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[Atandros]

I thought you guys might be interested in a battle report from the Sansha Oruse event, from Rote Kapelle's perspective; [I hope you will] enjoy.



* * *

http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_related&kll_id=42808
http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_related&kll_id=42774

* * *

We were trickling back slowly into TXW after the first part of the 3KNK massacre, when a few voices excitedly piped up about the Sansha event in Oruse that had been talked abour earlier. I had been listening in with mild indifference, and gradually drifted to the decision to sink an hour or two into that; it was an idle evening, and there was no reason why not.

Having arrived home, I grabbed my Curse and sat on the TXW undock, watching RK ships sporadically undocking and swanning around the station. I patiently waited for the stream of idle chatter to sort itself out as I warped to the 3MOG gate, following a few others. The idle chatter showed no hints of stopping; I looked down at the fleet window and saw 20-odd ships in gang, while three or four odd ships sat on the gate.

At that point the part of my psyche whose deepest expression is "Ordnung Muss Sein" took over and, after hearing that noone had pre-volunteered to FC or had any intentions of stepping up to do it, I took control.




Now we could get going.

--

We put together a setup based around a core of shield BCs supported by a dab of EW and logistics, and left for Oruse, not running into any surprises along the way - except, perhaps, a total absence of bubbles in the 0.0 chokepoint system - before scout spoke up with intel about a gatecamp in Hare, 1j from Oruse in our direction, consisting of around 10 BS with very respectable support, wearing some 0.0 alliance tag. (WIdot? TALOS? Something like that.) The day I engage that under sentry guns is the day Lady Gaga can be mistaken for Taylor Swift, so fleet comes to a halt 2 jumps from Oruse and coagulates on one of the gates while scout continues watching the BS camp.

They take their time, but before we're done with getting into useful shape, they reposition into Oruse itself and warp off to a planet. To a planet?




Fleet quickly bursts into Hare and starts to reassemble on the Oruse gate while scout shadows the BS gang, working on a good warp-in position for us. As the gate starts to rapidly swell with RK battlecruisers, all of us waiting with bated breath on scout who is on the cusp of getting his optimal warp-in, the enemy fleet spontaneously tucks tail between their legs and suddenly warps off.


Seriously?


You pulled me into the room, started to unbutton me, then abruptly put your clothes back on and walked away? Fine. I'm not returning your calls.


Having written that fleet off, at this point we move into Oruse to deploy properly. Local is at ~90, and we have 30; we go check out the planet II warp-in grid, where all the action is supposed to be happening.
We find nothing more than a handful of frigates, -perhaps- a T1 cruiser, if memory serves, and clusters of stationary Sansha BS floating in debris stretching thinly for hundreds of kilometers in every direction. Surveying that field did not produce the most gratifying feeling in the world.

Roughly at this point, two things happened. A web of yellow beams burst out across the grid and cooked one of our Hurricanes before its pilot even realized what was happening, and a hapless Dominix landed out of warp close enough to us. scout quickly zoomed up towards him, landed a point, and made it possible for us to dispatch him.

http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42757

That kill slightly offset the searing shame of losing a ship from the fleet to NPCs; regrettably, nobody came in to avenge the pilot and give us an opportunity to further offset our shame, so we promptly left the planet and settled into an ambush pattern: scout roved the grid, tackling whatever landed, while another scout prowled the system looking for new targets anywhere and the fleet main body waited, aligned, close to planet II. At this point, holding the fleet back like a crouching rottweiler, I digested overall intel and found a clear, bleak picture emerging: out of the 90-odd pilots in system, our fleet of 30 was the only significant organized force - the rest were random passersby, individual observers, small gangs like the squadron of half a dozen Drakes I-RED fielded and (tactical) oddballs like Ghost Hunter sitting in an Archon at his POS and delegating fighters to two frigates.

Continuing to hold out slim hope for a sizable challenger's arrival, I maintained the ambush pattern, which would allow us to exploit this situation as fully as we could. Efficiency was near-flawless: as soon a ship showed up at Planet II, scout would zip over to it, promptly land a tackle and succeed at surviving; fleet would swiftly land, turning right around while guns opened fire, and when a wreck appeared in the wake of the explosion, we were in warp.
It worked like macabre clockwork:

http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42763
http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42768
http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42769
http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42782
http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42787
http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42788
http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42808

 [ 2010.11.30 22:45:45 ] Pol Macsliebh > Pol Macsliebh  STOP WARPING TO SANSHA PLANET II YOU WILL DIE
 [ 2010.11.30 22:46:00 ] Atandros > He's right

I even warned them. v0v


But a couple of targets succeeded in evading our clutches. Most memorably there was the I-RED Drake gang, who could not have been more on the ball, and who tenaciously kept warping in to land odd shots on the Sansha BS, vanishing from the field successfully any time a sign of a threat showed its face. Our tackle must have gotten nearly-there at least three or four times.
Another successful escapee was an Oneiros we chased fruitlessly over half the system. After some time of doing that, we gave up on him and regrouped at a random Customs Office, and as we waited for fleet main body to become a cohesive and useful whole again, scout reported a Moira. Scorpion ~70km away back at planet II.


Me: A Scorpion? Okay. Whatever. Go for it.
(I wasn't expecting much, especially at 70km off, but why not in an absence of targets.)

Scout: I'm 40km away - he's yellowboxed...

Me: (mildly indifferent, putting my fleet back together) Keep us posted.

Scout: He's redboxed and I'm holding point.

Me: Fleet warp in.


http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42771; then we pulled back to our ambush spot and resumed our usual pattern. The event was clearly winding down, but there was no reason to leave just yet.
Reports from planet II slowed down to a meager trickle of uninteresting targets. At one point that included a Kestrel, which Scout #2 chased after as soon as it showed up.


Scout #2: Kestrel popped a cyno!

Me: (piqued and undaunted) What came through?

Scout #2: Pandemic Legion, 42358956793 Nyxes, 53947568 Aeons, [hurf-blurf] carriers...


I just laughed and then pointed fleet back to Gare. Now it was time to get going. After confirming no PL subcaps were around and after redeploying scouts, we set destination set to TXW and warped to the gate while PL vomited over local and whittled down the Sansha Wyvern. We landed on the gate just in time to meet a small Moira. fleet, apparently doing what we were.
Their outnumbered half-a-dozen or so ships nervously fidgeted on that gate next to ours. At that point, the right choice for the Moira. FC would have been to push the whole fleet through immediately and then warp off straight away, putting the pressure on us to make a split-second call on whether or not to follow, keeping his EW together, and exposing our light tackle to the sentries on the other side.
That choice was not made. After a stretch of long seconds of spaghetti-western hesitation that permitting us to get a handle on the situation, one panicking Moira. Scorpion jumped through into Gare, soon to be joined by a Harbinger. We jumped in after them.
Nobody followed.



Nothing on the grid survived.

http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42774
http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42773


Simultaneous with our reaching the outbound gate, scout reported a Moira. Tempest on the gate we were about to jump into. It was Julianus Soter.
A couple of us jumped in to force him through - about half a dozen, to offset the sentry guns' fire during the slowboat back. Reliably, necessarily, Julianus jumped into the gang of 20+ RK on the other side.
He was very easygoing about it.

[ 2010.11.30 23:11:15 ] Julianus Soter > Sup.

http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42776

Not much, Jules, old buddy. You took it like a champ.


Right after having cleaned up what was left of Jules, we got a Moira. Wolf jump-in for whatever unknown reason.
He gave our tackle a good run, reaching ~100 from the gate, but it wasn't enough.

http://www.rotekapelle.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=42790

And after that, our stream of Moira. - and any other - targets was exhausted. Eschewing a slowboat back to gate under sentry fire, we regrouped at the Gare sun and started towards TXW, encountering nothing other than PL's taunts on our way.

[ 2010.11.30 23:15:52 ] EVE System > Channel changed to Babirmoult Local Channel
 [ 2010.11.30 23:16:41 ] Psyflame > come back i don't have a cyno i promise
 [ 2010.11.30 23:16:51 ] EVE System > Channel changed to Faurulle Local Channel
 [ 2010.11.30 23:17:18 ] Psyflame > get back here :F

Leaving behind us a swarm of frustrated supercapitals, a multitude of ghostly passersby, and uncountable wrecks, we burned straight home and wrapped up the fleet.


 [ 2010.11.30 23:23:53 ] Featious > Yeah awesome, glad I logged on when I did
 [ 2010.11.30 23:23:55 ] AMSF Celestial > Thanks.
 [ 2010.11.30 23:24:05 ] Peyatoho > awsome
 [ 2010.11.30 23:24:07 ] Peyatoho > awsome
 [ 2010.11.30 23:24:11 ] Peyatoho > more epic than god
 [ 2010.11.30 23:24:24 ] Woodwraith > ive been erect the entire time
 [ 2010.11.30 23:24:28 ] Peyatoho > same
 [ 2010.11.30 23:24:30 ] Woodwraith > and now must consult a doctor
 [ 2010.11.30 23:24:30 ] Syl Kougai > SAME

Carnage, explosions, and powerful, arousing stimulation?
It's all I could want. That's what I'm here for - to cause new blood flows, in this direction or that.

[Casiella]

You totally need a blog. 

[Esna Pitoojee]

You totally need a blog. 

Seconded. "Crime, Punishment, Lady Gaga and the Idiot(s)" even sounds like a relatively decent blog name.

[Ghost Hunter]

our fleet of 30 was the only significant organized force - the rest were random passersby, individual observers, small gangs like the squadron of half a dozen Drakes I-RED fielded and (tactical) oddballs like Ghost Hunter sitting in an Archon at his POS and delegating fighters to two frigates.

Quality AAR, would read again while listening to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance

[Amann Karris]

I came for the Lady Gaga, I stayed for the AAR.

It brought a tear to my eye, and a smile to my face.  Keep up the good work, and yes, you do indeed need a blog.

[Borza]

[ 2010.11.30 22:45:45 ] Pol Macsliebh > Pol Macsliebh  STOP WARPING TO SANSHA PLANET II YOU WILL DIE

Honourable Ushra'Khan CAPS LOCKS WARNING

[Atandros]

Haha, I'd love to do a blog. Unfortunately, I'd update far too infrequently to make it worth starting up.

Ghost Hunter - btw, that wasn't intended as a dig at you at all. Putting an unsupported carrier on the field would have been pure suicide (as the days before and after the uplifting attempt proved). And I meant "oddball" in a purely tactical sense, i.e. actors that couldn't be neatly classified.

[John Revenent]

Good read. 

[Amann Karris]

Haha, I'd love to do a blog. Unfortunately, I'd update far too infrequently to make it worth starting up.

But... I would read it.

[Ghost Hunter]

Haha, I'd love to do a blog. Unfortunately, I'd update far too infrequently to make it worth starting up.

Ghost Hunter - btw, that wasn't intended as a dig at you at all. Putting an unsupported carrier on the field would have been pure suicide (as the days before and after the uplifting attempt proved). And I meant "oddball" in a purely tactical sense, i.e. actors that couldn't be neatly classified.

Nah that was me taking a dig at myself more than anything.

By the way, the battleship blob you guys were stalking were HUZZAH FEDERATION, they came to the tower in an attempt to gank me. I managed to move back into the bubble, but it was quite the hair raising moment.

[Kyoko Sakoda]

Scout: He's redboxed and I'm holding point.

Me: Fleet warp in.

For comparison:


No coincidence methinks.

[Atandros]

Haha, I'd love to do a blog. Unfortunately, I'd update far too infrequently to make it worth starting up.

Ghost Hunter - btw, that wasn't intended as a dig at you at all. Putting an unsupported carrier on the field would have been pure suicide (as the days before and after the uplifting attempt proved). And I meant "oddball" in a purely tactical sense, i.e. actors that couldn't be neatly classified.

Nah that was me taking a dig at myself more than anything.

By the way, the battleship blob you guys were stalking were HUZZAH FEDERATION, they came to the tower in an attempt to gank me. I managed to move back into the bubble, but it was quite the hair raising moment.

Thanks. It's really a shame those guys left the party early.

An analysis of dark glee

+1 cigarette sunglasses to you.

[Altaen]

Excellent and entertaining AAR.

[Graanvlokkie]

Thumbs up here.

Best account of the event that I have read.