Note: This story is getting ridiculously long I tried to spell check it and fix grammar but fuck it, you can try to follow my ramblings!
So I promised i'd write a nice summary for you all as to what went down in HB7 the other morning, my issue is so so so many things happened it will be such an epic post I figured no-one would bother to read it
However people seem interested so I may as well attempt to fill you all in to the best of my knowledge.
This story will be told from my perspective: This view is from 2nd fleet led by Intergalactor, and has the benefit of being in the FC chatter where a lot more happens then people may understand. It also has the benefit of all scout intel for every enemy formup.
The story begins when I get home to news of a "semi hellcamp" led by DBRB in HB7. This was a direct response to the threat of WN. finally saying "we will defend from..... NOW!" sort of thing. Their leader Lee Chanka promised all carrier capable pilots "free carriers as long as you can fly them", and his regular pilots "unlimited abaddons to win the war", or something like that.
The reason the camp was necessary, is we had an entire constellation worth of final ihub timers all exiting, in both main and tertiary systems of importance to WN, the main being HB7 itself their final staging system with all of the aformentioned assets locked inside.
The afternoon was a quite one, as scout intel came in more and more CFC's were joining into fleets. WN's formup wasn't until 1600 and their local count kept at a steady 100 in the leadup to this. Small ganks happened on the station as DBRB requested more and more bubbles to block the undock.
At the same time, scouts were reporting hostile fleets in all formup points, and all climbing in numbers, all of which were slowly piling into either HB7 itself in the form of bomber wings from Gypsy Band, -A-, RA, and WN themselves, OR grouping up in F-9, the super staging capital of WN where Raiden, WN and RA were forming the super fleet.
At this stage, the fleet counts were roughly in our favor, then the titans started logging in.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16151939/201...9.19.12.12.jpg
Over 77 hostile titan pilots were confirmed logged in at various stages after 1600, most of which can be spotted in the above screenshot in F-9, where Raiden were camping down the only ingate. WN however were stuck fast in HB7 with around 250 subcap pilots. At this stage, we had entered a stand off that was favoring our opponents.
We could not jump into them, their titan firepower could and would crush us before we could load the node. They were hesitant to jump into us, their subcaps were camped into a station and their titans would be exposed before loading grid.
To give you an idea, local count was steady at 1k+ in HB7 with the CFC having 3 Fleets of 250 220 and 220, the node was holding steady and we were facing bombing runs intermitently.
In F-9 they had their supers logged in, and a steady gatecamp of ~400, with the ~250 trapped in HB7 and the ~100 RA filtering around it was an even subcap fight only while the camp was held.
The HC were getting anxious at this stage, we'd won all the objectives, all of them, but getting the fleet home with that many people safely would be a nightmare. We couldn't realistically exit through gates as that many people at once crash nodes, and we couldn't stay there forever it had been a long day already.
So a mexican stand off ensued, with us waiting for them to drop us, and them waiting for us to either leave or come to them. Eventually, Raiden got impatient and upon learning of TEST caps being deployed in Vale logged their supers off and formed a tengu fleet to pursue them.
As soon as the FC team saw this they jumped at the opportunity to leave and ordered a staggered withdrawel to BKG with a system buffer fleet by fleet. The gate lag was horendous, first fleet got through due to being the first in systems, second fleet was hit hard losing around 50 people, third fleet however could barely load the grid at all, and were delayed further.
While this was happening, barely seconds after local plummeted as first fleet exited, WN realised they could bust out of the station, undocked everything and jumped their super/cap fleet into HB7. It was at this point our scouts and eyes spread everywhere giving reports on what the status of the super fleet was, if any titans had DC'd or bumped too far out of the safe pos etc, which one had, an Avatar was having connection issues and was steadily getting further and further from his pos.
DBRB cannot resist titans and as soon as his fleet hit BKG, he bridged his entire fleet BACK to HB7 and the fighting began on the titan grid. Sadly for him, his fleet was left on grid for atleast 5minutes as the other 2 fleets fought the mighty opponent of gate lag to get to their own titans and back into the fight. If memory serves me correctly DBRB started by killing carriers but as soon as the avatar was bubbled and 2nd fleet arrived, switched over to bumping it away from the POS.
FC chatter was ablaze with requests for support, we were all scrubs etc get there faster, so being good FC's we made sure our entire fleet was formed on titan and bridged above the forming abaddon blob to assist.
I had no idea what the grid was like, DBRB's description was not accurate enough to form a picture so i'll explain it to you all now so you get an idea. The POS had titans hovering on the edge of shield, firing away at fleet 1. An avatar was drifting further away from his friends, with a bubble radius spreading around him. Approx 50kms from this was Lee Chanka's abaddon ball, firing volleys into fleet 1, another 20 kms further away from the pos again was the spread of 35-40 carriers. The fighting area at this stage was over 100kms long, and 2nd fleet extended it further cynoing in at the far side to the carriers again approx 150kms from the POS, and starting 1 shotting carriers while aligning away from the titan blob.
3rd fleet was told to get into system, the poor sods still stuck in jump lag while we were killing titans. DBRB requested they get down and bump the titan away which was approaching midish armor, so they cyno'd in ontop of it as DBRB was forced to warp away due to diminishing numbers. Unlucky for them, WN had a bombing run ready for DBRB and when the cyno went up, 3rd fleet caught the full blast losing a lot of ships instantly while DBRB who had just exited managed to avoid it.
Meanwhile, 2nd fleet was still going through carriers in furthest part of the field, warping in/out a few times to get better perches to fight from my arazu's warpins. At this stage DBRB called off aggression on the avatar as the WN aeons + other supers were keeping him alive, and started assessing the field suggesting a withdrawel as another 15 red titans cyno'd onto the POS.
First and Third fleet were sorely hurting and needed to retreat, and second fleet while capable of fighting for a longer duration, took the advise as Raidens tengu's had finally got back onto a titan and were getting ready to bridge ontop of us. So once again we did an orderly withdrawel through the gates.
The entire duration of this was maybe 30 to 40 minutes, resulting in 35 dead carriers and around 110 Abaddons. First fleet took heavy losses of around 70 maelstroms, third fleet around 50, and second fleet only a handful who mistimed aligns and got caught unaware on grid.
The KB links themselves show the fight pretty accurately, it was very even. WN winning the kill count, CFC winning the Isk war. This isn't even counting the fact that WN. had only successfully defended a SINGLE system, while the CFC claimed 5 others.
However, more importantly it was a lot of fun and really showed large fleet scale fights very well. Each fleet played its own role and would have a different account of the battle, mine was hovering over Lee Chanka's head and killing his fleet, yours would and could of been different. It's hard to describe it accurately and keep it as simple as possible, look how long this abomination is already so i'll leave it there and it is terribly short on details. If you have any comments/queries because I seem to have said something stupid ask and i'll actually elaborate properly for you on a specific area lol.
"Brandert" out!
Originally Posted by roadhooker
[/spoiler]
that is WN communication and organisation (and of course the insane amount of CFC dudes in HB7), and fleet is standing down.
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