Strategikon: Tactics of Faction Warfare (Solo)

Please note, this does not refer to overall strategy on a corporate or alliance level, but will focus on the strategies a single pilot can use to succeed in Faction Warfare.

I also write this from the perspective of a solo pilot. I rarely fly with others, and although it's on my to-do list, don't know the first thing about leading a fleet.

Tasks for the solo pilot in FW fall under three broad categories. Two of these are socially acceptable. One is frowned upon. We will discuss all three. A good soldier should learn about all tactics, even if they never employ them. I also cast no particular judgement on the use of that strategy, as it does directly benefit the goals of the militia.

It's only annoying to combatants. It's not like you're blowing up freighters full of slaves.

The below are very abbreviated summaries of the three broad strategies.

Search and destroy

This involves hunting down war targets, destroying them, re-arming and repeating. Often called a roam.

This is the more offensive strategy, and gives you total choice over whether or not an engagement takes place. In general, you will enter a system, and warp to a safe spot. You locate targets using your D-scan, and, depending on what you find, will engage at your discretion.

Whilst you will find many engagements, you will not be earning a great many loyalty points. I recommend a brawling vessel for this, as these (usually) tougher ships give you the greatest chance of surviving the defenders counter-attack. You will also find many novice kiter pilots sitting on the warp-in point, leading to easy kills.

This is the strategy employed by pirates to find targets. If you're looking to learn this, Stay Frosty is a corp that will teach you well.

Fighting patrol

This was the first strategy I used for the Crusade, and involves capturing complexes.

Warp in system. Find an empty complex using the probe scanner. Orbit around, and wait to capture. If a pilot comes into the plex, engage.

This is the most defensive strategy (ironic since some pilots doing this are participating in offensive plexing... you are attacking the enemy militia's outpost). You will engage any opponent that seeks to stop you capturing the plex. I recommend using a kiter for this. Your greater range will allow you to choose whether or not to engage the enemy entering the plex. If 3 destroyers and a Griffin warp in, you'll have a 20km head-start for running away.

The militias are the best place to learn this strategy, as you will earn LP for every fight you don't get. Win-win. If you are outside of the militia, you an modify this for any important objective you know enemies will come to.

Occupation patrol

Similar to the above, this is where you capture complexes, but avoid combat.

This is the best strategy for making money. Keep an eye on D-scan, and run when you see an enemy appear. Your ship will be quick (with an MWD and maybe a back up Afterburner), and you will have warp core stabilizers in your lows. You will need some weapons to defeat the non-capsuleer militia ships.

Pilots performing these patrols are near universally reviled by most combatants. However, they have their place. As the majority of pilots, particularly the skilled ones, are only interested in padding out their kill boards, the actual act of capturing space gets left to these pilots.

Personally, I don't judge the pilots themselves, but rather the peculiar system CONCORD created to restrain the Empires from annihilating each other.

This strategy is only applicable in the militias, which reward LP for capturing points.



My personal favourite is Search and destroy. Hunting is generally more fun than being hunted, and you take a lot more control of the battlefield. I've never done an occupation patrol. It has it's value in terms of overall alliance strategy, but for the solo pilot, it's only purpose is money.

And I get that through other ways.

Trade Log: Back to business and a few quick tips

I do so enjoy fixing other people's mistakes. My former-master now-boss fluffed up his finances. Needless to say, it took me a whole 2 days to fix it.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Benh Thanh, Behnid's former market slave.

So, as soon as Behnid joined the Tribal Liberation Force, I became a free man. With all the rights, privileges, and taxes that come with it. Apparently even mercs for the Matai forces can't own slaves, and his conscience was giving him the usual unprofitable pangs.

Which means that we no longer enjoyed those lovely tax exemptions on our trades. Ugh. Nothing worse than giving governments money. They rarely know how to invest it.

Slaves aren't taxable in the Empire. Any customs taxes that get put on my shipments need to be sent off to my master. As my Master was very difficult to track down (piracy and all that), the invoices got lost bouncing around the legendary Imperial Bureaucratic machine. The Republic also doesn't tax slaves. Anything you bring out of the Empire is considered liberated goods, and basically what you use to make a new life in the Republic. They also strongly hint it's a good idea to go back to the Empire and liberate more stuff.

These new taxes would seriously cut into my bottom line. So, I put my plan into effect.

My first step was to free my wife, posted in Amarr. Behnid managed to sneak her papers under the local authorities, and bam, free lady. With all the rights and privileges of an Amarrian subject to the crown. One of those rights being the right to own slaves.

Holder status is surprisingly cheap to obtain these days.

After that, I sold myself to my wife for the incredible price of 1 ISK. Well, at least that was the starting offer. She haggled me down to 0.01 ISK. God, I love that woman. So now, like all husbands, I'm a slave to my wife... just more literally so. And blissfully free of taxes on moving goods between the Empire and Republic.

I guess I shouldn't mention what category of slave I am. Let's just say I get to share the exotic dancer lounges in stations.

Anyway... fixing problems.

It took three runs from Amarr to Hek. Starting with 100mil liquid ISK, I bought a dozen or so stacks of, well, crap that no one wanted in Amarr, but was highly valued in Hek. Two days later, and we're looking at a PLEX within a week, with enough licenses to keep the Sir Chief Behnid, myself, and my wife in space.

Seriously, if you need a lot of cash in a hurry, and you're not afraid of travel, Region Trading is the way to go. It's even a little easier than when I first started. Frigates warp faster these days, and Industrials don't take forever to get going. I did the last 2 runs in a Wreathe. Never felt more secure carrying 100mil worth of stuff.

But I just want to share a quick tip I discovered. Made my life a whole lot easier.

Before, I would use spreadsheets and market browsers to keep track of everything. It was fantastic, and kept track of everything well, and I could get all kinds of data.

It did add a lot of time to my trading though.

But did you know the market browser had a quick bar?

Using folders to organize what you region trade and what you station trade, you spend a lot less clicks going through your orders. Before, I'd go to my order page, get the menu open, wait for it to load, check back on my spreadsheets etc.

Now, I open up the market quick bar, and just scroll down to update my orders. Many of you are thinking, 'Duh, why didn't you do that before?' No one told me how, that's why.

But something I did discover though, which was pretty nifty. You know you can add your own text notes to items in the browser?

I use this now instead of referring to my spreadsheets. If I find an item worth trading (which croda does so well in explaining how.. and which I tried to explain a while back), I just add it to quick bar, put it in the right folder, and note 'Buy". If I have the item already, I note 'Selling'.

(Actual items censored to protect my investments. Do you own research you lazy bums)

How does this help? My wife in Amarr shares the same market browser as me. I don't have to keep referring to spreadsheets to see what I want to buy, or what I don't need to get more of. More time spent actually buying/selling, and less spent on fixing my terrible spreadsheet equations, is more potential profit.

Just a quick tip for your market noobies out there, and those who don't want to spend too much time crafting spreadsheets. Nothing better than good accounting though, so if you're serious about things, still make that spreadsheet. Some mercantile royalty types do seem to get along fine without though.

Now I need to go find the Boss. last I saw he was babbling something about wormholes and the profits there in, and trying to find his Astero keys.

The right ship for the job

Before you even undock, you need to think about what you plan on doing.

Seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how often people get into space without having a clue what they're doing or even why they're doing it.

You can't choose a ship unless you know what you need to do. In the most extreme cases, you'll have someone fitting auto-cannons to a Badger, and going out to conquer null-sec. Seems silly*, but you'll see a lot of similar cases in space. Things like that Coercer in a close orbit around the entry point of a complex.

The Coercer pilot didn't know their ship. They read some advice, along the lines of 'if you brawl stay close to the entry point' and 'brawling is the bravest way to fight'. They then got into the most deadly ship they can fly, and died in big explosion from that Breacher sneaking in under their guns.

This highlights a couple of mistakes.

First up, not realizing the Coercer is better for long range. There will be times when you want to get up close to a ship (maybe fighting against a cruiser for example), but if you're waiting in a plex, a bit of distance will mean melting that Breacher before it can even set it's drones on you.

Second, is not understanding the theory behind close orbiting. We do that to make sure we catch any kiters before they can get out to their preferred orbits. However, it's not a case of do it and succeed. You need a scrambler to catch those kiters, and a web to keep them from coasting out of range. Attempting to do the same trick with a warp disruptor will lead to a fiery death.

And that's only the fitting stage. You also need to have the discipline to focus first on web and scram, and then start applying firepower. I usually follow the advice of 'He who punches first, punches last', but in this case, if you don't have that kiter before their MWD launches them to safety, you've lost. It'll be a slow death, and you might be able to slingshot them back into your grasp. But I wouldn't count on it.

The third mistake is worrying what other people think about you. So what if you used a kiting strategy? That's just the ship you're flying. Hek, if you're the one in a defensive position, the bastard chose to fight a kiting ship. They certainly can't complain when that kiting strategy took them down.

What matters is that you survived the encounter. They may get frustrated, but if they can't learn from the loss, then that's their problem. You clearly learned your lesson. That's why you get the LP for the plex, and the bounty for their ship.

My oath gives me the strength and focus to develop myself as a pilot. Learn from the shadows. Learn from your past defeats. Bring your light of understanding. Then when you go walking in dark places, you just might come back alive.

And with some kill-mails to prove you've been there.


*But being the man I am, I've just had a quick think about how that could work. It involves siphon units, wormholes and a hold full of exotic dancers. You'd be surprised how many great ideas involve a hold full of exotic dancers.

Strategikon: Rifter Ammunition

Whilst I'm neck deep in money making schemes, I'll take a quick break to talk about Rifter ammunition. I promised this months ago, and with the recent changes to the Rifter it became more achievable.

Introduction

Before, ammunition selection for the Rifter was tricky. It's bonuses favored a close in style of fighting, which meant a variety of close range ammunition types, along with Barrage for dealing with blaster boats. I was all set for a comparison of resistance vs. damage types, which escalated quickly, since modular customization of New Eden vessels makes for a massive variety of resistance profiles.

That changed with the fall-off range increase. Or rather, my perception changed.

Lets look at the graph again, this time updated for the new fall-off bonus.

Blue lines are pre-fall-off bonus. Red are post.

The new ammunition change point is about 7 km. If you're thinking this is a pretty good sweet spot to be orbiting, you'd be right. Just at scram range, and in deep fall-off for most blasters. If you're going quick enough, and can finely manage the distance, you might also be able to out-run rockets. Missiles have a travel time which limits their range. Rather than follow straight lines, they follow more of a 'chase' trajectory. If you're at the max range of rockets, they might not make it to you.

Kiters

Regardless of damage type, you want Barrage for kiters.

The reasoning is simple. Unless you are very very confident you can catch a kiter at close range at the beginning of a fight, you will lose applied firepower getting into range. If a kiter managers to escape your grasp, you will also lose firepower.

Blaster Boats

If you are fighting any kind of blaster boat, use Barrage. You'll need to keep out of range whilst your superior fall-off range whittles them down. In the case of most blaster boats, this will mean a lot of whittling. Your biggest problem will be the Atron, as they have comparable range.These fights will be very close for you.

This hasn't really changed since before. The benefit now is that new Rifter pilots without access to Barrage have a much better chance of countering blaster boats. It also makes your fight more forgiving if you get jumped by one with your close range ammo loaded.

Rocket Boats

The above applies to rocket ships as well. Unlike a blaster boat, auto-canon firepower won't overwhelm your opponent. It's also more likely that rocket boats will be faster than you, and better able to dictate range. Load Barrage, and keep your damage application more consistent.

Pulse Laser Boats

The only time you'll be using short-range ammo is when  you're fighting a pulse laser boat. These will typically fight within scram range, and you'll be able to use the Rifter's higher speed to close the distance. Your superior tracking will take over at point blank range.

These ships are Punishers, Tormentors, and Executioners. Looking at resist profiles for these ships, you're best off using explosive rounds. You may come across a Succubus, the Sansha pirate frigate... but honestly if you find yourself under threat from a pirate frigate in a Rifter, perhaps disgression is the better part of valour.

Rocket choice

Conventional wisdom states that thermal is best, to avoid hitting a brick wall when it comes to resistance. The rules are slightly different for rockets, because you'll be using them at all ranges, and it's only a secondary weapon.

Summary of charges to be carried

Barrage
Republic Fusion
Navy Inferno rockets
Nano-repair paste

Conclusion

Does this negate the damage type selection of projectiles? Yes, but to be honest, it's not that great a benefit in the first place. Unless you can be absolutely certain of your enemies fit and module layout, you invite catastrophic failure, rather than a tougher fight.

The advantage still has relevance in attacking the uniformly designed non-capsuleer pirates that infest New Eden, so it's not a total loss.

Further experiments

Whilst I think the above is probably the best choice for ammunition choice, I have hunch that the traditional, high-damage close range rounds aren't the best choice for the new Rifter.

Before, with the Rifter's 25% tracking bonus, and AC reliance on fall-off, short range ammunition is preferred. This was smart, since ACs out-tracked most other turrets at close range, meaning a point-blank attack usually worked out well. Slashers are perfect for this tactic, with the speed to nip in under turrets and stick there, gently pricking their opponents to death.

The new Rifter might better benefit from the mid-range ammo. Deplete Uranium or Titanium Sabot both have a 20% tracking bonus, somewhat similar to the old Rifter tracking bonus. The damage is significantly less, but you'll be able to apply that damage better.

This is the best mind-set to have when piloting a Minmatar ship. It's not about the firepower you bring to the field, but the accuracy in how you apply it, and how best to avoid it.

I'll be testing out the effectiveness of fusion vs. depleted uranium on my own ships. If it works out well, I'll let you know.

Crisis of funding

Well, turns out bring branded a traitor had greater repercussions than I thought.

Put simply, the ISKredit card I was using to fund my Pilot License has expired, and I've been officially barred from space. Ordinarily, the banks on Khanid would just send me a new one. Apparently, they don't do that for traitors living in Hek.

I will eventually get a new one. Nations rarely impede banks in their business, and the wealth generated by a single capsuleer is, well, astronomical. A family member who has yet to disown me is working on a courier as we speak... but that could take a month or two.

It's not really a problem. CONCORD gives you a 4 hour grace period to purchase a PLEX from the markets. I have a few in storage*, and cashed in one.

However, it does mean I'm running low on funds. To put it in perspective, I'm down to about 100 Rifters, in wealth. That's not bad, but it's also not good. If I continue to rely on PLEX, then that will dwindle fast. If I want to keep my little organisation running, I'll need to work on funding for the next month.

This does push back the Rifter experiments, and my desire to move to cruisers. Hopefully we can get back to them at some point.

*PLEX almost always increase in price. If you're looking to take time off, or have too much cash that you don't have interest in trading, they are a good investment.