Tackling is a term used in EVE to describe pinning an enemy ship so that it can’t escape. This allows the rest of the fleet to move in and kill it. A tackler does this by rapidly approaching an enemy ship, scrambling its warp drive so it cannot warp, then using a webifier to reduce its sub-warp speed. It one of the most important roles in fleet combat — few fleets are effective without tackle. Basic tackling requires little skill point investment and uses inexpensive ships. Because of this, it is one of the most common roles for new pilots. On the other hand, it's a hard role to play properly, securing kills for the fleet without losing your ship is something that only experienced player can achieve.
Eve university also has a very in-depth guide: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Tackling_Guide Here you can find some additional example situations and advanced takle piloting maneuvers: https://imgur.com/a/rlsTUBN
This set of skills will allow you to fly the ‘speedy’ TI frigate of your chosen race(Execution, Condor, Atron, Vigil), and fit an Afterburner, Warp Scrambler, and Stasis Webifier.
This skill expansion will allow you to fit a microwarpdrive, overdrive injection system, reinforced bulkhead, and damage control modules.
When fitting to fly tackle, you have three goals to keep in mind: in order of importance, they are, 1) disrupting the target’s warp, 2) closing rapidly with the target and preventing it from prop modding away, 3) surviving the counter-fire.
Disrupting the target’s warp is done with one of two modules: the Warp Disrupter or Warp Scrambler. Warp Disruptors are longer ranged, and have a warpcore disabling strength of 1. Warp Scramblers have a shorter range, but have a warpcore disabling strength of 2 and also disable microwarp drives(even if the target has enough warp strength to escape.)
Closing rapidly with the target can be assisted by a variety of modules. Almost all tacklers are equipped with one type of propulsion mod (an afterburner or micro-warp drive) in order to quickly close the gap. Microwarp drives offer a larger speed boost relative to afterburners but have the downside of increasing a ship’s signature radius, making it easier to hit. There are a variety of low slot modules that can increase a ship’s speed as well. For example, an overdrive injection system or a nanofiber internal structure, but each module along these lines removes a tank module.
How you choose to attempt to survive the counter-fire from the ship that you have tackled is usually dictated by whether you chose an afterburner or a MWD. With an afterburner, it’s generally better to double down on speed modules. With a MWD, you need to supply enough tank modules such as Damage Control, and Reinforced Bulkheads to compensate for the extra fire you’ll be taking due to the MWD’s increased signature radius.
Two sample doctrines that can be adapted to any speedy T1 frigate are detailed below.
Afterburner T1 Frigate | MWD T1 Frigate |
---|---|
[Execution/Condor/Atron/Vigil] Damage Control I Overdrive Injector System I Nanofiber Internal Structure I Warp Disruptor I Stasis Webifier I 1MN Afterburner I Any High Slot | [Execution/Condor/Atron/Vigil] Damage Control I Overdrive Injector System I Reinforced Bulkheads I Warp Disruptor I Stasis Webifier I 1MN MicroWarpdrive I Any High Slot |
Before a battle, make sure to set your orbit distance. This should be approximately 2km less than the range of your shortest-ranged module. With a stasis webifier/warp disruptor setup, this range should be around 8000m, as the web has the lower range of 10km. With a stasis webifier/warp scrambler setup, this range should be around 5000m, as warp scramblers have a range of 7500m.
During a fleet battle, it’s your job to tackle any targets designated by the Fleet Commander (FC).
For corp fleets, Brave has corp-specific doctrines for T1 tackle duty. See this link: Fleet Support Doctrines.