I've been really slack in writing AARs after our public roams, one of my Resolutions for this New Year is to stop sucking and write more AARS
Wow... this sure was a challenging roam today! I never thought I would ever say the following words in my life:
We had too many skirmishers.
The fleet was primarily a mixed-bag cruiser fleet. We did NOT lack for targets... Curse was definitely a target-rich environment today
We had ten student skirmishers, which were paired up into five skirmishing "groups" - the thinking being we typically have around five skirmishers on our big roams, so this would be manageable they would back each other up, would provide outstanding scouting coverage, and the fleet would never be blind.
All the fights we had have become a bit of a blur to me all at this point... I think I enjoyed the fight against the
CVA gang the best, the Hawk/Logi gang fight was fail, that's all I will say about that! Still, oddly enough, I'm glad we took that fight.
So, on to the good, the bad, and the ugly...
THE GOOD:
Agony! I
you! We had a really FANTASTIC turnout of Agony for the roam today.
Toran and Itko: I cannot thank you guys enough for the work you put into developing this class, the time and energy you spent on the students yesterday, the handholding and organizing you did with the student skirmishers today.
We killed more ships than I realized - I'm still counting/cross-posting, but despite whelps and overwhelming odds and some *oops* moments, we exploded at least 32 opponent ships today, the majority of which were cruiser/battlecruiser hulls.
The student skirmishers started terrific right from the start, and only got better as they gained confidence. Even their very first hesitate recon reports were understandable and usually contained the most important information.
Truthfully, the students were AWESOME at skirmishing, I would never have known that this was the first time ever for more than half of you.
The use of a private chat channel for the skirmishing students worked excellently; they were able to keep themselves organized, freely ask questions without worry about interrupting fleet operations,
Gizznitt... omg... I do not have words to express how awesome you were with the student skirmishers, keeping track of and organizing each of those skirmishing groups, the way you deployed and ordered them around was beyond impressive. I bow to you.
We had no problem finding targets.
The fleet moved well together right off the bat, there was minimal accidental hops through gates, aligning was really good, people falling behind or getting lost was quite rare actually. Normally "where is the fleet" is the most common question during one of our class roams, today that question was exceptionally rare.
Firepower was generally well-focused during fights, I didn't see a lot of spread damage during fights (it always happens a bit, today was overall way better than usual).
We took fights we probably shouldn't have yet got good kills.
We took fights we definitely shouldn't have, and nobody panicked, rage-logged, threw a temper tantrum, or otherwise reacted in any way other than to say "Well, that didn't work out too good," reship, and get back into the groove.
Every student got the opportunity to skirmish, to give recon, to get virtually immediate feedback (perhaps too much at times), and to really get a good feel for what the job is about.
Coms were outstandingly good despite the challenges of having
way too much intel coming in.
Recon reporting was outstanding, even when it was a bit slow or hesitant, across the board.
Lowkey did not accidentally squad-warp the squad
Overall, everyone involved displayed heroic levels of patience with everyone involved, including themselves!
THE BAD:
Well, actually, nothing was REALLY all that bad, despite the following wall-of-text... but I relate all of the below for in order to share and record much of the verbal AAR and feedback we received after the roam was over.
We had too many skirmishers. Never thought I'd say that. This actually reduced the effectiveness of our fleet. We had upwards of 16 people in interceptors in a fleet of (average) 50, which reduced our potential DPS/EWAR. We're bouncing some ideas around internally already.
There were occasions when stuff was over-reported, such as a student giving a recon report then an Agony skirmisher giving recon in the same system one minute later. Oops!! Listening skills are a Good Thing™, Agony
We lost more ships than we should have in some fights for a variety of reasons - either the way we landed, misunderstanding of targets called, the choices of fights we took, a bit of a slowness on the part of the fleet to get "in the groove" of flying together.
Third person. Third person. Third person. I would spank those of you who forgot to use the third person but ya'll would enjoy that too much.
Just my humble (hah!) opinion, but I think we hung out in Curse too long. I think we should have moved towards Provi or somewhere else after our initial oh, about two hours. We spent too much time toying with the same gangs repeatedly. Keeping a fleet moving, keeping things somewhat fast-paced, also serves to keep the gang on their toes and alert. It is also less exhausting, as those stretches of quiet systems give everyone a mental break between fights.
Related to the above... we didn't take as full advantage of our plethora of skirmishers as we could have. When we have a crapton of skirmishers, we should endeavor to really spread them far and wide, really blanket an area/region looking for opportunities. This is a result of the fact that Curse was so very rich in targets - it's hard for anyone to call for fleet to move somewhere else when there are fights to be had right here! - and also related to the fact this was the first time we attempted running a class fleet like this.
Communications were challenging. We had too much intel coming in at times. This, of course, is the nature of the beast of a fleet we flew today, with so many skirmishers.
Improper use of Break-Break drives me friggin' batty. Seriously throws me over the edge of reason.
Break-Break means there is an IMMEDIATE THREAT TO THE FLEET, this information is URGENT and TIME CRITICAL. (Threat can be opportunity, too, btw). Break-break should not ever be used to report a single target four systems away or anything other than an immediate critical threat to the fleet. Break-Break puts everyone on alert and into adrenaline-rush time, do that too often to a fleet, and everyone loses mental alertness from too many serotonin buzzes. Overuse of break-break also means it eventually loses its POWER to put the fleet into defcon-four alert mode. (Ya, I know, I need to spank the
Agony pilots that did this today! /me is embarrassed by the fact FOUR Agony pilots did this, but only one student did! Students aren't supposed to be better than Agony, technically! EDIT: One of those Agony break-breaks was appropriate, by the way!)
Having vented about how break-break makes my blood boil... I will soften that with the recognition that we had too many skirmishers reporting too much intel, creating a coms situation that was overwhelming for anyone, much less everyone. I do understand the frustration that some experienced with trying to report stuff at times and the excitement of a nicely supported gang in a target-rich environment with bubbles! bombs! bubbles! Oh my its good to be home in nullsec
We need to develop a few good public cruiser gang doctrines taking better advantage of the opportunities tiercide presents. Kitchen-sink cruiser gangs are just not what they used to be. This is something that is already in the works as part of the new Intermediate cruiser-based class, watch for my post about that Coming Soon™
We hung out at some TACs and on some gates longer than we should have at times. Two TACs were busted (probably were already anyways). A safe spot was busted but that was by design.
The UGLY:
Nothing really ugly except
perhaps this. Um, ya, that's a fight I'd rather not relive
And finally... THE GREAT:
We had a superbly supported class roam, the level of patience on the part of everyone involved was beyond measurement. I love you all