I have one problem and one problem only with the people I fly with atm. Most of them are armour pilots. That's all fine and good, but when I want to take a few caracals out and kite some people, it's a bit grating. I'm going out with said guys tomorrow in a small armour gang. Problem with small gangs is that they fight outnumbered a lot. I'm perfectly fine with this, it makes life interesting, but I want to fight and stand a chance of winning while outnumbered.
So yeah, how do we do this when we can't out run/out manoeuvre them?
I've got a couple of ideas. Splitting the enemy up would help, but is easier said than done when you're flying something as agile as a sack of potatoes. ECM drones would help too (don't want to bring a Falcon, lest I burn in the hate of my enemies).

Before a certain someone comes in and tells us that kiting is the only option and anyone not flying a cruiser capable of pulling 5.6Km/s is a waste of isk and pixels, that's just not an option at this present time.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

My usual ship of choice is actually the Nomen (Or Omen because I'm poor, though it's much worse at the job) with eanms and an MAAR. It's fun and shockingly fast for an armour boat and projects like a boss. I'm just not sure active tanks would work when you're looking at gangs of up to ten people. Could be wrong though, usually am.

And I'm not after a "best" anything, just a way to not whelp our ships when we inevitably take a fight with bad odds.

One approach I had in mind against a particular bunch of guys who pretty much perma camp this one gate was to warp to the gate at distance, then warp off. They've shown in the past they'll follow me/us, especially if we can make them believe we're running. People will always chase someone they believe to be running scared. Warp to my chosen celestial at range, and then when they burn after me they've separated themselves and done my hard work for me.

But that's an ideal engagement under ideal circumstances for my fleet. Ideal engagements don't often happen.

TBH this pretty much the way to go in breaking up any gang really. It is all about how you 'setup' your fight. Rather than a straight up brawl.

Problem with small gangs is that they fight outnumbered a lot. I'm perfectly fine with this, it makes life interesting, but I want to fight and stand a chance of winning while outnumbered.
So yeah, how do we do this when we can't out run/out manoeuvre them?

The problem with armor gangs is that they are more often than not fighting at close range, and the ability to negate incoming dps is limited. You must solely rely on your tank/logi, one way round this is e-war. Armor ships tend to utilize the small sig radius that comes with not having shield modules/rigs, and often use afterburners in place of MWDs, so tracking disruption is preferred, but sensor damps with scan res dampening scrips can also be put to good use. ECM is a fantastic way of negating incoming dps or dealing with enemy logistics, however ECM ships are normally very thin and shouldn't really be up close if they can help it.

Other than your fleet composition and fittings there are a few ways you can potentially 'win' an engagement with a larger gang using hit and run/ninja warfare tactics, not to be confused with guerrilla warfare tactics. Unfortunately these tactics are best employed using shield fitted ships due to their fast align times, though it is not impossible with armor fleets, you just have to be on the ball and predict enemy movements.

As a smaller gang you will never engage on enemy terms and always have the field set up to your advantage, 99% of the time larger gangs will take the fight if they are not setting the terms (because of numbers advantage) you can use this to your advantage. 'using their weight against them' - by forcing them to warp onto and off grid multiple times. IE. by chasing you. Eventually they will leave a straggler behind that you can pounce on. If you set it up correctly and you have enough DPS to destroy your target and GTFO before the backup arrives you can ultimately keep doing this until the enemy fleet is at a satisfactory 'weight' for you to engage in an open fight or until they decide they have had enough chasing you and ping-ponging around the system. Chipping away at their fleet. Patients is required for this method and it is not 100% fool proof. As an FC you must predict and assume that they are predicting you also.

I hope you have found this helpful.

MD

you need reps. take it from the pros at fighting outnumbered while in armor gangs.

^ this

Amarrian Vengence is one of the best corps out there that can fight heavily outnumbered and still come out on top. There are so many setups you can use to fight outnumbered. You can use the obvious logi choice or take it from pocket and use something unorthodox such as RR sacs/RR vengences. :D

tbh the best way to brawl outnumbered, armor or shield, is to just severely outship your opponents and not mention it after the fact.

"Dude of course we had to use [insert ship type 2-3 levels higher than opponents]! We were fighting [number of people in local] and we only had x in our fleet."

Everyone who has ever fought outnumbered ever.