In the system of PUZ-IO in the NPC region of Great Wildlands, a Drone Regions Federation Super-Capital Fleet was ambushed by Triumirate. and their allies. The battle report shows that the DRF allied entities lost a total of 260 Billion ISK, while Triumvirate. and their allies only lost 14 Billion ISK, most of that loss being Interdictors that were sacrificed to keep the DRF Super-Capitals stuck on the grid. A full report of the battle can be found here.
I reached out to Cpt Patrick Archer, the Triumvirate fleet commander during this incident, to gather his side of the events.
INN: Would you mind setting the scene of the Massacre, for those who don’t understand how this could have happened?
Ctp Patrick Archer: They posted a max hype CTA for their nerds in 4-GB14, in Immensea. With FCON rapidly crumbling, it was apparent that this was an obvious move op, in order to evacuate their Super-Capital fleet from what is a crumbling region. I work 40 hour weeks so I wasn’t able to do any of the setting up since it was close to me coming home. I asked another FC, but on the day of the fight he fried his GFX card playing PUBG, so then I had to rush Interdictors into position and asked Lumpy for a hand
INN: So you were prepared to spring the trap. What happened next?
Cpt Patrick Archer: We thought we had Interdictors covering all jump routes, however, we missed 1 route, which is the one they took. They started double jumping through Scalding Pass, so I immediately figured out their route by looking at Dotlan. Having lived here for 2 years I knew a short route for our super fleet to get from Detorid to Great Wildlands and catch up with them quickly. We moved our Super-Capitals into position, and we were burning 45 Dictor alts. I pinged Fraternity. about it too, so they could provide assistance. RMC was entosising in Immensea already and decided to come towards our area too with a Ferox fleet. The trap was set.
INN: What happened next?
Cpt Patrick Archer: While we were gating our Super-Capitals, they cyno’d into PUZ on a POS ping as our first Dictor arrived. He managed to bubble their fleet for 5 minutes while our other Dictors were burning. In that time most got out, apart from like 10 Super-Capitals and 1 or 2 Titans. So our Super-Capitals got into range as some of theirs got out of bubbles and warped off. We cyno’d in our fleet on top of them at zero. A XIX reinforcement Machariel fleet landed at the same time. We immediately started killing Force Auxiliaries, or FAXes , then the Titan, then whatever Super-Capitals were still tackled, before moving onto Machariels. Seeing the field was lost, the Machariels routed, but not before freeing a Super-Capitals of theirs in system that had warped off to a belt and got tackled again. Sadly we couldn’t move our cap fleet quickly and it managed to escape.
INN: It seems almost strange, that in the age of Upwell Structures, the DRF Super fleet cyno’d onto a POS, instead of a citadel, what happened?
Cpt Patrick Archer: I think they assumed they were out of range of us by then. They used citadels for the 2 jumps in Scalding Pass, which had anchor delays since they were anchored in hostile Sov, ironically, the one without anchor delay in Great Wildlands (NPC null) didn’t have one.
INN: So they became arrogant, and paid the price for their carelessness?
Cpt Patrick Archer: Or just stupid, but the only reason we didn’t kill more, if not all of them, is because we weren’t prepared properly.
INN: After seeing how many Super-Capitals were on grid from the Dread video on YouTube, it appears they were very close to losing a large chunk of their Super-Capitals?
Cpt Patrick Archer: They actually had more Super-Capitals than us. Our reports suggested 40+ and 9 Titans. We only had 30 or something, and they also had 50 Dreads, 30 FAXes, and the Machariel fleet that s on the battle report.
INN: So the way you tell it, if they had stayed on grid as a ball and fought, do you feel the result might have gone a different way?
Cpt Patrick Archer: I’m not sure if I would have gone in, at least not at zero with all of them there. They only had 30 FAXes though, which is nothing.
INN: Of course, not against the amount of Super-Capitals you had, it was more the Dread superiority and Super-Capitals superiority that would have been an issue right?
Cpt Patrick Archer: If they got stuck, they could have made some plays, probably called Test and their allies, since we weren’t that far from them. However, they were trying to get out, and that made our job easier.
With the DRF aligned forces suffering this blow on Halloween, and Fidelas Constans appearing to be in a state of pure chaos, as they evacuate their space, the question is whether we will see that war in this area of space continue to be to Triumvirate.’s advantage, and whether what started as a defensive war, will see Triumvirate. begin to push into the heart of DRF territory.
