Preparing For A Fight

It all started with a Ping going out alerting everyone that a Fleet was forming to defend the Fortizar in Brave’s staging system of DO6H-Q. Previously PL dropped an enormous fleet on the Fortizar and despite Braves best efforts the shield was destroyed and the Fortizar entered its Reinforcement period.

The fleet forms but Morale is not great, Maelstrom numbers are not quite as high as leadership are hoping and the request for more is constantly going out and request for Huginns along with it.

The EWAR frigate fleet is smaller then usual at around 50-60 Pilots in T1 Frigates with mainly Maulus frigates present followed by Griffins and Crucifiers. The numbers are far from the 100 man ewar fleets we have formed recently.

Rumor has it that PL are bringing in a smaller fleet in order to get a fight so that lightens the mode a bit. However PL usually form with Capitals and Super Capitals to ensure there objectives are met. We however have the firepower of the Fortizar on our side.

First Contact

With the main fleet docked up in the fortizar waiting to go the Ewar fleet is out on grid burning around setting up tacticals to warp to in order to increase the chances of survival.

Suddenly 3 Phoenix Dreadnoughts show up setting up out of the Fortizar’s engagement range they begin launching Torpedo’s at the Fortizar and the battle begins.

The Maulus numbers warp within 50km of the 3 dreadnoughts and apply range dampening to break the locks and prevent damage. A small chuckle is given on comms as this plan is working for a minute or so.

The rest of the EWAR fleet has broken off and warped to a perch ready to engage if needed. However they are immediately landed on by an Initiative Mercenary snatch fleet. A large portion of the EWAR Fleet is immediately doomed whilst the rest manage to warp off. Those left behind begin to reship.

The Escalation

With the Phoenix dreadnoughts damped out the Maelstroms line up to engage, Suddenly a massive PL subcap fleet appears on grid with a similar set up along with Minokowa’s, Rorqual and a Chimera.

The Maulus wing which is dampening the dreadnoughts are immediately taken out of the fight and also return to the station to begin reshipping. The rest of the ewar fleet is being annihilated multiple frigates at a time are falling.

Continuing my addiction to jamming Capital ships I attempt to jam the Dreadnoughts, Quickly realizing I cant do this since they are Sieged I turn to the Minokowas. With my Blackbird loaded up with Blue Jams and ECM str modules/rigs I apply jams one at a time to one of the 3 locked up Minokowas. The 3rd Jam lands so I do the same on the next Minokowa and the 2nd jam lands.

expecting more jams on the next cycle the modules simply deactivate and I attempt to reapply them manually but they are no longer vulnerable as they have activated Triage. I target the next 2 Minokowas and manage to jam one and then next cycle the last minokowa is jammed. No recycles are landed again and the Minokowas have now all engaged Triage. Down to the jams or just coincidental timing? I dont know but I am happy to have jammed them out for a cycle each. (Would jams really pressure FAX Capitals to Triage or was it just timing?)

My next target is the chimera throwing caution to the wind I apply all 6 jams and the Chimera is immediately locked out making him lose control of what his fighters do. The griffins have been instructed to Jam the fighters on field as well. My blackbird gets aggressed and before I even notice I am taken out of the fight.

A call is made over comms and the Maelstroms also pull back. With damage slowly being applied to the Fortizar it looks like they may take the Armor down without us being able to fight back or do any major damage. The hold is issued and we wait patiently, People start to discuss our lack of options in comms and in the background FC/Leadership are discussing options in private.

Brave Goes All In

With a few minutes left on the timer and the Fortizar down to about 25% armor the call is made and we are going in, A insanely quick rundown is given and we engage. The Maulus wing descends ontop of the Phoenix gang again and out of nowhere the Maelstroms land and engage the Subcap fleet of PL.

Whilst this is going on Brave Dreadnoughts are counter Deployed and with the PL dreadnoughts dampened out to hell they begin to get cleaned up. Meanwhile Initiative mercenaries are still warping around the field killing anything at the edge of the field aggressing both Brave and PL.

The timer is now down to under a minute and comms is going wild everyone is on edge as to whether or not the fortizar will be reinforced again or manage to survive. The fight continues and another PL dreadnought falls. EWAR is taking absolutely massive losses and many pilots are just taking what ever they have and putting it on field to keep numbers up. I myself undock a Magnate fitted with jams because I had no Griffins or Blackbirds in the station ready to go.

The Final push is made and the last Dreadnought is down from PL Brave have sustained capital losses as well and the fight begins to fizzle out. The Timer ticks to 0 seconds and the Fortizar is defended people start going wild and the joy on comms is overwhelming. The Fortizar finished at around 12-16 % Armor

The thanks begin to come in for Logistics who have saved Maelstroms in structure which have then been able to continue to fight on. The Maelstrom fleet had guns split into 2 so that 2 targets at a time could be called and fired upon. Since I was in the EWAR comms I cannot imagine the chaos and difficulty they had keeping track of all the target calling combined with the calls for fire.

The Thanks start trickling into the EWAR comms with so many newbro’s in the fleet the thanks go along way and it is repeated over and over again it was massively down to the EWAR fleet and the damps that the Fortizar survived.

In Local all parties begin posting the final propoganda, only its not propoganda everyone is announcing Good Fights all round and no shit talking is present. Everyone agrees the fight was excellent content for all those involved and another epic battle begins for Brave Newbies.

The looting frenzy begins and the battlefield is swiftly cleaned up. Some new players are upset that MTU’s are being destroyed but it is repeated constantly that there are no MTU’s on battlefields for loot or salvage purposes and this is in the WIKI which is in the welcome mail.

Everyone gathers for a Debrief in comms still overjoyed at the defense that was pulled off in the last possible moments.

We all know PL could have dropped endless Super Capitals on us but instead chose to make the fight an interesting one. Massive thanks go out to PL for this keep up the fun fights!

I know all the Newbros in Brave in the last week or so were thrilled by the fight and be warned there is more to come!

Battle Reports Come In

The battle report shows the actual losses sustained. Brave took huge losses totaling over 40 Billion isk according to the incoming reports but the Fortizar did survive so the whole situation is considered a win.

PL suffer roughly 20 Billion isk in losses and Initiative Mercenaries suffer 2 Billion. Given the War footing between Brave an IM this was a definite win for IM who dealt massive damage and losses to both sides and sustained minimal. Their Snatch fleets are definitely something to be feared.

The EWAR Fleet run by TheReverend Arnst despite losing huge numbers is considered a massive success, With an iffy start but constant reshipping and no one giving up the fight was won.

139 Maulus

14 Crucifier

54 Griffin

1 Celestis

19 vigils

The numbers above show just how many EWAR ships were destroyed by the oposition but an endless onslaught helped to ensure the Fortizar’s survival.

Battle Report