Wormhole defense - a slightly different angle

There are few strict truths about this, and the landscape is forever changing. However, there are a few basic rules. This is stuff that everybody that takes their time to setup shop in a w-space system needs to learn and understand.

This is aimed at the less experienced wormholer, living in C1 - C4. The rules are a tad different for C5/C6 (especially if they got static C5/C6), besides, if you are living in such a system, you already know all this. Or should know.

The why?

What most people fail to ask themselves is why? Why is it that POS'es gets blown up?

1. Because you can.
2. Because you got pissed off by somebody
3. Because you can ask for a ransom not to.
4. Because you want the system.
5. Because you think you can get a fight out of it.

POS

When it comes to how to setup a POS my only advice is; read the guides! Even when they contradict each other, they are all good. Sharper brains than mine have spilled the beans on what to anchor, where, how and to what effect.

I just add a few pointers.

The amount of stront (if you have read the guides you know why you need it) decides how long the reinforcement period is, and thus when the tower is going to be vulnerable after it have been put into reinforced mode. You want this to be in your peak time and not the attackers. If they happen to be the same, you need to figure out who it would benefit the most. As long as the shields are not below 50% you have the option of adjusting the stront-level to make the tower come out when you want.

Second best system-defence (after a decent setup of your POS) is another POS. If someone is after the system then it gets much more of a hassle to take if you need to reinforce and kill multiple POS'es.

Capitals

Capitals in C1-C4 systems is a double edged sword if anything. On one hand (or rather in the right hands) they can be a incredible force multiplier and something that the attackers can't field themselves. But on the other hand, they might be the very reason the attackers come knocking.

Should you build a carrier in your system?

Yes, if you want your defence-fleet to have a huge advantage if/when coming under attack. But only if you know how to use it properly, alternatively know somebody that knows. There's few things more useless than a capital, built for defence, but never getting the chance to dominate on the battlefield.

Should you have capitals built floating in a POS as "a deterrent"?

Tricky question, because it depends on who you are, who you know, what the attackers are after and how they reason.

If you are a small industrial corp, I would advice against having floating caps. It will only attract big, bored fish that mess with you just to get a fight with that carrier. And as a small industrial corp that don't realize you can get help piloting it, you will most likely disappoint the attackers and self destruct instead of giving them the fight.

And when your POS are burned to the ground, you realise that what you built as defence have actually caused you to lose the system/POS.

My advice would be not to show you have a capital until a few seconds before you make your move to defend the system. If the attackers know what you have, they will most likely be prepared for that.

Friends

Everybody needs friends. Especially when your POS is burning. Friends that you pay to be your friends are called mercenaries and should come, if you pay the right dudes, with a lot of experience in dealing with this sort of thing.

Remember that carrier you built and hid away in a SMA? If you do not have anyone in your corp that can fly, and have flown, a carrier in pvp before, you might want to check if any of your friends have...

Wormholes

When defending a system, how you fare will ultimately depend on times (playtimes and REO-timers) and wormhole-control. The one who control the wormholes control the system. Successful defense might come down to who is quicker to reach the new static (especially true if it's a static HS or LS).

If you have any plans on actually trying to defend your home, you should start with getting really good at quickly discovering new wormholes, getting to them and possibly closing or critting them.

Every day diplomacy

Don't give people reasons to get annoyed and start looking at just how your POS are setup. Most wormholers are just looking for a fight/gank and do not want to spend hours at a POS siege. Many can change their mind quite quickly though.

Not all invasions are about a system takeover. Sometimes it's because someone got pissed off. Typing stupid things in local is not the smartest thing you can do. A simple Orca-gank could easily escalate to a spontaneous siege if you run into the wrong alliance...

If you take a simple loss with a shrug, it will most likely stay that way.

you > we did not want that Orca anyhow! :)
hostiles > a scout would have helped...
you > yes, we messed up. good job guys, mind if we POS up and produce some tears?

But if you don't, you could basically talk your way into losing everything.

you > wow, you guys suck! you need 8 guys to kill an Orca?
hostiles > well, we don't suck as much as the one that warped an Orca to a WH without a scout, do we?
you > all you guys do is run around killing innocent people from small indy corps!
hostiles > so what? this is EVE, right?
you > heh, if you would fight like men, maybe you would not suck as much.
hostiles > anytime, come fight us.
you > haha, sure, we can bring our 3 pilots so you just blob the hell out of us.
hostiles > we can do a 3 vs 3 if you like
you > roflol, trust you? your entire alliance are cowards and liars!
hostiles > now, if you want to bring our alliance into this, you might end up losing more then an Orca, watch it.
you > thats a threat?

Keep that up for a bit and you might just need to start worrying about stront-levels in towers before long. And for what? to be able to smack in local? to somehow try and "save face"?

Silly.

Negotiations

If coming under attack, speak up! You need all the information you can get on why this is happening, and a good way to get that is to talk with the attackers directly.

And you never know, the situation might be solvable by other means than you losing a lot of ships, and the attackers wasting a few days guarding WHs.

Remember that the longer it goes, the more time and effort have been put into the sige by the attackers and the harder it gets for them to withdraw. If you want to negotiate something, do that before they have reinforced your POSes, and absolutely before they spent any time waiting on a POS coming out of REO. That's the most boring part of a siege.

If possible, give them what they want! If you think you will not have any chance of (or will to) defending and they say they only came for a fight, give them one! What's the big deal? You not rather lose a few ships than all the time you invested into the POS?

Be creative! If they are 30 man strong and you got 5 guys online, offer to resolve matters "like men" with a 5 vs 5 at some planet. You show that you trust them to honour it, and they might get the fight they where looking for. Of course they might use that as a chance to pod you all out of the system, you need to make a assessment of who you are dealing with. However, if they are 30 man strong, chances are they are committed to see the POS gone. It might already have escalated beyond point of no return. But keep in mind that a lot of w-space alliances have a special kind of code they live by. Most will honour deals.

If they are after the system, consider offering to sell it cheap to them instead. If you have resources in the form of capitals that can't be moved out, use them to negotiate the price of the system. If you can't defend, you obviously stand to lose everything, but what you are negotiating is what they can gain.

Assets

If you are not defending, every ship that you bring in will be a liability during a siege. All assets that you can't get away with will either be lost, self-destructed or handed over to the attackers as ransom.

If you have 15 faction-fitted Tengus (that you don't want to use to defend) and you don't have pilots to take them out/log in system, then that will be a big problem when the REO timer starts to count down.

Consider to not bring everything you own into a WH. Don't fly what you can't afford to lose, and don't store ships that you don't really use in a WH.