Finals are coming up dear friends, I fear my posting has grown lax.
Let me bring you up to speed.
I've been running snipe hac gangs with more frequency. Last week we had a run and gun fight with WI/TEST/GOONS in J5A after they SBU'd the system.
Due to low turnout (~60) in USTZ all we could do was long range snipe hac engagements, while NC had 100-120 on field at all times. After a 4.5 hour fight, they reinforced the i-hub.
Initially our losses were not good; several hacs and logistics died. I was on field in a cloaky watching as the first three died... careening upwards into the enemy fleet. Why? Spamming ctrl-left click... which makes you approach. In a paper thin snipe hac traveling at 2km/sec... you close the gap real fast. They died.
As we were burning off the enemy gang, I noticed logstics falling behind. Very bad. Logistics should always be at the front of the gang, warped in 20km shorter if possible. Not behind. In one particular instance, we held alignment on field for several minutes, as idiots from WI burned out to us (and died). I kept yelling at Scimitars to spank MWD... and yet they died. The culprit was finally revealed as a frustrated Scimi pilot yelled "I DON'T HAVE A MICROWARP, I HAVE AN AFTERBURNER!"
Fucking fail.
The inexperience level had led to 4 logi deaths. Inexperience in snipe hac tactics. IT shield fleets consist of Maelstroms, Apocs and Drakes with afterburner Scimitars. Many had brought these Scimitars, unaware that they would not meet the criteria. Ironically, IT has a snipe hac fit for Scimitars on our forums, and has for over a month. I have now been verifying that the Scimitars are mwd fit, and turn down Basilisks (as there aren't any viable MWD gang Basi fits that I have found, and they are just slow anyways).
After a couple hours, the fleet started getting into a rhythm, and our losses (except dictors) dropped to nothing. Every warp in we would kill one or more, and force them off field. Unfortunately, NC reinforcements were streaming through from Pure Blind in ones and twos. Blast suicided a bs fleet on the NC gang at the onset, and had reshipped to BC. I requested he form bombers to kill the sbu (bomber damage is hella pro on structures) but he didn't want to. They couldn't hold the field (neither could we) and they couldn't scrap with the NC gang (due to similar compostion and inferior numbers), so I didn't understand why he chose to stay with the ships he was in. I also asked him to camp the path from Pure Blind to Fountain, in the hopes he could gank the one and two man reinforcements coming into the system. He didn't listen.
In different circumstances I would have exploded on the ally FC, but I was just too damn busy to do anything about it. Next time I will send one of my co-FCs over to help sort things.
Battle report here: http://www.killboard.it/?a=kill_related&kll_id=221107
The day before that we had a fight in Period Basis, in which Goons brought a 50 man gang down to harass IT/Sys-K while we pounded on the SBU. Havoc was in local doing their little 10 man gang thing (5 unprobable snipe faction bs, with 4 Dramiels buzzing around). We got ready to pound Goons when they came in, but weren't able to pin their gang on the gate and Goons warped off field. So Sys K and IT continued to hit the SBU, interruped 2-3 times by Goons warping in, turning around and warping off. I snagged a Zealot on one of the warp outs, but other than that Goons hid in the -A- pos that was provided for them. Their victory came when spy gave up the pos password to the Sys-K pos we were using to stage out of, and they stole some ammo in cans that was supplied for us by Sys-K. You would have thought they re took delve with the local chatter that ensued. :-)
After SBU died we headed back to Delve, the majority of the gang re shipping to snipe hacs. As soon as we left another sbu was anchored, but Sys K ninja onlined it (anyone can online an anchored SBU). Oooops :-)
Goons left shortly after... with their 50 man gang.
We were waiting.
Using jump bridges and fast speed snipe HACs, we engaged the Goons all the way through Delve and into Fountain, ending in KVN-. 7 Goons were online and left into Cloud Ring. 10-20 had logged in various Fountain and Delve systems, and the rest died.
I lost 2 interceptors and a Keres.
GF
This weekend EUTZ actually took a snipe HAC gang into Catch/Providence. Nilie FC'd, and the gang didn't die! It was loads of fun, but the EUTZ was just as bad (worse) as USTZ at the snipe hacs. But, due to the safety net of no real opponent and overwhelming numbers, their mistakes weren't fatal. Clearly lots of work to be done if they want to actually be succesful with the snipe hac gangs. But the USTZ must become effective at using them due to the lack of overwhelming numbers we have.
Yesterday was quite a bit of fun with smaller gang PVP, which I will write about in my next post.
That is all.
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