On Monday, November 20th, Northern Coalition. [NC] had reinforced a Fortizar in the D-GTMI solar system in the Providence region. The timer was clocked towards the EU prime timezone. The table was set for an awesome fight as the Fortizar came out the next day.
On the opposing side, NCDOT’s Killah Bee formed a Rokh fleet while Pandemic Legion [-10.0] formed a Raven fleet. Both fleets warped at safes around the Fortizar’s grid while the defenders stayed within the target structure’s tether range.
An hour before the timer, a defense fleet was formed up by the Provibloc defenders consisting mostly of a Ferox/Scythe mix. A hefty amount of TEST interceptors/frigates was also formed up as support. The plan was pretty simple; the tackle would pin down the attacking fleet which would provide the Ferox fleet an opportunity to warp in and engage at optimal range.
Then, chaos. As soon as the timer went down, the NCDOT/PL fleet started engaging the Provibloc fleet while narrowly avoiding the interceptors’ attacks. What followed was an interesting dynamic; the Provi/TEST fleet chased the NCDOT/PL fleet as it moved around the grid, engaging both the vulnerable Fortizar and the defenders. The fight evolved into an attrition exercise as each fleet attempted to fight on their own terms.
Despite facing relentless tackle, the attackers managed to put the Fortizar into its second reinforcement timer. The stage is indeed set for an epic final battle.
Jin’taan, from provibloc gave his version of the battle on the /eve/ reddit forum:
NC RFed our Fortizar with a Mach fleet in D-G on Monday, setting a timer up for the fight at 20:00 the next day. Expecting a repeat of much of the previous fights with PL, Feroxes were formed with the aim of doing maximum damage to a Mach fleet. However much to our suprise PL & NC. turned up in two seperate fleets, one Rokh and one Raven fleet, both of which were based around using massed Command Destroyers in order to provide on-grid mobillity to the otherwise vulnerable sniper Battleships. Seeing this, TEST came to support us with a fleet of scram-ceptors, with the intent of holding the fleets down whilst we tried to beat on them with Feroxes.
A super bloody fight ensued with PL’s Sabres catching stragglers in every warp deftly and allowing the Raven and Rokh fleets to kill countless Feroxes after every warp in. Meanwhile TEST’s Interceptor fleet was putting in work, coming in with post-boosh warp ins and trying to pin a few down to let the main DPS work on them before being forced off by the anti-support that both the sniping BS fleets had.
The fight went on for what felt like a ridiculous amount of time, with TiDi hitting noticeable amounts at times as the fight got intense, both sides replacing losses during the fight as they tried to be the last fleet able to contest the grid. The Forti got a minute here and there during the course of it, before being paused for the final time by PL & NC. at 32 seconds, which is where it held as they pushed it into the structure timer.
Really good fight to all who came, look forward to seeing what gets pulled out at the final timer for this one! 🙂
Here is a video of the engagement from the Rokh side:
