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.

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.

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 energy transfers 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.

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), "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.".

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 their whip, 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. 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 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.

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 has target jamming capabilities:

• Niarja Myelen - A frigate that spawns in most incursion sites, but most frequently in vanguards.
• Arnon Epithalamus - A cruiser that spawns in assault sites and up.
• Orkashu Myelen - A frigate, similar to the Niarja, that may spawn if you mine Lyavite in vanguards.

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.

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:

• Renyn Meten - A frigate.
• Schmaeel Medulla - Hard to hit frigate due to signature and speed, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also scrams).
• Youl Meten - A frigate, similar to the Renyns, that may spawn if you mine Lyavite in vanguards.
• Auga Hypophysis - A cruiser (close orbit), spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (also scrams).

The Schmaels 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 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.

Handling neuting threats

Below are the ships capable of neuting:

• 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).
• Deltole Tegmentum - A battleship, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites (scrams and paints).
• Outuni Mesen - A battleship, spawns in assault sites and up (also scrams).

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 Outini 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.

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 scramblers on grid destroyed. The ships capable of warp scrambling are:

• Sansha's Nation Commander - Strong 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.
• Tama Cerebellum - A frigate, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites.
• Auga Hypophysis - A cruiser (close orbit), spawns in a variety of different incursion sites.
• Deltole Tegmentum - A battleship, spawns in a variety of different incursion sites.
• Outuni Mesen - A battleship, spawns in assault sites and up.
• You also have special NPCs like Citizen Astur, Slave 32152, Slave Endoma01, Slave Heavenbound02 and Slave Tama01 that spawns in the last wave of the assault-site Nation Commander Stronghold. Killing them also conveniently finishes that site and forces any remaining ships to warp away.

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 judgment call if you can handle the incoming damage or not.

Utilizing drones

In a less skilled fleet consisting of regular tech one ships the frigates present a noticable problem, especially if the fleet is battleship heavy. Instead of trying to use battlecruisers to remedy the problem (which in turn would just cause other problems), you can 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.

Spreading webs and target painters

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

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.

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.

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.

Making the most out of tracking links and remote sensor boosters

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.

Putting tracking speed on a ship with three tracking enhancers and a tracking computer or two would be a complete waste of time, that tracking link 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 link 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. It can also push their range far enough to be able to hit the Mara Paleo. You can always double-check with the recipient of the link, if it's actually helping.

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.

Bonused webs and flexible dronebunny

Webs from Vindicators and Vigilants 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.

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 scrammed 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.

Things to consider, but not be limited to:

• 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 scrambling ships are ideal for such "strategic retreats". For sites with too many ships capable of scrambling you're pretty much committed however, as the window without scrams 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.