Last night was a doozy! We had a decent sized group online and a Class 4 Wormhole with 7 Sleeper sites, 2 active Towers but no active ships; and it was right next door! We put together a fleet of Battleships and 2 Logistics and jumped in head first, as it were. By and large, it was quite a successful Op, to the tune of some 450+ million ISK in Sleeper loot. We did learn a few lessons along the way.
First, we've gotten used to close in work with the Sleepers in C1-C3 Wormholes. In the C4 the Sleepers were routinely outside of targeting range with no fast closure possible (unless the Sleepers did the closing) and we, by and large, had short-range weapons making the sites take longer than was necessary. I have a post in Ship Fits to address this. http://inarikimon.forumotion.com/t14-suggested-fleet-composition-for-class-4-wormhole
Second, we learned some lessons about Fleet Command, calling targets, and practical use of the Overview and Fleet windows. Those lessons will be gathered and guides posted soon to walk everyone through the set up and use of such tools as "Tagging" for target selection.
Great job last night!!
Oh, and one personal note and lesson as the evening's Logi pilot. I had several instances where the Sleepers got ahead of me and my reppers and one occasion where Kayben got into armor. These were pretty much all due to the view I had selected of the battle scene. There were areas where the site was so bright I could not see the green activation line on the reppers and could not tell that the wrong ships were still targeted. I found that, if I adjusted my view to look straight up or behind the site my view of my instruments was much better. Just a note for next time or to help the next guy running Logistics.
Thanks, all.
Fars
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Oh, crap! We're f@#%ed! or: Why you should keep a cloaked Scout outside your Null Space wormhole exit.
Recently, we had a K162 exit to null sec space, out in the Drone Regions. There was an Ice Field with lots and lots of lovely Glare Crust and Dark Glitter ice to help feed our hungry POSs so we put together an impromptu Ice Harvesting op and jumped out, keeping a strict eye on local. Local stayed clear. Not a single soul entered system the entire hour we were in the Ice Field. One of our pilots scanned the system and found there were over 10 anomalies in the system. When we got bored with making ice cubes (which doesn't take long with 6 to 8 minute cycle times on the Ice Harvesters) we decided to go back to the wormhole, re-ship, and come back to run some of the anomalies, now that Rogue Drones gave bounties instead of minerals. Besides, we don't get the chance to play in a totally deserted Null Sec system all that often.
Zoey, Raiin, etFils, and Rockit were ready first, and headed to the exit. Zoey and Raiin exited first. This is where the critical mistake got made. Zoey was in a Fleet Tempest battleship, Raiin was in a Navy Armageddon. Rockit was in a T3 Proteus, configured as scout/scanner. Now, keep in mind the Wormhole Observer checked and reported in when the fleet re-entered the hole, that there was no change to the wormhole's stability. What SHOULD have happened is that Rockit, in the scout ship, should have exited first. What ACTUALLY occurred was that Zoey and Raiin jumped, followed in close succession by Rockit and etFils. The first indication anything was wrong were the warnings flashing across all the ships' sensor screens that the wormhole had collapsed. What followed was several moments of confusion attempting to determine what actually happened and where we actually were. As the minutes dragged on it became apparent Raiin and Zoey, while in the same system, were nowhere near each other. It turns out, Zoey was at the Exit site from the wormhole but Raiin was some 10 AU away. Our speculation, at this time, is that Raiin was actually crossing the Wormhole threshold at the time of collapse and may have been dragged over that distance by the wormhole as it collapsed. As a practical matter it is of no relevance but it is a curious phenomena to be looked into.
Now comes the "Oh, crap!" part. When we determined where we were, we discovered we were 56 jumps from home space, 36 of them very red 0.0 systems and another 10 Low-sec. Everything came to a halt. I imagine the silence was rather like the moment Jim Lovell uttered the words,"Houston, we have a problem.", and the slight, momentary, utterly silent moment seemed to stretch forever before the chaos of reality reasserted itself. The major difference, of course, being that Lovell and his crew were facing real peril, while Zoey and Raiin faced digital death and reincarnation; still...
In the end we concluded we would have to wait for a cloaked rescue scout to make it's way out to us and then, either find another wormhole and chance finding an exit to somewhere more hospitable, or attempt to scout us back to Empire space through the Etherium Reach. That is another adventure for another story, and, yet another lesson learned in New Eden.
Fars
Zoey, Raiin, etFils, and Rockit were ready first, and headed to the exit. Zoey and Raiin exited first. This is where the critical mistake got made. Zoey was in a Fleet Tempest battleship, Raiin was in a Navy Armageddon. Rockit was in a T3 Proteus, configured as scout/scanner. Now, keep in mind the Wormhole Observer checked and reported in when the fleet re-entered the hole, that there was no change to the wormhole's stability. What SHOULD have happened is that Rockit, in the scout ship, should have exited first. What ACTUALLY occurred was that Zoey and Raiin jumped, followed in close succession by Rockit and etFils. The first indication anything was wrong were the warnings flashing across all the ships' sensor screens that the wormhole had collapsed. What followed was several moments of confusion attempting to determine what actually happened and where we actually were. As the minutes dragged on it became apparent Raiin and Zoey, while in the same system, were nowhere near each other. It turns out, Zoey was at the Exit site from the wormhole but Raiin was some 10 AU away. Our speculation, at this time, is that Raiin was actually crossing the Wormhole threshold at the time of collapse and may have been dragged over that distance by the wormhole as it collapsed. As a practical matter it is of no relevance but it is a curious phenomena to be looked into.
Now comes the "Oh, crap!" part. When we determined where we were, we discovered we were 56 jumps from home space, 36 of them very red 0.0 systems and another 10 Low-sec. Everything came to a halt. I imagine the silence was rather like the moment Jim Lovell uttered the words,"Houston, we have a problem.", and the slight, momentary, utterly silent moment seemed to stretch forever before the chaos of reality reasserted itself. The major difference, of course, being that Lovell and his crew were facing real peril, while Zoey and Raiin faced digital death and reincarnation; still...
In the end we concluded we would have to wait for a cloaked rescue scout to make it's way out to us and then, either find another wormhole and chance finding an exit to somewhere more hospitable, or attempt to scout us back to Empire space through the Etherium Reach. That is another adventure for another story, and, yet another lesson learned in New Eden.
Fars
Fun Night
On a recent night we fielded a fleet large enough to make 2 squads; 4 Hurricanes, 2 Drakes, Zoey in a Typhoon, RockIt in a Noctis, and 3 Basilisks, plus the lookouts. What, oh what, can I say about those Basilisks? They utterly change the game! We lived in a Class 3 WH for about 6 months a couple of years ago and one of our most memorable Sleeper encounters was a Radar site where OldRoadDog65 lost a Dominix and we, a fleet of 5 Battleships, had to warp out multiple times. Flash forward to last night and, my, oh my. A fleet of, mostly, Battlecruisers cut through the Sleeper sites and 2 Mag sites like warm butter. Logistics support made the fleet virtually untouchable, allowing the DPS of the fleet to wreak havoc with impunity. An awesome sight to behold. I know everyone in the fleet was impressed by the Logis' performance. I think the only real disappointment of the night was that no one came out to try and stop us. THAT would have given us a true test of the Fleet make up and the Logis' capabilities! In the end, though, a grand time was had by all.
Looking at the big money makers of Sleeper loot; Melted nanoribbons, Data libraries, Ancient coordinates, and Sleeper Drone AI's, at current Jita prices, we'll clear over 576 million ISK for the evening! Not Bad! Nights like this should only be the beginning. With more practice nothing is off limits; Class 5's, our own Incursion Fleet, anything, really.
Fars
Looking at the big money makers of Sleeper loot; Melted nanoribbons, Data libraries, Ancient coordinates, and Sleeper Drone AI's, at current Jita prices, we'll clear over 576 million ISK for the evening! Not Bad! Nights like this should only be the beginning. With more practice nothing is off limits; Class 5's, our own Incursion Fleet, anything, really.
Fars
Six Pack
Well, what a day it was. Let’s call this one a “Six Pack”, shall we? The day started off just fine. I brought 3 of four characters online, with the intention of doing PI. Freedom brought his 3 chars on and headed to Ignebaener to pick up some BPO’s he had there. Raiin went through his PI and made his pick ups, then etFils did the 2 he has in the C2. Freedom returned and plugged in the BPO’s while RockIt prepared to make his PI collections. He picked up the 20,000 units of Biomass from Planet I and headed for Customs at Planet IV. This is where the day went off the rails.
On approach to the Customs Dock at IV I noticed, with a certain level of uncomprehending disbelief, a yellow-tagged Minmatar Tempest, seemingly just hanging out at the dock. As I slowly began to realize the import of what I saw, I told Freedom who was already in an Arazu and he quickly jumped Grahnik into a Phobos, preparing to come after me. The Tempest locked up my Itty 5 and, as it was obvious I was going down, I aligned to the star and began spamming the “Warp to…” button. Free arrived as my ship popped and my pod went into warp. My hope was that he could hold the ‘pest long enough for me to get Raiin back to the POS and into a Hurricane to rejoin Free. Neuts! The Tempest had Energy Neuts and Gallente ships don’t last long under Neuts. Raiin was in Warp when Free called that, first the Arazu, then the Phobos went pop. Raiin landed and locked up the ‘pest and proceeded to dismantle his shields. Out came the drones. On came the Neuts! Without Logi support Raiin’s tank was no match for the ‘pest and his Neuts. (Oh, I should mention that Raiin had managed to grab the ONE ‘cane in the barn with missiles instead of Neuts… yeesh) POP! Went number 4 in less than 5 minutes… TO A FREAKIN’ T1 MINMATAR BATTLESHIP! To say we suck at 1 on 1 PvP is a severe understatement. We took a deep breath and decided to re-group and rethink… quickly. I put Raiin and Storm into Basilisks and Free got into a Myrmidon and a Brutix. He warped to zero on the customs office while the Basis’ warped at range on Free to keep the Logis out of Neut range. Of course, the Tempest was gone but the pilot left a GF in Local. I said he should come back and play but he was no longer on scan. Pissed off and frustrated, we returned to the POS and Freedom went AFK for a few minutes. While he was gone I set about solving the puzzle of how to get this guy if he should come back. I decided on ECM and Energy Neuts so I opted to put Storm in the Falcon and Raiin in the Pilgrim and, in case Free wasn’t back, RockIt in an Ishkur Assault Frigate to add tackle, blaster and drone dps to the Pilgrim's neuts. While I was preparing this fit I noticed Local flashing.
“I’m back.”
Wtf?
“Uh huh. With friends, no doubt..”
“Yeah, like I was going to take on 2 Basis in just my ‘pest.”
“lol, You did pretty well, so far.”
The Tempest was back on scan so I decided to take the Falcon and the Pilgrim and try to locate the fine, good fellow. At the same time, I realized he must have come in through the C3 static or another WH since I knew he had not come through the Hi-sec static so I sent RockIt to scan as I neglected that chore earlier. ( Crap! The C3 AND another opening to an unknown WH) I stationed pilots at all 3 WH exits. Soon after I got to the C3 I saw an Anathema come through. He was another pilot from the same Corp as the Tempest pilot. He cloaked immediately but was uncloaked for some reason as he went into warp. He flew to Planet VII so I followed in the hopes he might still be uncloaked. At this point, an odd thing occurred. I noticed on D-scan the Anathema pilot in his capsule and an Elite Amarr Frigate in pieces. WTF?? He must have warped to a moon and landed within site of either the New Hanseatic, or Cogs and Sprogs POS. At least something was having luck killing these guys! I moved back to the C3 and took up station. Free came back on just as I spied a Drake enter from the K162. We hadn’t even formed a plan when he jumped back into his hole. After a short discussion; “Should I jump in and see what’s there?” Freedom’s answer was a typical, “Why ever not?” So I took the Falcon in and, so to speak, unzipped my fly to see what kind of spiders there might be. There were several ships on and lots of activity, but no one came to play. After about 10 minutes I jumped back and decided to have a peek in the C3. As I was headed to the C3 an Anathema reappeared through it, hung out a few minutes and jumped back. I gave him a few moments and then etFils followed him through in a Cheetah. In the meantime Raiin was on station in the Pilgrim and Storm in the Falcon, should anyone follow etFils back through. Free brought over a Brutix and Myrmidon for Dps. etFils let his cloak drop and figuratively waved his fingers in front of his nose. All that was missing was a “Nyah, nyah” in local. Sure enough, an Anathema uncloaked off his bow so etFils jumped back and dove for cover to let the big boys work.
“Wormhole activation!”
“It’s the Tempest. The Tempest came through. Lock it up!”
Free had his Battlecruisers, Autocannon fit Myrmidon and Blaster fit Brutix, locked in furious combat. NOTE: Autocannons RULE over Blasters: They just do.
Raiin brought the Pilgrim online and fired up the Neuts and the ‘pest started to lose shields fast. The Wormhole activated 3 more times. The ‘pest jumped out as 2 Pilgrims and a Broadsword uncloaked. They locked up the BC’s and Raiin's Pilgrim, the Drones came out like talons on a raptor, and events went south faster than Pancho Villa. The Pilgrim was going down fast so Raiin jumped into the C3 (desperation is a mother of a necessity) Of course, the ‘pest and an Anathema were waiting so Raiin held cloak as long as possible. They threw out drones to uncloak him but were unsuccessful. Raiin jumped back as soon as he broke cloak. Sigh…
There was nothing to be done. Once again we had jumped with both feet into a den of alligators while wearing tank tops, shorts, and flipflops… The ‘gators were very well fed. The BC’s were going down. Raiin tried to use that fact as cover to dive the Pilgrim out of dodge. The only thing that saved the pilgrim was the fact he was able to use his MicroWarpDrive and Tracking disruptor to stay out of scram range and get into warp just as the BC’s went pop. Free got his pilots out and we managed to pick up the Drones after they left. But wait…
Where was Storm in his vaunted Falcon, you ask? Well, apparently Storm Disco’d at some point and I never realized until much later when I attempted to shut off his ECM mods and they just kept flashing red. Best. Patch. Ever.
Sooo… the count…
1 Itty V
1 Arazu Force Recon
1 Phobos Heavy Interdictor
1 Hurricane
1 Brutix
1 Myrmidon
That’s a 6-pack, right there. Lessons?? OH, YEAH, there are many lessons to take away from this Idiotic, Amazing, Frustrating, Chaotic, FUN, encounter. Those will come in a separate post. We said the main requirement to fly as a member of Pisces Group was a willingness to lose ships. Well… we certainly held up our end of that requirement, today, and Free went above and beyond. Time to pick up the pieces, learn some lessons, and cook some more ships. So, to Nkalv and the other pilots of Exiles, GF, this sixer’s for you.
Next time.
FarSeeker
On approach to the Customs Dock at IV I noticed, with a certain level of uncomprehending disbelief, a yellow-tagged Minmatar Tempest, seemingly just hanging out at the dock. As I slowly began to realize the import of what I saw, I told Freedom who was already in an Arazu and he quickly jumped Grahnik into a Phobos, preparing to come after me. The Tempest locked up my Itty 5 and, as it was obvious I was going down, I aligned to the star and began spamming the “Warp to…” button. Free arrived as my ship popped and my pod went into warp. My hope was that he could hold the ‘pest long enough for me to get Raiin back to the POS and into a Hurricane to rejoin Free. Neuts! The Tempest had Energy Neuts and Gallente ships don’t last long under Neuts. Raiin was in Warp when Free called that, first the Arazu, then the Phobos went pop. Raiin landed and locked up the ‘pest and proceeded to dismantle his shields. Out came the drones. On came the Neuts! Without Logi support Raiin’s tank was no match for the ‘pest and his Neuts. (Oh, I should mention that Raiin had managed to grab the ONE ‘cane in the barn with missiles instead of Neuts… yeesh) POP! Went number 4 in less than 5 minutes… TO A FREAKIN’ T1 MINMATAR BATTLESHIP! To say we suck at 1 on 1 PvP is a severe understatement. We took a deep breath and decided to re-group and rethink… quickly. I put Raiin and Storm into Basilisks and Free got into a Myrmidon and a Brutix. He warped to zero on the customs office while the Basis’ warped at range on Free to keep the Logis out of Neut range. Of course, the Tempest was gone but the pilot left a GF in Local. I said he should come back and play but he was no longer on scan. Pissed off and frustrated, we returned to the POS and Freedom went AFK for a few minutes. While he was gone I set about solving the puzzle of how to get this guy if he should come back. I decided on ECM and Energy Neuts so I opted to put Storm in the Falcon and Raiin in the Pilgrim and, in case Free wasn’t back, RockIt in an Ishkur Assault Frigate to add tackle, blaster and drone dps to the Pilgrim's neuts. While I was preparing this fit I noticed Local flashing.
“I’m back.”
Wtf?
“Uh huh. With friends, no doubt..”
“Yeah, like I was going to take on 2 Basis in just my ‘pest.”
“lol, You did pretty well, so far.”
The Tempest was back on scan so I decided to take the Falcon and the Pilgrim and try to locate the fine, good fellow. At the same time, I realized he must have come in through the C3 static or another WH since I knew he had not come through the Hi-sec static so I sent RockIt to scan as I neglected that chore earlier. ( Crap! The C3 AND another opening to an unknown WH) I stationed pilots at all 3 WH exits. Soon after I got to the C3 I saw an Anathema come through. He was another pilot from the same Corp as the Tempest pilot. He cloaked immediately but was uncloaked for some reason as he went into warp. He flew to Planet VII so I followed in the hopes he might still be uncloaked. At this point, an odd thing occurred. I noticed on D-scan the Anathema pilot in his capsule and an Elite Amarr Frigate in pieces. WTF?? He must have warped to a moon and landed within site of either the New Hanseatic, or Cogs and Sprogs POS. At least something was having luck killing these guys! I moved back to the C3 and took up station. Free came back on just as I spied a Drake enter from the K162. We hadn’t even formed a plan when he jumped back into his hole. After a short discussion; “Should I jump in and see what’s there?” Freedom’s answer was a typical, “Why ever not?” So I took the Falcon in and, so to speak, unzipped my fly to see what kind of spiders there might be. There were several ships on and lots of activity, but no one came to play. After about 10 minutes I jumped back and decided to have a peek in the C3. As I was headed to the C3 an Anathema reappeared through it, hung out a few minutes and jumped back. I gave him a few moments and then etFils followed him through in a Cheetah. In the meantime Raiin was on station in the Pilgrim and Storm in the Falcon, should anyone follow etFils back through. Free brought over a Brutix and Myrmidon for Dps. etFils let his cloak drop and figuratively waved his fingers in front of his nose. All that was missing was a “Nyah, nyah” in local. Sure enough, an Anathema uncloaked off his bow so etFils jumped back and dove for cover to let the big boys work.
“Wormhole activation!”
“It’s the Tempest. The Tempest came through. Lock it up!”
Free had his Battlecruisers, Autocannon fit Myrmidon and Blaster fit Brutix, locked in furious combat. NOTE: Autocannons RULE over Blasters: They just do.
Raiin brought the Pilgrim online and fired up the Neuts and the ‘pest started to lose shields fast. The Wormhole activated 3 more times. The ‘pest jumped out as 2 Pilgrims and a Broadsword uncloaked. They locked up the BC’s and Raiin's Pilgrim, the Drones came out like talons on a raptor, and events went south faster than Pancho Villa. The Pilgrim was going down fast so Raiin jumped into the C3 (desperation is a mother of a necessity) Of course, the ‘pest and an Anathema were waiting so Raiin held cloak as long as possible. They threw out drones to uncloak him but were unsuccessful. Raiin jumped back as soon as he broke cloak. Sigh…
There was nothing to be done. Once again we had jumped with both feet into a den of alligators while wearing tank tops, shorts, and flipflops… The ‘gators were very well fed. The BC’s were going down. Raiin tried to use that fact as cover to dive the Pilgrim out of dodge. The only thing that saved the pilgrim was the fact he was able to use his MicroWarpDrive and Tracking disruptor to stay out of scram range and get into warp just as the BC’s went pop. Free got his pilots out and we managed to pick up the Drones after they left. But wait…
Where was Storm in his vaunted Falcon, you ask? Well, apparently Storm Disco’d at some point and I never realized until much later when I attempted to shut off his ECM mods and they just kept flashing red. Best. Patch. Ever.
Sooo… the count…
1 Itty V
1 Arazu Force Recon
1 Phobos Heavy Interdictor
1 Hurricane
1 Brutix
1 Myrmidon
That’s a 6-pack, right there. Lessons?? OH, YEAH, there are many lessons to take away from this Idiotic, Amazing, Frustrating, Chaotic, FUN, encounter. Those will come in a separate post. We said the main requirement to fly as a member of Pisces Group was a willingness to lose ships. Well… we certainly held up our end of that requirement, today, and Free went above and beyond. Time to pick up the pieces, learn some lessons, and cook some more ships. So, to Nkalv and the other pilots of Exiles, GF, this sixer’s for you.
Next time.
FarSeeker
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