Back at it. Winning and Losing.

Fiber optic is, for the record, freakin awesome.

I've taken a few gangs out, and not had much time to write about them simply due to increased business at work.

That being said we have netted some fun kills and some fun roams, but the one I shall talk about is a roam to Curse last night that ended in failure.

In retrospect, I can see small changes that could have been made that would have decreased the possibility of failure, but lack of intel is bad no matter what way you look at it. Also, the losses taken were enough to piss me off, but once again, could have been much worse.

So...

Snipe HAC gang to Catch; some guys tagging along in other ships. Dictors/Scimmies are ok.. but we had some BCs that I should have just kicked out of gang, but I wanted the firepower.

We first hit up En Garde in catch, who wouldn't give us a fight at all. Despite outnumbering us. We left that system and headed towards Curse... where we found 35 or so Razor in Doril. Scout started picking a fight with an Arazu 60km off station... reported 3 Apocs on station with the Arazu, the rest were docked (he had docked to verify this). Scout was in a Vagabond.

First problem was, Apocs. Apocs, even pulse fit (Pulsepocs) are ridiculous at range. 60km is cake for even a pulse fit Apoc (with the right crystals 100km optimal is easy). We were holding 2jumps out, and when I heard he was engaging I jumped fleet into Litom and warped them to Doril gate... with instructions to jump gate into Doril and warp to Easley, who was 60km off the Apocs on the station. I figured we may get a fight, and would dictate range and warp ins/outs like snipe hac gangs do.

Didn't work out that way. Scout died to Apocs, which scout was surprised at but I was not, due to 60km being happy time range for Pulsepocs.

This death meant two (2) things:

1. Half the fleet was in warp to the station, the other half had not yet initiated warp when scout died. This led to seperation in the fleet. Bad... very bad.

2. Razor woke up. The station dislodged the rest of their gang... which happened to be battleship heavy with support and logistics. Oh, and a dictor or two. Said dictor happened to pop a bubble on station before gang initiated warp. All things I didn't know about as I ordered us to warp to our scout...

This all ended with random gang members landing in a bubble 20km off of a 25ish man Razor gang. Including my Zealot, which was one shotted by an Apoc. I lost seven ships (including myself) on that fail warp in, the rest managed to bail out. Razor, fortunately enough, was content to hug the station. I got fleet out to Litom, in time to see our exit camped by En Garde in about 20 ships. A gang we would have gladly fought before, but with our current losses we were ill equipped to engage.

With eyes on the En Garde force, I was able to see when they bailed the gate and warped to the station we were sitting at in Litom. I had us all dock up for a 10 min bio, in the hopes En Garde would get bored.

After the 10 min bio, I came back to an empty (almost) system. Hurricane on the undock aggressed my scout, so we all undocked and killed him. Scout reported En Garde in Jomunda, but the in gate was clear. So we warped to Jamunda gate...

In time to see local spike with En Garding coming in from Jamunda, and reapporaching the gate. I ordered everyone through, and En Garde jumped with us, bubbling as well.

I suppose I should have asked the scout specifically if they were on short range scan from the gate. As a scout I would have done that naturally (specifically scanning down planets/moons/belts close to the gate) but as our primary scout was dead, I knew nothing about this guy except that he was in an interceptor. So En Garde, who had eyes on the gate (neutrals in system, can only assume eyes) was at a short warp point and got us. So we jumped into Jamunda, I instructed everyone to hold cloak. Fast movers burn out of bubbles and warp, slow movers reapproach. Late arrivals reported Jamunda gate in Litom clear... En Garde had left no tacklers behind.

Amazingly, it worked. No one died. Even me in my pod of glory managed to get out of bubble and warp off. How none of my guys got tackled amazes me, due to the light nature of the En Garde gang. Everyone safed up, En Garde went 1p- and left local, except for one Cov Ops.

I knew they were sitting next door, as Jomunda and 1p- are both pipes and we needed to get through 1p to get home (quickest). So we sat for 5 minutes, in an attempt to bore En Garde. I then sent the scout through...

they were gone!

We moved into 1p-, noting the Atlas in local. Scout jumped into F4R2... En Garde was sitting there. I immediately went next door to KOCN- which leads to VA6 which goes to F4R2 from another gate, albeit a short warp. KOCN- had En Garde eyes. Damn. So did VA6. Double damn. On a whim, I had fleet jump into KOCN- and reapproach. I had sent our scout into F4R2 using the side path, and he kept eyes. Sure enough, the moment gang entered KOCN- the entire En Garde gang warped off to cover the other entry point into F4R2. I jumped my pod through, and the gate was completely clear! They left no one! Fleet jumped back into 1p- and came to the gate... but as they were landing our ceptor reported them aligning and warping back... and with the 4AU distance... I called it off and had gang safe up. The faster ships would have made it but I wanted no more losses.

Unfortunately for me, I waited too long to warp my pod out, as I was issuing instructions and not paying attention. With a 9AU/Second warp speed, the En garde dictor landed first, and bubbled my pod. I immediately died.

I heaved a sigh of frusteration, as the entire evening had gone horribly wrong. I handed off fleet to Static and instructed him to take gang out through Sendaya, low sec. It took a good 45 minutes, but Static managed to bring the gang home safely. I apologized to gang, made sure reimbursements were in order and em logged.

Looking back at the defining moment, I replayed it over and over in my mind. Embarassed, disgusted, angered, I was still able to see what needed to happen/not happen next time.

First, our scout. Experienced, knowledgeable in tactics, and well versed over years of EVE experience. However, his style has and always will be picking a fight and bringing in a brawling gang.

Those are not tactics you use with a snipe hac gang. Snipe hac gangs are for fights. You don't belt blitz ratters, you find gangs twice your size and kill them while they try and kill you. When they get close, you bail out and come back in. Rinse repeat. Scout's primary job is to provide warp ins.

That being said, I should have sent in a stealth bomber to give us a silent warp in on station. Eyes=knowledge=knowledgeable decisions. I could have sent the Vagabond in after that, but pressure would have been off him as we had eyes, and his only job would have been to force the enemy to play their hand, which, last night, consisted of 20 or so active Razor guys docked in station. As things got hot he would have warped out. At that point, our bomber gives us a proper warp in off the bubble that was just deployed and in we come.

The moment my scout mentioned he might die, I should have held gang up until I had confirmation of what we were getting into. At that point I would have avoided bubbles and we would have warped in at range on the Razor gang. Their small shit would have died or docked or warped, and we would have managed the engagement, because thats what you do in snipe hacs. Hard to hit, fast, agile, they dominate with good warp ins and intel. Hell, if the entire gang had landed in the bubble we could have aligned sun and spanked MWDs and shot at them. But only half the gang landed. That was the fight we wanted and I botched it. En Garde would have been fun as well, they had small ships, recons/afs/ceptors... perfect munching for a snipe HAC gang. But our depleted forces were not enough to take them.

20/20 Hindsight. But, as Avicenna Sarfaraz, MVN CEO said to me in command when I was emo raging...

"what did you learn"

as long as the mistakes are not repeated again, I will chalk it up to experience.

Grats to En Garde for forming up... late... wish I could have given you a fight. Razor, well, I would have chased us down. You would have even gotten a fight with En Garde, and given the Razor composition I would put money on them smashing En Garde. But, they took their seven easy kills and stayed on the station.

Never give up, never go down. I'll be back out again tonight.

That is all.