If a corp is defending a low sec structure with a kiting harbinger doctrine, can blues with a kitchen sink brawling fleet participate in the fight and do any meaningful damage? Let’s say the harbingers of the main corp is three times as numerous as the kitchen sink wing. My friend said that brawlers mixed into a kiting fleet will be little more than cannon fodder since they will be perpetually out of range and unable to inflict damage, even more so if the brawlers are using ships with multiple weapon systems (blasters, pulse lasers, HAMs). Can good use of wing warps allow the brawlers to get shots off before they are inevitably blown up?
Then they will lose the Harbingers and the Structure in almost any case.
? If the Brawlers stay with the Kiting Fleet, their main purpose is to fend off any tackle that comes close. Obviously you don’t need much of them and obviously they should fit weapon systems that hits well on smaller, faster targets. Rapid Light Missile Launchers or Pulse Lasers on a Boat with Tracking Bonus really shine here.
If the brawlers are built to do damage, their main job is to warp on 0 on the enemy fleet, brick tackle the most expensive ships and try to keep alive via small sig and RR while the Kiting (Harbinger Fleet) damage down the tackled ships. The brawlers might die in the end, but if you lose ~5-10 T1 Cruisers for 1 enemy Leshak, Marauder, Faction BS, T3/Commandship, you still won the ISK war by a large margin. Use Mallers, Augorors, Thorax, Exqurors, etc. here. Mainly tank, only 1 damage mod per ship. AB fit and close orbit with good Logi Pilots.
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Basically what Syzigium said.
It requires planning and tactics to be able to get your brawl fleet in range but once they do they essentially act as heavy tackle to keep the red fleet pinned. It takes a relatively small portion of the total fleet to do this since what really matters is logi. In fact having fewer ships in the tackle force would probably be ideal since it would make it easier for logi to keep them alive. This enables your kite fleet to stay at range and apply dps. Dividing the fleet this way can also be much more efficient since your kite force will not need to fit tackle itself which means they can fit more application mods in their mids.
Fairly common in WH to use brawl fleets because lots of fights occur around jumping holes. Couldn’t say much about other space though since I have limited experience in K-space.
Don’t allow yourself to be locked into one set way of thinking there are many ways to get creative. Focus on thinking of how you can use everyone to their potential. I have been in a lot of corps that insist on all ships in fleet having tackle despite it being really inefficient to do so since you really just need to lock down one or two of the most expensive red ships and the primary and it will keep everyone on grid.
Oh it’s so refreshing to meet someone who also experienced this. 
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Interesting. Thanks for your advice. I basically offered to help my friend as a solo guy, and a different group offered to help me, and that’s where the kitchen swink brawlers came from (most of them had t2 skills in only 1 medium weapon system and most only did mission PVE and solo PVP before). That and they didn’t want to kite. Most of my friends in the second group didn’t mind going down in a blaze of glory in t1 ships, but I was worried that they’d never be able to hit anything.
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