OK, here is an edited-for-opsec version of what I posted on the AM forums as a brief AAR from our deployment to Catch. I thought I'd leave it in the public Eve forum for non-Bat F13ers to read about. The backstory is that I set up a week of ops in support of IAC, deployed a pos, jumped down ships for folks etc.
For the past week Aegis Militia has been running Operation Home Invasion, a deployment into Catch in support of our allies in IAC, with a strategic, long-term goal of enhancing our logistics in a nearby area. This post is an summary report, to look at what went well, what didn't, and what we learned.
First off, our stats on this deployment were almost unbelievably superb. Damage done by AM in Catch and Curse (both alongside IAC and in AM-only gangs, but not counting CVA gangs and HED roams) was 3,652,000,000 (3,65 billion) ISK. Damage taken by AM forces in that time amounted to only 91,000,000 ISK. Our K/D efficiency was 86%. Our ISK K/D efficiency was a staggering 97.4%. This meant that we still have the vast majority of the fitted ships carrier-jumped down to Catch in place!
We also demonstrated the logistical ability to set up and deploy into different regions, to provide both carrier and rorqual jump capability and to use that to make it simple and easy for pilots to fight 20+ jumps from our space.
IAC gangs were mixed. Under a good FC, gangs were tight and efficient in the main. Fly with [Redacted] and [Redacted] as FCs, for instance, and you'll get kills. Other FCs ranged from overly-slow to absolutely awful, with poor TS discipline and confusion over standings.
IAC gangs, however, tend to have a sizable proportion of retarded individuals, with people jumping through red gates horribly often, scouts providing incomplete and panicked reports and so on. This can be frustrating.
The channel, which combines roles as a regional intel channel and a fleet sign-up channel, is excellent: far superior to the frankly awful Providence [Redacted] channel, and with almost no clutter or chatter, you can get signed up in no time to the constantly-running IAC gangs. If there is nothing else to do, there is usually a bubble-camp on the [Redacted] gate in [Redacted], in nearby [Redacted], through which UNL often attacks. A hint when camping here is to fit a sensor booster on slow-locking ships.
When running gangs, the GBC members Tercios provide an excellent target area in deep Catch, around 25S and Catch.
On the downside, participation was skewed very much to the PvP-centric Bat Country corporation. Nineteen Bat/F13 members took part in at least one operation during the deployment, and only four non-Bat members. If we'd had even participation across the whole alliance we would therefore have seen around 95 AM pilots in Catch! It would really benefit the alliance as a whole if we got some others down there, flying the flag.
Politically, we now have a secure base of operations in Catch, with some dramatic infrastructure improvements looking possible in the next few weeks: these will benefit everyone, both PvPers and carebears. We've built relations with IAC, Vanguard, Sylph and others. And we've opened up new opportunities for gangs and fights for the PvPers in AM. Overall, a brilliant success, and my thanks go out to all those who made it happen.
It is vital, however, that we continue to communicate with IAC, and to fly the AM flag in their space more often, or else risk losing access to their space before we begin to use it.
I'll post the full version in the Bat forums.
TL;DR version: Bat totally carried AM on this one yet again, and we should just steal HMF and Welt and find an alliance that we don't outkill by a ratio of 2:1 week-in, week-out despite being a quarter of the numbers... 
Author
