SI Radio Member Report: Agatir Solenth – 2101.08.04

Greetings my fellow corp men, women, & blog readers!!!

Things have been pretty quiet down in Providence.  It would seem that we are in the typical slump of summer.  It is time when everyone finds it much more enjoyable to be out in the sun, with friends and family, instead of flying internet space ships.  Damn you all that have real lives! How dare you…

Needless to say that hasn’t stopped a few of us in SI Radio to go out and have some fun.  We moved out to 0.0 to give PvP a shot, and that is exactly what we have attempted to do.  Null sec means small gang roams, gate camps, and pew pew pew.  To that end someone has to take the reigns and lead their fellow pilots to… a great blob of death… err I mean… victory!  So I decided I’d give this FCing thing a shot.  How hard can it be?

Ok it is a bit harder than it looks, or sounds… but it is good fun if you enjoy working under pressure.  I have conducted two little roams recently, and decided I’d share their results and lessons learned.  I consider my roam record to be 0-1-1.  I am positive that I will not be teaching anyone with any fleet experience anything new.  However, if you are trying to improve on your noob status, then please learn from my mistakes.

First, if you are going to FC learn the common terminology used by most pilots.  I have a bad habit of saying “jump to gate” instead of “warp to gate,” or vice versa.  This can confuse folks, and can get half your fleet to advance beyond a gate or keep them from jumping to the other side when you need them to.  There are terms that people will expect to hear.  To make things up as you go only creates more confusion, and causes a need for more detailed explanations.  Lots of talking reduces your efficiency to move your fleet and to get them on target as quickly as possible.  Additionally when you tell someone to “warp to” be aware if you want them to warp to 0m or to their optimal ranges for a fight.  You don’t want your E-War or Logistic ships landing in the middle of a gang setup for short range gank.  Luckily I haven’t done that yet, but I have been the victim of it.

Second, if you are going to run a small gang you need some kind of scout.  Preferably they should be flying something small and fast, or small and cloaky.  IMHO you can’t have too many scouts.  However when you have a scout, you must be sure to keep track of their location.  You shouldn’t have to continually ask, “where are you scout?”  If you don’t know, then they aren’t going to be able to use the information they pass.  I like to tell them what gate I want them on or to head to.  I make it clear if I want them ON it or just have EYES on it.  Then it is up to the scout to fly his ship as he feels best, to keep himself alive.  Additionally instruct your scouts what information you want them to pass.  I recently learned why most FC’s don’t want to hear scouts report blue activity or presence in system.  On our last little roam my scout jumped in and reported 23 in system, blue and neutral.  Now I want to clarify what I believed I HEARD! In my mind I saw 22 blues and a single neutral in system.  Guess what…  yep you guessed it was almost totally the opposite.  I didn’t get a full count, because as soon as I saw my local window fill with faces with no blue boxes next to their faces I was giving orders to the group to quickly warp to and jump on contact to our next gate.  There were only three of us, and I wasn’t going to stick around long enough to see what they were flying.  Mistake number two… jumping into a system you don’t have eyes on. (I should have retreated back through the gate we came from)  So we entered another system full of more neutrals, and warped to the next gate…  Oh did I mention they were camping that gate, and it wasn’t a small gang.  It was a full  group of gank fit BCs with Interdictor and Interceptor support.  Up went the bubble.  As we held cloak for a bit, I was asked do we fight or run for gate.  We had a Thorax, Hurricane, Curse(me), and Anathema(me).  I ordered a run for the gate, as I was on the edge of the bubble I was gonna attempt the “cloak and pray tactic.”  I had debated taking my Pilgrim instead of the Curse.  Had I done that, I probably would have survived.  The Thorax was first to break cloak and was almost immediately tackled.  Estar knowing he was going down, immediately responded by launching drones and targeting a Sabre.  This allowed him to take out the Sabre.  I broke cloak only to immediately cycle the MWD to get out of the bubble and cloak up along the way.  This brought the attention of most of the others.  This allowed our Hurricane make it back to the gate, get out, and make best speed home.  As you can tell by this killmail, their efforts to de-cloak me were successful.  Lesson learned… Have your scouts report neutrals and reds and their numbers ONLY!  …and take a Recon that can warp cloaked.

Third, try not to be a scout or dual box when FCing.  There is just too much going on.  You can’t afford to split your attention with small tasks, when your job is to maintain the big picture.  I almost lost the Anathema with that Curse doing just that.  It was our rear scout, and had de-cloaked near the gate.

Fourth, trust your pilots to fly their ships.  Don’t micromanage them.  Don’t be afraid to let them know of your expectations or to give them advice (if you have a clue).  If they mess up, the worst thing that will happen is that you lose a ship from your fleet, and hopefully they learn something along the way.  This is PvP you are going to lose ships… haven’t you learned that yet?

Fifth, have fun.  It is just a game.  If you cannot have fun in your failures as well as your success, then you are taking things way too serious!!!

BTW – Feel free to respond with any tips, or links to good posts or FC guides!

Fly Safe… Stay Profitable…

Agatir