Incursions And You!

  Since I have recently gotten into Incursion site running, I figured I could write up a primer for those that are interested and still haven't gotten in or those that decided it's not worth the effort. Olga is being put to good use and she can get me into fleets pretty easily. And my goodness, I've never seen so many Navy ships, Vindis and Machs flying around.

  So, in this post I will detail the best places to find fleets, the sites that you will run, and what you need to expect with Incursions. These will be highsec only.

  Channels To Join
BTL Armor
The Ditanian Fleet
BTL Pub
The regular Incursion channel for the region of your choice

  The first two channels are reserved for armor only fleets, while the third is shields and the last is chatter for the Incursion. When you are new, running with these fleets can be great experience. Prove yourself and you may even get invites to more "leet" channels. With any fleet, your best bet is to be flying a Faction battleship, T3, or command ship. Those will be taken far before any other types.

Protocol for x-ing up in those channels is generally in this format:

  (Link fit) LFAF/LFSF (incursion system name here) VG/AS/HQ

  The x up depends on what you want. LFAF is for armor, LFSF is shields and the last tag is optional. Starting out, you'll be wanting Vanguard (VG) fleets so you can add that. Assaults are generally recognized as not being worthwhile, since their ISK/hr ratio is lower than VG. HQ fleets won't be found until the MOM pops up and they are massive fleets. Consequently, we will be focusing on Vanguards.

You can find a competent fleet that can run relatively quickly, depending on the night, in short order. A good fleet running Vanguards can net you 100mil ISK/hr or so before LP. Not only is fast better, but a good fleet will be needed when you must compete for a site. More than one fleet on field means the payout only goes to the fleet that puts out the most DPS. No slacking, capsuleer!

For Incursions you need to make sure of a few things:

 1. Good FC that can call as needed and direct the fleet well
 2. Logi pilots that don't suck
 3. Good FC
 4. Oh yea, good FC

  A bad FC will run too slowly and might even end up losing you a ship if they're bad enough. But you probably won't have to worry too much about that.


   But how do I know where the Incursions are taking place?

Simple, the journal tab on your neocom is the best source of information for everything related to Incursions. Pop it open and the last tab to the right is labeled "Incursions. When you have selected it, you'll find sub-tabs labeled Global Report, Encounters, and Loyalty Point Log.

Global Report: Tells you where Incursions are currently happening, how far they are from your position, and what the penalties are at.

Encounters: Details the sites in each level of Incursions and how much payouts will be for said sites

Loyalty Point Log: Shows you how much LP you gained after each site, only to be paid out after the MOM has been destroyed.

  Now you know where to go to look for them, but what should you bring? Well I can say right now that your super mission maller probably won't get you into fleets. Sorry about that. Essentially, you want something that can pack enough tank to not get your face murdered and still bring good dps to the field. You also want to be a utility for the fleet, so webs and target painters are your new best friend. Sadly, I have seen T3s and other shiny ships linked with only T1 guns/mods...please don't be one of them. You can usually get away with it in BS sized ships, but even then you're better off training up T2. Don't know the best way to fit for this? No worries, Eve Survival has some good advice for you.

  Site Types

Mining Colony
Commander Outpost
Override Transfer Array


  Your fleet size is best aroudn 9 or 10 pilots. Too many more and your ISK payouts begin to drop beneath being worthwhile. Fleet composition is hardly complicated with:

3 Logi
7 dps

  Assaults will climb to double the logi, and as many snipers and close range dps you can get. Those fleets tend to be around 25 pilots.


  Why would I even want to do Incursions in the first place?

You may not and that is a completely valid and ok action to take. But allow me to persuade you otherwise.

  Incursions give you:

• More excitement and challenge than missioning
• More socialization than missioning
• Payouts, while only 10-15 million per site, add up quickly
• LP gains you nice rewards like better implants, capital blueprints and more!
• Knowledge that you are helping push back the evil invasions of a deluded madman. RP FTW!

  You now have the know-how, but it's up to you to get out and do it. Have fun, too, because otherwise it's just as much a grind as missioning. Don't let a bad fleet put you off, there are lots of good ones to look forward to and they will be very rewarding.

  Good luck and death to Sansha!

-Mem

  PS. I want to say thanks to Asayanami Dei for some great links and info that helped create this post

 

When You Have More Isk Than Sense...

"Combat probes within 4 AU of us."

  The alert certainly got all of us perked up as we camped a connection, waiting for the residents of that hole to come out and play.  A few moments later there was more comm chatter, "Falcon on scan now. Get ready, they have us pinpointed."

  With opportunities from two directions, this was getting interesting. We had popped a few of the idiots on top of their POS and stolen all of their POS modules. Don't leave your stuff unanchored around us. They had a carrier pilot logged in and we were hopeful, but nothing had happened in a while. In such a mixed fleet, we weren't sure what this new contact would turn out to be.

  One of our pilots decides to find where they came from, finding a new connection in system and waiting on it. Fifteen minutes go by without anything happening from either side. Then we find out what found us.

"Tengu on sca--Tengu on grid, Tengu on grid."

  The scout then called out more targets. Three Tengus, Eos, Drake, and two Scimitars. That can be a nasty fleet in the right hands. It didn't seem to be, though, since the Tengu dropped on us alone...then a Loki and another Tengu..then the Drake...and the Falcon decloaked, I had jams on all of them except the Drake. I was suddenly quite happy I had 3 Caldari jammers from a previous fight.

  Two of our pilots had gone to their home connection, holding back the Eos even though it was still providing bonuses. They harassed it into jumping back out and the Scimitars decided to hang back to keep it alive. That was a big mistake.

  Their fleet engaging our main force didn't know we held reserves and started jumping into the hole we had been camping. We pursued after taking care of a the Drake and his pod. I had to bounce, once to get rid of incoming damage when they initially dropped onto us and then again because I had come back at range. By the time I was able to jump in and lock the targets, they were starting to bleed into armor and on their way to space dust and shiny loot. Seriously...more ISK than brains it seems.
 
  They seemed to start panicking because they were jumping back and forth through holes like rabbits, getting polarized and letting our teams work them down to nothing. We lost the Loki somewhere in the system we killed those Tengus, so we moved back to two systems over to finish off the Eos. The scimitars were burning away from us and I couldn't jam them correctly the entire time, so they were able to GTFO.

  So, while we were hoping for a carrier to come play I will definitely settle for over 7 billion from those guys and no losses for us. The best part was that so much of the faction loot dropped for us. Shiny, shiny ISKies. This also ended a semi-dry spell for my Pvp. Quite a nice way to do so, I'd say. Our fleets are getting more and more deadly, even when it's a scramble.

  I am finishing off Vs for my Tengu and thinking I might try level 4 missioning. Never done it alone and I hear it's good money so I could put this thing to use. I am working on getting a different ship for our fleets to rock the dps. Man...I am so ADD with my training.

  Remember, intel wins wars.
-Mem