Anatomy of Incursions: Difference between revisions

Do not underestimate the dangers of inflexibility or lack of knowledge surrounding the ''"why"''. A fleet led by someone who is flexible and adjusts to the actual situation and fleet composition can easily avoid disasters that would cause immediate losses for a fleet led by someone following a standard kill-order list without taking into consideration the fleet composition. Additionally, having the knowledge of ''"why"'' will allow you to foresee problems before they happen and act proactively instead of reactively.

When it comes to having enough logistics in the fleet, one of the key aspects you need to consider is how fast your logistics will cycle their repairs (which indirectly also controls how fast they can switch targets) and how vulnerable they are if they receive aggro. The fewer logistics you have in the fleet, the more vulnerable they will be if they themselves get aggro.

An incursion fleet should be able to warp into a site, have one of their logistics take full aggro and still be able to keep that logistics alive indefinitely. Anything less and you should keep the fleet docked up until you can adequately protect the fleet.

It is also important to be aware of your fleet composition and what your strengths and weaknesses are. Remember that your fleet composition is constantly changing as people drop and others replace them. Mentally reassess your fleet strengths and weaknesses based on what kind of ship and utility is leaving and what’s replacing it.

Without knowing these things you can't really make a good decision on how to tackle a site, because you'll need to put that into the context of the site you're doing and the challenges in it. The differences in spawns can make certain tactics very viable, or next to useless.

It doesn't matter if you're calling target, calling for aligns or something else entirely; Always issue commands with a clear voice and repeat the command if it is really important. If possible, have keywords like ''"Fleet"'' (everyone), ''"DD"'' (usually excluding the dronebunny), ''"Snipers"'', ''"Logistics"'', ''"Dronebunny"'' or something similar, then follow up with the actual command. For example, ''"Fleet ... align down the gate"'', ''"Logistics ... L up"'', a series of ''"Snipers ... Anthem Neos are primary"'', ''"DD ... Augas are primary, then Deltole"'' and ''"Dronebunny ... go for the Tamas"'' or ''"Fleet ... align to broadcast, drones in."''.

Give people enough commands to know what to do and hit the ground running when they land on grid, but avoid overdoing it. No need to add commands for the entire wave right away, get people started, then amend target calls with secondary or tertiary targets once people have started shooting. The key is to give them enough targets to fill up their pre-locks, so they have secondary targets locked already when the primary goes down.

People who get nervous or worked up tend to miss details or end up with butterfingers doing what they shouldn't be doing. This is true for everyone and the fleet commander sets the tone for most of this. Don't make rash, split-second decisions. Instead, take that extra second or two and consider your options, in the end that will serve you better. That said, it is important to make a decision, a clear and concise decision, so the fleet knows what to do. The longer you wait, the higher the chance someone will panic and do something stupid, potentially risking the entire fleet.

Keep things under control in your fleet. Make sure people know what they are supposed to do, don't hesitate to repeat important orders just in case. It's better some people get annoyed by the repetitiveness than for some people to sit around wondering what to do. Don't be afraid to call people out and ask them direct questions. Fleet security takes priority over stepping on people's toes.

Being in control also means you need to realize how much you can do and limit yourself to that, while delegating the rest to others. While it's admirable to take on many things at once, even grateful when it means the fleet takes off because of it, doing so is more harmful than helpful in the long run. Almost all non-essential tasks can be delegated to people, even fairly new incursion runners, so there's absolutely no excuse for you to be saddled with doing everything. Also, just because you can do all these things on your own, doesn't mean you should. Every extra thing you take upon yourself pulls attention from everything else you're doing, adding unnecessary risk to fleet safety.

People easily lose focus when Mumble gets too quiet and all they do is running through the motions. If they do, start asking questions, change the kill order to make sure people are paying attention. Do something to make them snap out of the ensuring apathy.

The simplest and most effective way of keeping things under control; your fleet safe and engaged, is to take control over fleet warps, aligning, entering sites, new waves and leaving sites.

= Standard tactics =

Below are standard tactics which apply for most incursion fleets, with focus on removing threats and overcome any shortcomings given the fleet composition.

The following ships has target jamming capabilities:

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It is usually safer to commit the entire fleet to taking care of jammers, one by one in order, to minimize the time any of your fleet members are jammed. Sometimes it is necessary due to repairs, like in [[Override Transfer Array]]s when the logistics tower isn't hacked. Other times, like in assault sites where you have more people in your fleet, you can send the dronebunny alone to take care of the Niarjas, while the rest of the fleet focuses on the larger Arnons. If you do decide to split your fleet's damage like that and have only a single person like the dronebunny go after one of the jammers, be prepared to change plans if he or she ends up being jammed.

Depending on the fleet composition and fitting doctrine, sometimes removing webbers can be a high priority. The ships that web are:

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Removing webbers from the field can be a high priority if your fleet is required to, for example, fly fast with afterburners to reach the next gate (common in higher sites even for shield fleets), if ships rely on their afterburners to speed tank (less common for shield fleets) etc.

Below are the ships capable of neuting:

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It is important to remember that the above mentioned ships need to be able to get within neuting range (approximately 20km), before they pose an actual threat. Depending on where the ships spawn, what else spawns with them and how far they close in on your position, neuting boats might not be an immediate concern. Just don't let too many of them live long enough to close the distance and start neuting.

Sometimes things go wrong, like a logistics ship disconnecting, and you get overwhelmed on a site and need to get the fleet out. In order to safely warp a fleet out of a site you need everyone pre-aligned and all warp scramblers on grid destroyed. The ships capable of warp scrambling are:

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It is important to take your fleet composition into consideration when a logistics pilot disconnects or they all get jammed and you're left with no remote repairs. Most fleets with a proper setup including emergency energy transfers, shield maintenance bots and calm pilots, can usually remove enough damage from the field to hold down the fort until the logistics pilot reconnects. Starting to align can in fact be a bad choice in some circumstances (since it reduces your tracking), so take a second to get confirmation on scrams (who's scrammed and by whom) while making a judgement call if you can handle the incoming damage or not.

Drones can be a tremendous asset on the field, but you need to use them wisely or end up wasting their potential.

===== Drone targets =====

* In short, never hamper or limit the potential of anyone in your fleet by making them the dronebunny.  

Once you've eliminated the bad choices, take a look at the ships that remain. Ideal candidates would be ships with a good scan resolution for fast locks, at least one web to improve the efficiency of the drones and a reasonable cycle time on their weapons so they can engage the next target in a timely fashion.

Try to make the most out of your webs and target painters in the fleet.

If you have long-webbed [[Loki]]s and [[Bhaalgorn]]s, make sure they aren't webbing things too far out. Always adjust the range of which you web things down to your fleet's damage projection capabilities. There's no point webbing things at 40km if more than half your fleet is unable to hit things for any kind of damage at that range.

Tracking links and remote sensor boosters can help ships push critical boundaries, overcome ship-design flaws or just plain improve the overall efficiency of the fleet. That said, it is important to take stacking penalties into consideration, as well as the desired result, when deciding who gets what.

When it comes to remote sensor boosters, it is usually better to boost the worst scan resolution than it is to try and ''top off'' an already decent scan resolution. If people learn to pre-lock as many targets as possible, the first lock is the most critical one. Getting that slow-locking battleship to 8 seconds instead of 16 seconds is a huge boost for the fleet, as it means that ship will apply damage much, much faster. Certainly better than boosting the dronebunny from 5 seconds to 2,5 second locking time.

= Advanced tactics =

When your fleet composition reached a certain level of efficiency, new options are available that you can utilize to make the fleet even more efficient and thus make it even safer.

Webs from [[Vindicator]]s and [[Vigilant]]s are incredibly powerful (up to 90% velocity reduction instead of 60%) and takes angular velocity out of the equation most of the time, especially in combination with the good base tracking of blasters. This allows them to become excellent frigate-killers, as soon as the target comes within webbing range. Given the right circumstances (enough bonused webs, good offgrid bonuses extending the range of webs) you can completely turn the tables and have the damage dealers with bonused webs take care of the frigates, leaving the dronebunny to follow the regular targets (like cruisers and battleships).

Webbing stuff at range is often a detriment, as it often leads to range issues and lower applied damage from your fleet. But if the fleet has the range, webbing things at a distance would help tracking and potentially reduce damage for some enemies (as they too would be stuck in falloff or even out of range completely).

Whenever targets spawn at range, there's a window of opportunity for any fleet with ships able to lock fast and shoot at a distance. While on approach, enemies come in at a low angular velocity with their microwarpdrive turned on and thus much easier to hit compared to when they slow down and start orbiting under your guns.

Overall such ships give the fleet commander a tremendous flexibility in target calling. It is also one of the most important aspects of the fleet's ability to compete against others. A fleet can have superior damage and still lose, if they take too long to lock targets or if they are unable to apply that damage at range.

If you sit still in a site, you're limited to the pre-set engagement range of the site based on where enemies spawn and how fast they fly towards your position. The benefit of sitting still is that you don't add to your tracking issues by moving and inflating the angular velocity.

So a moving fleet can be extremely efficient, but requires more coordination and homogeneous fitting requirements in order to be pulled off successfully.

When your site is taken and they have just begun, or when another fleet comes into the site you just started, then you need to consider your options as far as competing goes.

Whatever you decide to do, remember to do it in a controlled manner. Don't throw caution to the wind just because you have another fleet at the gate.

[[Category:Incursions]]