(impressive paint skills below)
The corp living in c2b had 7-8 active pilots. Most of them were in drakes and the scout thought he may have interrupted their site running. We grabbed some armor ships and a couple of us moved up to c2a in preparation of trying to engage them. The rest of our fleet was still assembling when the hostile group warped from the tower with a Broadsword, Astarte and innumerable drakes.
We fell back to the c2a -> c3a wormhole to see what they were going to do and I had the second pilot fall back to the c3a > c2s wormhole when they jumped into the c2a. I stayed in the c2a and waited until they warped on grid with me before warping to a nearby planet and making a safe in route.
I landed at the planet and sure enough about the time I hit warp back to my safe, they landed several ships on me. This told me quickly that they were looking for a fight. In the meantime, the rest of our fleet had gotten organized.
Our fleet comp consisted of 1 Buzzard (go Kalseth!), 1 Armageddon, 2 Prophecies, 2 Oneiros and a Falcon. Since I was being actively chased, I passed fleet command off and the call was made to jump into c2a. The Broadsword and 2 drakes were sitting on the wormhole. With the Astarte and 2 Drakes chasing me. I'm not sure how innumerable drakes became 4 but it seems like a fuzzy math kinda day.
At this point, I was in warp to the outer planet (68 AU) away so I turned and headed back to the wormhole as soon as I landed. By the time I landed, their full fleet of 6 ships was on the wormhole.They killed our Falcon as soon as it decloaked. Jumping it into the middle of fleet engagement on a wormhole was a mistake on our part. That call should never have been made.
One drake went down before I landed and I started locking up the Astarte. The secondary was called as another Drake and since I was slightly out of range on the Astarte, I put my point on the second Drake just in time to see the Broadsword and 1 Drake jump out. What? There is no longer a bubble on field.
They are bailing! Spread points! Ummm..... That call should probably have been made earlier since I now have to wait out the cycle for my jammer. Get the Astarte! Of course the rest of their fleet now warps off leaving the second Drake pilot to his fate.
We had the Broadsword and Drake trapped for a while in the c2s, but ultimately got bored and headed home. This was a good fight! However, the enemy fleet bailed as soon as they saw the second Oneiros uncloak on the wormhole.
So would the Falcon never be jumped through the wormhole, waiting at range on the other side instead? Or would it jump through, cloak, and bounce off a planet to get range before engaging? Or perhaps wait until all hostiles are committed to the engagement and try to sneak it in, getting jams before its locks can be reciprocated?
ReplyDeleteIn this case, the Falcon should have stayed on the other side at range to cover the escape route. The Broadsword had a bubble up and there were a lot of ships sitting at zero. The odds of getting cloaked and out of range was pretty low.
Delete