I wasn't on line much last night. Made up for it this afternoon. So, I log in, get a request for some ammo from a corp mate. Pop it in the oven. Then as I finish those administrative trivia, a call goes out for a frigate fleet. With my reserve of frigates, I head out to my forward base and join up. I don't even need to grab one since I had flown out to the production spot with a Rifter.
In the first fight we get to, I'm practically insta-primaried, but we managed to get an Ishtar, so once again the entire op is payed for. We then loose our FC to class and suddenly I'm in charge it looks like. So I order a re-fit for those of us in pods and we re-group, giving out a few of my frigates. I then bungle the next part and land right in a nice Amarr trap. Loosing us a few more ships, but one of the squadron commanders manages to get most of his squad warped off. Not good on my very first fight as an FC. Bye bye vigil.
So those of us in pods re-ship again and I give out a pair of ships that time. This time I make sure that I'll avoid any serious concentration of ships while getting us into a fight. Thru the militia channels we hear of a big fight happeing in and arround plexes in Tararan. We head in that general direction but once we hear it's grown and the ship description matches what we ran into in the 2nd battle, I decide that we're not going to go all the way but look for any stray reserves they may have nearby.
We manage to find a system with a minor plex and some interceptors war targets in it. After thinking about it too long (I have to break myself of that habit - but it's the sign of a new FC), I order us all into the plex. Sure enough we end up wining the plex, while this was going on there was an un-restricted plex in the area. I order us into that plex but no one is to leave the warp in point. Sure enough an interceptor warps in on us, and we get an web and some points on it. We manage to get it down to 40% structure when the crow manages to crawl out to enough range to warp off. While this was happening a Myrm had warped in. I order everyone to warp to a gate, not wanting to get trapped after we loose the crow. But then seeing local was stable we I order us back into the plex to go after the Myrm. This is kind of borderline for us but I figure what the heck, we're in frigates. As we warp in, an Arazu arrives in the plex. I order a quick change in primary and we melt the Arazu and switch back to the Myrmidon. Someone gets the pod of the Arazu pilot as well. We get the Myrm into about 30% armor but he manages to kill enough of us to hold cap stable so we aren't able to break his tank. At that point my Slasher is killed and since we're not breaking his tank I order a scatter to arm and re-fit - the Arazu having "paid" for the entire op.
Once again I hand out ships as we rest and refit, so 2 of my in-country reserves get donated to the cause and I'm in another of my Rifters. At this point the original FC is back in control and we head out again. We manage to get suckered into going for a Rohk solo and get smartbombed into oblivion. Down goes my Rifter and my pod. After deciding to up-ship, I"m in a Thrasher as we head out again. This time we end up in the same area as the Rohk got us but without running into major stuff. Heading back we managed to find the enemy fleet in Kamela, but the enemy only plays station games. Our FC has to go again. Once again I'm in charge, but with the bigger ships I definitely don't feel comfortable FC'ing, we head back to Minmatar space and I get us back without incident at which point a bunch of us head off to various real world pursuits.
All in all a pretty good first FC experience. Got smacked quite good, but came back and got a T2 kill - which was the purpose of the op. Learned I need to hesitate less, but I expected that to be a problem with my first FC gig. Running these "suicide" ops is actually a delicate balance between aggression and caution. You need to be aggressive enough to keep moving since if you stop in one place too long they'll squash you. But you need to be cautious enough not to engage if it looks like you won't get your kill before you loose too many ships. Giving out free frigates is definitely the way to go if your new at FC'ing because it frees you from the consideration of "commanding other peoples ships and not wanting to be responsible for their loss" feeling. Till you have some FC experience under your belt, that one probably leads to many bad ops. I'll be sticking to frigate ops and handing out free frigates till I'm confidant my FC skills don't suck.
Lord knows I have the frigates.
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4 comments:
So your intro to FCing got more violent than mine did, though you do have a war on your hand while I had a bunch of tired Bozos :)
Gratz man, and yeah, prepare to lose ships. but never hesitate to crack that whip, and don't fall into Cerui-type mind games :))
yep, trying to avoid that trap.
Hey man, sounds like you did a good job. I remember my first gig as FC. I'd proposed that a couple of people come join me on a low sec wander and before I knew it, it was a corp op and I was in charge. I didn't manage anything as sexy as an Arazu. We got a kill on a Cyclone for only the loss of a Rifter so it went okay. I know what you mean about hesitating, though. It really is daunting commanding a fleet full of people who know better than you.
The free frigs sound like a great deal. You'll get a good reputation however it works out in the end, as long as people have fun and haven't been bankrupt they'll fly under your flag again.
Grats on the kill....
Sounds like you did well, but then I think suicide fleets are the best to learn to FC with (not like anyone is risking 200+M isk ships).
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