Anatomy of Incursions

Commanding a fleet

Remember that EVE is a game where "It depends!" is the single most important thing to remember. Don't blindly follow set tactics or kill-orders you've read here or somewhere else. Put things into perspective and adjust to what's happening in every site, where the enemies spawn as well as your current fleet composition. This is a good example of where the "why" (ability to put things into context) is more important than the "how" or "what" (rigid kill-order lists etc.), as knowing the "why" allows you to tackle anything the game throws at you, whereas only knowing the "how" or "what" will catch you off-guard whenever something out of order happens.

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.

Secure your fleet

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.

If you have four logistics, you’ll be able to repair a fellow logistics at 75% strength (the other three logistics will be able to rep you). When you drop to just two logistics, your efficiency drops to 50% repping power. You’re losing half your repping power at that point, while simultaneously forcing your remaining logistics pilot to commit more reppers at any given point (adding to the time it takes to switch reps from one target to another). Just turn it around and imagine taking half the tank off from a ship in the fleet, nobody would ever suggest that. To mitigate this problem in vanguards, where more than two logistics is overkill if you have offgrid boosts, we utilize secondary repping from remote shield boosters and shield maintenance bots on regular damage dealers (to be used in case of an emergency).

To be safe, 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. Other communities might go with a more practical solution of having just enough logistics and focus more on your offensive capabilities. Similar to how mission runners can go for more gank over tank and survive, you can do the same in incursions. Our community focuses on security over completion times however.

Know your 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.

How many webs do you have and at what range can they be applied? How far can your damage dealers shoot and still do damage? Do you have an overall high damage or low damage fleet? How fast are most of them locking up targets? What kind of offgrid boosts are you getting? Do you have enough emergency capacitor transmitters (formerly energy transfers), remote shield boosters (formerly shield transporters) and backup maintenance bots? How responsive is your fleet, will a fast pace be efficient or just confusing and downright dangerous?

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.

Warp speeds

Not only do ships align faster or slower depending on their hulls and the skills of the pilot, they also accelerate into and warp faster or slower based on their hulls. This is important to be aware of when you're using acceleration gates as logistics enter the site much faster than the slower battleships.

Ship class	Warp speed (including align time)
Large ship Battleships	25s (32-41s)
Battlecruisers	20s (28-30s)
Command Ships	19s (28-30s)
Cruisers	17s (23-24s)
Logistics	16s (22-23s)
Frigates	7s (11-13s)

    Legend:  █ Warp speed  █ Fast align (max skill, agile hulls)  █ Slow align (low skills, less agile hulls)

A simple way to alleviate this issue when taking acceleration gates is to simply have the battleships pre-align down the gate, while logistics and strategic cruisers sit still, unaligned at 0 m/s. Once the battleships start warping into the site and disappearing from the grid (which takes a handful of seconds), the smaller ships can then take the gate and arrive only a couple of seconds after the battleships.

Similarly, if you're using a hacking frigate for sites like the Override Transfer Array, the frigate would in turn take the gate from a stand-still as the logistics disappear off grid. Then they'd land inside the pocket after most of the Eysturs have already spawned.

Remote shield boost capabilities

It's important to know how how much of your repair capabilities are tied up into each ship. That way you'll be able to quickly gauge whether you have enough support left to handle the incoming damage if one of your logistics disconnects.

In assault and headquarter sites (or even mothership sites) the loss of one logistics pilot isn't usually too much of a concern unless you're running really low on logistics to begin with. In vanguard sites however, the loss of one logistics pilot is anything but trivial, so we utilize remote shield boosters and shield maintenance bots on regular damage dealers to mitigate that problem. Rokhs have room for small bots, Maelstroms and Nightmares can field medium bots and Hyperions, Vindicators and Machariels can field heavy bots. The Nightmare, Hyperion and Machariel can also field remote shield boosters in their spare utility highslot(s).

Below is a table comparing the various means of repairing other ships, to give you a general idea of their potency. As you can see, the difference between various flights of drones can be quite big, which is why being aware of the fleet composition is so important.

Modules and drones		Amount repaired in hp / seconds
	Large Remote Shield Booster II	85,3 - 115,1 hp/s
	Large S95a Remote Shield Booster	76,8 - 103,6 hp/s
	5 x Heavy Shield Maintenance Bot II	90 hp/s
	5 x Heavy Shield Maintenance Bot I	75 hp/s
	5 x Medium Shield Maintenance Bot II	35 hp/s
	4 x Medium + 1 x Light Shield Maintenance Bot II	32,4 - 68,8 hp/s
	5 x Medium Shield Maintenance Bot I	30 hp/s
	5 x Light Shield Maintenance Bot II	17,5 - 36 hp/s
	5 x Light Shield Maintenance Bot I	15 hp/s

    Legend:  █ Base repair amount  █ Ship bonuses  █ Siege warfare link bonus

Offgrid boosts

Using offgrid boosters is pretty much a given in any community that run incursions. The boosts they provide are so strong that even if CCP forced boosters ongrid, you'd sacrifice a slot for the booster ongrid in a heartbeat. A vanguard fleet with 2 logistics and an ongrid booster performs much better than a fleet with 3 logistics and no booster, simply from a defensive standpoint. Add to that the secondary benefits from skirmish and possibly even information links.

Below are some practical effects of having a maxed booster with the appropriate mindlink implant:

Defensive bonuses	Miscellaneous bonuses
+15% shield hit points +5-10% increased resists  +30-50% effective shield hit points  -35% signature radius -26% cycle time on remote shield boosters	+36% locking range +10% scan resolution +35% web range +16% propulsion speed increase  -15% align time

“

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

”

When it comes to boosts in EVE:
1 + 1 = 3

These bonuses might not seem that impressive if you're looking at them one by one, but they are very powerful when combined.

Take the defensive bonuses for example. The 26% cycle time of remote shield boosters translates into +35% higher repair amounts over time. Combined with the increased resists it'll turn into an actual bonus of at least +50% stronger reps on most ships with several hardeners and rigs and up to +75% stronger on ships that have the least amount of stacking penalties. On top of that you'll also take less damage due to having a smaller signature and any ship with a propulsion module will further mitigate the incoming damage due to the speed boost.

When it comes to the web range bonus the end result is so much more than merely a +35% range bonus. This bonus literally makes or breaks the effective use of webs as many of the Sansha ships orbit just outside the range of unboosted webs.

Apart from the very tangible increase of repping powers and web range, the other bonuses all help to improve your "quality of life" making site running both safer and faster.

You can read more about setting up fleets with boosts and the expected results of warfare links, stacking webs and remote assistance modules on the fleet setup in incursions page.

Running without offgrid boosts

Running without boosts is not recommended as you lose a considerable amount of buffer and safety. That said, it's certainly doable for vanguards if you understand and compensate for the weaker position your fleet will be in.

If you choose to run vanguard sites without boosts, you'll need to keep in mind and compensate for not having the boosts listed above. Practically this means that you need to adjust your approach to site running.

• Use three logistics pilots and remember that they will be much slower to shift their reps over due to much longer cycles.
• Tell people to refit appropriately, keep their resists up as there's no room to drop tank in favour of gank when you run without boosts.
• Revise the number of webs and target painters in the fleet. You can't drop webs in favour of tracking computers to the same extent when you run without boosts, as where you land around the beacon will have a huge effect on whether you'll be within web range or not without boosts. You might even need more painters for things that consistently stay out of web range.
• The long web range of the Loki is very useful for a fleet without boosts.

While it's doable to run vanguards without boosts, there's no point entertaining the thought of doing the same with any of the larger sites. Given the higher alpha in those sites it would be a fool's errand to try those without the extra buffer a booster provides.

Issuing commands

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), "Battleships" (mostly for align or warp purposes), "DD" (usually non-snipers excluding the dronebunny), "Snipers", "Logistics", "Dronebunny" or something similar, then follow up with the actual command. For example, "Battleships ... 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.".

The use of keywords will make it clear that you're issuing an order and to whom. This helps people realize a command is about to be given, especially if you have open comms allowing people to talk and ask questions while you're running sites. Use existing "Break, break!" or "Check, check!" keywords to get people to stop talking if you need to. Put yourself as prioritized speaker, if you own the channel, just in case someone doesn't. When you give orders to sub-groups of your fleet, have them confirm orders if need be, even if it's just a simple "Ok", "Copy" or "Roger".

In the example above, calling "DD ... Augas are primary, then Deltole" that would let the tagger know what to tag and all the damage dealers know what to lock up while waiting for tags. This is especially helpful if you're commanding a fleet as a logistics pilot and someone else tags, or when doing larger sites where tagging is delegated to each group's commander.

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.

Stay calm

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.

Be in control

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.

Control and structure doesn't necessarily mean you have to run the fleet as a ruthless slaver cracking your whip all the time, nor does it mean you can't be in control of a relaxed fleet. It's all about the members of your fleet. Some will be able to work autonomously without being reminded what to do while others will slack off and pay less attention unless you keep reminding them. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security when running with "experienced players" ... they can grow complacent and trivialize responsibility thinking someone else will do this or keep an eye on that.

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 other people, even fairly new incursion runners, so there's absolutely no reason 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.

Keep your fleet engaged

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.

If you don't, you'll end up with a fleet where things quickly degrade; People forgetting to broadcast, lock up new targets, reapply their guns after reloading, not responding fast enough to sudden commands etc. In such situations things spiral out of control really fast.

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.

Removing jammers

The following ships have target jamming capabilities:

Enemy	Description
Niarja Myelen	A frigate that spawns in most incursion sites, but most frequently in vanguards (also neuts).
Orkashu Myelen	A frigate, similar to the Niarja, that may spawn if you mine Lyavite in vanguards (also neuts).
Arnon Epithalamus	A cruiser that spawns in assault sites and up.
Lirsautton Parichaya	A fighter bomber, spawns in the Uroborus and The Kundalini Manifest mothership sites.

Removing these ships are almost always your top priority, as any jams they land can potentially knock out key people in your fleet, such as logistics, endangering the entire fleet. Even in the best of scenarios, where non-critical fleet members are affected, your efficiency will drop as a result of the jams until they are taken care of.

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 Arrays 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.

Handling neuting threats

Below are the ships capable of neuting:

Enemy	Description
Niarja Myelen	A frigate that spawns in most incursion sites, but most frequently in vanguards (also jams).
Orkashu Myelen	A frigate, similar to the Niarja, that may spawn if you mine Lyavite in vanguards (also jams).
Outuni Mesen	A battleship, spawns in assault sites and up (also warp disrupts and webs).
Deltole Tegmentum	A battleship, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also warp disrupts and target paints).

Both the Niarja and the Orkashu Myelen shouldn't live long enough to get within range of neuting you because they are also target jammers. But it is important to know that if you can't remove them quickly enough, they will start neuting in addition to jamming, which is bad.

One or two Deltoles shouldn't be much of a problem, but ships who aren't cap stable can sometimes find themselves too drained if they end up being the focus of the Deltole for an extended period of time. There are also some sites (assaults and up) where there are enough Deltoles ongrid to pose a serious threat. As such, the Deltole is sometimes skipped in favour of other ships, due to the low neuting impact and the fact it takes a considerable effort to take it down.

Nothing comes close to the Outuni however, which is the equivalent of a Bhaalgorn in terms of neuting power. It will drain most ships of all cap in a matter of cycles, which not only stops cap-using guns, but more importantly turns off hardeners. Because of the neuting power of the Outini, it is usually a high priority target once the jammers are removed.

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.

Managing the incoming damage

The following ships make up for the majority of the damage:

Enemy	Description
Citizen / Slave	A special commander unit, spawns in the end of Nation Commander Stronghold sites (also warp disrupts, neuts and target paints).
Lirsautton Parichaya	High-damage fighter bomber, spawns in the Uroborus and The Kundalini Manifest mothership sites.
Sansha's Nation Commander	Strong torpedo frigate, spawns in Nation Commander Outposts (also warp disrupts).
Auga Hypophysis	A close orbiting cruiser, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also warp disrupts and webs).
Tama Cerebellum	A torpedo frigate, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also warp disrupts).
Deltole Tegmentum	A battleship, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also warp disrupts, neuts and target paints).
Ostingele Tectum	A sturdy battleship, spawns in assaults and up, with good range projection that stays at mid-range.
Romi Thalamus	A sturdy cruiser, spawns in assaults and up, with excellent tracking.

The following would apply to sniper targets:

Enemy	Description
Yulai Crus Cerebi	A high damage, long range battleship with poor tracking and good tank. Spawns in assaults and up.
Antem Neo	A moderate damage, long range cruiser with relatively poor tracking decent tank. Spawns in assaults and up.

How much damage a certain ship puts out in comparison to their resists and buffer as well as how easy they are to hit, is what matters if your goal is to reduce the incoming damage as fast as possible. Ships with a high amount of damage but weak tanks are commonly referred to as "glass cannons"' in EVE and for minimum effort you remove a lot of damage from the grid by focusing on them first.

Remember that not all ships can reliably hit the smaller targets, like frigates, with their high speed and small signature, so some flexibility needs to be applied here. Snipers usually can't hit smaller targets either and non-snipers cannot engage sniper-targets out at 100km+ either. Also remember that their engagement range should be considered as well. Not only because it's easier to shoot frigates at range compared to when they are orbiting close, but also because some ships won't be able to apply their damage until they get closer.

While focused fire from the entire fleet on targets one by one can be highly effective at quickly dropping the incoming damage, you sometimes run into diminishing return issues due to some ships being unable to apply their damage to all targets. People waste time trying to lock up things that die before they can shoot, or waste a full cycle and most of the damage potential of their guns just to pick off a tiny portion of the damage left. In those cases it can sometimes be more beneficial to assign targets to people in the fleet based on what they can most effectively hit. That way it might take longer to drop the initial damage, but the overall site completion times improve.

So be sure to take your fleet composition into consideration and utilize your fleet's offensive capabilities intelligently. A mix of both those tactics are usually warranted, focus fire on the truly dangerous enemies first, then fall back to a more adaptive focus based on application.

Overcoming enemy logistics support

The following ships have fleet supporting capabilities:

Enemy	Description
Intaki Colliculus	A sturdy battleship logistics with mediocre damage capabilities. Spawns in assaults and up.
Mara Paleo	A logistics cruiser without damage capabilities that spawns in a variety of different sites.
Kundalini / Uroborus	The Sansha flagship, spawns in the Uroborus and The Kundalini Manifest mothership sites.
Vylade Dien	A fleet command ship without damage capabilities that spawns in assaults and up.

Whether you go for the logistics support before or after you deal with the immediate threat of jammers, neuters and high damage dealers is one of many things that is answered with the classical "It depends!".

Is your fleet strong enough to simply power through the repairs in a timely fashion? If so, killing the logistics is of lesser concern. In the case where the repairs are strong enough to seriously slow you down, suddenly it becomes a high priority right after jammers.

In general, the increased efficiency of their repairs makes the Intaki Colliculus a higher priority than the smaller Mara Paleo. While substantial, the repairs from the flagship doesn't really influence the target order for the mothership sites, since it is the main objective for the site and takes quite a while to kill.

In addition to remote repairs, some Sansha ships like the Vylade Dien have fleet boosting capabilities, giving everyone increases shield resistances. Whether they should be a high priority to kill depends a little on the size of the wave and your long range capabilities. If you have a large wave to deal with, it becomes a higher priority as the resist bonus makes it take longer to kill off the wave. The smaller the waves, the smaller the incentive is to focus on the Vylade initially, as it has a substantial amount of effective hit points. Keep in mind that this ship has a preferred orbit of 120 km, so if this causes issues with your fleet's damage projection capabilities, you might consider making it a priority.

Removing webbers to allow rapid movement or speed tanks

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

Enemy	Description
Auga Hypophysis	A close orbiting cruiser, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also warp disrupts).
Schmaeel Medulla	Hard to hit frigate due to signature and speed, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also warp disrupts).
Renyn Meten	An extremely low signature frigate, very hard to hit.
Youl Meten	A frigate, similar to the Renyns, that may spawn if you mine Lyavite in vanguards.
Outuni Mesen	A battleship, spawns in assault sites and up (also warp disrupts and neuts).

The Schmaeels and Renyns have a webbing range of 15km while the others have a standard range of 10km.

Removing webbers from the field can be a high priority if your fleet is required to, for example, fly fast with propulsion modules 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.

Facilitating a controlled warp-out

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 disrupting capable ships on grid destroyed. The ships capable of warp disrupting are:

Enemy	Description
Citizen / Slave	A special commander unit, spawns in the end of Nation Commander Stronghold sites (also neuts and target paints).
Sansha's Nation Commander	Strong torpedo frigate, spawns in Nation Commander Outposts.
Schmaeel Medulla	Hard to hit frigate due to signature and speed, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also webs).
Tama Cerebellum	A torpedo frigate, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites.
Auga Hypophysis	A close orbiting cruiser, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also webs).
Deltole Tegmentum	A battleship, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also neuts and target paints).
Outuni Mesen	A battleship, spawns in assault sites and up (also neuts and webs).

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 capacitor transmitters (formerly energy transfers), remote shield boosters (formerly shield transporters), 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 warp disrupts (who's warp disrupted and by whom) while making a judgement call if you can handle the incoming damage or not.

Remember that you always have the option to keep one ship alive in order to avoid spawning the next wave. It doesn't take much to handle the incoming damage of a single ship, so if you have time to trim down the wave to the point where it's just one ship left, that's also an option. Keep in mind that this requires the fleet to be strong enough to quickly drop the incoming damage, competent enough to stop shooting and for people to pull in their damage dealing drones. Otherwise the last enemy will die and a new wave will spawn making things worse. Tagging the NPC you don't want killed with a J (juliet) and reminding people on mumble usually does the trick though.

Utilizing drones

Drones can be a tremendous asset on the field, with a damage potential anywhere from 500 up to 900+ dps from light combat drones alone in vanguards. But you need to use them wisely or end up wasting their potential.

Drone targets

In a less skilled fleet consisting of regular tech one ships the frigates present a noticeable problem. To remedy the problem we utilize the dronebunny to effectively handle the fast, small signature, tight orbiting frigates. Drones can even dispose of unwebbed frigates, although they should always be complemented with a web or two to speed things up.

One thing to remember about drones is that they have very short optimals and you also need to factor in travel time. You want them to spend more time shooting and less time moving. As such, there's no one way to use drones, but instead highly situational. See bonused webs under Advanced tactics below for more information.

Selecting a dronebunny

The first thing to remember is that the dronebunny is first and foremost a damage dealer, dronebunny second. You should never compromise your primary function of dealing damage in an attempt to be a better dronebunny. You select a dronebunny from the fleet members based on who could direct the drones with the least amount of interference or hinderance, while simultaneously making the most use of the drones.

As for who the dronebunny should be, there are a variety of things to consider. It is often easier to think of what ships in the fleet shouldn't be the dronebunny.

• A sniper or someone with the range to hit the elusive targets out at 50-60km (usually outside drone control range) is not a good candidate as the drones couldn't shoot what they are shooting.
• A ship with bonused webs like a Vindicator that shoots frigates is also a poor choice, since they never stay on a single target for very long.
• Your tagger is also a poor choice because his focus will be on tagging.
• Any ship with multiple utility midslots that you want spread across primaries and secondaries would also be a poor choice, as the drones would get confused with webs and target painters being spread on multiple 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 (or the ability to conveniently group them) so they can engage the next target in a timely fashion.

Spreading webs and target painters

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

Stasis webifiers

First of all, remember that not everyone will be able to web everything. When you enter a vanguard site for example, you'll all land anywhere within a radius of roughly 2,500 meters from the beacon. This means that you can be up to 5,000 meters away from some of your fleet members. If a Sansha orbits someone that far out, they'll be +/- 5km away, potentially orbiting in and out of web range depending on their preferred orbit distance. This is why we focus so heavily on webs for vanguards, to ensure that we have enough webs available for any given target.

Second, consider stacking penalties and spread your webs out among primary, secondary and drone targets. Experienced pilots will do this automatically, but it doesn't hurt to remind them to keep an eye on the velocity of their targets and spread webs if your primary target is already sufficiently webbed down. Remind people that they should always use their webs. If they can't web their primary or secondary targets, just web something else.

If you have long-webbed Lokis and Bhaalgorns, 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.

Target painters

The same goes for target painters, although they are harder to manage as you wouldn't immediately be able to tell how many painters are on your target, like you do with webs and velocity. Normally you don't have too many target painters and can just assign those who do to paint different targets.

Making the most out of remote tracking computers and remote sensor boosters

Remote tracking computers 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.

See remote tracking computers and sensor boosters for more detailed information about their bonuses.

Remote tracking computers

Putting tracking speed on a ship with three tracking enhancers and a tracking computer or two scripted for speed already would be a complete waste of time, that remote tracking computer would be better served put on a battleship with bad tracking, or a ship with less modules already increasing tracking (so the effect isn't lost in stacking penalties).

On the other hand, putting a remote tracking computer scripted for optimal range on a Maelstrom or a Tempest will not only increase their range, but also their damage projection, as their increased falloff directly translates into more damage dealt. An optimal range scripted remote tracking computer can also push the range of a ship far enough to be able to hit the Mara Paleo. This is because the remote tracking computer has a higher bonus and end up on top, before stacking penalties, so it can push ships like Legions, Vindicators etc who normally fall slightly short, into range. You can always double-check with the recipient, if it's actually helping.

Remote Sensor Booster Remote sensor boosters

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.

Naturally there could be situations where it might pay off to top off an already decent scan res. For example if you were to rely on a single ship to kill something before it can be a threat. An example of that would be an artillery Loki tailored to insta-pop any Niarja that spawns, before it even has a chance to lock, little less jam anyone.

Advanced tactics

Once you have the basics of Incursion running down, consider further refining your tactics, or even fitting principles, to improve your fleet's performance. You might want to further increase your safety margin, or maximise your income by completing sites faster and/or winning competitions.

Bonused webs and flexible dronebunny

Webs from Vindicators 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).

Theoretically this would also work with long webs, from Bhaalgorns and Lokis. If you have enough webs to slow down all frigates at range, like between 30-50km, it would allow the entire fleet to pop frigates left and right on approach ... assuming your damage dealers have the range needed. However, if anything slips through your web and gets into orbit, you're back to square one.

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).

Fast-locking ships with good range

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.

Given enough scan resolution, good enough range and tracking, even battleships can pick off smaller ships as they come rushing towards you. Most tech one battleships have no real means of doing this, but faction battleships and strategic cruisers are usually more than capable of finishing off a few frigates before they even get close, reducing the danger of the spawn immediately. Done right, it might even remove the threat of Tamas for example, because they need to get within a certain range before their short-range torpedoes can reach its target. Fleets with a majority of ships able to do this, can often swap some of their webs over to tracking computers for increased efficiency, while leaving only a minimum of webs (like a handful of bonused webs). Doing that requires that you are fully aware of your fleet composition and can swap the web back when needed.

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.

Moving fleets

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.

The goal of a moving fleet is to close the distance between the fleet and the spawn-point where enemies appear. The downside of this tactic is that while moving, your tracking is severely reduced, but the benefit once you've reached your position is that you suddenly have everything spawning right on top of you, well within webbing range as well as optimal damage range. The faster you get all damage dealers on top of the spawn-point, the better.

When enemies spawn right on top of you, they'll burn straight away from you until they reach their preferred orbit. Just like when they burn straight towards you, you'd benefit from a very low angular velocity when they try to fly away from you. Since they start well within your optimal range and try to get out of it, instead of into it, high scan resolution for fast locks and high damage output is more important than range for the moving fleets.

This tactic is most suited for armour fleets, that generally has more utility midslots and often has less range compared to shield fleets. By fitting microwarpdrives and burning towards spawnpoints they capitalize on their utility midslots as well as compensate for their shorter damage projection capabilities.

Naturally this tactic is also more useful in sites where the waves all spawn at the same spot (so you only need to move once), while less useful where the waves spawn far from each other (and you have to constantly move between spawns). It also matters what kind of enemies you are facing, as moving in sites where you face mostly battleships is less of an issue than moving in sites where you're trying to shoot frigates and cruisers with your large turrets.

You also need to keep in mind that you should still keep your fleet together. Mixing afterburners and microwarpdrives or have some ships without any kind of propulsion module would lead to your fleet being split up with some ships constantly moving (and potentially completely useless due to reduced tracking). You also run the risk of enemies being pulled out of optimal range from the main bulk of the fleet if they go for the ship that isn't with the rest of the fleet.

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

Highly specialized fleets

Some communities specialize in just Vanguards or just Headquarter sites, perhaps even focusing on specific type of sites as well for increased efficiency. Some even build fleets for the sole purpose of competing against other fleets. Such specialized fleets can be extremely powerful if used right, but since they require highly specific fits and the fact that they often sacrifice efficiency in some areas in favour of others, they are usually somewhat limited and less flexible. They also require strict fleet compositions in order to function, specific roles would need to be filled and not just anyone could replace people when they drop.

Common examples of specializing vanguard fleets would be to have all long-range, alpha-focused ships with just one or two ships, like Vindicators to handle the few ships that slip past. Some drop down to one single logistics ship in favour of having another damage dealer on grid, relying on skilled pilots and well-fitted ships to simply reduce the incoming damage to a manageable level before the Sansha are able to apply it. For competition fleets it's not unusual to run a little heavy with 12 members on grid instead of the usual 10 or 11, to ensure that they win every competition or at least gain a favourable edge over other fleets.

Competition

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.

First of all, once committed to a site, or at least a wave, you should finish it. Only leave a site in a controlled fashion, making sure none of your fleet members are warp disrupted or otherwise disposed and unable to warp away with the rest of the fleet.

Second, competition is all about beating your opponent. In order to do that you need simply be better than them, in everything (lock faster, shoot further, do more damage etc.) … or you need to play at your strengths and their weaknesses. In order to do that, you naturally have to know not only your own fleet, but theirs as well, and quickly be able to judge them.

Third, it is a widely held belief that competitions are measured in raw damage done to the Sansha. This means that hitting the armour and hull (which have little to no resists) earns you more points compared to hitting the shield (which has high resists). As such, trying to prioritize making hits to armour and hull is a common strategy to gain an edge, because if you can alpha away the armour and hull on a ship, you "win" that ship even if someone else chipped away the entire shield.

Given how a cruiser like the Auga Hypophysis has 31,185 raw hit points, compared to a frigate like the Tama Cerebellum with its 5,390 raw hit points, you can clearly see the value in focusing on the Auga to make sure you get the most points from that, even if it means completely ignoring the 3-4 Tamas on grid.

Things to consider, but not be limited to:

• Shifting priorities

Priorities change when you're running in competition mode, so don't be afraid to deviate from your normal kill orders. Ships like Niarja Myelen and Arnon Epithalamus who are usually prioritized targets because they jam, might end up being key pieces in your struggle for dominance. If any of your fleet members are jammed, they remain high priority targets, but if they jam any of the members of the competing fleet, you'd want them alive for as long as possible. Have fleet members call out if they get jammed during competitions, so you can make the right call.

• Suitable engagement range?

Can you outrange them or perform better at short range because they are range-fit? This is highly situational based on what site you’re running. The enemies would need to spawn out of their range for you to outrange them. Similarly they’d need to all spawn within your range if you planned to outperform them at close range.

• Is your fleet simply better?

Can you simply overpower them with your fleet composition? If so, by all means do so.

• Do you even have to compete?

If there are plenty of sites around, then there’s no shame in not competing at all. Just don’t be bullied by another fleet if you think you can take them. If they are better, accept your fate and plan accordingly.

• Should you cut your losses?

Sometimes you're forced to compete against your will, or bite off more than you can swallow. If the site allows it, make a graceful but controlled exit and go to another site. Sites with very few warp disrupt capable ships are ideal for such "strategic retreats". For sites with too many ships capable of warp disrupting you're pretty much committed however, as the window without warp disrupts can be a very short and dangerous one.

Just remember that hesitation is often viewed as a sign of weakness in the eyes of the other fleet commander, so delaying on a gate increased the risk of being contested. Aggressive aligning and going into the site quickly is often viewed as confidence, which will give the other fleet commander pause even if he has a better fleet.

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.

Other Considerations

Further optimising your fleet is very much into the realm of it depends - both experimentation and calculation are likely to be rewarding. Some possibilities:

• Split damage may not be bad any more. You might, for example, aim to kill each entire wave as fast as possible, rather than to reduce incoming damage as fast as possible.
• You may choose to not kill some enemies - Assaults and up include certain rats that can be left alive, by the right fleet.
• Experienced fleet members will require less explicit direction, leaving communication channels open for micromanagement of target selection, or unrelated chat.
• You might choose to experiment with unconventional ship and fitting choices, perhaps reducing your tank when you are confident of the capabilities of your logi.
• Utility modules like webs and target painters generally suffer from diminishing returns. You might choose to try and optimise the number of each that your fleet brings.
• Consumables like drugs may become worth considering, especially in competitions.
• Overheating of modules has many applications, and nanite paste is cheap on the scale of incursion income. You may find additional uses for Thermodynamics.