Ganking 101: Concord Manipulation

THE 50% BONUS

In an earlier post, I demonstrated how deliberately spawning multiple Concord squads at a random planet in Kamio increased our gank squad's attack potential by 50%. Unless you happen to have a lot of extra people in your fleet, the 50% will make the difference between success and failure.

Here's the quick summary, in case you missed it: If there's no Concord in system, Concord will spawn next to the ganker. In a 0.7 system like Kamio, that takes about 12 seconds. If Concord is already in system (for example, at an asteroid belt), Concord will warp to the ganker. That takes about 18 seconds. For those of you who get chased by faction police, it still benefits you if Concord's already in system, since faction police takes longer than 12 seconds to respond.

Lesson One: Before going on a ganking run, get Concord to spawn. Don't be lazy! If you're willing to spend training time and isk to increase your DPS by various percentages, surely spawning Concord is worth the 50% bonus you get.

Each Concord squad can only attack one ganker at a time. If multiple gankers shoot a Mackinaw simultaneously, additional Concord squads will either spawn in or move from elsewhere in the system. So if there are two Concord squads in the system and your fleet has five gankers, two gankers will get stopped in 18 seconds, and the other three gankers will get stopped in 12 seconds.

Lesson Two: Spawn as many Concord squads as you have gankers in your fleet. That way, your whole fleet gets the 50% bonus.

Spawning Concord is easy, and they generally stay in system until the next downtime. Get your fleet into rookie ships (or any cheap ship with a gun) and have them fire on a secure container or something else that doesn't belong to them. Do it simultaneously, and you'll have a Concord squad spawned in for each of you. This will also draw away any Concord that may be loitering in the ice field.

RELOCATING CONCORD

Concord has a range of 150km. If they're already in the ice field and you attack a Mackinaw within 150km, they will stop you instantly. But if Concord is 150km or more away, they may as well be on the moon. They'll take the entire 18 seconds to respond. Most miners are unaware of this, so when they see umpteen Concord ships in the ice field, they'll assume they're safe. But if Concord is 150km away, the miner is actually less safe than if no Concord were in the system.

Lesson Three: It's better to attack miners on either extreme of the ice field, because afterward Concord won't be protecting miners on the opposite end. You won't even need to reposition Concord!

What if Concord has one or more squads sitting in the middle of the ice field? You can attack a miner in one of the asteroid belts, but there won't always be a target there. It's time to move Concord. This can be done in a similar manner to spawning Concord: Find a remote location and have your fleet move there in rookie ships to shoot something that doesn't belong to you.

There's an important note, however: When you commit a crime, the nearest Concord in the system is the one that gets drawn away. You'll need to commit the crime in a location nearer to the ice field than to the location of any other Concord who may be in system. Fear not! No matter how awkwardly Concord is positioned, it's always possible to create bookmarks between the planet and the ice field such that your crime is committed closer to the ice field than to any other Concord-guarded location.

Lesson Four: Clear Concord from the ice field (or any other target area) by simultaneously suiciding in a location nearer to the Concord you want to move.

One easy way to clear Concord right after the attack is to undock your fleet in rookie ships while they still have the 15 minute aggression timer. Undock simultaneously and wait for Concord to arrive. You don't need to shoot at anything; Concord will arrive to attack any ship you undock with during the 15 minute timer. This will not work if there are additional Concord squads patrolling an area closer to the station than the ice field is.

Lesson Five: Instantly clear Concord after an attack by simultaneously undocking your fleet in rookie ships.

* Rookie Ship Protip: If you have no other ships in your ship hangar, a rookie ship will appear when you dock in your pod. A rookie ship will not appear if you've got a bunch of extra Catalysts sitting in station. You can trick the station into giving you a free rookie ship anyway: Contract your ships to yourself in a private contract. (Creating contracts requires you to train the skill Contracting I.) This will clear your ship hangar, and you can spawn a rookie ship. Then simply cancel or accept the contract to get your ships back. Sneaky!

TURBO SPAWNING

Suppose you want to roam around a few systems and gank some miners. You may be tempted not to bother spawning Concord, on the assumption that it takes 15 minutes per system out of your busy ganking schedule. Not so! You can rapidly prime multiple systems by using the undock trick. Here's how it works:

First, prime one system in the usual manner, by simultaneously shooting a container with multiple rookie ships. After you get blown up, have your fleet (which will still be in pods) jump into the next system you want to prime (such as Halaima). Have your fleet of pods all dock in the same station, where a rookie ship will be waiting for each of you. Simultaneously undock and wait a few seconds for multiple Concord to arrive/spawn.

You get the idea now. Once blown up, warp your pods to the next system on your list and undock from a station there. And so on. Within a few minutes, you'll already have all those systems ready to go, for the whole day. You'll only need to wait out the final 15 minute timer, during which your scout(s) can search for targets in all those systems.

Lesson Six: Rapidly prepare multiple systems for ganks by simultaneously undocking your fleet in rookie ships in one system after the next.

To become an excellent gank fleet commander, learn these lessons and never be bothered by Concord again!