Sunny, Shiny, Solar

So, after the frustration of letting a Machariel go away, I tried return there some other day, specially because Sov might change soon there, and drive away the locals.

We rounded up a Retribution, Drake, Cyclone, Hurricane, Sabre and a Sleptnir.

Plan: Go HJ-BCH, tackle something shiny, Loot and return home. But never does goes according to plan...

As we were about to jump into R-3FBU, guys on fleet mention local is going somewhat up.

Solar Fleet!

Unsure on what they got, caution dictated we jump into R-3FBU and reaproch as our scout gets eyes on them. A few seconds after, their scout sees us and we reach a crossroad. Both fleets on the gate, so what we do?

We jump in!

The following report was writen by Sygma, I'm just making it more colorfull and posting the backup video and some images:

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Blue: Sacrilege, Harbinger, Oracle, Sabre, Falcon, Thorax, Raptor
Red: Sleipnir, Cyclone, Drake, Hurricane, Retribution, Sabre.

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Blue Fleet: Blue fleet Jams out the red Sleipnir, Drake, Cyclone calling the Cyclone Primary. The red ASB Cyclone tank holds and sits un-aggressed on the gate absorbing damage from the red Oracle, Harbinger, Sacrilege and Thorax.

Red Fleet: The red fleet sends its hurricane and Retribution straight to the blue Falcon to get the Falcon off the field. The blue falcon takes jammer off the primary Cyclone to jam out the Hurricane whom is bearing down upon him. The red fleet Sabre concentrates on killing the blue Sabre creating the first casualty of the fight.

Blue Fleet: The blue Falcon continues to jam out the Sleipnir; Drake rendering their DPS useless, the blue fleet takes damage off of the Cyclone to concentrate firepower on the Red Sabre whom is pounding the blue interdictor. Within seconds the second red Sabre is out of the fight.

Red Fleet: The blue Falcon continues his jams on the Hurricane and Retribution allowing the Drake and the Cyclone, Sleipnir to put all DPS on the Oracle, the second blue fleet ship is down.

Blue Fleet: The Thorax, Harb, Sacrilege re-establish damage to the Cyclone and the ASB tank starts to fail; the Cyclone enters armor but keeps injecting cap boosters.

Red Fleet: The Hurricane and Retribution manage to finally take down the blue Falcon allowing the red fleet to now utilize its oft jammed Sleipnir and Hurricane. All DPS is called on the Sacrilege whose tank holds easily.

Red Fleet: The faction fitted red Sacrilege tank continues to hold even with four Battle Cruisers slugging away at it, faction fitting 4tw!

Blue Fleet: Blue fleet continues DPS on the red Cyclone; the Cyclone continues the fight although having massive armor damage. The Cyclone pilot squeezes a few more cycles from his ASB inevitably dies in a fire.

Both Fleets: The Sacrilege seems to be holding fine until he runs out of cap boost charges, he reps twice more while reloading cap boosters, but finally succumbs to the DPS caused by the Sleipnir..

Red Fleet: With only a Thorax, Harbinger left, the Red Fleet puts all DPS on the Hurricane.

Blue Fleet: Now having a massive DPS advantage the Harbinger goes down in flames, followed closely by the Thorax.

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SUMMARY

The fight could have gone either way, to be honest. I keep going over the fight in my head trying to figure out where the fight went wrong or right. I was the unlucky guy who died in the Cyclone but I was truly in awe of its performance (71,775 damage). If I would do it all over again, I think that we should have sent our Sabre, Retribution and Hurricane to the Falcon (along with all drones). While the main fleet went for the DPS (Oracle, Harbinger and Thorax, Sacrilege in that order)… we wasted too much time on a lower DPS HAC. Also on a personal level…I should have brought more cap boost charges…lol.

Sure you got enough of these around?

  If I were the Solar Fleet guys they should have made the Oracle and Harbinger warp at range allowing the snipers to protect the Falcon and kept them in the fight longer. I would have called the tackle and Hurricane primary, followed by the Cyclone, putting all ECM drones on the Sleipnir. All and all they called targets somewhat correctly, but once they lost the Oracle there went 1/3 their DPS. By not keeping the tackle off their Falcon, that eventually became the Achilles heel insuring the loss.

We can say what if, but it was quick thinking on the part of our Retribution pilot that drew agro from their fleet not allowing them to get into position to succeed. Once they aggressed, the fight was on, and either they jumped into us and died, or fought on the gate at the range we wanted."

Engagement KB 

Here is also the video from the Retribution point of view