Since joining Agony Unleashed, I’ve been learning. A lot. Some through internal seminars, and some through hard knocks. Last night was hard knocks, and at the hands of former corp-mates (and others) to boot.
We were on a roam not too far from our new home in Providence, trying out a new fleet tactic. I was scouting 1 system ahead. The scout role is one I’ve done before, but I’m still pretty newb at it. I moved my Stiletto into 4B-NQN from 9UY4-H right into a Paxton Federation camp. A bubble was up with about 20 PXF pilots (including several from m3 corp, who I flew with briefly last year) in a fleet of BCs, logistics, HACs, recons, interdictor, cruisers, and inties. After the grid loads I see the bubble effect in my face, and plenty of red in local and on overview. Pfft… all my practised recon reporting vanished and nerves took over. How do I get out of this one?
Well you don’t, unless you’re really lucky. And when you’re scouting for a fleet, that shouldn’t be the first thought in your head. The first thought should be to get your recon done. Your fleet needs to know what you’ve run into. You’ve got 30 seconds before your gate cloak breaks, use it just as if you’d entered a system without a camp – read local, do a 360 directional, and read your overview. Then give your report, clearly and concisely. Then worry about getting out.
And if you haven’t guessed it yet, I didn’t get a good recon report out. My FC didn’t realize the opposing fleet was as big as it was, nor did he gain a good idea of it’s composition. As a result he engaged in 9UY and our fleet went down. If he’d had accurate intel he likely would have made a different choice and either avoided the confrontation entirely, or set up to engage on better terms.
It was a good fight, at least as best as I could tell from the clone vat. I don’t show in the main battle, I guess because I went down on the other side of the gate and the KB didn’t connect my loss to the main battle. GF to Paxton – Paxton has an excellent and deserved reputation for their PvP. I look forward to facing them again.
I was impressed with the response from my fleet after it was over. My fail was pointed out to me, but it was done in a very constructive way. Guys lost some expensive ships, and I’ve seen players get really upset about things like that in the past. But Agony is different. They express their opinions and comments in a very constructive manner with the view to helping each other learn and improve. Now it’s up to me to do better next time, because there will be a next time.
For the budding scouts out there, take a lesson here. Some day you’ll jump into a camp like I did. When you do, take a deep breath, and do your recon report. Sort your overview so you can read off the ship types quickly and easily, and have an overview tab set up that excludes pretty well everything except opposing ships (excluding drones too). Give your FC as much intel as possible – if you wind up losing your ship but the intel you give helps win the battle or avoid a slaughter, you’ve done your job well.
Time to go practice….
