User:Titus tallang/BLAP doctrine sandbox

Main article: Basic Learning for Aspiring Pilots

Talwars

Doctrine Q&A

What are key strengths of this doctrine? Why should I use it?

Talwars are mobile, have excellent damage projection, and extremely cheap. There is no better doctrine for new FCs, as Talwars in sufficient numbers can fight against almost any kind of subcaps and are easily replaceable if the FC makes a mistake.

Aside from being very newbie-friendly, Talwars are also excellent for raiding fleets generally because of their fairly high alpha, fast warp speed, and mobility. Talwar fleets have often traded well against QRFs after decimating ratters and miners in null pockets, which results in fun fights and great kills.

What areas of space is this doctrine best suited to?
Talwars are best in nullsec, where you can easily warp the fleet at range to targets so that you begin the fight at your preferred engagement range and can just begin volleying targets.

How should the fleet be positioning when using this doctrine?
Talwars should engage at a range of 50-60km. Anchor on the FC (or for a very new FC, the designated fleet anchor) and take countdowns to blap the broadcasted target. Talwars should get to this ideal range (if they don’t start there from a good warp-in) as soon as possible, then maximize transversal or align out depending on the threats on field.

Are there any fleet comp (number of pilots/specific ships etc.) aspects that are critical to the doctrine?

You should not undock without approximately 10 Talwars, as this doctrine depends on having enough damage ships to kill targets quickly. 10 Talwars only gives about 10k alpha, which is often enough to clear interceptors but is really not ideal. You really want 20-30 Talwars, which allows you to one-shot most T1 cruisers and two-shot almost all other T1 cruisers and most T2 cruisers. Even better, although not typically achieved in the Uni, is a fleet of 40-50 Talwars, which will one-shot most battlecruisers and T2 logi. In any case, you should always have at least one interceptor and one interdictor for every 10 Talwars. If you have 15+ Talwars, it is worthwhile to bring at least one command destroyer (ideally a Bifrost with Skirmish: Rapid Deployment and either Skirmish: Interdiction Maneuvers or Shield: Shield Harmonizing links, depending on if you brought a Hyena/Keres or not). Speaking of the Hyena and Keres, you ought to bring one of each with 15+ Talwars because they respectively insulate your fleet from incoming tackle and can damp out enemy logi if you’re not one-shotting enemy ships.

Are there any unusual high priority targets when flying this doctrine?

Your priority targets are always incoming tackle, such as ceptors and dictors. Command destroyers are also high priority targets. If you have a Hyena in fleet, you should web down and blap any nearby T3Ds because T3Ds eat Talwars for breakfast. Ships like the Garmur, Orthrus, and Caracal are high threat because they can project damage about as far as Talwars and apply it very well to your fleet members. The Cerberus is a special case because it very nearly counts as a “weakness” or “run away immediately” ship. This is because the Cerberus outranges Talwars (by about 10km if the Cerb loads Fury Scourge, or by about 30km if the Cerb loads faction Scourge) and kills one Talwar every 4 volleys (5 Talwars per RLML clip). However, the Cerb typically has an explosive resist hole and less than 50k EHP against your Nova missiles, so if a Cerberus pilot is stupid enough to warp into your missile damage envelope and not immediately kite out, you can two-shot him with 20+ Talwars and trade very well on the ISK.

What are weaknesses of this doctrine? What situations is it not suited to?

Avoid all engagements inside acceleration gates (unless your captor pilot somehow caught a sleeping DED site runner, in which case murder him and GTFO), because acceleration gates force you to engage at the enemy’s preferred range. (If you set up inside an acceleration gate, nobody will ever take a fight against Talwars.) Similarly, be extremely careful of engaging enemies who have Huginn/Rapier support, as they can web past your missile range and therefore make it very difficult for you to maneuver. Finally, Talwars are utterly unsuited for “small gang” warfare; if you can’t get your gang of fewer than 10 pilots into something better than kitey, low-DPS destroyers, you should just take frigates or Thrashers and bait inside FW plexes.

Bonus question - How does tackle work for this kind of high range doctrine?

On tackle, it's pretty simple. Dictor pilots who aren't terrible can keep most large, slow targets (the Mackinaws or Orcas or Rattlesnakes that your ceptors catch) bubbled for as long as is necessary. Ceptor pilots should be able to land scrams on any such targets that try to MJD out. So if you're raiding in nullsec or something like that, tackle isn't a really big deal (often QRF elements will warp directly into the bubble to try to save their friends, if you're fighting Horde or Brave, so you just haze the QRF and then go back to shooting the bears).

The problem that I'm seeing a lot with people complaining about tackle involves Unistas taking on kitey (or MJDing, in the case of battleships) small-gang pilots in similar numbers with grossly inferior ships, then whining about how they don't have the ability to tackle the bad guys and therefore just end up feeding. Well, no shit. If you're fighting Orthri or 100mn kitey Tengus or whatever and you can't put a Rapier on grid and keep it repped as part of your QRF, you're feeding. Stop feeding.

(And conversely, if your campus *can* put those ships on grid but the pilots with high SP are shitlords who can't be bothered to undock for PvP, shame them until they stop being shitlords, the Uni absolutely depends on having people who are capable actually show up to help.)

What's absolutely indefensible is suiciding badly-fit T1 ships into an enemy gang in hopes of holding them on grid long enough for the rest of the fleet to accomplish something, especially if the badly-fit T1 ships are also less mobile/warp slower than the rest of the fleet.

Fittings

Caracals

Doctrine Q&A

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Vexors

Doctrine Q&A

Fittings