AAR: Parabellum then EPSYN then Caps LUL (BR: https://zkillboard.com/related/31002277/201910172100/)

We started by baiting and messing with Parabellum, who had connected to us down a chain. (https://zkillboard.com/related/31001712/201910171800/ &  https://zkillboard.com/related/31001042/201910171900/) - not a whole lot happened here, I was baiting with a Hyperion that eventually crit their hole with how many passes I put on it. They sat ~50-70+ away from the hole in a Tornado & Nightmare that warped whenever anything looked in their general direction. Still a fun way to start the day, but not the fight we were hoping to get out of them.

Very shortly after we arrived home from the Parabellum fun, an EPSYN Maelstrom (or what is a Nado or something else? I can't remember) was sitting on a roaming connect in our home, orbitting it, clearly looking for a fight. We formed what we could (2 Basis, 3 canes, a drake and a blackbird) and took the bait. However, it very quickly appeared we wouldn't be able to take the reinforcements sprinting down the chain (3 cyclones, a sabre and some other ships trickling in) so the call was made to evac the grid. We all went back to the Fort and started to dock up, when EPSYN appeared on the Fortizar itself. Fuck it, let's go - we undock and man the Fort, killing a few ships and losing a Cane in the mayhem (the fight was on the far side from our undock and a basi had already docked before they landed).

Before we started fighting EPSYN, I had scouted a POS coming out of reinforce very shortly (sub-30min) and pinged to form for it. While I was watching it, a piloted Nag appeared - holy shit content. However, it didn't seem like we had the numbers, which is why we took the small scrap with EPSYN. After we finished, we scouted a ~20man DNI/Basi fleet off a highsec in chain belonging to the Nag pilot and started trying to form for that fleet instead. In the mean time, we contacted EPSYN to see if they wanted to combine forces and take this fight. Initially they weren't very keen (our connect was ~5j from their home and our fleet size combined was still quite small), however that'd change very shortly.

Back in the POS-Dread hole, the POS had repaired and something unexpected happened. A second dread (Revelation) landed on an Astrahus (low power) in system and started reinforcing it.

Once the Dread landed on grid with the Astra, I went back to EPSYN and told them about the structure bash and JSIG. They were keen to bring some heavy armour ships to support our fleet and we started to form. In the most ridiclous, W-SPACE only stroke of luck, it turned out the Astrahus being reinforced belonged to EPSYN. Unbelievable.

While we formed and got ready to take the fight, the subcap support fleet (the afformentioned ~20man DNI/Basi fleet) had warped off the highsec as the Astrahus begun getting closer to reinforced, so a plan was hatched. We would waterboard the Dread on the Astrahus and simultaneously roll the highsec so the subcap support fleet couldn't get on grid. At the same time, EPSYN started running their ships down chain to meet us in our home.

Only half of EPSYN's fleet made it through before they collapsed their connect, but it was just enough - 2 Guardians, specifically, were the most important part of the ships that made it down chain from EPSYN. It allowed us to get on grid with the Dread (which, once bubbled, called in reinforcements of another Dread & FAX) in conjunction with 3 Rep-fit Leshaks.

So, with the highsec rolled and fleet ready, we landed on grid and begun the fight. Two Dreads, a FAX, Vindicator, Bhaalgorn, Retribution(?) and an Impel. Great, they'd have cap boosters FOREVER. Initially, the call was to sit on the Apostle, as we had our own Bhaalgorn supports coming down chain and the expectation was that we could burn it down between Cap injection cycles. However, this proved to be highly unlikely and simply futile, so a new strategy was needed. Without boosh support (and with the enemies strategically scramming each-other), we would wait for the Dreads to desiege and then force them back into siege. When they resieged, with a hard-swap from all the DPS & Bhaalgorns in fleet, we were able to take them  down one-by-one.

Once the Dreads died, the targets started evaccing their fleet (sadly our bubblers had either had to go, died or ran out of bubbles by this time) so the Vindicator and Impel managed to escape. However, we had won the overall fight and held the grid - a big W.

Fun additional fact: while trying to evac the fleet, we ended up rolling the static of the hole our fleet was in because the chain was terrible. Just as we crit the static, a Hard Knocks sabre landed on grid and bubbled our rollers but decided due to the hole being crit to bail out. If they were 5 minutes earlier, there would've been another big fight possibly starting.

Things to take away from the whole fiasco:

First of all, delegation. I was definitely overwhelmed with the amount of things happening all at once: between needing to roll that highsec hole, figuring out our fleet comp, speaking with EPSYN, getting EPSYN the appropriate warpins, scouting the target hole & ensuring sabres would land on grid in a timely manner, I was really struggling to keep up and started to get really short/aggressive with comms to people.

Second: Diplo is amazing. I had no idea we were on good terms with EPSYN until Critikal told me (multiple times) to start talking to them and get this thing rolling. Initially I was against bringing them in, pretty much out of arrogance - I wanted us to be able to take this dread ourselves. However, and very obviously with hindsight, they were integral in getting on grid and taking the caps down.

Third: Preparation. People still need to work on getting in more ships whenever possible - we only had four people who said they could help roll a hole and two people who could get on grid and bubble the dread (both of which were megathron pilots). This is definitely something that will take time - logistically, bringing in extra ships is a pain at the best of times. That being said, it should be a priority for every person in corp to try and have a Steamroller-capable ship, rolling ship and Shield-fleet ship ready to go for PVP.

Fourth: Comms - our comms were VERY solid this whole time from everyone involved. There were a few times people needed to be told to be quiet on comms for unimportant things, but as a whole, I was extremely happy with how comms went today.

Fifth: Scouting - This is why being thorough with your scouting when you're scanning is important. Without knowing that the POS & Structure corps were different, or that the POS was reinforced and that the structure had killed a drekavac earlier, none of this would've happened. Take a bit more time per system to check structures for the corp, if they're low power, if they're reinforced, if there's active POS', etc. Slower scanning for proper intel is worth it.

Sixth: I need more experience FC'ing capital fights before I'll feel comfortable. I was very fortunate to have Grim on grid, whom I could essentially ask / bounce ideas off before executing it. This was my first time taking out our steamroller doctrine and comitting a significant amount, in terms of resources, to a fight. Extremely fun, very glad I did it, super scary and nervwracking as it happened.

In closing, this was incredibly fun and hectic. During the whole OP, I was pretty short/aggressive on comms because of how overwhelmed I was getting. In future, I'm going to be more active in delegating things to people (getting others to handle diplo / scouting / etc) which should, hopefully, let me be significantly calmer with how I handle things. I hope everyone else had a lot of fun on the op - if they have any questions or input, feel free to send it over to me. Cheers lads.