Mukk BarovianShareTweet
You may have heard about trollceptors and sov trolling. You may have said to yourself, “I have a pulse and an internet connection. I think that qualifies me to be a troll.” Congratulations, but before you derp into the future, read this.
The purpose of sov trolling is to leverage good fights, i.e. ones where you shit stomp people and collect tears. If you want to feed the enemy, go away. You have to have a discerning attitude with respect to the kind of content you want to experience. You have to be willing to walk away from a bad deal at any moment. If you could beat the enemy in a knock-down brawl, you would know. You would be sitting on a pile of renter ISK touching your supercapital in a non-platonic way. Alternatively, if you just got booted out of 0.0 again, you might want to reevaluate how you feel about whelping stuff pointlessly. It’s bad for you.
What do I need to sov Troll?
You need friends,10-20 at minimum. If you do not have any friends, find some. You cannot do this solo because it is too easy for the enemy to counter a single guy gimped with an entosis link. It is an order of magnitude more difficult for the enemy to counter even a small fleet. For one thing, they need an active FC and some time to form up a coherent fleet themselves.
You need some alts that can use a T1 entosis link. If none of you have any, you can draw straws. The loser gets to be an entosis ship. They get to stare as a timer slowly counts down and try not to die.
The exact fleet you are going to use does not really matter. It is the fleet’s capabilities that matter. You need to be able to get the fuck out when the blob comes. RLML, MWD Caracals or Cerberuses would fit the bill. MJD battlecruisers or battleships could work. Even a solid frigate gang is feasible. You want to be able to escape and evade the blob. You want to be as strong as you can afford to in order to beat enemy fleets. In small skirmishes firepower is inordinately important. Figure out a fleet doctrine based on these criteria, your skill and your wallet.
Your entosis ship is going to be a T1 entosis interceptor flown by an alt. If you see trouble, align away from the sov objective, and fly off grid into deep space while cycling off your entosis link. One minute of warning will probably get these ships safely off grid. Bring as many of these as you can.
What are the tactics?
The best choice for a target is a system that is far away from the enemy staging system and has value of some sort or another. This means jump bridges, ratting systems, mining systems or systems with many moon mining poses. You hit the territory control unit in the case of the latter. Mostly, you are aiming at infrastructure hubs although any sov structure is fair game when the enemy insists on owning the space as a matter of ego. Use your alts to hit as many targets as possible without overreaching. You need to be able to defend them against soloers and the immediate locals. Every concurrent structure you hit creates its own timer. Each timer you create forces the hostiles to clear 10 separate nodes.
Have an alt in the enemy staging system watching the undock. When you set up, there are two outcomes. You either wreck the enemy’s infrastructure, or they come to fight you. If the baddies come to fight you, your cloaky alt will see what they decide to bring. Get a list of their entire fleet composition. This is crunch time, and you have to make a judgement call. Can you beat their fleet? If you can, wait for them to come, and then hand them their asses. Hide your entosis ships just as the enemy comes on grid so that you can keep entosising after they die.
More than likely, the enemy fleet will be more than you can handle. To maximize the troll effect, make them come to you, and at the last possible minute, run away. One jump from your system is probably appropriate. If they are coming in from a titan, force them to jump and take fatigue before you clear the grid. In any case, do not give them any kills if you can help it.
This is going to make them angry. Chances are that you are going to be stuck in system with infuriated probers coming at you. This is not a problem. Slip away if you can. If getting out of system is untenable, bounce from safespot to safespot until your aggression timer is clear, then log out safely. Make new safespots as you warp around, and do not go back to an old one. The bad guys might be waiting for you there.
Every time you blueball a fleet that can beat you, you make it more likely that next time a weaker fleet will show up. Enemy line members will conclude that defense fleets are boring and elect not to respond to pings. Even skilled enemy FCs will eventually say “Fuck it. It is not worth my time,” leaving room for less experienced FCs. As you grind down their morale, eventually their fleet size will drop to a point that you win fights. In the meantime, as long as you can avoid dying to them, your enemies will hate you for the tedium you inflict on them.
I won a timer!
Congratulations on not being a total idiot. At this point the enemy are going to be up in arms, ready to fight you with renewed vigor. You can expect heavy opposition. So what do you do now? You stay the course and viciously blueball them. Do not fight anything you cannot beat. Take the day off and go fishing. Show up for work. Tell your girlfriend that you want to make sweet love to her.
But even as you are working your magic on her, never forget that you have forced enemy entosis ships to go fix what you broke. This is your reward for winning a timer. Even if you cannot beat the enemy fleet, you can show up in snipers and kill the entosis ships. The entosis ships cannot warp. They cannot be repaired. They are sitting ducks. Sure, the enemy may go to lengths to kill your sniper ships. Do not show up if they counter you. Just watch the enemy closely, and anytime they fail to defend an entosis ship, kill it.
I captured a system!
Good, now get out. Any infrastructure you place is going to be wrecked by a vengeful enemy. They will crush you like a bug if you give them the leverage. Take your victory without throwing away hundreds of millions of ISK at the finish line.
Welcome to Fozziesov.
Tags: interceptors, Mukk, sov, sovereignty, troll
Mukk Barovian
This is going to make them angry. Chances are that you are going to be stuck in system with infuriated probers coming at you. This is not a problem. Slip away if you can. If getting out of system is untenable, bounce from safespot to safespot until your aggression timer is clear, then log out safely. Make new safespots as you warp around, and do not go back to an old one. The bad guys might be waiting for you there.
Every time you blueball a fleet that can beat you, you make it more likely that next time a weaker fleet will show up. Enemy line members will conclude that defense fleets are boring and elect not to respond to pings. Even skilled enemy FCs will eventually say “Fuck it. It is not worth my time,” leaving room for less experienced FCs. As you grind down their morale, eventually their fleet size will drop to a point that you win fights. In the meantime, as long as you can avoid dying to them, your enemies will hate you for the tedium you inflict on them.
I won a timer!
Congratulations on not being a total idiot. At this point the enemy are going to be up in arms, ready to fight you with renewed vigor. You can expect heavy opposition. So what do you do now? You stay the course and viciously blueball them. Do not fight anything you cannot beat. Take the day off and go fishing. Show up for work. Tell your girlfriend that you want to make sweet love to her.
But even as you are working your magic on her, never forget that you have forced enemy entosis ships to go fix what you broke. This is your reward for winning a timer. Even if you cannot beat the enemy fleet, you can show up in snipers and kill the entosis ships. The entosis ships cannot warp. They cannot be repaired. They are sitting ducks. Sure, the enemy may go to lengths to kill your sniper ships. Do not show up if they counter you. Just watch the enemy closely, and anytime they fail to defend an entosis ship, kill it.
I captured a system!
Good, now get out. Any infrastructure you place is going to be wrecked by a vengeful enemy. They will crush you like a bug if you give them the leverage. Take your victory without throwing away hundreds of millions of ISK at the finish line.
Welcome to Fozziesov.
Mukk Barovian
