What are key strengths of this doctrine? Why should I use it?
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Raido Kudonen
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.
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What areas of space is this doctrine best suited to?
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Raido Kudonen
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.
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How should the fleet be positioned when using this doctrine?
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Raido Kudonen
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.
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Are there any fleet comp aspects that are critical to the doctrine?
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Raido Kudonen
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.
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Are there any unusual high priority targets when flying this doctrine?
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Raido Kudonen
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.
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What are weaknesses of this doctrine? What situations is it not suited to?
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Raido Kudonen
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.
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How does tackle work for this kind of high range doctrine?
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Raido Kudonen
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.
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Fittings
<wikifit doctrineid="36574" shipid="32878" />
Caracals
Doctrine Q&A
What are key strengths of this doctrine? Why should I use it?
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Raido Kudonen
Caracals' greatest strengths are their very high burst damage out to a solid range (~40km with BLAP Caracals; your T2 pilots should typically use Fury ammo) and their high mobility (~1800m/s with prop mod). These combine for a hit-and-fade tactical style where you get as much damage as you can with the fleet's RLML clips, then pull range or warp out.
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What areas of space is this doctrine best suited to?
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Raido Kudonen
Don't use Caracals in Wspace. Otherwise they are excellent, subject to the limitations above (i.e. don't slide a FW plex into brawling cruisers; if you can go in first for a gank and then reposition, plex fights against cruisers are still fine).
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How should the fleet be positioned when using this doctrine?
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Raido Kudonen
As a fleet doctrine, Caracals engage by anchoring and pulling range to the edge of RLML range, where they project full damage and most turret cruisers either can't engage or project a small proportion of their potential damage. The anchor should spiral out to maximize transversal if the fight begins at close range.
NB: If hostiles chase you while you're kiting, you can project damage beyond your normal maximum missile range because the hostiles are flying towards your missiles.
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{{Template:CollapseBox|Are there any fleet comp aspects that are critical to the doctrine?|
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Raido Kudonen
Caracals are effective in solo (although you need a warp disruptor in place of one of your hardeners), micro and small gang, and fleets up to 80-100 pilots. You should not, however, engage enemies if your fleet can't eliminate at least one or two enemy ships per RLML clip (for a BLAP Caracal with alpha skills, approximately 13k damage per clip per Caracal).
In general, you need an interceptor for every 5-8 Caracals (minimum 1), plus an interdictor for every 10-15 Caracals in nullsec. You should also have an Osprey for every 3-4 Caracals, starting at 3 Ospreys for a fleet of 8-9 Caracals (before that, you should bring either 2 Ospreys or 0 Ospreys).
Whenever possible, you should bring at least one Bifrost (double links fit, Skirmish: Rapid Deployment, Shield: Harmonizing). Fleets of 10 or more Caracals should also bring a Hyena and, if possible, a Keres. Additional command destroyers (Interdiction Maneuvers, Shield Extension, etc) are also highly desirable.
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{{Template:CollapseBox|Are there any unusual high priority targets when flying this doctrine?|
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Raido Kudonen
Since Caracals can control range against nearly all T1 cruiser doctrines and even pirate cruisers must engage with caution if outnumbered, your highest priority is always to clear tackle so that you can avoid the worst case scenario for a Caracal fleet (being stuck on grid in an enemy's damage envelope when your RLMLs are on reload). Since Caracals apply very well to light ships, or perfectly if you have a Hyena on grid, you should be able to clear all or nearly all tackle ships on grid before you warp out.
As your fleet size increases, it becomes relatively more important to clear enemy logi. Typically, you should prioritize enemy logi with fleets of 15 or more Caracals, as you should be able to eliminate T1 cruiser logi with 4-5 volleys in fleets of that size.
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{{Template:CollapseBox|What are weaknesses of this doctrine? What situations is it not suited to?|
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Raido Kudonen
Caracals' greatest weakness is their relatively low sustained DPS (factoring in reloads). You should avoid engaging targets that can tank through your clip or make you waste too many shots compared to other targets. Therefore, unless you hugely outnumber them, avoid engaging powerful self-rep ships (Deimos, Hyperion, marauders) or gangs with T2 logi. If you have Hyena and Griffin support, you can stay on grid with a carrier and rack up fighter killmails (and clear smaller ships on grid), but you have no realistic chance of actually killing the carrier or any other capital ships.
Raido Kudonen