Fleet warfare

gridfumanual2.pdf

http://www.eve-wiki.net/index.php?title=Military_Tactics

http://www.agony-unleashed.com/wiki/index.php?title=Scanning_%26_Skirmishing_101

Fleet warfare in EVE Online is a big step up from the small, casual PvP gangs discussed in last week's PvP Masterclass article. In this guide, I explore the day to day activities of EVE's largest combat machinations, from 30-man faction warfare gangs to 300-man territorial fleets. In stark contrast to a small and highly mobile gang, a large fleet is a lumbering hulk that favours combined firepower and good co-ordination over all else. Massive fleets of hundreds of pilots routinely clash in the outskirts of EVE's lawless 0.0 space. But when they move at the speed of their slowest member and are really only as good as their fleet commander, what can you do to make sure your fleet is a success?

Fight-by-numbers:

The essence of fleet warfare is that using more ships is usually better. By focusing all attacks on one enemy at a time, a larger fleet has a very high damage potential. It also allows a more diverse range of ship types to take part in the fight such as an electronic warfare wing or sniper squadron. Forming a large fleet usually requires some planning and co-ordination, making them less suited to casual PvP and more suited to organised assaults on specific targets like POS.

Read on as I tackle the question of how to make a fleet effective from the perspective of both the fleet's individual members and the fleet commander.

One of the main differences between a small gang and a fleet is in the tactics and strategies employed. It's much harder for a large fleet to stay hidden and sneak behind enemy lines, for example. Large fleets are particularly useful in 0.0 where they can lock down star systems and engage in POS warfare but are impractical in ineffective in guerilla war environments like empire wars or roaming piracy.

Player tips: Being in a fleet:

The number 1 rule in fleet warfare is to do exactly what your fleet commander tells you to. Even if the order seems to be a bad idea, your fleet's commander is relying on you to execute it swiftly and without argument. Rather than concentrating on the individual ships in his fleet, the commander will be overseeing the entire battle and making high level strategic decisions. Challenging his orders in the midst of combat could put your whole fleet at risk or cause a missed opportunity to make a good kill. Any criticisms of your commander's performance should be brought to him after the fleet has disbanded.

Player tips: Fleet tanking?:

Something players may not be used to in fleet warfare is the idea that tanking just doesn't work. When you're facing off against a large enemy fleet who are concentrating their fire on one target at a time, your ship is going to explode fast when they attack you no matter what's fitted to it. The battle then becomes a matter of attrition and individuals are killed very quickly. In medium-scale fleet battles with 30-50 per side, buffer tanks with high resistance and hitpoints are preferred and will let you survive longer than an active tank with armour repairers or shield boosters.

What's a little more bizarre is that when the fights start to get into the realm of 300 per side or more, even a buffer tank won't help that much. The time it takes the enemy to target you and fire will be a much larger factor in a battle of that scale than the time it will take their collective firepower to tear through your hitpoints. Anything smaller than a capital ship will be better off switching most of its tank for damage or turret tracking modules and electronic warfare.

:cheer:

Fleet Commander tips: Moving your fleet:

While a small gang can get away with clambering to their destination as a rough mob, a larger fleet is typically composed of a number of different types and sizes of ship and has to be a lot more organised to stay together and ensure nobody's left behind. Warping your fleet to a location such as the next stargate on your route is split into two separate orders. The first order is for everyone in the fleet to align to the target.

The "align" feature replaces the "approach" button when an object is far enough away to warp to and will make your ship fly toward the target at full speed. This means when you engage your warp drive, you'll be perfectly aligned and fast enough to instantly enter warp. Once sufficient time has elapsed for even the slowest members of the fleet to align, the commander can issue the command to warp.

The commander has the option to warp his fleet to the target himself, which will initiate warp for all of his fleet members simultaneously. Assuming everyone is aligned to the target correctly, the entire fleet will warp as one entity using the warp speed of the ship in the fleet with the slowest warp drive. With some practice, fleets can move quickly using this scheme and never leave any ships behind where they could be attacked by pursuing enemy gangs.

Fleet Commander tips: Disambiguation:

When using voice commands to issue orders, it's very important to be as precise as possible. Commands like "Don't jump" are frowned upon because some people will hear the "jump" part and act on that. Instead, potentially ambiguous commands are replaced with clear-sounding alternatives. For example, "Don't jump" and "Don't warp" are replaced with "Hold" or "Hold position".

Fleet Commander tips: Commands:

In addition to issuing the align and warp commands when a fleet is moving to their destination, a fleet commander's main role is to issue orders to his fleet in a combat situation. This is where a fleet commander's decision-making and communication skills are really tested as a fleet can lose to one half its size if the commander gives bad orders. Commands are usually issued over voice comms like Ventrilo or Teamspeak, though the integrated "EVE Voice" service has become increasingly popular.

The main orders given in a battle situation will be target-calling, naming the enemies you want fire to be concentrated on and those you want electronic warfare to be applied to. As communicating this quickly is essential, the EVE community has developed its own shorthand notation for calling targets. The target you want immediately killed is called the primary target and calling "Primary" followed by the enemy pilot's name over voice indicates to your entire fleet that they should lock and fire on that target. Additional calls are often made to put electronic warfare on separate high priority targets or those with high damage potential.

For larger fleets, it's necessary to call secondary and tertiary targets that pilots can begin locking while the primary target is going down. This helps avoid a scenario where the primary target is dead before most of your ships have locked and they waste time without someone to shoot at. In addition to calling out the target's names, the EVE fleet interface includes a broadcast option to let the fleet commander link the name of the target to all fleet members instantly. Training your fleet to use this function might just give your fleet an edge over corps using only the traditional name-calling method.

Summary:

If fleet warfare sounds like your thing, the best way to get involved is to join a corp that's based in 0.0 space and focuses on territorial warfare. If you fancy trying out the role of fleet commander, my advice is to run some smaller gangs and practice issuing fleet commands. Once you're confident in your ability to command others and make the right decisions, try leading larger fleets. In next week's final part of the PvP Masterclass series, I get my hands dirty as I delve into the underhanded world of corporate infiltration and piracy.