Some killmails either went full DPS/no tank or switched to shield buffer tank. If we had logi, that might have been a good idea. This fleet was annunced as no logi fleet, so the self reps were the only option. Shield extenders also increase your signature against bigger guns and missiles. The doctrine is there for a reason!
3)Some people died exclusively to gate guns. This meant sitting still while not being tackled and just watching your tank go down with no reaction. The bounces were called, so I chalk this one to good ol'PvP shakes! Don't worry, it happens! That's why it's important to learn that lesson in a cheap destroyer and not in an expensive ship: the more you fight, the better you will get at reacting! Maybe next time I will have us take gate guns just for the sake of teaching fleet how long they can hold fire.
To recap, this fleet comp came into being with two different aims: punching down on small, blingy ships, with a high alpha doctrine and punching up on a single big ship fight like this, with the algoses and the dragoons as heavy hitters. We were a bit light on the second category during the SNI fight, but taking it into hull is no small feat!
(22:28:00) Aulbres
Maulus Navy Issue -22.18m
We decided to go look around Stacmon, where a Caracal gang was in theory looking for a fight. In practice we found dreads
and other nasty stuff. We navigated those messy systems quite well, until I found a quiet system where we could fight Taylor,
(this time reshipped into a Cynabal) with no third/4th/5th parties.
After confirmation of her arty fit came, we decided to engage, keeping Dragoons at least 150 km from her, and using tackle to try and pin her until the heavy tackle warp. We handled her volleys decently, were close to landing tackle a few times and as long as we were clear of third parties, the fight was a great exercise. We tried to bait her fire with either FC or a Hecate to give time for the fleet to beeline, but Taylor was having none of it. Flatline, Toma and Brock did some excellent bounces and landed close. We paid the price by losing Flatline, exchanged GFs and took a break. Watching the video closely, I'm very satisfied with fleet behaviour and decisions under pressure: many were shot and either coasted back away from enemy range or bounced off, so the self-awareness we are looking to build with these fleets is there, we will cultivate it further!
Still, no matter how hard Taylor disses the Cynabal, the speed was a great option in the hands of a good pilot: I feared the Orthrus fight more because of the tackle range on it, but at least the damage it deals is pretty constant. A few of the Cynabal volleys were quite surprising, but the fleet held transversal quite well and I'm happy
After Taylor called it a night, we decided to shotgun belts and teach the fleet about the life in Losec. We got one Clone soldier, practiced fleet calls for aid and had our scouts check adjacent pockets. No content came from there, but on our back something was brewing...
(22:37:32) Aunsou
Algos -4.21m
Capsule -0.01m
We had gotten word something was happening on our way to Osti, it turned out ISH wanted to punch below their weight and tried to camp us.
Marv scouted and got firsthand experience on how bad that was.
(23:05:15) Alperaute
Corax -19.16m
We saw a Brutix on D and that looked like something down our alley, we saw a gnosis too and still thought fair fight, we saw a pair of Vedmaks and decided they were not really in this for a fight, and they undocked a Leshak. Turns out they also had a Lachesis around. Their gatecamp was quite dangerous, but we had a good TAC and cold warped away, with only one casualty and many exotic dancers lost
(23:16:45) Ouelletta
Cormorant -4.69m
Gnosis +70.39m
We were on our way to Juff, when a Gnosis crossed our path out of the blue, and from the fit he probably wanted to gatecamp. He got more than he bargained for as he melted before we could cycle props twice. The shower of DPS we demonstrated here still makes me believe that we have on our hands a good raw material to work with, in terms of doctrine. Refining is going to take a bit!
PROS
1) Fleet movements, response to commands and anchoring discipline has been steadily improving, it gives me confidence to try better things.
2) Scouting and tackling was top shelf stuff, especially the tackle attempts on the Cynabal.
3) Participation to the fleet and the marathon duration made my day, and some small hours of the night
4) Stady improvement on the clarity of what we do and why we do it, some feedback from last fleet made me simplify some orders that were not clear before! Thanks for your feedback, keep it coming!
5) I believe we have the raw material in terms of pilots and doctrine to make a decent small ship skirmishing fleet and we will keep building on that. By giving more responsibility to single pilots, we facilitate the duties of FC and command and self-reliance is going to bear sweet fruits in small gang warfare and other fights! Let's keep building on this!
IMPROVEMENTS
1) There is no newbro speech that can contain all the info needed to survive all engagements so I wll add one more point in relation to active tank and bring some small chunks of lessons and practicals to facilitate fleet operations: a fleet should be the culmination of a series of practicals, having it be both the starting and top point of a PVP experience is quite demanding.
2) More clarity on what I expect from newbro scouts, the senior ones performed well, I will try to have them work better in terms of teaching new scouts.
3) To be honest, I'm quite impressed with the fleet performance so far, so even if there are details to be ironed out, the core is solid. I will give this doctrine some more time, make some small tweaks here and there instead of making radical changes. I took some notes from Ged's dessie fleet and will try to take the best part of that build and adapt it for losec.
I hope to fly again with y'all next time!
Until then, fly fun!
Yto
Stats
ISK Destroyed: 82,830,133.32
ISK Lost: 358,482,399.75
ISK Delta: -275,652,266.43
Efficiency: 18.769%