Just over 4 hours after a Nyx was killed in Cobalt Edge a further Erebus and Nyx joined the past weeks tally of super-capital loss mails after being destroyed in the Aring system of Genesis, starting March off with a bang.
Both of the ships mentioned above were part of the Psychotic Tendencies [TISHU] corporation Adversity.
The Erebus was piloted by Zerelos and the Nyx was piloted by Red Antonian, both of which were unlucky to get caught as a further 5 super-capitals belonging to [TISHU] were able to escape the clutches of the vast amount of HICs on grid. This is likely due to the spread of neutralizers, the incoming damage from the captured supers and the use of the ECM bursts which are a regular sight on most super-capital fits, all of which helped most of the lucky ones get off the gate to safety.
The main parties involved were [TISHU] and Easily Exicted [NSFW] alliance, with Northern Coation. [NC.] coming in to support the [NSFW] forces. I contacted each of the aforementioned alliances in turn to acquire their personal perspective on the fight.
The following is a report from Synsational of Intentionally Dense corporation in Easily Excited who FC’d their fleet:
[TISHU] recently moved into [NSFW] space with a few small low-sec pets. Since moving in, [TISHU] has thrown their super fleet around with little concern for its well being.
There were [NSFW] defensive POCO timers coming out in USTZ. An Armor T3/Guard fleet was dispatched to Aring to the Antem gate to block the [TISHU] fleet, who were yet to undock, from reaching the POCOs. [TISHU] observed the undock and movement of the [NSFW] fleet, unable to match [NSFW] numbers, [TISHU] formed powerful fleet consisting of a dozen+ faction battleships but zero logi, so triage was expected immediately. The [NSFW] DPS was ordered to the Antem stargate in Aring at zero, logi at 30. [NSFW] Lokis held down the 2 [TISHU] Bhaalgorns, to keep the [NSFW] guardians safe, while a Vindy was primed. Without logi, [TISHU] was forced to escalate first, bringing in a triage archon who did a fine job tanking the dozen or so [NSFW] T3’s DPS. Despite Vindy webs and Bhaals, the [NSFW] guardians tanked the damage of the [TISHU] subcap fleet, with only a handful of things exploding (broadcasting and fitting issues primarily).
In order to provoke an additional [TISHU] escalation the 2nd [NSFW] wave was summoned to enter the field, in this case a Triage Archon. The appearance of a lone archon could have been handled patiently by [TISHU], they had their own triage which could tank the entire [NSFW] fleet in triage, plus 2 bhaals to drain the [NSFW] triage, but predictably [TISHU] turned the dial once notch and dropped a single blap moros. This moros plus the rest of the [TISHU] fleet began to melt the [NSFW] triage so the 2nd [NSFW] next wave was brought in consisting of intentionally rag-tag cap force of 4 dreads, a second triage, and a damage thanatos. As the hostile triage and dreadnaught received blistering damage, [TISHU] supers logged in, joined fleet and jumped in, including a Erebus.
[TISHU] opted to jump their supers and titan to the cyno running on their Damnation that brought in the initial triage archon, as well as an additional archon, at zero on an armor brawl. The moment the supers entered the field, the 3rd [NSFW] wave was unleashed, 10 HICs which had been clandestinely staged earlier that day in Aring. These HICs undocked and warped to the cyno and points were spread on the [TISHU] supers, with heavy emphasis on the lone titan.
Once points were confirmed on the [TISHU] supers by the HIC force and the erebus had been bumped out of alignment, another cyno went up and [NC] Supers/Titans that had been licking their lips nearby jumped in, and primed the titan. Through skilled ECM burst and capacitor warfare usage, several [TISHU] supers escaped however a Nyx and the Erebus died. Several [NSFW] dreads, the initial triage, as well as a few miscellaneous ships died in order to produce the glorious result. KB is green.
This interview shows that it was apparently a trap which [NSFW] had cleverly setup knowing that the [TISHU] fleet would bring in their super-capitals, a good supposition considering it seems to have been their normal tactic over the course of a series of engagements.
Having viewed the un-edited video which [TISHU] posted, it clearly shows that a suggestion was made for an additional cyno to be lit off the gate but was dismissed, this could have played a big factor in ensuring more of the [TISHU] fleet had lived depending on the ability of the HICs to remain on grid.
However on this article, Lich Reaper a member of the Adversity. corporation in [TISHU], commented with the following:
We escalated to super-capitals after they dropped capitals in response to our triage and single blap dread, and knowing they had 50 in fleet (with supposed dread alts) we expected to throw our supers to a dread bomb which we would have promptly rick rolled. Unfortunately, we underestimated [NC]’s willingness to answer a bat phone to [NSFW] and thus the alts in that 50 man fleet were not in dreads but in fact in HICS!
[NC], being 6 mids away and plagued with incursions to even get to us, took gates for a majority of their trip from Aridia to Aring, where the trap was set well in advance. Glorious leader Lex Arson knew of the far yet close threat of [NC] but we all thought “whatever who will come to [NSFW]’s help anyway?”
After jumping a titan and a handful of supercaps and doomsday a moros here and shredding a moros there many a HIC landed (something like 15 hics). You can see by the unedited video that the third cyno was [NC] and welp come in bumping Titans and supers!
Fortunately, whoever was piloting the HICs ‘only’ managed to catch a refitting nyx and the Titan, despite their increasing number of hics on field. Our supers were barely ever pointed and MJD suffered the unlucky fate of being the last one on grid, so it became manageable for [NSFW] to all point him at least.
Overall, it was a nice super fight that now gives the excuse for Michael JD to get an Aeon and Gumby got a new dread alt out of it.
In the end, we learned a valuable lesson about intel!
GF, would do again!
As [NC] clearly were in on the trap laid by [NSFW] I contacted the FC from the engagement, FUUUFA of corporation Burning Napalm, to determine his role in the fight:
They approached me on the weekend about [TISHU] cap fleets and showed me some screens shots of what they have been running around with cap wise. I had planned to set the bait up ([NSFW] Dreads) on the weekend however I ended up having Monday off so I convo’d a dude from [NSFW] (admiral wheeler) to tell him I am keen to do it today.
We had a quick chat and they had some things coming out but it was too far for our caps so I told them to pick a fight in Aring with t3s and a couple triage. If [TISHU] drop dreads they should counter drop dreads and hope [TISHU] dropped supers or a titans and the plan clearly went well. We did however move supers 2.5 hours earlier to avoid any suspicion and safe logged twice along the way.
This clearly shows that even though jump fatigue and the new mechanics brought in with the Phoebe patch hindered the deployment of the Northern Coalition. forces for the trap and meant that it would require 6 cyno jumps to reach the destination, clever use of certain gates to cover large distances dramatically cut down on the effect of the fatigue timer, even though they had to move well in advance rasther than on the spur of the moment like they could of done pre-Phoebe.
This clever use of both the NC. capital fleet and the [NSFW] bait ultimately resulted in the following killmails:
Click for Killmail
Click for Killmail
Even though the mechanics have ultimately changed the way that the game works and the ability to travel between far -flung regions to take part in these large engagements it does still allow for such costly fights to occur, just with more forethought required. This is confirmed above by Lich as he states in his comment above that more intelligence and time was required to get all the parts of the plan together and ready for the fight.
The overall battle report can be found here.
[If you have any comments or intel you would like to provide please contact me at [email protected] or via an in-game mail]
