Tread With a Free Boot: Fleet Boris Strikes Back

The second phase of the TREAD Alliance POS Assault took place earlier today and although I was unable to take part, my fellow Freebooter cohort and corp founder Greenbeard was our man-on-the-scene. He wrote this account of his experience:

5:25
The Alarm goes off at 05:25. I quickly turn it off before it wakes my two-year-old. We're both in another bedroom leaving my wife in our bedroom tending to our newborn. Nope, it didn't wake my wife or either of the boys up. Good, as adding further disruption to her already fragmented sleep would not earn me any brownie points (see Seismic's previous brownie point post).

My brain is complaining about waking up at this hour after only 4 hours sleep to play a computer game. Shall I just sleep in?

Shut up brain.

No time for a coffee, lets fire up the PC and have a quick pee. Not at the desk I hasten to add, that just wouldn't be comfy at all.

5:30
I blurrily looked at the Typhoon I had left in Assah the night before along with a very hastily put together fit. Why had I put autocannons on it?!?..... Why had I bought a load of Tech-2 energised plating I can’t use?!? I blame it on the fitting happening in a rush just over four hours before. I've not been on a POS assault before and I want to see it. So I'll take whatever I can cobble together.

'Boris' is FCing and he tells the fleet we've got time to spare before we set off. Right, queue up Hull Upgrades level 5 to rectify that for next time and wonder what I can do. I find some Tech-1 armour odds-and-sods and fit them, with a Damage Control II on I can just manage 77000hp.

It’ll do.

Right now I had better swap out the AC’s for arties and shuffle the fit around to get it working. I hope to b*ggery there's some large artillery cannons in station....... yup there is. I add a last minute large remote repper and look back at my handiwork. Rubbish, but I've got no time to do something better. I really should leave these sort of ships ready fit for their purpose, like we do with everything less than a battleship.

I undock and power the Typhoon over to the muster system where the vent chatter is starting to pick-up.

6:00
I arrive at the fleet and there's already a good few battleships and other assorted vessels. It's all looking quite impressive and beats the factional and security fleets I've been part of previously.
I'm feeling more awake now and glad I came along. I'm even starting to warm to the Typhoon again. It was the first BS I bought several years ago and I've always had a soft spot for it, also because it looks like Red Dwarf.

As I dawdle and mess with the escape menu hotkey settings, I fail to notice the fleet has warped off and is already in the next system. I really should have made time for that coffee. I set off in hot pursuit. Well as hot as battleship pursuit gets.

I catch-up with them three systems down the line, as they head into to the first target system.
Safely nestled in the bosom of the fleet again, I sit back and get some screenshots. We had a good representation of most battleship types, with the Amarr vessels, Domi’s and Ravens in the majority. There was even a fellow Typhoon. A handful of battlecruisers, a cruiser and some Tech-2 ships rounded the group off.


6:30
We arrive at the first target. It's still reinforced. There’s been a timing miscalculation and we’ve arrived just under an hour too early. Nevertheless there’s still work to be done as Boris directs the fleet's awesome firepower to the POS guns nearby.

A couple of BS’s get quickly blown up and Boris reminds the fleet to be checking broadcasts and remote repping. The speed of the losses surprised me and I start trying to work out where the bloody hell my broadcast window has gone. The latest release has changed things and trying to keep up with the battle and work out where it’s gone is not proving easy.

After another loss Boris is keen to minimise losses with pilots like myself who are clearly not using or have minimal knowledge of the broadcast system and he urges all folk who don’t know how to use it to warp out. That includes me, but I decide I don’t mind the potential loss and would like to figure it out during battle. A quick question in fleet and I’m directed to the fleet window tabs - it’s now merged with the broadcast window.

To be honest most of my pvp experience has been small fleets and we don’t really use it, so it’s been a useful experience for me as I often lead the corp wolf-packs. I can also see why anything less than a BS is going to rapidly get in trouble in a POS attack unless they are very quick to call for help and their fleet-mates are very quick to support them. The direction from Boris and wing commanders for everyone to stay close to him clearly helped that.

7:00
With the First POS’ guns silenced we headed to the second target in a nearby system.

We opened fire at the POS, but the still active guns claimed a one or two more victims. I really watched the broadcasts like a hawk, locking and repping as I went. Often though, the time to lock was having an effect on my ability to rep fast enough, so I left regular victims of the POS guns locked, so I could repair them quickly.

Despite the losses we now looked to be more cohesive as a fleet and folk were following FC direction better.


I can’t quite remember if the Capital section of our fleet joined us for the end of this POS or at the next POS, but their awesome size and firepower topped off our fleet off nicely.

Once this POS was blown across the solar system with the majority of the debris destined to float eternally through space, an Iteron and a shuttle hiding within the shield were exposed to the firepower of the fleet and lasted as long as a Jawa in an arm-wrestling contest.

We then packed our bags and moved back to the first target system.

7:30
We landed on the POS guns this time and finished them off, before turning the fleet onto the POS itself. Boooom.


8:00
Returning to the very first POS, with the guns already down and the capital ships in tow it really didn’t last very long at all.


Three POSs down and a few casualties, good fun. I was a bit let down that we faced no enemy fleet resistance; I had been quite looking forward to it. Though on the upside my good ship “Building Site II” survived the venture and I’d taken part in my first POS assault as well as taking notes on Boris’ good fleet command to better my own smaller outings.

I left the fleet and skipped safely back to base, getting shot at by gate guns as I went, who were clearly not pleased to see me at all. Miserable sods. [Try it in a stealth bomber - SS]

Now lets see about getting that coffee, brekkie and a dump. Not necessarily in that order.

Guest written by Greenbeard.

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