Friday, July 1, 2016

Titans Down in Okagaiken Trap

GRINDR FLEET TIME, NEED MAX NUMBERS IF THEY ENEMY COMES TO FIGHT NUMBERS WILL BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WINNING AND LOSING

FC: Asher Elias
Op 1
Strat Op
Grindr battleships + logi + loki + support
(Also 20 free anti-fighter armour caracals will be given out for those of you who can’t fly battleships)

~~~ This was a broadcast from asher_elias to all at 2016-07-01 01:00:37.694040 EVE ~~~

I almost did not go on this op.

I saw the ping come up just after dinner, but was still talking to my wife and was planning to have some desert, so let it be.  So I ignored it.  Eventually though I was done and sat down at my desk to find that further pings had gone out for the fleet, including a RepSwarm ping from Arrendis asking for more logi.

So, more than an hour after the first ping had gone out I decided to log in and see if I could catch up.

Once in the station in Saranen, I grabbed an Oneiros out of my hanger.  Grindr Fleet is an armor battleship doctrine, effectively our old Baltec Fleet doctrine revised for the current meta, which meant armor logi.  I could have gone with Guardian… they are preferred, and I think I still have my infamous Higgs Anchor Rig Guardian, now fit correctly… but I wanted a slightly more independent ship if I was going to catch up.  Guardians need to be on a cap chain to be effective, while an Oneiros does not.  That meant I could catch up without worrying about capacitor and leave early if I wanted without breaking the cap chain.

In my ship, I then opened up the map, which I keep set to show the locations of members of my current fleet, and saw that most everybody was just one jump away in 93PI-4.  Since Saranen was almost completely blue, I undocked, and warped off to join the fleet.

I found them in 93PI-4 shooting another POS, just as we were doing with Asher the other night.

Always another POS to shoot

Always another POS to shoot

I got on the logi anchor and took stock of the situation.  I had the right fit.  I hadn’t bothered to check until then, but I was close enough to change out if I needed. I had mostly armor drones in my drone bay, with a few Acolyte IIs in case there was a combat target to whore on.  I launched one of those just in case somebody showed up.  And I noticed SynCaine was on, in the fleet, and flying a REAL ship now, a Megathron.

SynCaineThron

SynCaineThron

I opened a convo with him and said hello.  We left that open during the evenings events.

Asher did not have us hanging out on that POS for long.   Well, the rest of the fleet might have been there for a while, but I wasn’t there for long.  He had us align to the Saranen gate and warped us off to a bounce, then to the gate, where we jumped through.

Of course, about the time we were jumping through I reailzed I had left a drone behind.  Three Acolyte IIs left in the drone bay.

In Saranen we found another POS to shoot, then spent some time tethered on one of our citadels in the system, then started shooting another POS.

Sitting on another POS, this time in Saranen

Sitting on another POS, this time in Saranen

This went on for quite a while, and Asher was pretty quiet for long stretches.  Some people asked for a participation link because it was getting late for them.  It was well past midnight for the Euros.  They got one and a few people wandered off to bed.  SynCaine and I were speculating on what was up in our convo, where I noted that Asher is quiet when he has business cooking in other channels.  Another ping went out to help keep the fleet full.

Some dreadnoughts were called out to join the shoot.  Then hostiles finally showed up.  A group of NCDot T3s arrived and went straight after the dreadnought.  We moved around and took a couple of shots at them, but they were hard on the dreads, taking them down.  It was disheartening.

A doomed Moros at the POS shoot

A doomed Moros at the POS shoot

Then Asher warped us all back to the station and told the dread pilots they were on their own.  We sat there in space for a bit before Asher warped us off again, this time to one of our POSs, where a titan was waiting.  Asher told us to get in range of the thing, and before we got very close the titan put a bridge up.  The call was to turn props on and take the bridge, go go go go go!

Because on the other side of that titan bridge was the main course of the night’s meal.

Titans on grid in Okagaiken

Titans on grid in Okagaiken

We had bridged into Okagaiken at the W-4NUU gate where a supercapital force had been building up to come and drop on us.

Asher began giving orders, Apocs were to go after one titan, point it and neut it, while Megas were to go after another.  A titan was called as the primary.  We see hostile titans regularly enough.  We’ve even seen them in Okegaiken before.  But calling one as a target with a subcap fleet is generally just a defiant gesture.  I anchored and launched one of my Acolyte IIs and put it on the primary just in case things got real.

Of course, it wasn’t just a subcap fleet for long.  Cynos were up and dreadnoughts began landing on grid with us, friendly dreads that joined us in the fight.  I was busy answer the call for reps, but I kept that titan targeted and watched its status.  The shields were stripped away, but it was likely armor tanked.  Then the armor began to get peeled back, slowly but steadily.  When it finally hit structure, it was like an adrenaline surge, we were going to get a titan kill.  And sure enough, that first target exploded.

Opus Congelatio's Erebus goes up

Opus Congelatio’s Erebus goes up

By that time the enemy too was bring in help and some Fax Machines landed on grid with us to try and tip the battle.  They were immediate targets for our dreads and we bent ourselves after the second titan.  (The Apostles went down quickly, but I still managed to put my drone on two of them in time.  Bad logi pilot!)

The second titan was another Erebus, and I told SynCaine that if we got this second kill, the fight would be paid for.  The slaughter on grid continued, the hostiles potting dreads as fast as they could, but more kept arriving.  Then the second titan became the focus and, like its predecessor, was whittled away until it exploded before us and became another wreck on grid.

Caoni Mar lights up the grid with his death

Caoni Mar lights up the grid with his death

In that picture you can see the wrecks of the original Apostles at the top, more on grid, the Erebus exploding, and yet more ships being cyno’d into the fight.

The third titan was a Ragnarok and everybody was soon focused on him, yielding another explosion and wreck on the field.

Kamikaze Doomchild lights up space

Kamikaze Doomchild lights up space

By this point the dread wrecks were starting to litter space.  We were way ahead on points with three titan kills, but Asher still had enough dreads on grid to go for a fourth.  Dreads who jump into this sort of fight have pretty much bought a one-way ticket, so they insure (if they remember) and keep shooting until blown up.

The fourth titan was another Ragnarok, but the enemy seemed to have him covered.  Our initial burst of damage actually got him into structure, but then he got armor reps and his armor belt was restored.  To get him Asher told his subcaps to go at him, props on, in order to bump him away from his support.  I enthusiastically joined in on this in my Oneiros because we were anchored up out of drone range of the fourth titan.  So I sped off, even after Arrendis told logi to stay on anchor, in order to get within drone range.

As I got close enough, I launched my last Acolyte II, the other having been eaten up by smart bombs over the course of the battle, and sent him off as I turned to anchor back up.

That last Ragnarok was slowly but surely driven away from his allies, remove his support and leaving his exposed to our fire.  After almost ten minutes of this… a long time in a battle… he was finally far enough away and obliged us with one more big explosion.

NiceandRed goes critical

NiceandRed goes critical

At that point, we had gotten all the titan kills we were likely to get.  The enemy was there in force, the T3 fleet we saw in Saranen had joined the fight, it was time to leave.  It was “fofofo” in local then, plus some “Blap Blap Blap toot toot” from Xel for good measure. (Xel was up past 5am local time for this fight.)

Let us "fofofo"

Let us “fofofo”

Asher had the subcaps align and warped us out, leaving the remaining dreads to their fate.  Then we warped to the station and docked up for about 45 minutes as we waited to the hostiles, bent on revenge, to wander off.

At about this point it came down through intel that Darkness had finally formed for the fight and was undocking.  I heard the fleet got a gold star for an excellent form up.

In station people linked battle reports, though those were lagging behind as the kill boards updated.  We knew we were going to come out ahead with four titan kills, the question was more of how much ahead.  This morning the numbers on the battle report I was looking at were in our favor.

OKBattleReportHeader

I put Snuffed Out and Project.Mayhem on our side as they were part of the whole plan.

It was clearly a bloodbath, with a lot of sacrifical dreads going down to get those kills, but the ISK was was our, plus we killed some titans.  A single titan kill is headline news most days.  I expect to see posts up on multiple sites as the day goes foward.

While we were docked up, Asher told us about how he had worked to set this up over the last week or so, working with Snuffed Out, to bait out supers with another battleship fleet and some sacrificial dreads, only to have Snuffed Out and Project.Mayhem in place to tackle the supers when the showed up and let the piling on begin.  One NCDot pilot had some prophetic words earlier in the week about titans.

With the plan sketched out for us, somebody who had been looking at the kill mails wanted to know if anybody had gotten some good loot.  There was some expensive stuff dropped on the field.  As it turned out, the REAL winner of the battle was one Taylor McNinch, who was the looting God according to this pic up on Reddit.

Once things died down in system, we headed back to Saranen.

It was a hell of a night, and a hell of a fight, the kind you go out on fleets waiting for.  And SynCaine got blooded with his first titan kill, in a proper ship, as did a three day old character in KarmaFleet according to coms.

People already have some videos up of the fight.  Here are a few I’ve seen:

I am sure there will be more tales from this fight, which I will link below as I see them.

And then, of course, my screen shots from the evening.

Always another POS to shoot Sitting on another POS, this time in Saranen A doomed Moros at the POS shoot Titans on grid in Okagaiken Doomsday shots light up the grid More people showing up on grid Opus Congelatio with some doomsday action Opus Congelatio's Erebus goes up A Naglfar's shields flaring after a doomsday hit Caoni Mar lights up the grid with his death A crowded battlefield Kamikaze Doomchild lights up space My Oneiron in the middle of things My last Acolyte II attacking NiceandRed goes critical Returning home to Saranen

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