Tech 1 Cruiser Gang vs Tech 2/3 Cruisers with Guardians

This post relates to the following fight - http://killboard.the-tuskers.info/?a=kill_related&kll_id=84234 which was once again recorded from my POV:

Background:

I announced an Tech 1 Cruiser roam due to the recent Tech 1 Cruiser buffs. Fleet ended up significantly larger than I anticipated, but we managed to scout a gatecamp in the Hagilur pocket which was of significant weight to pose a challenge to us and vice-versa. We baited with a section of our gang (kept 1 Exequror, Celestii and a few DPS ships back iirc), got them to engage then got everyone in.

This was the first time we ran with Mallers instead of Thoraxes as our main source of DPS as Thoraxes did not seem to fare well in the past (poor damage application, poor tank).

Friendly gang:

6 Mallers
4 Ruptures
5 Thoraxes
3 Exequrors
3 Celestis

Hostile gang:

1 Megathron Navy Issue
1 Blackbird
1 Zealot
1 Omen Navy Issue
1 Vigilant
1 Hurricane
1 Sacrilege
2 Legions
2 Proteii
4 Guardians

The Fight

Similar to the last post, on paper our DPS should not have been enough to break anything with a respectable tank (any Tech2 ship, possibly faction) as 4 Guardians with Legion links in system is a significant amount of rep ability. However, our 3 Celestis enabled our victory allowing us to break most of their ships before they caught reps (exception - the 1 Guardian we killed).

Their mistakes:

1. Their low amount of Ewar committed them to slugging it out with us.
2. Lack of focus fire - they split DPS a fair bit (can't see in video)
3. Un-organised gang, with ships of varying value/tank, ranging from the incredibly tank Tech3s to the fragile Blackbird.
4. Their logistics did not prelock their more fragile ships.
5. Their Blackbird was at 0 and therefore easy pickings for our DPS ships.
6. They underestimated our Celestis - with a 1:1.33 Celesti to Guardian ratio, our Celestis had a field day damping their Logistics down to crazy low scan resolution.

Our mistakes:

1. My poor target calling, confusing the Omen Navy with a Zealot etc.
2. Once again, poor broadcasting on my side - we lost a few seconds between each ship dying due to poor broadcasting on my part. This has yet to be fixed :(
3. I did not micro my drones particularly well.
4. I should have primaried the Sacrilege rather than the Hurricane as it's worth more and has comparable buffer but takes the enemy Logistics longer to lock.

This fight made us swap permanently to Mallers for our primary DPS ships, with our remaining Thoraxes being slowly lost and not replaced in future gangs.

Armour BCs vs Ishtar Gang

This post refers to the following fight - http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=16927632 which was frapsed below from my Point Of View (POV):

Background:

I announced an Armour BC roam and we set out, finding very few fights until we ran across the above gang inside a FW Medium Complex, with us unable to enter with our BCs. After a short wait, they warped out, regrouped and grabbed another Guardian and another Ishtar iirc then warped to us at 0.

Friendly gang:

1 Loki
6 Armour Battle Cruisers (1 Hurricane, 1 Harbinger, 4 Prophecies)
2 Thorax
4 Exequrors
4 Celestis

Hostile gang:

~16 Ishtars
1 Stiletto
1 Deimos
5 Guardians

The Fight

So, on paper we probably should have lost the above fight as 16 HACs = ~8000 DPS, which none of our BCs could even remotely tank with only 4 friendly Exequrors on grid for Logistics. On the other hand, with our 9 DPS ships (two of which do less than 400 DPS), we couldn't hope to break any of their ships under reps. However, there were a number of mistakes that both sides made that ultimately won it for us:

Their mistakes:

1. They primaried our tankiest ship from the get-go - our slaved Loki with 300k EHP and 85+% across the board resists. This wasted their DPS for a few crucial seconds.
2. They did not have great drone skills - a few of them had Tech 1 Drones out, a heresy with an T2 drone bonused ship.
3. They came in at 0 and some dropped Sentries - remember this was before the HAC rebalance so Sentries had some issues tracking ships up close.
4. We had Armour Warfare Links, where it appears they didn't. Whilst this made no difference once their Logistics caught Remote Reps on their ships (see the single Ishtar that caught reps in time and survived), it meant they had significantly less buffer than our ships.
5. They underestimated our Celestis - with 1:1.25 Celestis:Guardian ratio, our Celestis had a field day damping their Logistics down to crazy low scan resolution.

Our mistakes:

1. Lazy selection of drones on Prophecies - As I bought & fit up all of our ships with the exception of the Loki, I cut a few corners, in particular with the drone selection on the Prophecies, with the primary DPS drone groups being 3 heavy drones rather than 2 heavies, 2 mediums and 1 small which do significantly more DPS.
2. Poor broadcasting on my side - we lost a few seconds between each ship dying due to poor broadcasting on my part. This has yet to be fixed :(
3. I forgot to turn on my Information Warfare Links with my alt, which would have given a huge boost to our Celestis' ewar and my Target Painter. Same deal with our Skirmish Warfare Links, which would have reduced incoming DPS by a fair amount in most likelihood.
4. I didn't put my neut on their Logistics. Small thing in the grand scheme of things, but could have helped.

So, everyone makes mistakes :(. But, it was a good fight with an interesting gang comp!

Will do another fight with Fraps footage next week.

YouTube Fraps

Between January '13 and August '13, I endeavoured to Fraps (video record) any major fleet fights The Tuskers got into where I was involved (and typically FC'ing). Most of these have been uploaded to my YouTube account and I have recently made them public. They can be found at my channel here.

I plan on posting an blogpost about each one with lessons learnt, mistakes I made, mistakes the enemy made and adding a bit of context to each engagement. If there are any fights that look particularly interesting to you, feel free to point them out. 

The one I'll start off with is when we fought an Ishtar gang with some Armour BCs. 

Our gang composition:

1 Loki
6 Armour Battle Cruisers (1 Hurricane, 1 Harbinger, 4 Prophecies)
2 Thorax
4 Exequrors
4 Celestis

Their gang composition:

~16 Ishtars
1 Stiletto
1 Deimos
5 Guardians

Video:

Will post my thoughts next week.

GUIDE: Implant Sets

Implants are great - they give you huge benefits for very little cost. You should always strive to have a full set of 10 plugged in (exception: Charisma implant, as Charisma is rarely used) - a full set of +2 learning implants & +3% hardwirings cost less than 40M and give you a massive benefit to pretty much any ship. An "All-IV" Character with 3% implants is roughly equivalent to an "All-V" Character, therefore if you go for more expensive implants and have better skills, you will be more effective than the average player. 

*UPDATED* Complete Guide to Ammunition Choices

My original ammunition guide, found here is out of date, hence I reviewed it and have updated it. Enjoy!

Jump Clone Service

Just realised that I haven't plugged a service here I've been providing for the last year - creating Jump Clones for people quickly, in a safe manner without requiring them to grind standings or drop corporation.

How does it work? Read below and find out..

More than meets the Eye..

Eve is a game more than just simply numbers written in a spreadsheet. Piloting skill (or a lack thereof) plays an important role in whether a fight is won or lost. A recent example of that is a fight The Tuskers had on one of our recent public roams (I am for at least 1 public roam a week, details can be found in our Public Channel - "The Tuskers Public Channel"). The gang type was Armour Battlecruisers with Celestis & Exequror for supports.