Travel Fits

[Jordan 0]

Well I've looked all over the forums but I don't see anything related to travel between incursions.
Could someone paste a few of the things to fit for travelling. ex. Nightmare shield, hull tanked its.

I know that moving is something where you are usually alone so being ganked is a high possibility as your not in a fleet.

[boldielocks 27]

Drop utlity for LSE, Add Bulkheads to lows' over damage mod's DO NOT AFK

There simple guide to travel.

[Kimina Tanai 74]

My guide to travel: buy a bowhead 

[Caitlyn Niminen 1]

I've been running vanguards, just thinking about getting into HQs now, and this has been something I've been wondering about as well.  I google and found this spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10zZ1e5X5Xeggzq9ltTwqu2YJdxaIgv-T3FM1m5dmFuA/edit#gid=839958039

I used pyfa as a cheap way to look up the fittings to bring it current on my local copy as of now, anyone that wants to replicate will probably have to do the same.  We'll assume .5 space where concord hasn't already spawned as a worst case scenario.

Here are 3 scenarios:

1. If we take a vindicator with a single PithB,  an AIF II, a DC II, and the rest LSE or bulks, it looks unprofitable.  According to this spreadsheet,  it would take 24 T2 catalysts to take this vindi down.  Dropable modules of 445M isk or more and this becomes profitable, given n exact 50% of the value is dropped.  With only 1 pith B, this becomes a shot in the dark and doesn't seem profitable, but is easily doable.
2. If we take a vindicator with dual PithA, a DC II, and the rest LSE or bulks, it looks like we have a shot..  According to this spreadsheet,  it would take 33 T2 catalysts to take this vindi down.  Dropable modules of 612M isk or more and this becomes profitable, given n exact 50% of the value is dropped.  With 2 pith A, this looks profitable in 3/4 cases.
3. If we take a vindicator with dual PithA, a DC II, a cloak, MWD, and the rest LSE or bulks, it looks like we have a shot..  According to this spreadsheet,  it would take 30 T2 catalysts to take this vindi down.  Dropable modules of 556M isk or more and this becomes profitable, given n exact 50% of the value is dropped.  With 2 pith A, this looks profitable in 3/4 cases.  The cloak and PWD don't factor into the profitability, but I've seen some pilots talk about success with the cloak + mwd trick.  I've never tried it.
   1. If you're always doing cloak+MWD, you'll never get scanned, but scouts will spot that as odd activity in the common gank spots and may prepare for your arrival more than they'd do with an equiv tanked freighter or orca.  They might also bump you until they can get a scan and decide.

So by the looks of it, it's not harder to take down a brick tanked vindi than a brick tanked freighter, so I wouldn't count on a lack of prepared fleets to save you.  Then again, if the majority of fleets are designed to take down cargo expanded freighters, that's only like 18 catalysts.  They'd need enough machs to bump you while they ping for more.

It's possible you could respond by fighting, but you've sacrificed your utilities for tank and have no webs or sebos, so that's not likely to go well.

I am a wall of text poster, but I wanted to put my thinking out there   The answer really seems to be that you can't have the PithAs while you travel.  Maybe a single pith A, but the gankers may be willing to roll the dice on that.  The cloak invis trick flags you as worth investigating to the scouts.

Given all of this, what is the most common way to transport the expensive modules?  Red frog is obviously not going ot be fast enough to get you there by the time you want to run without costing a lot, but maybe to get them out of Jita at least?  What about an Insta-align frigate like a 15k ehp 1.9s astero?  Thats easier to kill than a vindi for sure.  If you can catch it.  With covert cloak and 1.9s align, I don't see that as possible other than on an undock or dock, but scouting should be done for instas to mitgate that I guess.

Edited July 10, 2016 by Caitlyn Niminen

[Foshkey 49]

Foshkey's Tips with Incursion Travelling

From years of experience and not losing a single ship to gankers

Tip #1: Don't AFK. Don't Autopilot. Don't do anything that will leave your ship in space.

Whenever I hear about somebody losing their ship to ganks, 9/10 times it's due to AFK or not paying attention. If a ganker sees your shiny vindicator sitting in space on a gate, or warping in at 15km and slowboating towards the gate, you will become a target. Gankers are capable of planning in advance and are extremely experienced in judging general routes, even from incursion to incursion. It doesn't take a genius ganker to figure out where that vindi is going by looking at their journal.

Tip #2: Avoid known ganking systems (Niarja, Uedama, etc.), especially at prime time.

Every time we have a new move up, I check my possibilities of routes. This is only really concerning going from amarr to minmatar space, but there is generally a route that goes through Devoid that is probably the most quiet route known in eve, and it only adds 3-8 jumps most of the time. Anyway, point being, check your routes, check your time. If you have to go through Niarja at 19:00, three options: wait until a more quiet time, reroute, or bite the bullet.

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If you follow those 2 tips, you will not lose your ship to a ganker 99% of the time. So, most people don't even change their fits. If, however, you want to cover as much of that 1% as possible, I'll keep on going with these tips.
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Tip #3: If you're going to refit for tank, refit for hull tank.

Easily the most cost effective way to brick tank your ship is to fill your lows with DCU II and Reinforced Bulkheads. That alone will probably demotivate a ganker if they see that on your ship.

Tip #4: Inertia Stabilizers / Nanofibers / Warp core stabilizers are worthless

I've heard all the brags from the pilots claiming their battleships can go into warp in 4 seconds. Cool. How about that 2 second lock time of the disrupter pilot? Furthermore, it takes all of a single day to get a trial account to get a 2 second lock timer and fit a warp disrupter. If your vindi is a target, and they discover that you have warp core stabilizers, they're just going to log in more alts if they really want you. And nothing motivates a ganker more than a potential kill.

Inertia Stabilizers and Nanofibers should only be used for cutting down on travel time, not avoiding ganks.

Tip #5: The absolute safest way to travel between incursions is with a bowhead.

This is my bowhead fit. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. If you're going to ask for a bowhead fit, you'll see some sort of variant of this. Now, putting your vindi in a bowhead with that fit is much, much safer than just flying the vindi. Why? Check out that EHP. 530k. Do you know how many catalysts are needed to take that down? 40-50. The Talos number is something like 25, maybe 20 if they have really good skills and T2 fitted.

Another thing that may be confusing is that MWD. Believe it or not, that helps your warp faster than loading the bottom row up with inertia stabilizers. There's a slight trick with huge, industrial ships, that if you initiate warp, cycle your MWD once, you'll actually warp at the end of the cycle. Neat. So, standard pattern I go here is: Initiate warp, F1, F2, F3, F1 (MWD, Invul, Invul, MWD). This will turn on your tank and get yourself warping as soon as possible.

Tip #6: Scout ahead

I wouldn't recommend this if you don't have an alt. I have a convenient setup where I move my bowhead, orca, and vindi with my 3 characters. The orca and vindi always go on ahead, and since they're the cheaper stuff, they're convenient scouts to check out local before my bowhead gets there.

Tip #7: If you're really concerned about losing your stuff, get a webber alt.

I personally have never done this for moving between incursions (only really done it with my jump freighters), but I know people who do. Something to get your bowhead warping even faster than the MWD method is to web the shit out of it from a corp member.

 

And there you have it. Follow these tips and you too will never have to worry about those dreaded gankers

Edited July 11, 2016 by Foshkey

[Jeremy 45]

The only thing I would add to Foshkey's great guide is:

1. If you have shiny invulns like Pith A's on your incursion battleship, put those bad boys on your bowhead when you move focuses. You are already putting the Pith A's at risk by putting them inside your bowhead ,you may as well fit them and put them to good use. Foshkey's fit with overheated Pith A's is 604k EHP.
2. Always double check your bowhead pilot, and scout pilot have their destinations set to the same focus.  In fact triple check it. Bad things happen when you don't actually follow the safe route your scout is scouting for you.

[Kado Uta 0]

I'd add one more thing; a webber on a second character.  I use a Rapier on my webber because of the massive range bonus on webs and the moment my Bowhead character initiates warp, I web the Bowhead down.  The result: 2 seconds max to initiate warp and the bonus hilarity of watching a capital zip off sideways.

It's an old trick used to get supers and titans off the field quickly and it's a goodie.

[Bla5to Frigate 0]

Good tips here. As I continue to fleet up with incursions and begin to build up my own personal fleet I'll be using the bowhead to get between sites. Good info.

[Xoceac 103]

Bowhead is life brother. Orca aswell.

[Altessa Bank 0]

I put the bling in my Prowler. Any Blockade Runner will do. I fit it for alignment so 3 Nanofibers in the lows, with shield mods and and LSE for enough tank against an insta-locking nado. Blockade Runners are near uncatchable unless pilot error/lag and they can't be cargo scanned leaving the ganker having to decide if they want to risk playing Blockade Runner Roulette.  

I fit my mach with a mwd, 3 Invulns, and 2 LSE's, with 3 Inertial Stabs, and 3 Experimental Hyperspatial Accelerators in the lows. Leave your rigs fitted. I'd rather lose 518mil vs. 4.5bil on a bad day.

However those bad days can be avoided if you scout ahead and check Dotlan. I usually lead with my Prowler to scout the route. Usually D-Scanning along the way for gank fleets. As mentioned above, if you avoid the usual gank systems at prime-time, you'll be ok "99%" of the time. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. 

If you have 1.3bil to throw into a Bowhead, then go that route. They're great for moving a DPS and Logi ship at the same time. I would still recommend moving the expensive mods in a Blockade Runner as an extra security blanket for your investments. REMEMBER to hit your cloak as soon as you see your cap drop for warp initiation.