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How to FC, tips, tricks, and how tos - a guide
Who the hell are you, and why should I listen to any of this? I am Naliao Vee! I mainly played from 2012 - 2017, and off and on since. Most of my time was with Test, but also vacationed in Black Legion, Dock Workers, and Shadow Cartel for a bit. Since my first days playing eve, i've done FCing. I was a Strat FC & Mildir in Test before quitting, and FCd a small bit in the other alliances mentioned. I won't be going over things like how to set a fleet up, theorycrafting fits and basic functions in this, there's plenty of info and guides on that on the eve university wiki etc. This is more of a mindset and active FCing guide, yes it's long and could put a banlish forum post to shame, but FCing is a hellaciously in depth and complex practice, and I am trying to put years of experience from myself and other FCs into words.
First off, why would you want to FC?
Most people think FCs are just there to (attempt to) lead their fleet members into battle, and to win. Guns and glory isn't the entire picture; It's a sometimes stressful, and aggravating space job requiring planning and occasionally long hours trying to win a large fight or to plan about how to lead and execute a campaign. People FC for the same reason they play any game, and that's because it's a ton of fun. There are no other games out there that give the immense level of satisfaction that you can find from gathering a large number of nerds, and destroying whoever you are warring with. There's no other activity like it in gaming. It can also teach real life skills, I’ve personally found it helped with my irl leadership and delegation skills, as well as being able to multitask like a god to impress the boomers at work. You'll also find it improves your social skills, as a good FC will be sociable.
What do you need to FC?
All you need to start rallying your fellow capsuleers into combat, is the Eve Client, and a Microphone. Obviously being a part of a larger group helps, as you do need fleet members to direct and coordinate. I started FCing on my third day in Test, my 5th day in eve, and led kitchen sink roams from a frigate - this means you can absolutely do it too! From my time playing Eve, all successful FCs also have at least 1 of 2 traits. They are either Good, or Fun to fly with - the best are usually both! We play games to enjoy ourselves, and you have to understand that as a content provider to your group, you need to ensure your fleet members are having a good time. People will put up with a boring, yet highly skilled FC because winning is fun. Conversely, they will also put up with an FC who has no idea what they are doing, but are hilarious or fun to listen to and fly with. A lot of new FCs will get frustrated when they notice fleet numbers are dropping, and generally it's because people simply aren't enjoying their time in the fleet. At the end of the day, no matter what the situation, objective, or narrative is, people are here to have fun - and as an FC it's your job to ensure that - This is something I really can't stress enough. Honestly, no guide / video / long ass explanation will teach you to be a good FC. You just HAVE to go and do it, and do it a bunch. (but being a little prepared definitely helps!)
Good Comms & a Positive Attitude
Nobody likes a silent fleet! During form up you should be answering questions and greeting fleet members as they get in (or designating someone else to if you are truly tied up). Note that having a well worded ping, and fleet MOTD will alleviate most of the basic questions. After you are undocked and heading to your destination, it's again on you, to be fun. Tell stories, jokes, mad libs, maybe even some bad poetry you've been working on. Having a chatty fleet when not in combat situations builds camaraderie and helps everyone get to know each other, and ensures a social environment. We are playing an MMO, not a single player game. If your fleet is always afraid to talk or quiet, people will stop coming on your fleet (unless you are very skilled). When combat is imminent or there's a situation, you have priority speaker for a reason. Generally a quick “Check Check” or “Comms” will let everyone know it's time to settle down and prepare for an engagement. If you are coordinating with allies for a large-scale battle, it's okay to tell your fleet to keep comms down when needed. There's also subchannels so the fleet can chat amongst themselves without bothering you.
You also should have a semi positive attitude at least. (Please don't be whiney - it just makes the fleet miserable) Yes there's FCs that shout and fuss at their fleet members, but those FCs are experienced and can get away with berating their fleet members, because their fleets are overall more fun and worth getting called out. That said, don’t be afraid to tell someone they are screwing up, but ensure you also tell them how to do better and correct their mistakes in a constructive criticism way. If you are constantly negative, people wont want to fly with you (again, unless you are really good) Educate, don't berate. You should look to set a good example, your fleet mates look up to you. You as well, will sometimes have fleets that go poorly - occasionally there is drama or yelling, but that can't stop you. You should use it as a learning experience, and keep going!
Eventually you'll get to be a decent FC and consistently pull solid numbers on your fleets, something to watch out for is FC ego. We are the pop stars, movie actors, flashy fun folk of the eve world. It's something that all FCs will go through. Remember that without your corp/alliance mates and friends, you can't FC. Keep in mind all the background and looked over space work that go into you being able to do your job - Be grateful to logi bros for setting up stations and keeping doctrines stocked, Thank the intel guys and spies for giving you a heads up on what you are flying in to, the SRP team that has to drudge through pages of losses from a welp, Leadership for doing all of the intensive administration jobs that keep the alliance together, HR for recruiting people so you have fleet members, diplomats for ensuring you have allies or someone to fight, and even the miners / industrialists that allow you to even have a ship to undock in. There's an insane amount of small detail and background people that go into you being able to play nerd leader.
Okay, we've got the basics out of the way, What does an FC do?
As a fleet Commander, you are responsible for a wide variety of things. Some of these can (and should if you are new) be delegated to reduce your own workload. You'll decide on:
- Doctrine and Ship type
- Setting the fleet up
- Fleet movement and positioning
- Coordinating with scouts, allies, other fleets, capitals etc
- Anchoring
- Target calling
- Analyzing and adapting to the fight
Let's talk about these in more detail!
Doctrine & ship type - Eve is basically an incredibly complex game of rock, paper, scissors. There's damage types and resistances, speed, range, HP, firepower, critical mass numbers, and so much more that goes into this equation. There are wrong choices to take to a fight, as certain ships counter other ships. Battleships can be decimated by a good bombing wing thats followed up by small, hard to hit, fast ships, or simply torn apart by agile cruisers that their large guns cant track. Missile boats will massacre frigates and destroyers, but will generally falter when fighting heavy doctrines unless a critical mass is achieved. You may feel confident in fast, heavy hitting artillery ships, but in turn be rendered useless when a frigate or destroyer gang warps to 0 on you, or if enough EWAR is applied to you disrupting your tracking, potentially not even letting you lock targets at all. This topic alone could be an entire thesis.
Deciding on what fleet to take to a fight comes with experience of how different ships work. You should ask veteran players or FCs for recommendations as to what to bring. Generally doctrine will depend on your numbers, and the enemies numbers, what they are flying and what you can fly, and the experience level of you and yours vs the hostile fleet. You may think you have a superior comp, but if you are fighting a crafty, well oiled FC and group, you may find yourself outmatched. It's better to ask for advice, rather than go in and die without understanding why.
Most Null groups rely on overwhelming numbers, and less on skill. Lowsec is the opposite for the big name players. In Nullsec, you'll sometimes find yourself outnumbered, in these cases it may be best to task an agile fast moving comp to be able to engage and disengage at will, or EWAR ships as support to help reduce the enemies effectiveness. Competent Lowsec groups are going to have lower numbers in their fleet, but will be made up with implants, flawless links, and very high player skill. It's not uncommon to see an experienced Lowsec group fight and win while being outnumbered 2,3, or even 4 to 1. Knowing when to retreat before getting into a bloodbath is a skill set of its own. You'll come to know the local hostiles and their comps - another good tool is to use spies, intel agencies, Zkill, and other things to get an idea of what they commonly bring. This way you are able to have an idea of what you'll likely fight.
Example; Test and allies (HERO Coalition) were set to fight on a timer against a local yet strong nullsec group named INK. INK brought Navy Apocs, (Battleships) with logi, support, and 2 repair carriers. Our allies at the time mainly flew Moas, a T1 cruiser - low damage comparatively, but they generally had many fleet members. So what should Test bring? Battleships or BCs? No, Napocs would shred large slow targets without proper links & support, which Test didn’t have at the time. Frigs or dessies? While neither could be tracked by the Battleships, having such low damage wouldn’t make a huge difference in the fight. I decided to use our relatively new Zealot Fleet - Fast Heavy Assault Cruisers, with low sig, but ample damage and tank for its size. We refit to afterburners, since battleships are slow, we don't need the extra speed from a MWD, and afterburners means our sig radius will be lower, allowing us to get in close while avoiding taking too much damage. After coordinating with our allies and committing the fleets to grid, we warped to 0 on the battleships and tore them apart.Coordination allowed us to focus down the carriers, and a good doctrine choice ensured we were able to take the day. https://zkillboard.com/related/30001160/201407022300/
Setting the fleet up - This is pretty simple, pull up the fleet window, set the standings you want, and create the fleet. This is ideally done before you send out a ping calling forth people to come fight with you. After you've created your fleet, take some time to make an MOTD (message of the day in fleet chat settings) and list things like who's going to be the FC, the anchor(s), ship types/doctrine, what comms channel, and any other information people need to know as they join. Once finished with that, it's time to send the ping. A Ping will have mostly the same information as the MOTD, but it's also a chance to state the objective of the fleet, as well as generate some hype. This relates to being fun to fly with. If you are headed to a fight, get a little excited and state there's kills to be had or nerds to dunk! A structure bash? Tell people to grab a beer and come be social with their space friends while you take out a citadel. If the objective is opsec, you can even have a little fun with that - “Jump in my fleet, we need to go do ~things~”. Getting your fleet members excited is always step one, there's nothing wrong with linking a funny picture or meme or video to kick things off - keep it SFW. You're not only an FC, you are an entertainer.
Do designate a secondary FC and anchor, either if you go down or just get hit with webs. If the primary FC goes down, this keeps the fleet from devolving into a panicked mess - Yes its possible to FC a fleet to victory even after death without seeing anything, but that's incredibly rare, and usually only works with top tier communication, and an experienced FC that understands how the game works, and how different groups/doctrines will react. Having a second Anchor allows the fleet to reanchor should you get webbed, so everyone else isn't slowed down. (Webs are generally great first targets for this reason!)
Fleet movement and positioning - As the FC, it's your job to keep everyone together and move as a group. Safety is in numbers! If you are moving through a contested zone, there's likely a scout or small group of pirates itching to pick off stragglers or slow you down, and most fleet doctrine ships aren't made for solo combat. (pls don't get hung up on chasing down a random frigate on the way to things, especially if in a rush)
You'll want to relay the basic commands, like when to undock, when and what to warp to, when to anchor or when to align. If you are in hostile territory, it's best to broadcast an alignment, and say “Align to X” - assuming it's a calm atmosphere, it's fine to say it once or twice. If you are actively in combat or trying to reposition, state the alignment point multiple times. You'll then say “take warp to X” - if you are traveling as a group, saying the gate status is helpful. Most use the term gate is red or green, since using the words “don't jump” is heard as just “jump” to someone not paying much attention. If you have a ways to go, and the area is relatively safe, calling a freeburn to a jump or 2 out from the destination speeds up the movement process. You'll want your scouts to keep an eye ahead 1 or 2 systems for any problems, and ideally a rearguard scout to watch for opportunists.
Combat positioning is another beast. This requires you to not only do all the other things FCs need to do, but also watch the grid. Having spacial awareness is a wonderful talent! You are absolutely going to get tunnel vision at some point, every FC does. This is where having communicative fleet members and/or a veteran FC shadowing you comes into play - they will likely warn you when another fleet warps onto grid, interdictors are suddenly speeding towards you, or if your fleet is getting out of range to shoot the bad guys. You being able / learning to see, react, and adapt to new threats is one of the hallmarks of a good FC. This is a learned skill, and it changes with every battle, with so many factors. You could give me identical comps and numbers for a fight 3 times, and how Id position would change every time. Figure out how your fleet works, and what you need to do to beat other fleets. Don't be flying paper tanked long range ships and be fighting at 0 for example.
You should know and learn engagement ranges, fleet capabilities and speed of your fleet, as well as the enemies (it’s totally okay to ask your fleet members what x ship does, or how they generally fight). Where you are on grid, how fast you go, and knowing when to either disengage, or drive home the dunk is important. Many small positioning details can make or break a fight. Has their logi accidentally burned out of range? Maybe you can get some high value kills like their force multiplier ships or links before logi has the chance to repair them. If they are crumbling under the pressure, it could be time to call for tackle to engage to hold them down and ensure complete annihilation. Has another hostile fleet appeared behind yours? Now might be a good time to burn in a trajectory away from both so you aren't trying to tank 2 fleets worth of damage at once. Go over your groups doctrines and learn how they operate effectively! Some ships are great for brawling up close, while others fold under too much pressure if not at far ranges. Vet FCs will be more than happy to share their knowledge on certain doctrines, so ask them how they work!
Much of this will depend on your comp and understanding its capabilities, for a quick example, I was helping allies fend off a large null alliance in Pochven, and my fleet merged into theirs. We had Fax (incredibly rare in Pochven) and logi sitting on the citadel, while we flew brick tanked Ferox’s with no prop mod and were tanking fine sitting around the station - we were winning the objective - which was to defend the structure, not get kills. However, once we got a few kills the enemy FC warped to a ping to regroup and think, and ours suffered from the FC Ego thing I mentioned earlier, he wanted kills and glory. Feeling confident, the FC had us align to the enemy fleet in hopes to finish them off. I warned the FC if we warp off the structure, we will be helpless without prop mods, unfortunately for our allies, the FCs ego got the best of him and warped us to them anyway. As expected, the hostile Muninn fleet swiftly burned out of range, sent interdictors to bubble us, and warped back to the station to continue blasting it. We were helpless in bubbles, and could not warp back to the station in time to save it from being destroyed. This FC did not understand his fleet's capabilities.
Know and understand your doctrines' engagement profile! Even if its just some basic info you were told like “Zealots best range is 40km or under, but dominate at 0 with pulse lasers, be sure to kill enemy webs ASAP, and try to reduce stress on logi by quickly zapping tackle or ewar near them” From that small tidbit of info, you now understand that doctrine isn't for fighting at range, is semi susceptible to webs, and you'll need to remember to help logi out by shooting things harassing them.
Coordinating with scouts, allies, and others - Luckily, scouts are easy to manage. They are usually either newbros in tackle, or veteran players looking to find easy pickings. Either way, they are incredibly useful in keeping you alive. A scout just needs a mic, and if you don't have a volunteer, pick someone in a frigate, and ask if they have a microphone. If they do, they are the scout. If they are wary or nervous, you can give them a 60 second brief on how to scout - be patient with them! It's nerve wracking to be a new player and be called to do an important job - sending 2 scouts is better than 1. You'll give the scout the destination, and all they'll need to do is keep 1 - 2 jumps ahead of the fleet. Tell them to report anything on the gate, like gate camps, fleets, or bubbles, check their dscan, and report the number of people in local. Once you arrive to the system you plan to fight in, have scouts sit on the other side of the gates in that system to give you an early warning of incoming threats - remember to call them back once the fight is winding down to get some kills, or if a structure is about to blow up so they can get on the killmail as well. Most of the time scouts will also be your tackle, so they may be needed in the fight to help hold the enemy down at times. Using interdictors to guard the ingates is a good practice, as they can bubble any incoming threats to give you time to react, but can also warp to grid in a moments notice to snare a fleet trying to escape. If you are using a command channel, feel free to pull the scout into the channel so they can relay intel to you in local.
Allies & others - sometimes, for big objectives or important timers, you'll have allied fleets there to help you. Generally you'll want to be in a coordination channel for allied fleets with them, to be able to coordinate attacks and movement quickly. Text chat can sort of work, but is often not checked or seen during a heated engagement. You'll need to set up a different push to talk key for whatever voip the coordination channel is in, discord, mumble, etc. It's going to get a little hairy having to manage 2 or even 3 comms channels, so you may need to use a command channel and tell your fleet to relegate general chatter to local channels.
For in house large ops, Test has command channels where the FCs and their teams will sit. This allows for the coordination type communication above, but is less frustrating. Oftentimes capitals will be in their own fleet channel, entirely separate from your fleet. This allows you to talk directly to the capital FC, or other fleets operating in the theater, without interference from hundreds of people, and providing some opsec. Command channels also allow your fleet and its subchannels to speak directly to you without clutter, logi, tackle, and ewar wings may have their own sub FCs directing their special maneuvers. You'll want your own command channel to be relegated to those actively helping you. Just because someone is an fc, doesn't mean they need to clutter up the channel if they aren't doing anything but flying as an F1 line ship.
Anchoring - this ties in to combat positioning. Anchoring is where you have your fleet orbit, approach, or keep at range on your ship so everyone stays together. Depending on comps and fleet size, there are variables. Generally you'll want your logi to have its own anchor (being a logi anchor is a great way to learn how to position and anchor better without the stress of target calling and FCing all at once). A good logi anchor will fly at a good distance from the hostiles while keeping the fleet in rep range, so they avoid taking damage while focusing on repairing you - it's okay to have logi anchor on you as well if nobody is confident to logi anchor.
Anchoring well is yet another skill of its own. You have to know the ship capabilities of both fleets on grid, and react accordingly. Many new FCs will start by focusing only on being the anchor, while another FC target calls, or vice versa. It's a great way to start understanding how, where and why positioning works without trying to manage everything else. Depending on your fleet composition, you’ll want to anchor at different ranges and speeds. A fine way to learn how fleets work is to go as a normal line member, and just pay attention to how your FC keeps the enemy at range, or when they attempt to close in for kills. Anchoring also means you'll need to determine when to call for prop mods to be turned on or off, and reacting to enemy fleet maneuvers. This is directly related to positioning. Many fleets have been lost by poor anchoring, 30 seconds of a bad alignment point with a prop mod on can cause your entire fleet to suddenly be right in the optimal range of hostile guns. A good anchor has spatial awareness, and understands where to move, and why to move. You also need to watch what the hostile fleet is doing! Are they burning at you, and you are in a ranged comp? Start burning away from them, and so on.
Target Calling - This is the fun part, it's what everyone associates with being an FC! Obviously, it's not nearly all of it, but TCing is an important share of it. TCing is the part where everyone focuses up, and the real intensity of a fight sets in. In some engagements, picking the right targets will make or break the fight. It is also one of the more intimidating parts of being an FC. Everyone is waiting for you to direct and make calls, hinging on your every word for direction and orders to bring victory. You will at one point choke, you’ll freeze and be overwhelmed by the number of hostiles on grid, or the fast action happening all around. This happens to every new, and sometimes even veteran FCs. The important thing here that you've likely heard, is to simply call a target, any target. If you are silent and seem stressed, your fleet will notice and potentially panic. Remember, your fleet looks up to you, and mirrors the energy you put out. By calling literally any target, it keeps the fleet on track and confident. If you choke, take 5 seconds, take a big deep breath - then exhale. It's time to go to work.
The priority of what you shoot is another one of those incredibly convoluted and variable things that comes with just getting out there, and FCing. First, gauge the threats and adapt to them. As a very broad and general rule, you'll start testing your DPS vs their Repair ability. If you think you've got a numbers/damage advantage, try to slot some of their mainline dps ships to remove your incoming damage. If they don't break, try taking out some logi, or removing their force multiplier ships. Often, force multipliers like webbers are priority targets, as they make it much easier for the enemies to blow you up - however, these ships will likely be (and should be) watchlisted by logi to prevent dying. If they're not breaking at all, you should either leave, or better, bait them into a disadvantageous position while you look for targets of opportunity. Hopefully you can get them a bit strung out, and some of their ships out of logi range by having good positioning. If you are in a fast kitey comp, call out enemy tackle ships coming towards you so you dont get caugh! (you can even encourage fleet members to also do this.) If you are set up for heavy brawling, go for targets that improve the effectiveness of their fleet - such as links or webs. Again, all of this will change every fight, and as you grow more experienced. The main takeaway here is to shoot something - and if that doesn't work, try shooting something else.
What do you actually say to call targets? There's a few different ways to start and expand upon. The most basic is simply stating “abc is primary” as you broadcast that player from your overview. If you are a chill person and the fleet is calm, saying it once or twice will suffice if everyone's focused. If your fleet is high energy or chaotic, saying it 3 or 4+ times may be needed. This is probably the best way to begin until you are comfortable enough to have your own ~style~ of FCing. Some FCs will simply say “shoot this guy” or “dunk this nerd” followed by a broadcast - generally this is more acceptable with experienced fcs and fleets that know what they are doing, and have worked together in the past.
You will usually want to designate a secondary target so you dont waste valuable seconds (that quickly add up to minutes over the course of the fight) from locking a new target each time the primary dies. Much the same as calling primaries, “ABC is primary, XYZ is secondary” as you broadcast them. This lets your fleet always keep maximum outgoing damage. If your fleet is less experienced, ensure they aren't splitting damage onto the secondary. The exciting part comes when your targets are dying relatively quickly and you constantly need to shout new primaries and secondary's. On rare occasions you'll even call tertiary targets. If it's turning into a slaughter, tell your fleet to sort by distance, and go to town - remember to call tackle in!
There's a few small yet clever tactics you can employ to ensure kills better. Having your fleet lock 3 targets at once, usually means all 3 of the targets will broadcast for repairs and split their logistics up as they panic. You then need to pick one and focus on them hard, hopefully breaking them before logi can react properly. Another example would be when flying a missile doctrine, missiles take time to reach the target and damage them - many FCs waste time and missile salvos by shooting a target that is already “dead”. Often with a critical mass missile doctrine, you only need half the number of salvos you unleash. If you are able to narrow down how many rounds it takes to pop a target, call the primary, shoot (3 or however many needed) salvos, and then move to the next target - this saves time and ammo. If you are fighting over an important strategic objective, or losing a fight you really don't want to lose, headshotting the enemy FC is always an option - note that this is generally considered unfun and poor form - ideally used as a last resort. To optimize your damage, you can do things like webbing the other fleets anchor or fitting ewar modules to a spare mid slot to reduce incoming damage. Tired of trying to break their logi? Have a MJD destroyer crew take their logi far away. There's many little tricks and things to make your fleet combat more efficient!
Analyzing and adapting to the fight - This is just one of those skills that's gained by watching and doing. You can definitely gain insight into this by watching eve fight videos and trying to see the lynchpin moment that turned a battle, or by going on fleets and being more aware than just a line ship. Wether you are on grid, forming up, burning to destination, you are going to be constantly reevaluating and adapting to the situations that arise. This tends to tie into positioning yet again - A new fleet pops on grid, a cyno lights up, a sneaky command destroyer just jumped half your logi 100km away. There's always going to be ever changing conditions in fights. Your best bet at understanding this topic is to learn how eve works in general - a cyno likely means capitals if it's on grid, or if it's distant it may be subcaps. You'll learn to see that command dessy speeding towards your logi and yell to shoot it before he can jump them off. When that fleet warps in behind you, you'll react quickly by pulling range and shooting tackle near you in the event you need to warp out.
Let's discuss fleet roles
Mainline DPS - These are your standard dps ships, nothing super special here, generally fit to be easy to use, just anchor on the FC and press F1, sometimes F2. For most comps, these guys will be anchoring on you. It's a good practice to get people to put a “-1 shiptype” in fleet when they die to keep track of how many you've lost. You'll need to tell them when to use prop mods, what ammo to use, where to align and warp, and who to shoot! These guys, and everyone else in fleet likely have microphones - Don't be afraid to ask them to tell you when wild stuff happens like cynos, new fleets pop in, local spikes etc.
Logistics - The space priests, holy paladins and healers of Eve. These folks are high value to yourself, and are high value targets to your enemies. A solid, communicative logi wing can save your ass! Ideally logi will verbally give you updates on how the fight is going - if you are losing ships, barely holding, or actively tanking. It helps to ask your logi occasionally if you are tanking or losing ships. As above, the logi can either anchor on you, or better yet, fly within rep range, but out of damage range from the bad guys. If logi is being harassed by tackle or webs, take a minute to push what's ailing them off grid. Logi keeps everyone alive.
EWAR - Often flown by newbros or sadists - EWAR is how you ruin someone else's day. This includes powerful webs, jams that prevent locking, range and scan res damps, long range tackle and more. If you have dedicated EWAR ships, they should fly themselves, as their ships are generally not tanky and won't hold up to large volumes of fire. As discussed above, if you have a changeable mid slot it's a good practice to mix and match different ewar mods at times. If you are fighting something with large guns, toss some tracking disruptors on. Trying to stay out of range? Hit them with range reduction. If you are doing this, have your fleet target and use ewar on enemies that are close to their name to ensure a good spread. Bob ewars A,B,C - Jim damps I,J,K and so on. If you only have a few dedicated ewar, put them on targets of opportunity like webs or long points. Even Jamming the hostile FC is annoying if they are new! (an experienced FC will generally not be bothered by jams, they are good enough to communicate and continue calling targets without having to lock)
Tackle - These are often players in frigates or smaller ships, but includes interdictors as well. Usually these players will serve as scouts too. Tackle fleet members are used to get eyes or pings in systems, and then to hold down or catch enemy fleets/players. Timing is big for tackle, you’ll want to anticipate when to send them in so they aren't just suiciding into a barrage of gunfire. In null, interdictors are the end all for keeping fleets pinned down. They can also defensive bubble! Extra tackle can speed around the grid providing advantageous pings or warp ins.
Links - Usually flown by veteran pilots since the skill requirement is high, you don't need to worry too much about links. They'll anchor on you, usually target paint the primary, and give boosts. They should be added to logis watchlist and kept alive as a priority, these pilots will increase the effectiveness of your fleet by around 30% with good skills and an implant.
Support - Support can somewhat be mixed in with EWAR - ewar is usually for special ship types that jam or reduce. Support ships are things that neut, web, or disrupt. The lachesis, Huginn, Scorpion, and Bhaalgorn are all considered support ships for example. Another term for these ships is force multipliers. These will greatly improve your fleet's damage output. Also should be kept on logi watchlist. Webs make the bad guys much easier to hit, and neuts can completely offline larger ships by not allowing them to turn things on, or capitals to escape by jumping out.
What should you fly as the FC?
Being an FC is fun and all, but what's not fun is getting headshot. Generally as an FC, you'll be flying a similar ship class to your mainline ship in your fleet - you will however refit for maximum tank. Luckily CCP has added the Monitor, which is a special FC ship that has amazing resistances. It's not always worth it in smaller fleets though where that extra damage could be useful. Your ship should be max tank, able to match the speed of your main doctrine ships, ideally a probe launcher, guns if possible, or better yet a target paint. An example for a non monitor pick in a cerberus fleet might be an Onyx, HICs get strong resistances and are good at staying alive, but also can keep speed with cerbs.
AARs, or After Action Reports
An AAR is a great tool for self improvement. After your fleet is over, take some time to look back and reflect on what went well, or things that turned out poorly. You can even ask your fleet for input. You have to be honest with yourself, we've all been there and been in charge of a major screw up - the only way to get better is to admit what went wrong, and find out how to avoid it in the future. Write up an AAR and post it in the AAR section on the forums. This is how you are able to take a loss, and make it not a complete disaster - you only truly lose a fight when you don’t learn anything from it.
I know it was a long read, but thanks for sticking around. Remember, the only true way to get good, is to go and do the thing. Feel free to evemail Naliao Vee with questions, or pm me on discord: Naliao#9376