Over the past two days I have done some decent testing of the Mousecat doctrine I explained in a previous thread. These things are super fun, super cheap and really effective at what they're meant to do. Full report after the break!
About two weeks ago I posted an idea for a sniping Cormorant doctrine and called them "Mousecats". The thread is here.
My first test was on the weekend of the 13th of December. My 'fleet' was 2 Cormorants and 1 Crow.
Razor was camping the Utopia gate in the Doril system with assorted assault frigates, interceptors and an interdictor. My fleet jumped into Doril and aligned to the Utopia gate. I then ordered my Crow to warp to the gate Razor was camping at 70km. The two Cormorants then warped to a perch directly opposite to the Crow, about 80km away.
While the Cormorants were in warp, the Crow had started to pull the Razor campers off the gate and was starting to kite them. Our Cormorants then landed and started shooting frigates. We started off trying to kill their interceptors but they quickly warped off before we could finish them. Then our interceptor pilot managed to get himself scrammed so the Cormorants warped off while he reshipped.
With our Crow pilot back in Doril we repeated our first set of warp ins. The interceptor pulled the campers off the gate but this time I ordered him to burn towards the Cormorants so that we could support him.
This time the strategy worked. While the interceptors warped off again, we killed a Jaguar and then a Sabre who tried to burn at us from 80km away. Then we killed a hound who jumped into Doril from Utopia for good measure.
Pretty good for only 2 Cormorants!
The second test was also on the weekend of 13 December but a day or so later. This time my fleet was 4 Cormorants and 2 Crows. Again I formed them to counter a Razor gatecamp, this time on the Sendaya gate in Doril.
After getting into Doril I got the interceptors to warp to the gate and the majority of the Razor camp fled back to their station. Their camp, when I first saw it, was about 10 pilots in a mix of assault frigates, electronic attack frigates, interceptors and interdictors. Also one Muninn(!)
Fortunately after the Crows arrived on gate they pointed the Muninn and we killed him. Then we started scratching our heads looking for something to kill as Razor had bailed.
I decided we would roam to the CFC's stating system in G-0. Unfortunately we encountered a gate camp on the way there and had to come home.
This was really the only reason why I bothered reporting this second test as it illustrates the weakness of the doctrine. There is no way for it to move through a solid gate camp. As such, you can't really roam in this doctrine, just like you can't roam in Artillery Tornados or any other sniper doctrine.
With that said, the Mousecat is highly effective at what is does, sniping frigates and destroyers at around 100km. In my first test we were able to kill three tech II frigates/destroyers with only 2 Cormorants. I can only imagine what we would have killed with 4!
From memory, we required about 4 volleys to kill an interceptor with only two Cormorants. With four Cormorants it would be two volleys and with eight you would obviously just one-shot them. As with any small weapon system, their cycle time is very fast so you could literally machine gun interceptors at 100km. So I'm still super excited about this doctrine despite its flaws. I can't wait for the opportunity to fight a frigate fleet with these Cormorants!
By the way, Mousecats still only cost 15mil fully tech II fitted!
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