December 7th, 2011.
Let's start off with the bright side. Over 30 players logged into our vent server for the fight. We pulled off a logistical feat moving over 20 combat ships into a c2 worm hole with under 24 hours notice. We coordinated with pilots spread over 10 hours of time zone differences and managed to engage in a the largest fleet fight eHarmony has ever been a part of.
On to the the down side: Over 4 billion Isk lost between eHarmony and allies for only 400 million killed. Our bait POS was destroyed and we have been kicked out of the worm hole.
http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=11838120
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHX6ngGMvUw
So what went wrong?
A super committee has been established to investigate the evidence and the report can be found here:
The December 7th Commission Findings:
12/06 T-21:00:
Bait POS was put into reinforce and unlike in the previous bait POS operation, eHarmony high command effectively timed the strontium and a date was established. Once against Pollychrest misread the time and the mail that went out called for action at 0200 EVE when the POS in fact was scheduled to emerge from reinforce at 300 EVE. Can someone please buy him a watch?
It turns out this was actually a brilliant move by Pollychrest as it allowed him to work a logistical miracle to get the majority of our forces into the POS before the targets were able to restrict movement.
At this a plan was formulated by eHarmony high command to counter the fleet that initially put our bait POS into reinforce. This fleet numbered 20+ with the majority of DPS and reps being Amarr based. The call went out for close range gank BS, scorpions with amarr/caldari jams, and armor reps of our own.
12/07 T-9:00 Hours:
The logistical operation began with some pilots (notably Meri Saissore) jumping as many as 70 jumps to get their ships into J103716 ahead of time.
At this point the full gravity of the situation became apparent when an SRS. pilot mentioned that it was the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. eHarmony command acted quickly to rename our POS “Pearl Harbor.” Large secure containers were named “Hospital Point, Dry Dock No. 1, Ford Island Air Field, Etc.” All battleships, battle cruisers, logistical ships, etc. were named after the closest corresponding equivalent to the real Pearl Harbor vessels. Battleship Row was meticulously aligned and pods named after the captains of their corresponding ships approached the “Troop Bunker” secure container.
Admittedly, we may have been better off choosing the Japanese side considering the Kamikaze attack that would follow.
12/07 T-1:00 Hours:
Enemy activity picked up and it became clear that they would repeat their previous strategy of placing a HIC on the stage III high security hole. A significant portion of our forces were stuck in known space and began a wild goose chase of attempting to get to the next hole before it could be put into stage III by SRS. and friends.
12/07 T-15 Minutes:
The decision was made to attack the SRS. forces based on their previous, skittish behavior. We did not coordinate 30 people, with many setting alarms to wake up, just to protect a worthless POS. We wanted a fight.
Scout Marysol Cwidda lost a Helios after incorrectly judging the 3 minute timer and even worse, apparently failed to make the Highsec entrance a corp bookmark.
12/07 T-10 Minutes:
Even though the high sec side of our forces was locked out, the order was given to log in and proceed to the warp in points. Even though the warp in points were repeated multiple time over comms, and X'd in fleet, this proved to be a major flaw in the battle plan. Players who logged in at the second rally point were not able to join fleet fast enough to see the X's and based on the sheer number of players involved this was an inefficient method of moving the fleet as a unit.
Upon landing the primary was given and it quickly became apparent that the ship selection was poor on eHarmony's side. Initially anticipating a smaller scale fight, close range gank battleships were selected. Upon reviewing the video evidence, The December 7th Commission has determined that the majority of our DPS hit the HIC bubble and landed 22-30 Km's from the initial targets.
Targets were sorted alphabetically and the first Abaddon died quickly enough once friendly DPS got into range. 30 seconds into the fight, our primary FC was jammed out and the second FC chose a target that was closer to some of our forces. Unfortunately, the fight had spread out over 60 Km's by this time and many ships were nearly 50 Km's from the new primary.
There were also several reports of difficulty finding the non-alphabetically selected primary.
It became apparent that it was a lost cause and the order was given to get out. Only those lucky, or... cowardly enough to have approached the worm hole before the order was given were able to escape.
Lessons learned:
In increasingly large scale battles such as this one, complicated maneuvers immediately prior to the fight are a recipe for disaster. It is more efficient not only attack as a single unit, but take control out of the hands of the many, and into commanders who can warp squad/fleet.
In large scale fleet fights, ships that can project DPS out to range are more efficient than traditional high DPS ships that do not have said range. Footage reveals how spread out our fleet was by the end. Any primary that was called would have been out of range of a good deal of our fleet.
The primaries themselves need to be easier to find. Sorting alphabetically has advantages but does not necessarily lead to the best call. Picking a single name based on range/target type out of a list of ships can lead to confusion and difficulty. In future large scale engagements, FC's will broadcast targets and fleet members will target them directly from the broadcast history.
Moving Forward:
While this was a painful loss, it has taught many lessons that can only be learned with experience. Our lead FC's now have more hands on experience with this kind of fight. From a strategic level the corporation now has new fleet doctrines to train for.
We have demonstrated the ability to generate fights such as this one and now we need to demonstrate the ability to win them.
We will begin running more dedicated fleet types on roams to various areas. We will be running operations in NPC 0,0 to give some newer members the training and experience necessary to live out there.
Plans are in motion. Like our historical counterparts, eHarmony is the sleeping giant that has been awoken. We will match all our members on 29 dimensions whether they like it or not.
