Funk

Entry: seven hundred ninety-five, supplemental one.

I'm a bit frustrated lately. I've been roaming around, but I haven't been able to kill anything. Honestly, that's not what really has me annoyed though, since I normally make good calls concerning fights. 

What has me annoyed is that I was sitting in a safe spot in H-A, got probed down, and killed. A completely avoidable loss, to be sure.

So first, I got probed down. Guess I need probes on my overview. Second I made the wrong call in trying to warp out as soon as I saw a Loki landing on grid. It was a close thing, another half second and I would have been gone, but it was the wrong decision. So third, I aligned out with overheated MWD and started to pull range.......and then got webbed down enough that I was done for.

Sigh.

Then ridiculed in local. I suppose I deserve it to an extent, but it's still annoying. Eighty mil tornado for nothing. Seems like if the ship isn't a frigate I'm doomed to lose it the same day I use it.

I don't know, I'm clearly doing stuff wrong in that my roams aren't getting kills. It feels impossible to compete with tech two and faction ships and tech three ships all the time, and I know it's not, but the schmucks in alliance can't seem to do anything except feed killmails to anyone who comes around, and I certainly didn't help that situation, a fact itself which annoys me further because I was a schmuck then.

I was pretty excited to take out an armor gank Maller, but now I'm questioning whether I should bother. Tier has a great idea for a plate BS gang to tell those stupid kiting gangs to piss off, which is great to that point, but doesn't provide much in the way of roaming I feel like. More like a gatecamp buster, which will work given all the stupid gatecamps around here.

Gonna have to find a way to get my morale back up for sure...I feel like I'm reliving my first days where all I did was lose ships. Those were dark, frustrating, heartbreaking days...
  
Computer: terminate recording.

****

Computer: append to previous log.

I need to man the hell up, and stop being such a damn whiner...sorry to everyone who waded through that.
 
Computer: save and close.
 

AARs 3/13/12

Entry: seven hundred ninety-five.
 
Situation: Two man roam starting and ending at H-ADOC. I was in an active armor Enyo, Roden was in a sixteen hundred plate Rupture. Roamed north to KZFV-, then SAH-, then LEM-, then swung west into Uemon. After Uemon we swung down through low-sec Metropolis and then Molden Heath, returning to Curse through a Great Wildlands entrance at Khabi and 7Q- to N3-, turning south to Curse from there.
 
Scenario One: Encountered a Shadow arty wolf at planet three entirely by accident south of SAH-. He was forty kilometers away when I landed, so I aligned away, but didn't warp. After a minute, he began burning for me. It was only when he kept at the outer edge of point range and was shelling me did I realize he was artillery fit. After a little more burning away, I overheated as I approached him. He was too slow to notice, and I webbed him at thirteen kilometers. I approached and kept everything on while using blasters on him. My cap was low, however, and I turned off my MWD, not noticing that he was exiting web range while I called for Roden to warp in. Once he got out of web range, I was never able to catch up with him, and he escaped.
Evaulation One: If I'm gonna call in support, I can afford to let my tank get lower than I did let it, and I can afford to not use the blasters in an effort to maintain tackle. Also, pay more attention to enemies webbed not scrammed and trying to get away.
 
Scenario Two: Somewhere near LEM- I finally found a Harbinger on station. I managed to get tackle and get under his guns and called in support. In my haste and excitement, I accidentally let tackle slip, and the Harbinger warped off. I then accidentally left my MWD on and burnt it out.
Evaluation Two: Need to pay more attention to heat, and only use when necessary for long roams. Approach was well executed, the Harbinger only got me into half armor which was easily repaired even under drone fire.
 
Scenario Three: Found a cyno probe entirely by chance in a system close to Paala. I warped to it, blaster'd it, and warped out. My MWD was still burnt out. I told Roden not to warp to it, as two Abaddons were on station as well.
Evaluation Three: Good decision, free kill. Roden's probably frustrated at this point. I need to avoid paths like the one I've taken to this point, as most systems were entirely empty up to this point. MWD was still burnt out, so this was probably an unnecessary risk.
 
Scenario Four: MWD had been repaired in Uemon, and enroute to Khabi came across Kaeda Maxwell in a Jag and unholy Batman in a cyno Rupture on station. Roden and I decided to try to take out the cyno rupture under gate guns. It turned out that the Rupture was excessively tanked, and I believe Kaeda's tackle proved to be Roden's undoing. I got out from under the Rupture's scrambler and warped out to planet five with less than ten percent structure left. The cyno rupture was into structure.
Evaluation Four: Maybe don't engage cyno Ruptures on station anymore. At least we had some action, but it was more costly than it needed to be. Them low-sec dwellers are a bit smarter than your average null-sec pilot it seems.
 
Scenario Five: Got Roden reshipped and got lucky with killing a Bestower.
Evaluation Five: Awesome! I just wish it was carrying something, or maybe even if it had been fitted.
 
Scenario Six: In the GW pipe to N3- a Rifter jumped into us. He reapproached gate quickly, then sat there waiting for us to make a move. After a minute he aggressed and a Falcon decloaked, we jumped through. Luckily, the enemy gang didn't have a gang or fast tackler, so we warped away and ran for our lives for a few jumps without harm.
Evaluation Six: Lucky for us they didn't have a bubble. We should have simply warped off, but I was distracted by the office calling for support. Work before play and all. Roden made good calls in my absence barring the warp out that we should have taken, so I feel good about this.
 
Scenario Seven: Old fleet was disbanded. New fleet was me, still in the Enyo, with Green in a Stiletto, Theisland in a Blackbird, Roger and Eradicator in Assault Frigs. Green was keeping eyes on Pathetiq who was sitting on the HLW- gate in VOL- in a Hurricane. I sat in ARG- on the VOL- gate. I ordered Theis, Roger, and Eradicator to flank from RA- by taking the following route: H-A to Y-D to MN- XX9- to RA-, and to sit on the HLW- gate. I ordered them to check for camps on the RA- gate in XX9- and again on the HLW- gate in RA-. As it turned out, Pathetiq's alliance, The Jagged Alliance, was camping the XX9- gate in RA-, and since Roger successfully scouted it and gatecrashed, we called off action against what was now an unassailable Hurricane.
Evaluation Seven: Excellent calls, nice flanking action that was slowed down by new members forming up. Need to get corp members used to jumping into a situation at a moment's notice. Good predictions about the gatecamps along the back route given previous experience. Good call in retreating. Shamefully, no kills.
 
Computer: terminate recording.

AARs 3/12/12

Entry: seven hundred ninety-four, supplemental one.

Scenario: Took out a small roam of four consisting of three auto thrashers and a Wolf. Targets sought were lone ships or stragglers. I didn't feel the fleet had enough experience baiting tacklers away from main fleets, so I did not allow that as part of an engagement option unless it simply happened.

Situation One: Was headed to the dead end past HLW-. In the system prior to HLW-, noticed a Scimitar/Drake/Cane gang of fifteen to twenty warp off. Dscan showed them camping the HLW- gate. Unwilling to waste any of the fleet on a fruitless attack, we headed back to H-ADOC.
Evaluation One: The correct decisions were made. A real chance to engage in any aggressive action didn't seem to present itself.
 
Situation Two: Had set destination for Doril. Scouted a gatecamp in 8G- on the CL- gate with a drag bubble. At the time, only a Rifter and Jaguar were visible, although neutral numbers in local were six in the stationless system. After jumping out back into VOL-, had the gang jump and purposely warp into the drag bubble. We engaged the Jaguar, a Falcon and Nemesis decloaked and engaged. I ordered fleet out of the bubbles and to warp off if possible. I was the only casualty, although I and one other were jammed out.
Evalutation Two: I foolishly engaged a camp that was obviously supported by cloaked combatants. Art of War is known for always bringing Falcons, a fact I missed in not checking their alliance tickers. Despite this severe error I made the correct calls in getting the fleet out, excepting myself being scrambled and primaried. Even missing the fact that it was Art of War alliance, I should have known that Recon support was clearly there at the Drag bubble, and should have just turned around.
 
Situation Three: Frustrated, we went to F9E-. I scouted, seeing an Enyo warp away but not to where, and seeing a Retribution warp away to the sun. I warped to the sun at thirty, called the fleet to jump in and warp to the sun, and landed on top of the hostile Enyo. I died before my gang landed. My fleet landed, but not in time to take on the Enyo and Retribution.
Evaulation Three: Local only had the two neutrals and me. I should have checked if they were working together before warping to the star, an operation that would have cost me a mere few seconds and saved me my Thrasher. Failure to do this resulted in me having to tank two AB fit assault frigates at close range.
 
Situation Four: No replacement ships were nearby, so I podded to Agil. Passed a war target gatecamp to Agil. Bought and fitted another Thrasher then headed back to HED-GP, only to be caught by the same gatecamp I passed.
Evalutation Four: I got my pod out, but realized at this point that I was in a funk. My ability to make clear and rational decisions was compromised, in part by frustration, in part by excitement of leading a small gang, and in part due to fatigue from a slight change in sleep schedule. I felt angry at myself for thinking for a second I could slip past a well set up gatecamp in a Thrasher, and angry at Curse for being such a boring gatecamped hell of combat. I called it a day at this point, not participating in further fleets knowing that my state of mind would only get me killed later on.
 
I did get to meet a frequenter of these logs, and set up to roam around north of Curse on the next day, which may result in more roams with him and his friends throughout the weeks and months.
 
Computer: terminate recording.

AAR Renter Roam #2

Entry: seven hundred seventy-two.

Scenario:
Took a few renters who were getting a little bloodthirsty on a roam today. This was the second of such roams and was meant to be a small wolfpack of Assault Frigates. We totaled eight by roll out. We roamed up through Curse toward Litom, as intel reported a small camp there. Intel also came across a TJA fleet of sixteen deeper into Immensea, but I feared they would be leaving soon and thus set destination for Curse. Practicing on renters helps me train for leading corp roams while not having to worry about whelping a corp fleet.

Engagement 1:
First kill was a triple A renter in a Geddon. He was dead as soon as he landed on gate with us. I didn't engage, but my fleet did, and made short work of him.

Engagement 2:
Jumped into RMOC- and warped to outgate. I called a hold, then called a jump and warp as the enemy fleet came up on scan. Battleships with a Brutix. As I landed, only the Brutix and a Tempest remained, the Tempest warping to my ingate. As my fleet issued warp to the outgate, they had a moment of utter confusion as a Tempest landed at them. I reordered the warp to my gate, scramming the Brutix and establishing orbit while the Tempest at my gate warped off. My fleet eventually landed and destroyed the Brutix. The enemy fleet landed as it entered structure, killing one of my fleet and preventing my escape while my fleet warped out. I was destroyed a minute later some two thousand meters from the gate. Arch took over as temporary FC while I reshipped.

Engagement 3:
Chased a xDeath gang (2 canes, Oracle, Sabre, Jag) a few jumps and warped to the D87E- gate in K-B. We lost a Taranis due to a slightly delayed warp command on the pilot's part, while the rest of us watched him die one hundred kilometers away. We jumped into D87E- and engaged there on the K-B gate  hoping to take a few of them with us. One our fleet was two jumps behind and reported enemy reinforcements inbound, to which I called a warp out. We lost a Vengeance and took none with us. Only after did I learn that the reinforcements were two jumps behind.

Analysis of Engagement 1:
Nothing to learn. The pilot was dead as soon as he entered warp, even knowing we were in local and neutral to him.

Analysis of Engagement 2:
Need to maintain better fleet control and fleet needs to obey FC orders even if they do see a Tempest land on their position. Made the correct call to tell pilots to warp out if under fire. Questionable whether sticking around to destroy the Brutix was the correct call: came out minus two assault frigates for one gank Brutix.

Analysis of Engagement 3:
Downright bad engagement. Should never have taken this fight. We had two ships with a TD onboard, which made me think we could TD the canes and wipe out the Sabre, Jag, and Oracle before needing to bail. This was not the correct call, as I did not account for drones, nor for the Canes packing scrams.

Computer: terminate recording.