These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

Warfare & Tactics

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Tactics (of warfare)
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Mr Bigwinky
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2011-12-21 14:32:44 UTC
So rare, the talk of tactics on this forum so I thought I would provide a vessel that you may use to provide your (expert) opinions!

Topics are as follows:
(Please refrain from talking about fittings and different fleet compositions)


→ BC gang on a low-sec roam. Here I'd like to hear how you got about killing people, and the tactics used to gain said kills.

→ Tactics used in a WH to gain kills, assuming you have scanned into a wormhole from K-space specifically looking for PvP.
This could be bait tactics, camping, cloaky stalking etc.

→ How to effectively use ceptor / AF gangs in low-sec, feel free to add what mixture of ship fittings works best but don't text wall with your favourite fits.

→ How do you as an FC / how does your FC keep up morale on boring roams with little to no targets?

→ What meta-gaming tactics do you / your corp / your alliance do to encourage participation?
This could be drinking games with roams or prizes given etc.


Feel free to answer one or all of these topics; I'm genuinely intrigued to hear your responses.

♥
Welcome to EVE online, here's your rubix cube, go F*** yourself ♥
Vordak Kallager
Descendance.
GoonSwarm.
#2 - 2011-12-21 15:25:50 UTC
Mr Bigwinky wrote:

→ How do you as an FC / how does your FC keep up morale on boring roams with little to no targets?


Fukung. /topic

Sa souvraya niende misain ye.
Mr Bigwinky
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2011-12-21 15:29:46 UTC
It's a good idea but it's definitely not the end of the topic, ta.
Welcome to EVE online, here's your rubix cube, go F*** yourself ♥
Salcon Cliff
Zephyr Corp
#4 - 2011-12-21 15:49:43 UTC  |  Edited by: Salcon Cliff
Quote:
→ Tactics used in a WH to gain kills, assuming you have scanned into a wormhole from K-space specifically looking for PvP.
This could be bait tactics, camping, cloaky stalking etc.

Against any w-space people with any experience, it is very difficult to bait someone. You can 'play' a site farmer, but many (if not most) w-space corps either know that it is a trap or they just don't have PvP experience and aren't going to jump a farming ship or fleet. OTOH, you can actually make some isk while waiting to see if you get jumped.

If you are looking to camp a w-space system, then that can be done but it is much easier if you also war dec the target so you can camp both sides of the wh that appear. I assume you are familiar with the WH mechanics, but any ship that jumps through a wh and sees ships will generally wait out the session timer while under jump-cloak, and then jump back out to hi sec. 99% of the time they are within the required 5,000 meters of the wh and will insta-jump back out. The best bet is to use a cloaked fleet and wait for a hauler to jump through. Once the hauler starts to warp toward their POS, it MIGHT move out of the 5km range, making it an easy target. They also might panic and forget to jump back to hi sec before you can alpha them (depending on your lock on speed which is screwed due to cloak). Not really PvP, but a kill just the same.

If you have a large enough group, you could start taking out w-space Interbus COs. You MIGHT get a response from the locals. You could also try to take out a POCO and see if the reinforcement timer is 'friendly' to you. If you are real patient, you can wait at a CO with a HIC and a few cloakies, but that is a real test of patience.

With the jump counters apparently disabled for w-space, your best bet is to scan a system thoroughly and BM all the sigs. Then, when you see a mining or farming fleet on scan, you can use D-scan to narrow down their location and then warp to them. The residents will not have the jump counter to let them know you are in there.
Mr Bigwinky
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2011-12-21 16:09:37 UTC
Cheers Salcon, that's all good stuff.

As far as the baiting stuff goes, you'd be surprised how many people take it - it just depends on what you use and how much effort you put into making it look like a real situation.

Using bombs on WHs against haulers etc. can be very effective due to the hauler either not waiting out his timer (can't jump so you can grab him) or you can count the timer too and bomb 8 - 9 seconds before it is going to be up. (you'll be surprised by the amount of people who try to warp away quickly when they see a bomb)

Most kills whilst hunting are probably found when the inhabitants or their neighbours are doing sites and you find them first. For this I like to use an arazu (if they are BCs etc), If not or if I think they're really paying attention, i'll use a sensor boosted covops frig for the initial point. As soon as someone else has a point the frig gets out. Short of being warp-stabbed there's almost nothing you can do against this happening. I'll highlight some tips on survival:

- Don't engage if you haven't scouted the surroundings (unless you have the power to gtfo quickly.
- Never assume you are alone in there.
- It's not a good idea to "see if you can't pop that arazu" - it's not going to be alone so gtfo if you can.
- Don't assume you're safe outside of your POS shields, in any ship, even 5km off.

And some tips on how to reduce their chances of survival:

- Use small anchored bubbles between POSes and WHs, make these drag bubbles to decloak off of the celestial if possible.
- Find all POSes in the system and bookmark > 150km off of them (for warp-ins) - it's great fun torp/bombing ships outside of their shield. You can even pod people before the tower locks you 1/2 of the time.
- Use on-board scanner and check all of the system with directional before dropping probes / attacking someone.
Welcome to EVE online, here's your rubix cube, go F*** yourself ♥
Salcon Cliff
Zephyr Corp
#6 - 2011-12-21 16:49:32 UTC  |  Edited by: Salcon Cliff
In our w-space system, we almost never farm the '100%' sites (the one you can use the on-board scanner for) unless we have all the WHs watched with CovOps/SBs. For the sigs that have to be scanned down with probes, it is easy enough to see probes on the directional scanner long before they can lock your position down, so we often leave the WHs unattended. We have not been 'caught' since our early w-space days long ago. Well, usually a noob player to the corp gets popped once or twice before they figure it out :).

Do drag bubbles show up on d-scan the same as mobile warp bubbles? I always do a d-scan before warping anywhere, and my understanding is that if someone pops a bubble after you have already warped, it does not figure into you path - only if they pop it up before you warp. If the drag bubble was out of range of d-scan, I guess I would be out of luck. If I suspect that someone is in system for some reason, I use one of a couple old bookmarks to get me to the other side of the wh before warping to it.

COs are always a risk, but a DST with a MWD (and cloak) has always been enough to get me out.

The biggest risk seems to us to be people scanning down our system while we are offline, and then waiting for us to go online. Then we wouldn't have any probes to warn us. OTOH, we generally run sites in our C4 with 6+ ships and RR and a Scorp, so it would take a decent gang to cause too much grief. Also, no hi sec static. Our lower level w-space systems are where we train the noobs, which is kind of ironic since they are really more dangerous.

As for bombs, they have turned out to be a non-issue, at least since we generally use DSTs now and most pilots have had it explained to them why a MWD can be a bad thing on a Cov Ops :).
Mr Bigwinky
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2011-12-21 17:08:30 UTC
Salcon Cliff wrote:
it is easy enough to see probes on the directional scanner long before they can lock your position down, so we often leave the WHs unattended

I would be very wary of this, you haven't ran into someone like me yet then. I'll explain to you briefly how I catch people like this.

Jump into WH, see people on scan running site via directional (i'm cloaked)
Use on-board scanner, can't find the site they're in.
Warp to planet out of range of all ships - drop probes, warp probes off of directional scan from anywhere.
Warp back to where I spotted people running a site, use angular directional followed by reduction in directional range to pinpoint location.
Find celestial closest to site, warp there.
Be alligned to that location / have fleet alligned to that location (cloaked)
Move probes directly on top of you, hit scan then instantly return probes - I (99% of the time) have you in 1 scan.
Unless you've been spamming directional every 5 seconds and constantly watching it, you've missed my probes and i'm in warp to you.

Salcon Cliff wrote:
Do drag bubbles show up on d-scan the same as mobile warp bubbles?

Drag bubbles are mobile warp bubbles you have set up on the far side of the object your target has warped to.

Salcon Cliff wrote:
my understanding is that if someone pops a bubble after you have already warped, it does not figure into you path - only if they pop it up before you warp. If the drag bubble was out of range of d-scan, I guess I would be out of luck. If I suspect that someone is in system for some reason, I use one of a couple old bookmarks to get me to the other side of the wh before warping to it.

Correct, the bubble would have to be up before you are in warp, and you'll be able to see it on scan assuming you're within range.

Salcon Cliff wrote:
We generally run sites in our C4 with 6+ ships and RR and a Scorp, so it would take a decent gang to cause too much grief.

You've been lucky thus far, I've came across many a T3 / logi blob in WH space.

DSTs? And I think an MWD should be standard on cov-ops. Not usually on a bomber, but even then there are reasons to use it.
Welcome to EVE online, here's your rubix cube, go F*** yourself ♥
barricade87
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#8 - 2011-12-21 19:23:33 UTC  |  Edited by: barricade87
In low sec, you sometimes get situations were both parties are reluctant to engage. So i use a trick i learned from my can flipping days which forces alot of fights.

- Drop a can

- Rename the can to match the person you want to think you agressed e.g "barricade87".

- Lock both the can, and the target.

- warp scramble the can and he will see the message below:
EDIT: these forums wont let me post the notification, but it basiicaly says "notify you are trying to warp scramble barricade87 (corp) (alliance) (Cargo Container)" (try it yourself ingame...stupid forums -_-)


In the confusion / fear/ excitement of pvp, most people will usually overlook the "cargo container" part of the message and will think you have engaged,.
As you did not aggress a player, you are still able to dock/ jump, so using a shiny ship to do it is risk free, and more likely to get a fight.
Salcon Cliff
Zephyr Corp
#9 - 2011-12-21 19:30:40 UTC
I think that was identified as an exploit some while back by CCP, but maybe for hi sec only, not sure.
barricade87
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#10 - 2011-12-21 19:39:31 UTC
Salcon Cliff wrote:
I think that was identified as an exploit some while back by CCP, but maybe for hi sec only, not sure.

Well the notification clearly says "(Cargo Container)" at the end of it....