This is an old revision of the document!
Formatting is in need of an update, content needs some polish (why is nothing capitalized in bullet points?), and a bit of information needs to be updated.
WIP: How to be a Fleet Commander
What you can learn in this guide:
- Practical tips and a learning path to become an FC.
- Overall considerations before you take out a fleet.
- Basic fleet tactics for upcoming FCs.
- Some general tips & tricks to get you started.
- An overview on the Military Command Structure and basic administration.
Difficulty: Beginners
Introduction
As a Fleet Commander (FC) myself, I can totally understand the anxiety behind it. It's somewhat similar to giving a presentation: you're in charge of showing people what you know and what to do, and if you make a mistake it can be very embarrassing (unless of course, you're so experienced/talented that even your mistakes seem like calculated decisions; also, it's not entirely true if you make a decision fast and confidently). That being said, you're here, that means you probably thought about FC'ing and want to know a few things before whelping taking out your very first fleet. So, check your ships, insure your pods, and undock undock undock.
Disclaimers:
- These are not hard and fast rules, merely simple suggestions. Adapt as you see fit.
- There is no better way to learn than to:
- Join fleets and observe other FCs.
- Command a fleet yourself and learn from it. To quote Top Gun: "Don't think, just do".
- After reading this guide, I expect to see a ping and an AAR from you (no pressure).
Chapter 1: Reputation and Mentalities
Part 1: Reputation
Someone once said "Being an FC means being the person that brings fun/hour to others". Think for a minute, what kind of FC would you like to see as a fleet member?
Would you prefer the FC:
- Yelling at you for no reason.
- Being totally confused and can't make a decision, or hesitating to do something.
- Who is quiet and/or does not communicate what they want to see from their fleet and peers.
Or would you like to see the FC:
- Who is calm and/or gives clear instructions on what to do.
- Who seems to have a masterful plan in motion (even though they might not have one in mind).
- That analyzes situations and dictate fights.
And so on. An FC is only as good as the fleet they have after all. A hard truth is that reputation matters in the FC world. You will most likely start out small, but if you give people the impression that you know what you're doing (or at the very least pretend to) people might have a good time and maybe join your next fleets with friends. Vice versa, if you didn't try your best to have fun, people will see that and you might have a harder time climbing the ladder (trust me, I know). You will make mistakes, you will whelp, but the best FCs in Brave and in EVE do too. What matters is how you present yourself and how you lead.
Personal experience: I'm an introvert and am not that good at socializing. My first fleet, I literally said "Okay, how to do small talk?" out loud for everyone to hear. In my mind, that was embarrassing as hell but I always tend to interact with my fleet mates and keep them entertained. My type of FC is the nice guy that everyone can count on, after all.
Part 2: Mentalities
There are people who have played the game for decades and have "mastered" the art of FC'ing. You might think: "How am I gonna turn this into the Dragon Warrior an amazing FC, huh?", and I totally understand that. You might feel like compared to the greats you're absolutely tiny, but don't forget that they also started out somewhere. They also once commanded their first fleet (and probably died) and they might've felt the same way you are now, but they kept going. I can't promise you you'll be great (I can't say that of myself either), but you'll be better as long as you just keep trying (and learning from it).
Something that's also worth mentioning (and I learned the hard way) is that in a fight, it's better to make a "wrong decision" immediately than a "right decision" later. Of course, before a fight you can analyze doctrines and the field, and after the fight you can reflect on what you did, but during a fight things need to move fast. To quote The Martian: "…You solve one problem, and you solve the next one. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home". It's not easy to see the right decision in the heat of the moment (and this skill improves with practice), but the worst option for you is to stay still and not do anything.
Personal experience: I second-guessed every decision I made before becoming an FC, and was so anxious about pinging my first fleet that my mentor had to pre-ping a fleet to force me to take action (lol). I had so much fun that first fleet that I knew this was what I wanted to do in EVE; despite me taking a lot of fleets to stop second-guessing myself I still kept pinging and I can say my reaction time is much better now than before.
Short Summary
If you didn't read all of the above, here's a few bullet points:
- Reputation matters in the FC world. Present your best self and your fleets will grow as you grow.
- Just keep trying. Keep pinging, keep learning, and one day you will see yourself improve.
- It's better to make a "wrong decision" immediately than a "right decision" later. Don't hesitate, trust in yourself, and learn from the process.
Chapter 2: Before Undocking
Part 1: Some Suggestions
It's easy to imagine yourself like the experienced Stratop and Full FCs, who seem to know the ins and out of every grid and every doctrine. However, when you're starting out, it's better to keep it simple and build up your fundamentals. Here's a few tips:
- Choose a doctrine you like (that you're allowed to call SRP for) and learn how to fly it effectively.
- Have an objective in mind every time you ping a fleet, whether it be catching ratters in Havens or defending an Astrahus.
- Have a few tactics/strategies in mind that you can use to complete this objective (detailed later).
The idea is to reduce the complexity of the fleet so you can focus on the basics and make good decisions. The rest you will learn as you go along.
Part 2: Research
"Know thy enemy, know thyself, and in a hundred battles you will never be defeated". Half the battle is won before you call for your first primary, so it helps a lot that you are prepared and do your homework.
1. Understand the Doctrines
This guide should give you a basic understanding of the doctrines we have available in Brave, and this page will give you a list of doctrines you're able to ping for. As a general idea, these are the things you should know about your desired doctrine:
- What are the possible engagement ranges?
- What is the alpha/volley damage and DPS characteristic of this doctrine?
- What is the survivability of this doctrine with and without Logistics?
- What is the maneuverability of this doctrine?
Now, analyze the engagement profiles that you wish to see from this doctrine:
- What this doctrine is good against and how to utilize the advantages of it against the enemy.
- What this doctrine is countered by and how to engage/disengage on the field.
- More advanced: how this doctrine works in conjecture with other friendly fleets and how to synergise with them.
You can simulate the ships using PYFA and check what other FCs use this doctrine for using zkill. Afterwards, you can write these down or keep them in your head as you fly. Using the information your scouts give you, you can then decide whether or not to take that fight.
Know your area of operations
So where could you operate? You could defend our home in Catch. You could visit Providence. You could say hello to the angry Russians in Stain. You could go to faction Warfare space.
Where ever you want to go: Know this area very well!
- print out the map of the region you want to operate in
- gather intel on activities in your timezone
- get in an interceptor and roam this area solo to observe and make bookmarks (safespots, tacticals at gates and stations)
Gathering intel, writing it down in your printed maps and be familiar with what is going on during the time you plan your fleets is very helpful.
Let's take Providence for example:
- get their Jump-Bridge map
- know their staging systems
- know their industry and ratting systems
- know their trade hubs (by checking the market)
- try to get access to their intel channels with an alt (very easy in Providence)
- know where they like to set up gatecamps
- check their killboards to learn more about them
Just a short list of tipps for checking killboards:
- focus on data in the timezone you will operate in
- check in which system their ratters lose the expensive ships
- check their most used ships and fittings
- know their most successful pilots to recognize them in local
- write down pilots who lose ships with fitted cynos
- create a list of pilots who lose probing ships
And so on. Gathering intel, being a spy yourself and doing solo recon missions can be a lot of fun and prepares yourself a lot for bringing an actual fleet down to the area you want to be active in! Obviously you could spent a lot of time and effort with gathering intel. Decide for yourself how much you want/can focus on and how much depth of information you need to feel comfortable.
I for myself really like it and it's a great weekly routine I can work on. Every week I spend a couple of hours to improve my own intel. Its one of the many things you can spent time with in EVE if there is nothing more interesting to do.
You don't need to know all this data by heart when you go there. But just gathering - whether you will remember all of it or not - will prepare you better, than flying blind into it. Having a better idea of what you are getting into will reduce complexity during your fleet, even if this preparation itself, might appear quite complex in itself ;)
Delegate, delegate, delegate
Again: Your job as FC is complicated enough. Make it easier by delegating special tasks to others in fleet. What I find the most helpful are these three things:
1. Delegating 'Fleet Organization'
Already when forming up, delegate the task of putting the fleet together to someone else. Make him boss and ask him to use the "Fleet Composition" tool, to put in Wing & Squad Commanders and to notice when someone brings stupid ships.
Let him handle all the following issues which pop up all the time:
- which ship can I bring?
- what is the logi channel?
- who is my anchor?
- can I bring my Drake?
- do you need a dictor?
- where is the fleet?
- Squad 11 still has no commander
- pilot XYZ has disconnected
And so on. All this shit. Give this guy a clear briefing in the beginning what you want and he takes it from there. You have other things to focus on, than handling this issues.
2. Delegating 'Finding Targets'
If you know you will go to region XYZ ask a covert-ops or interceptor pilot to X up in fleet. If there is none, ask someone to do it for you explicitly and make clear, that he will be of great value for the fleet.
You will still have your interceptor scouts with your fleet jumping one system ahead. This guy is dedicated and independent from your fleet to find what you are looking for.
Convo him and assign him the task to already go to the area where you want to operate in and let him start gathering intel on his own. He will have a head start of maybe 15 minutes and he can already tell you - in this convo, not on comms - if he finds gategamps, hostile fleets roaming, ratting carriers or what so ever.
Let him know, what kind of fleet you would want to engage. If he finds a juicy target, he should keep his eyes on the target. While the fleet is forming up and someone else is organizing your fleet you want to focus on your intel and this scout, to lead the fleet not into the unknown but into an already scouted area.
3. Delegating 'Anchoring'
This might be controversial, but I would recommend you to ask in fleet if there is an experienced anchor pilot in a DPS ship who simply knows how to keep a fleet at optimal range of hostiles. Many FCs also prefer to be the anchor for the fleet themselves, but for a new FC it makes things a lot easier, if you can simply anchor up yourself and concentrate on the overall battlefield and target calling, than also on moving the fleet around.
If you have no one who is confident with this task, it of course doesn't make sense. But if you're lucky, having a great anchor is another great 'complexity reducer'. Just communicating with him on comms like 'get me closer to the hostile', 'point the fleet to the sun', 'we need to pull more range' is easier than having to do it yourself.
And there is another simple benefit: every smart hostile FC might kill the obvious anchor pretty early on the fight.
Orientation and Situational Awareness
As an FC it is really important to have a good orientation on the battlefield and a certain degree of situational awareness. Both you can not get by reading this guide, but just by pure PVP experience in the game. The good news it: you can train this a lot without having to be a FC.
Orientation
My advice to improve your orientation is to join as many fleets as possible in a DPS ship and to do something different, than just anchoring up and picking up broadcast from your fleet window. You might already do the following, but if not: start doing it now!
- you always have your tactical overview active
- you always are zoomed out, so that you can assess the situation around you
- you have your overview configured in a way, that you see brackets for hostile and friendly ships + wrecks
During a fight you not only just anchor up and shoot the primaries, but you also:
- try to keep count of hostile and friendly wrecks to be aware of who has the upper hand
- try to keep track of where your own logistics are positioned on the field
- try to keep track of the direction the hostiles and your own fleet is moving
- try to understand the hostile fleet composition
- try to start FCing and target calling (quietly for yourself)
You want to get yourself in a situation as you would be in control, to just train to
- keep track of all the important things going on at the same time
- start making decision to check if you would make similar calls than your current FC
Use every fleet as an FC training by actively thinking about what YOU would do now in this situation. Train to handle all these things at the same time under pressure. Try to think about it in real time - don't just judge what you have would have done differently after the fight is over.
This is a really good training and as long you don't have a very good feeling, that you can keep track of everything around you it might be a bit early to FC your own fleet yet.
Situational Awareness
This is the ability to quickly comprehend what is going on, realizing what will most likely happen next, without having to think about it very long. Your situational awareness will increase over time, as more experience you gather, as more different situation you will encounter.
It's something you can work on. What really helps to train your situational awareness is:
- be a scout for a fleet from time to time and try to anticipate what the FC will most likely wants you to do next
- fly logistics and get a different perspective on a fight. it will extend your horizon and allow more in depth assessments
- start doing more solo pvp or pvp in very small groups (2-5)
Solo PVP or going out in a very small group is one of the best ways to work on your situational awareness. Very good scouts and very good FCs are often also very good solo pilots, as it simply forces you to make all decision by yourself, instead of just following orders.
Your will train your muscle to anticipate what is most like for the enemy to do next.
Simple Tactics
Moving a fleet around is not a big deal at all. Telling people to align to something, to hold, to jump and to warp a fleet is a piece of cake and can be done by simply everyone. It's much more about being able to apply different tactics and to understand a situation, to know what you can do and what not.
For your first fleets I want to give you three simple tactics you can apply. They all work quite well with Talwars. (little hint)
And I want to tell you one thing, you will never ever do on your first fleets: you will never ever jump into a hostile gatecamp!
Jumping into a hostile fleet, which is setup on a gate, will most likely shred you to pieces, unless your largely outnumber or outgun them and there is really no reason to do that. Jumping into another fleet puts you most of the time in a bad position. Put this rule on the list of things, you will never do, even if this is the only way to get a kill.
1. Gate Camping
Yeah, let's be honest: it is often very boring to do it and no one likes it. But nevertheless it gives you the highest level of control over the situation and is a good way to start as a new FC.
To keep morale high in your fleet, I advise you to do two things:
- don't speak of a 'gate camp'. Just set up your fleet on a gate and make your fleet believe you have intel that something is coming ;)
- never sit on one gate longer than 20-30 minutes. after that just move on, keep the fleet moving and try something else.
How to set up a gatecamp:
- you have a scout in the other system, to know what is coming
- you have one dictor on zero on gate, to launch the bubbles
- fast tackle is orbiting the gate with drones out
- dps and logi are on their anchors
- ewar is at optimal range and aligned
Some remarks for the different roles:
- SCOUT: best is, that he is not visible. He can either cloak or sit in a safespot and uses his directional scanner to see if something is about to jump into your gatecamp
- TACKLE: scram and webs for the win! decloacking by always burning towards a target the second he uncloacks!
- DPS: you should be at your optimal range. If you have a long range doctrine like Talwars I would already anchor up and let the anchor position the fleet perfectly for you
- LOGI: has its own anchor and want to stay in range to the DPS fleet, but as far aways as possible from the gate.
- EWAR: E-War always uses its range, acts independently from the rest of the fleets, is aligned and simple warps out when in trouble
If something comes through your gate you can kill: bubble up, tackle it, kill it
If something comes through your gate, which you don't want to engage: get out fast enough!
You should know way in advance by your scout if something is coming, which you do not want to fight. For this case you want to have a clear plan, how to get away quickly from this position.
Let's be clear about this tactic: you can only catch, what is stupid enough to jump into you. A small gang with a scout, should most likely not run directly into your trap. Everything which does: they will most likely try to burn back to the gate. Therefore its so important that you have tackle with scrams and web.
There are a lot of more advanced tactics related to gate camps - you can do some things to increase the chance to get a fight with a smaller gangs than yours - but those I will explain in another guide.
2. Station Trap
Roaming in hostile space, which has systems with stations in it, is a great place to execute the 'station trap'. You will be surprised how man pilots still warp their ratting ships or mining barges to stations to get safe, instead of a POS or bouncing between safespots.
The great news is, that with Providence next door (which has a station in nearly every system) you have a great training ground only a few jumps out.
How to set up the station trap:
- your scout jumps into a system and checks if the gate is clear
- if gate is clear your dictor jumps aswell, while the rest of the fleets holds on the gate
- the dictor directly warps to the station and covers it with bubbles
- as soon the bubble is up the rest of fleet jumps into system
- at least one, better two tacklers with scram and webs warp to the station
- all DPS, Logi and E-War warp at optimal range to the station
- if you have more tackle to spare send them to random anomalies in the system
You have to execute this really fast to quickly bubble up the station. When hostiles land on the station caught at the edge of the bubble, it is key to get a scram and web on him, as they will try to get in docking range or warp off.
If you have a prober with you, he should start probing as soon the bubbles are up. He might find someone in a safespot and it increases the pressure for people in safespots, so that they might try to warp to the station.
If you are in a system where the enemy has a jump-bridge, its worth camping the station for up to 15 minutes, as people who are not paying attention might bridge into the system and warp straight to the station.
If you are in ships with a high volley damage (like Talwars) you might even try to instap-pop ships who try to undock, get vulnerable and not dock up quick enough.
3. Hit and Run
Another popular tactic is to 'hit and run'. This works extremely well with long range fleets, who have a high volley damage. (i.e. Talwars) If you have a enemy fleet location, for example because:
- you come back from a roam and a station in Fountain is camped
- you arrive at an ongoing fight as support fleet or as a third party
How to execute a hit and run:
- move your fleet towards a safe position first within the system (i.e. a tactical above a gate)
- send one scout towards a planet in system to create a safespot near this planet as warp-out
- send a covert-ops or interceptor to get a close position as warp-in to the enemy fleet
- align your fleet towards the position of the enemy fleet
- warp in at an maximized optimal range to the enemy fleet (do the math at which range you have to warp towards your warp-in)
- try to get in tackle close to the enemy fleet only if they are not in a bubble already
- everybody directly aligns on land to the planet of your warp-out
- kill just a couple of ships and then leave the field again
- as soon something comes in range to you, get out!
- don't spend to much time at one position, as you could get probed, bombed etc.
After that get a warp-in at another position, move your warp-out to a different planet and start over again. If there are already two fleets fighting each other, you will probably have a very easy time to do this and can stay at your position killing ships a little longer.
If not: your main challenge will be to get tackle on the enemy fleet. If you can get a decent prober in your fleet to scan down enemies and provide warp-ins its perfect!
What is important: after every run make sure, that you really kill more ISK than you lose!
Target Calling
There is only one simple rule for target calling, which is always right: it's better to call any ship, than none
If you have no clue for the first seconds what to do: sort by range and call the closest target to you and work your way up, until you might have a better overview of the situation.
Apart from that it really always depends on the situation and therefore I want to give you just a few things to think about, to make your own decisions:
Logistics
I would only primary logistics if it needs to be. You should have a rough idea of how much damage your fleet can apply and you should be able to roughly estimate how much EHP your targets have and how much a single T1 and T2 logistics can repp.
It's also a question of your own E-War. With a few E-Wars ships in your back and not a massive logistics support on the other side, I would at first ignore them. If you see, that they repps are holding, or that it simply takes to long to kill something, you can switch back to them at any point during the fight.
E-War
Same thinking as with the logistics. If you can ignore them, ignore them. I would always start the fight and reconsider your situation after the first 60 seconds. Ask you logistics if they have a lot of issues with jamming and dampening.
If you have a good amount of support ships: order them to go after E-War. They will most likely warp off, if a few frigates start chasing them. Another tactic is to just order everyone to lock the E-War ships without shooting them. Massive yellow boxing should make most E-War pilots to warp off.
The only exception I would make: if you fight ships with turrets and they have Vigils or Bellicose ships in fleet: take them down first. Getting them off the field will cut down their DPS by quite a lot.
EAFs, Recons & T3s
Hyenas, Rapiers, Huginns & Lokis have long range webs. Keres, Arazus, Lachesis & Proteus have long range points. Both groups are a high threats for you. Webs more than points, as they will maximize the damage application. Points are relevant in fights, where there is actually a chance to warp of when called primary. (for example if you fight missile ships, which give you time to warp off) The T3 will have a massive amount of EHP, the EAFs are paper thin.
If you are for example in Talwars, all you have is your range and speed. If this is compromised by these ships on the field, they have to go down first!
If you think you can win the fight: ignore the long points and kill the long webs first. If you can't kill them and if you notice that you lose the fight: get out of the fight and while doing that primary the long points.
Interdictors
Hostile Interdictors should always be high on your list if you are in a situation where you don't want to get bubbled. It would not say they are top of the list in every situation, but prolly in most.
DPS
If everything else is fine you call the hostile DPS ships as primaries. You want to focus first on the highest DPS ships. If there is no difference between the ships left on the field I recommend you to have at least the column 'Velocity' active in your overview. ('Transversal Velocity' if you fly turret ships) and to start with the slowest ships in your range for the best damage application.
Talwars, Talwars, Talwars
As its quite likely at the current situation, that you start your career as a FC with Talwars, I just want to say two things about them.
- all I described here can be executed with Talwars quite well. But they have a big weakness: they are paper thin and go boom super fast. Don't start brawling with them at a closer range, stick to the three tactics, always operate at the edge of your optimal range and your fine with them.
- if you put a Talwar fleet together make sure during form-up that everyone has the same minimum skills for them. If really new players jump into a Talwar without the required skills trained up to Level 4 their range will be much lower and their signature radius way to high.
Ask your pilots to have:
- Minmatar Destroyer at Level 4
- Missile Bombardment at Level 4
- Missile Projection at Level 4
If they don't: your fleet might not be as good as you think. So its better to put them in another ships than the Talwar. Maybe use the MOTD of your fleet to make this very clear.
Tips and Tricks
Some general things I wanted to address:
- make use of your overview and configure it for different situations, to quickly see what you need
- only broadcast the primaries! otherwise your secondary will be top in the list and the fleet will start to spread damage
- always ask only once for a volunteer. The second time its an order and you directly approach someone to just do it
- always stay calm. Say 'please' and 'thank you' and make clear how important things are
- keep your comms clear right from the start. allow people to chat in fleet, but tell them to keep comms clear
- it doesn't hurt to tell people that they have done a great job. keep people motivated.
- keep moving, keep doing things, don't stand still
- standing a fleet down if there is nothing left to do is a good idea
- avoiding a fight you simply can not win is a good idea
- disengaging when something goes wrong is not a shame, but a good move
- telling people what they did wrong in a polite ways helps them to become better pilots
- during the fleet you are in charge and no one else! ask people to address their critics after the fleet
Let's warp it up
So that's it for this guide. I hope I could give you a better idea and some practical advise on how to get started as a FC. Remember that you can already train a lot, by simply joining fleets yourself and having in mind, that you might want to FC a fleet by your own in the future. Learn from others and already start thinking as a FC.
Do your homework. Get to know different ship fittings, make notes on their strength and weaknesses. Go out and start gathering intel, create your own little knowledge-base, have a lot of bookmarks for safespots and tacticals and be well prepared.
Keep it simple. Delegate what you can, focus on just one simple doctrine like Talwars and get familiar with this three simple tactics I told you and try to become really good in executing them.
I will write a guide about more advanced tactics in the future.
If you have any questions or feedback: let's discuss them in this post on reddit about this guide.
7o
Rikta Garemoko