Have you become trapped?

The other day we were using the hict trick to close a mass crit wormhole. For those of you unfamiliar with the hict trick, it allows you to close mass crit wormholes in relative safety. Hictor bubbles reduce the mass of your ship by 80% and stack, so with 3 of them, the mass of a cruiser comes down to less than that of a frig. The chances of your hictor getting stuck are very low (but still possibru). Sometimes it takes a few roundtrips to close the WH, but during this time it is unusual for anyone else to enter, as only the n00biest or most desperate of pilots will roll the dice on a mass crit WH.

This is the difference between a hict with a
100mn prop and a hict with 3 bubbles on it

So while I'm sitting on this WH with the hict waiting for the polarity timer to run out, I hear an activation. I had a few crewmembers on grid with me on the off chance that someone came through, and they all said "Activation?" on comms in a confused tone, not sure if I had gone back through, as my bubble wasn't up. We then watched in shock as the womhole disappeared, trapping the retard who had just come through into our wormhole. As it finally sank in that it wasn't any of us, I hit the bubble and then a wild tengu appeared on grid.

I shouted at the crew to get scram on him, as scouty t3s often fit nullifiers that allow them to ignore bubbles. My wingmen opened fire, we made short work of the tengu, and then his sad pod as well. Examination of the killmail revealed the first blaster-fit tengu I had ever seen. While there has always been a hybrid subsystem for the tengu, I hadn't actually seen one with it before in w-space. It was an unorthodox choice and made him completely useless when Jarek decloaked in the pilgrim and neuted him out. He also had a scanning sub on the ship but no probes or probe launcher, which raises the question of why he would risk entering a mass crit wormhole to begin with. At the very least he could have put the launcher, probes, and a mobile depot in cargo in case he ever found himself trapped. But no, his cargo held only ammo, not even paste or boosters, despite the tengu clearly being fit for pvp. At least the ship was cheap, despite a couple of faction mods (that were miraculously not destroyed).

Tl;dr: Always have friends on grid when you're closing a WH - you never know what the EVE gods will drop in your lap.

Grand theft carrier

If you keep your eyes open in w-space, you can sometimes spot the telltale signs of the presence of other pilots, often long gone. Some containers there, a mobile depot there, the flight of drones left floating in space during a mad dash for the exit. Most of the items floating are garbage, but occasionally, if you're vigilant and lucky, you will find something worth taking.

On this particular day I was scouting a C5 where we had discovered a highsec entrance, which was serendipitous as there were several new pilots who needed to enter the wormhole. I covered with a falcon as they brought in their ships and possessions, all neatly packed, like Boy Scouts going on a campout. In the middle of the convoy, a wild Colonel Smash appeared in local, and at the exact same time a thanatos appeared on dscan.

Colonel Smash: hey I'm selling these carriers, good price

This is my thanny. There are
many like it, but this one was mine.
Kind of

Obvious trap is obvious, I thought. It was an odd choice of bait, however, especially because Smash's corp did not match the towers in this system. I hustled the remaining crew into the wormhole and began looking for the pilot. Sure enough, there was soon a corpse on dscan - Smash's corpse. I quickly scanned down the thanatos and, lo and behold, it was unpiloted. I logged on a carrier alt and instructed the crew to get into position for coverage. We grabbed the thanatos and got away, and that's when we discovered 2 archons on dscan as well, at a different planet. They were also unpiloted. Sadly I didn't have an archon pilot available, and asked in alliance chat for an assist. Some Taggarts dashed over as quickly as they could, but just a few minutes too late - the Lead Farmers had found their way into the WH and were also making a grab for the archons. Vastly outnumbered, I ordered the crew to stand down. We then managed to find a null and cyno the thanny out of there.

I cannot say the events that led to Smash entering the C5, but as he did not live there, it seems more likely that he had trapped himself without a scout. Whatever happened, CCP soon confiscated the thanny, as Smash had apparently filed a petition that he had been hacked. I find it more likely that he derped EVE and then cried about it via petition, but who knows. At least my crew had some fun that night.

The mother lode

My first POS looting was around 6 months ago, when I was leading Rapture. While exploring, I discovered a class 5 wormhole with a control tower that had several arrays and defenses. Not unusual. What was unusual was the lack of a force field. I brought in my crew and we torched it and stole what we could. We made off with around 5b ISK of loot.

That was nothing compared to what happened a few weeks ago. Again, while exploring, I discovered an inhabited system. This system had 3 control towers, and many ships floating. My dscan was filled with results. For some reason I spent several minutes studying it and realized that, despite all of the ships and arrays, there were no force fields.

WH PVP Tournament

It's been a long time since Taggart has conducted a pvp tournament. We do them for fun, camaraderie, and to test fits and sharpen skills. We also do them for prizes - in this case first prize was a fully rigged and fitted faction frig.

This was a small tournament, made up of the pilots from just one WH crew. But a great time was had by all. The rules were as follows:

- This is a t1 frigate tournament. Everything must be t1. No meta, no rigs, no t2.

- Limit one entry per player.

- This will be a single elimination, one on one tournament. Brackets will be randomized before the tournament.

- Targeting of pods is not allowed. If you lose a match, warp out immediately. No smartbombs are permitted because of the danger they pose to pods.

- All fights are to ship asplosion.

- Killmails from this tournament are not to be posted anywhere.

- I am not eligible for prizes, but I will compete.

- There will be no fleet boosting from my leadership skills.

First prize as mentioned before was a fitted faction frig. Second prize was some faction mods I had lying around. I also threw in some kicker prizes if all of the invited pilots showed up (sadly this did not happen - one pilot was not interested in participating). There was also

a 100m bounty for asploding the CEO, which is a longstanding Taggart tradition for tournaments.

As you can see in the above pic, most of the pilots flew Punishers, as they have good laser and armor skills. Niama and I flew Caldari frigs instead (I prefer missiles and shields to guns and armor). The first round was Niama vs. eventurer. Even started to microwarpdrive to Niama but Niama seemed confused for a moment and then started flying away. Once even got into laser range, he opened fire. Then Niama brought out his secret weapon: ECM. Even's lasers were no match for his EWAR and he was quickly smoked after barely getting Niama into armor.

The second round was Stealthgogi vs myself. I had fitted a tracking disruptor to my Kestrel and put that on Gogi as soon as he got into range, but it didn't seem to do me any good. We were pretty evenly matched but he managed to asplode me as his own hull was hurting. 100m for Gogi!

The next round was Coop vs Niama. Again, the laser Punisher was no match for Niama's ECM. Coop fared little better than even in the previous round. The last round was Niama vs Gogi. While Gogi had a Punisher with probably a similar fitting as the previous two, he fared better against Niama. Niama dominated the first part of the fight, but as Gogi got into hull, his jammers started to miss. Gogi made up the difference quickly and got Niama into hull himself before he was asploded and Niama was declared the victor.

Niama hasn't chosen his prize yet but it seems to be a toss-up between a Daredevil and a Dramiel, unsurprisingly. For second place, Gogi got some faction mods, including some Dread Guristas jammers I had lying around from an old orca kill - fitting because he lost the tourney because of ECM. Everyone had a great time and we're planning a cruiser tournament very soon.

WH Armor Fleet Basics for Domi Pilots

Dominix Navy Issue

For those of you who have never flown in a TTI wormhole fleet, here are the basics. The core ship of a class 5 wormhole Sleeper op is the remote repair (RR) Domi. In an armor friendly wormhole environment, Sleeper sites can be cleared with a fleet of three Domis, if the pilots have the proper skills and equipment (T2 sentries and faction Domis help quite a bit). More Domis are always better as well as one or two DPS ships in the fleet to speed up site clearing.

Before You Warp

Before any op, always check that your drone bay is full and all your modules are fitted and online. Don't assume they are or you'll end up warping to the site only to realize you never replaced the drones you lost two days ago or someone borrowed a module and never put it back.

The fleet commander (FC) will list the energy transfer (ET) assignments. Each Domi in the fleet shares energy with another Domi, thus keeping everyone cap stable. In Rampart, the ET assignments are done by alphabetical order. For example, if code pink, Cynn, and Dick00 Haus are the Domi pilots, the ET assignment will be code pink -> Cynn -> Dick00 Haus -> code pink.

It's helpful to add your fleet mates to the damage watch list. You do this by right clicking their name in the Fleet Window and select Add to Watchlist. This will open a second window which displays their damage. Fleet mates taking damage will flash red in the Watchlist Window.

The fleet should form up so all ships are within 1,000 meters or so. Domis are slow and remote armor reps and energy transfer arrays have limited range. If the fleet warps to a site and is scattered, any ship outside the armor rep range is likely to asplode before it can get back in range.

As fleet commander, I always provide a link to EVE Survival for the type of site were are doing. Like many empire space missions, class 5 sites have triggers to spawn the next wave. I want my fleet pilots to know what the triggers are so we don't accidentally spawn the next wave before we're ready.

Sleeper Guardian

Arriving at the Site

As soon as you drop out of warp, make sure your defensive modules are on and begin targeting all of your fleet mates. Get your ET on your assigned fleet mate and check your watchlist to see who is taking damage. Put two of your remote armor reps on that person. The fleet commander will be calling out targets, so watch your overview and lock the indicated Sleepers. Launch your drones and begin asploding Sleepers.

Cap Management

Even with good energy skills and using ETs, Sleepers can drain your capacitor if you don't manage your modules. Try to run as few remote armor reps as possible. If you are only facing frigates, you only need to run one rep. If you are facing several battleships, you will need to have all of your armor reps on the pilot taking damage. If you are taking damage, finish repping the last pilot who was taking damage and turn all your armor reps off. Be ready to put them on again if you see someone flashing red in the Watchlist.

If you see your cap is going empty, ask to make sure the pilot assigned to ET you has it turned on. You could also be getting energy neutralized by the Sleepers. Let your fleet mates know if you are going on empty. If you go empty, the first priority is to get your ET back online. Next, start turning armor reps on, one at a time until you have enough cap to run the amount you need without going empty again.

Garde Sentry Drone

Drones

The only way an RR Domi does damage is through it's drones. Sleepers will target drones, so make sure you keep an eye on them and pull them in when they take damage. The more drones you lose, the less effective you are. Also make sure your drones are set to passive, so they only attack what you tell them to.

Use the appropriate drone for the range or type of ship you are attacking. Sentries are for cruisers and battleships. Bouncers are carried for targets 35 to 90 km away and Gardes are for targets in the 10 to 35 km range. Hobgoblins are for clearing out frigates.


Other Things to Keep in Mind

• Make sure you do not move. Watch your distance from fleet mates and let someone know if they are moving.
• Taking damage. Let your fleet mates know when you are taking damage. There's a lot going on and they may not notice when the Sleepers change targets.
• D-Scan, D-Scan, D-Scan. Fleet security is everyone's job. Hit D-Scan as often as you can and watch for scan probes and ships. Let the fleet commander know as soon as you see something.
• You can repair your drones. If your drones take damage, lock it and repair it. It is advisible to wait until you are only fighting one or two sleepers.
• Pre-lock your targets. The fleet commander will designate two or three targets at a time. Lock as many designated targets as your skills allow so you can begin dealing damage as soon as the first target is destroyed.
• Everyone shoots the same Sleeper. If you see two Sleepers taking damage, make sure you are shooting at the right one. Ask the fleet commander to re-mark the target if you are unsure.