Another CVA vs Panfam skirmish took place in the evening hours of November 27. This time the fighting occured in Providence’s system of D-GTMI. We’ve reported on the Providence action in the past, and now here we are again. INN has once again reached out to both sides to get the inside scoop on what’s happening down there.
If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try Again
Though not the first victory by the Provibloc alliances, the fighting in D-G may stand up over time as a fairly significant development. Panfam are known for being persistent, as well as for the overwhelming numbers they can bring to bear. This makes for a difficult combination to beat, even those bringing just as many pilots to the table. In this particular case, Provi-bloc had both numbers and tactics on their side. Both Legacy Coalition, including TEST and Brave, and pilots from the Imperium’s Goonswarm and Snuffed Out alliances, joined in the defense.
Jin’taan and CVA have sought a new tactic to counter Panfam’s current Raven and Rokh doctrine. During the D-G battle, they unveiled some of the results of that search. So far, it looks like these measures were successful. The strategy used a combination of sniper dreadnoughts and blinged out Hyenas, along with some covert Proteii. This new tactic allowed the Provi-bloc side to successfully defend their Fortizar from the Panfam attack.
Sifting Through the Details
Though CVA turned back the Panfam assault, it didn’t come without taking losses of their own. A rough battle report posted on Reddit shows the the two sides even in the ISK war. However, CVA now has a proven strategy moving forward in their conflicts with Panfam. This success could force a shift in doctrines if they are able to repeat it consistently.
Ahura Mashada released a short video afterwards highlighting some of the action that went down earlier today!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYjXd8z-AVM
We’ve reached out to both Jin’taan and Killah Bee for their thoughts on the fight, so that we can avoid speculation and cut straight to the facts.
Jin’taan for the Defense
INN: Can you give us a quick rundown from your perspective?
Jin’taan: So this was a final timer for the Fortizar, with D-G being the ancestral homeland of CVA (it was our staging system for about 7-8 years), meaning we had around 6 days to prepare a counter to PL/NC’s 2 pronged MJD BS fleet, with PL using Ravens (the better anti-cap option) and NC. using Rokhs (the better anti-subcap option). This gave them incredible range, damage and mobillity that we’d have to deal with to stop them from killing the Fortizar.
As such I came up with an idea I knew I could execute with my corp (Pentag Blade) without having to expose it to any PL theorycrafters. We tested it on SiSi, but only had a limited amount of time to practice before spies appeared near us and we had to log off to conserve suprise, as we wanted them to be completely suprised.
Alongside this I encouraged the FC team in Provi to come up with as many countertactics as possible, to keep PL on their toes and just to see if there were other options. During this one of our new hotshot FCs who’ve developed during this (which is really an extension of the anime war) came up with a Proteus fit that would be able to lock down and kill the Rokhs by cloaking and nullifying themselves then warping in on the CDs at 0, forcing the BS’ to either fight or lose all their CDs.
We also had a Rokh/Naga countersniping fleet under Rounon Dax, which had the same range as PL/NC’s fleets, but more tank. And 200 Interceptors from TEST, 50 from Provi, 50 from Brave, all of which would be abusing the instawarp-instafire tactic that had been practiced in FozzieSov. There were also a few small bomber detachments that eventually got good runs in, but died for it, with no real kills gained that I can see.
The start of the fight was brutal for the defenders, as NC. nailed a perfect bait and switch, getting our snipers to untether and then dropping 25~ Smartbombing Machs on top of them, creating something akin to a pipebomb and killing almost the entire 100 man fleet in about 20 secs, with only 1 loss (my dreads refitting to instalock as we saw them warp in and sniping one on the exit). These guys then reshipped into Feroxes to provide more conventional firepower to support later fights and clear tackle from the Dread fleet that I was commanding.
After this, we got a great warp in on the Rokhs that allowed the Proteuses to hold them down for the 50s we had left on our siege timers from earlier, trading evenly against the Rokhs but heavily outnumbered. The Dreads got into position, and from there it was murder city, with us killing Vultures easily with each Fire Group (We had the dreads split into 2 Fire Groups to maximise our abillity to spread out and control grid, with different target callers).
First kill in that fight from my side was this one, which is quite a telling one.
The proteuses eventually died as the Ravens got into position to support the Rokhs. As cool as they are, 70 T3s can’t beat 250 BS – or even close to it, but I gave the order that they “Hold til the last man” in true Amarrian fashion so that we could keep killing. We killed almost every single Vulture in the NC. fleet, castrating their locking range down to around 200, which made them much harder to maneuver with, letting us catch them again as we predicted where they were going to jump to and warped our Dreads there, which let us kill around 20 Rokhs in 3-4 minutes. Meanwhile Snuffed had finally arrived in Tengus to help keep the Rokhs moving.
Also, this is my corp KB.
Shows p’much only dread frags. Should tell you how ridiculously effective these things were.
Eventually we did get caught out, with PL dropping a drag bubble that caught 5 dreads, but they were able to burst tank the DPS whilst we put our other dreads in position to cover them. Didn’t lose a ship save our Damnation.
Massive props to Alasadir our main subcap FC & Proteus theorycrafter, And also my corp for being able to put 20 Dreads on grid, secretly the night before, then have everyone log on together for the fight. (System was jammed so we wouldn’t be able to jump in, so we safelogged the night before in the spots we wanted to cover.)
INN: Seems like everything worked out just so to make it happen! Were you confident that this was going to be a grand slam major victory? Or was it a bit touch and go at any point?
Jin’taan: I was pretty worried after the Rokhs got SBed to death, but after the Proteuses held for long enough to get Dreads in position I knew we’d probably won. The ISK ratio was fairly even at the end of it all, FYI.
INN: There were some rumours as well about a blingy Hyena fit that was something of a key point in this battle as well?
Jin’taan: Oh, yeah. We used a 700~m Hyena fit to allow our dreads to hit CS’. Full A-type + implant fit. Centurion Implants are sexy.
INN: Annnd, my last question has also already been answered, so I think that covers everything! Good and thorough, thanks!
Jin’taan: Sounds good. Make sure to get the other side if you can. I’d love to hear what Killah/Hedliner have to say.
INN has reached out to Killah Bee as well, but as of publication, have not yet gotten a response. This report will be updated with his view of the fighting as soon as possible.
