I Don't Mean to Be an Ass

I got my start as a capsuleer with Sturmgrenadier, before they joined Fountain Alliance. SG is a very disciplined organization, in New Eden and beyond. Discipline is a very dramatic force multiplier.

I am still trying to fit capsuleering back into my schedule, and still not sure if I want to get back into a serious corporation, yet. I have, in the meantime, enrolled in the Minmatar Militia, and that makes me want to hang out my "Looking for Corp" shingle.

Sometime after midnight on Saturday, I slip into my Hound to make my way out into the contested space. I ask about fleets, and Captain Vaguy is asking for frigate class ships. I assume for some harrying. I'm interested, since it means I will take out my Claw, Laxsfanis, instead of the Blackbird, Ctino Cipni.

We dock up in Dal, waiting as Vaguy has a lead on something. There is a 25+ fleet of Amarrian camping the gates around Auga and Amamake, of which we all are a little weary (Some intel suggested 45 ships). They outnumber us, and they are carrying more weight. We all trust that Vaguy will come up with some way that we can maybe annoy them and pick of a straggler or three.

The orders, instead, come to make best speed to a system nine jumps away. No more information is given. The militia isn't the most secure of places, so I don't question the silence. I've flown with Vaguy a few times now, so I don't suspect this to be a trap.

Our near two squads of small, fast ships rendevous with nearly a dozen battleships. We are going to escort them back to Dal. The battleships, under the command of THEDON1, will wait one or two jumps away, as we bait their trap.

Vaguy decided that he shouldn't be the fleet commander. This made sense, and so Don was going to be the overall fleet commander. But he didn't take the reigns as it were, so Vaguy really ran the show.

The move back toward Dal was very disorganzed at best. We ran across a few war targets. I missed the encounters (silly me, following orders and all), but I'm sure it was more than enough to alert the gate camps that we were coming. No surprise, they weren't there.

We were not only a loud, lumbering, easy-to-avoid fleet-o-doom, we were horrible unorganized. The voice chatter was incredible. I really got annoyed. Even with a mic, I very rarely have a reason to speak. But I did, and I am sure I came across as a complete ass. I openly talked back to command, mocked them a bit, and told them how to do their job. That would've been disciplined in SG.

The thing that really got to me was an engagement against some pirates after it was clear we weren't going to get to engage the Amarr.

Vaguy had the fleet wait just outside of Amamake, while he went in in a battleship with two frigates. The plan was simple, Vaguy was going to be the bait. The pirates were going to launch a few battleships of their own to take down Vaguy, we were going to jump in and ruin that.

Vaguy got excited when the patrol he ran across included a Bhaalgorn. He immediately gave the order and we all entered and warped to engage. The two frigates with him worked to keep the Bhaalgorn tackled. But present with the Bhaalgorn was a Falcon. The Falcon did his job and allowed the Bhaalgorn to escape.

The Bhaalgorn had already warped away by the time I had arrived. The Falcon did his job so well, he didn't even bother trying to warp out himself until it was too late.

That encounter didn't bother me. What bothered me was one of Don's crew telling us tacklers that we "fucking suck". The Bhaalgorn was gone before there were enough tacklers to overwhelm the Falcon. We did our job just fine.

I think perhaps Vaguy should've destroyed the Falcon before he called for the fleet (if he could do that before the rest of the pirates arrived), or just live with the fact that the Bhaalgorn wasn't going to be taken. I think perhaps that the harrier squads shouldn't've gone to escort the battleships. I think we should've, perhaps, played the role of the fox to the Amarrian hounds until the battleships arrived on their own. We could've baited the trap before it was set. That would've avoided give the Amarr quiet moments to cool down and get bored.

This is militia though, so I really know I shouldn't stress over simple, one-step tactics and noisy, unfocused fleets. At least Laxsfanis saw some action. The pirates were even willing to undock and fight next to the station, and were even stupid enough to forget to dock back up, so she got part of a second killmail.