I was FCing an Aideron Robotics open fleet roam and we were not finding too much to shoot at as the night progressed from an early wild and hairy start. We decided to try and get a tough fight against the local pirate group Soul Takers in Old Man Star so we reshipped the fleet into a cruiser level Rogue Squadron setup (i.e. armour drone cruisers supported by an Exequror wing). It took a while but we finally set out... only to land on the gate in Fliet to find a neutral fleet from EVE University.
Caught flatfooted and unprepared for a fight that I was not expecting for two jumps, I froze like a deer in headlights. They started engaging and I stammered out some orders but between gate guns and the enemy fleet we took it on the chin and lost several ships to the enemy firepower, including this sweet ride that I purchased just minutes prior. My instinct had been to jump through and get ready on the other side but I froze instead. Sad.
We reshipped and later on caught up to the EVE Uni fleet near Tama and after some positioning and sacrificing high ground in a plex to fight them at the sun, we clashed and this time we came out on top with some sweet revenge kills:
Good fights EVE Uni!
I find it better to have a procedural plan ready to go for those moments. If you're not confident you can remember the plan, have it on a scrap of paper next to you whilst you fly.
ReplyDeleteSimply knowing you have a plan for those situations means you shorten the processing time in your own head. Instead of "Enemies everywhere, why are they here, what do I do, do I recall something like this before, what do I order next, situation changed already etc.", you go straight to 'Enemies everywhere, where's the plan, okay do this, situation changed etc.'.
Related to that is anticipating problems before you even undock. That involves looking at your strategy critically, and working out where the weakness is, and how you'll compensate for it.