Holy EVE Man! Part 3 (The Finale)

The last bit of the evening is about bombers.

Bombers are great tools when used correctly and competently. When careless or incompetent, however, they are laughable. Why am I saying this? Let me tell you.

After the Dramiel gang returned last night, I ran some errands and grabbed some dinner. Upon returning I started a gang to kill a tower that was coming out of reinforce. NC had not yet shown a response.

We only got about 60 in gang and word came in that the NC had formed over 100 people to save their tower. I was scouting in the system and watched local start to climb, and 17 carriers cyno in on the pos. Not much to do at this point.

I disbanded fleet and formed a bomber gang. As we were getting people sorted in X-7... I somehow decloaked off the enemy POS. I figured this out when I heard the locked signal from my main computer and looked over from my laptop to see the first hit from the pos take me into low armor.

Damn.

I tried to warp but the second volley blew me up. Embarassing, I know. NC laughed in local. They stopped laughing when I asked "anyone seen a Dramiel?".

:)

I took my pod back to X-7 in time to get to the station as hostiles were landing. Yeah, the same gang that had formed up to protect their POS was bored. So my bombers were all formed up and the FC was stuck in station. Fail.

I coordinated a first bombing run on the station from inside the station. It was weird and I hated it. It was mildly succesful, they kiled one ship. It happened to be an Eagle. I found this out about 2 min ago when I looked to see what they had actually killed. Last night all I heard over comms was "I think we killed something".

The next bombing run was on the gate. Enemy fleet warped to J-C gate and I instructed all the bombers to warp to the gate at 30 and 50 and drop bombs. This is to maximize the hits as all the ships are trying to jump through and experience lag. I landed on field late (finally able to undock) and saw 4 friendly wrecks and no enemy wrecks.

Ouch.

Not sure what happened but partly my fault and partly the fault of the pilots themselves. I never did get an explanation as two what happned, as their was no bubble on gate no one should have died. But we took losses. Still worth it with that Eagle kill, but disheartening to the pilots. I disbanded fleet and went to bed.

Bombers are great tools that when used effectively by skilled pilots can cause havoc. Goons were especially good with them, as were PL. Mavericks are very skilled using them as well, due to our need for sneaky deaky USTZ capability. Precise warp ins, warp outs, dropping of bombs and other precision actions are key. Sloppiness will kill you and possibly kill those around you. Last night we had experienced and noobish pilots in the fleet. I do not know how they died, as I was not on field. I asked others to step up and FC... and got no response. I do NOT recommend trying to command a fleet off the field. EVER. If I was to guess, however, I would think that the experience curve got more killed than needed.

I recommend taking your people out before and practicing with bombers before going into combat. I know it sounds silly, but it can actually help. Also, make sure you have bomb points and safe spots all over the areas you are operating in. I asked over comms (as I was docked) for someone to warp to their off gate of J-C in X-7. No one had one. I don't care if you are in a Kestrel you should have off gates. Along with a million other points for bombers. These will help you get in a bombing position immediately, instead of slow boating into position. Have them off stations, off gates, off jump bridges, and off any other points you will want to bomb. Make sure you know the people in your bomber gangs. Keep them small.

That is all.