Overview
Battlefields are a special type of faction warfare complex. They rarely spawn in frontline systems and given that they are visible on the faction warfare map and offer big strategic and monetary gains, they are hotly contested by militias. They present a unique challenge that may be confusing for the newer players. This post will help you understand how they work and how you can contribute to the success of battlefield fleets even in a frigate.
Battlefield's value
Assuming the battlefield is uncontested, you can gain up to a whopping 150k LP for completing it, which takes around 30 minutes for a semi-organized fleet. Up to 30 members of the winning militia can gain the full LP payout. Additionally, they grant 2000 Victory Points and move the advantage bar by 15%, meaning that by themselves battlefields are major contributors to how much the system is contested. Simply put, there's no better way to earn LP and help your faction gain control of the system. As you can imagine, this leads to big concentration of players around them.
The mechanics
While battlefields are technically still plexes, they offer unique mechanics compared to their regular counterparts:
There are 3 capture points instead of one, spread across roughly 300km of space. Each point has its dedicated NPC spawns from BOTH militias (think minions pushing lanes in MOBA games),
Unlike in regular plexes, the NPCs can deal a reasonable amount of damage, especially if you get focused by a bigger group,
Destroying each NPC from a given faction guarding one point will cause a new wave to spawn in around a minute or so,
There is a single entry gate but the battlefield has 3 landing spots - two for each militia and one for neutral players. There's around 70km separation between them,
You are not required to be in one of the capture zones to gain the completion rewards.
Completing the battlefield
While technically battlefields can be completed solo, I'd recommend bringing 3 active tanked cruisers at minimum to finish them in a reasonable amount of time. A typical procedure, assuming the system is not contested by the opposing militia would look like this:
Warp your fleet to the battlefield gate. Pirates like to camp at the entrance looking for stragglers so the best way is to warp in at 100km from an unusual direction, like one of the asteroid belts that is not in line with gates or station.
Use the gate to enter the battlefield site. You will land at your militia's beacon with the closest capture point being around 100km away.
Move towards the closest zone and start eliminating the NPCs of the opposing faction. If there is a battlecruiser among them, KEEP IT ALIVE. If no BCs are present, destroy the entire wave and try again with the new spawn.
Repeat for each capture zone. If you have enough pilots on the grid, you can delegate them to capture cleaned-up zones.
Capture the zone by moving into its range, preferably by going to the very middle of it. The reason for that is that BC NPCs orbit at 32kms so they should leave the capture zone by themselves. The timer will not progress if there are enemies (both players and NPCs) within the capture zone.
Each 'tick' of the capture zone progresses the bar by 0.3%. When it reaches 100%, the battlefield will be completed
Sample fittings
If you are just starting out and want to help a fleet that can take care of the rats, the Incursus is a solid choice thanks to its armor repair bonus. Just get to the capture zone that has been de-ratted and orbit the beacon at 500-1000m. You can pulse your afterburner to gain some speed, thus reducing the hit chance of the enemy NPC.
Alternatively, if you already have some ISK and experience, you can convince a few friends to grab Vexor Navy Issues - Thanks to the bonused drones, cleaning up the rats is a piece of cake as you don't have to chase them down. When you are done pruning the waves, each of you can take one of the points and you can just chill and wait for the timer to tick down.
Incursus BF capper
Vexor Navy BF capper
Conclusion
While the topic certainly is not exhausted, I hope those few pointers will make conquering battlefields a little less daunting. Remember that whenever you are in doubt you can always ask your fellow militia to help you out - it is in the best interest of everyone to bring you up to speed so that you can meaningfully contribute to the war effort.
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