It’s a combination.
“Strange Combinations” tend not to work too well.
The Theorycrafters at the major null blocs are very good at what they do. They’re looking at a range of factors when deciding on a fleet doctrine. Is it a long range alpha comp (as in alpha damage, not alpha clones) or a close in brawling comp? What kind of strategic purpose is this fleet best suited to?
Not least of all: how long will it take our newer pilots to skill into this fleet? What of our old doctrines carry over?
For example, when I first started, EVE was Ishtars Online: The Game of Drones. Not long after, Ishtars were nerfed, and CerberusFleet became a Thing™. Few of the skills required to fly a Cerb carry over from Ishtars. Chopping and changing doctrines for major alliances isn’t something done lightly. Players get rightfully pissed off when they’ve skilled into a ship only to have it rendered obsolete either by a change from CCP, or some theorycrafter thinking up something new.
The current Tempest Fleet Issue meta came about when Machariels got super expensive. The TFI does almost everything a Mach can do, but at a fraction of the cost.
Machs got hit with a major change a couple of years ago, losing a low slot and gaining a mid. The dual plate Armour Mach that had been a mainstay doctrine of many alliances went the way of the dodo.
Years back, before the first round of HAC changes, SleipnerFleet was a common sight. The HACS got buffed and the Munnin could do almost everything the Sleipner could do at a fraction the cost and skillpoint investment. Recently, HACs were changed considerably and to the surprise of no-one, SleipnerFleet is seeing something of a resurgence. They’re tanky, fast, can operate at range, hit like freight trains, can bring along links or utility highs. What’s not to like?’
Battleship fleets tend not to ‘roam’. They’re sent to a specific place at a specific time for a specific purpose (THIS system at THIS time for THAT timer).
This is called ‘anchoring’ to your FC. It can be absolutely vital. For example, if you are attacking a structure then the guy out on his own ‘doing his own thing’ is not only more noticeable and prominent for attack, but may even drift off out of range of any logistics help.
Another reason for anchoring on the FC is that he is likely to ( deliberately ) be travelling at a speed that makes use of slow turret tracking of enemy structure or ships. If you are anchored on the FC then you get that speed benefit too. Whereas you wont get that if you are doing your own thing off on your own.
Often, in large fleets, the enemy will deliberately pick off those furthest from the FC as he moves about. The reason being that those are the people who can’t keep up, and are thus showing off that they have less skills trained and are thus also likely to have less tank trained up too. It is quite literally natural selection at work.
Don‘t judge EvE PvP from one specific type you have experienced. In big fleet battles you are basically a drone and push the buttons as ordered, unless you fly specialist roles, which then can be challenging.
In solo or small gang PvP each pilots individual decisions and manual piloting skills matter much more and some consider this more fun.
They are too slow, in all senses. Their base speed to too slow to allow them to catch other ships, their align time is too slow for a FC to warp to safety without losing a lot, and their warp speed/grid land speed is so slow that the enemy has a lot of time to position themselves to be in a much more advantageous (or just warp off and leave) before you are able to do anything.
In any sort of fight where there are more than 25 people on each side, battleships are too slow to be effective.
In smaller groups, bringing one or two battleships can swing a fight when you are in a logi stalemate, or having trouble keeping cruisers alive, but after a certain point in size, battleships lose their impact.
They are somewhat lower priced pirate faction ships. They have better stats than T1/T2 counterparts, though they are most used as long range, nano-fit ships. aka, kitey bull/horse ■■■■/dung. They are mostly used in smaller fleets, and for citadel seiging, as they can make full use of their ramping damage potential to hit the damage cap of a structure with relatively few pilots.
Stay alive, generally. You can be asked to scout down a retreat path to ensure it is clear of bubbles/etc. away from the fight itself, or make warp bookmarks on grid or nearby gates/structures, or safes.
If you are in the fleet itself, your best help will be anti-tackle (tackle the other smaller ships for your support to kill), and anti-boosh (tackle jump destroyers so they don’t jump a chunk of the fleet or logi 100km away), or anti-sabre (kill interdictors before they can put bubbles down into your fleet).
If you are winning handily, you may be asked to grab tackle on a specific target (generally their FC to sow disarray into the enemy fleet and make it easier to catch more before they get to safety), or high value targets, or anything not already tackled/bubbled by something else.
standard nullsec stuff. Once you are in a fleet above 50, it’s all about the N+1 ball, unfortunately. The risk involved in allowing morons to fly their own ships during a pvp engagement is too great, they are too stupid to do it effectively.
That said, you will see a few balls around, the main dps ship ball, the logi ball (generally hanging back), and then a small tacke/anti-tackle ball. Things get interesting again when you are above 100 ships, where you have 3 separate smaller squads flying as separate groups, but that is more of an advanced tactic which you probably won’t see too much of in general.
15% of the issue is balance, 65% of the issue is monkey see we lose, monkey copy fit, monkey do it too, and 30% is for newbro skill training stuff to make it easier for newbies to fit into the blob and be useful – it takes a long time to broaden out ship command skills and weapon skills to effectively fly a wide variety of fits, after all.
Flying in a blob of people, just shooting at what you’re told, isn’t completely useless: it lets you observe what the people doing more involved tasks are doing without the pressure of trying to do them yourself. You can devote most of your brainpower to watching and learning.
From there, volunteer to do those more involved fleet/gang roles when you have the SP for the ships required. Put into practice the lessons you learned (mostly) for free from watching others try and succeed or fail.
Ask why the ships are fit that way, and why those ship hulls are used instead of other options.
You’re in a big group that holds territory. Big groups that hold territory have to compete against other similar groups effectively or they’ll get evicted. This means they have to stick to tried and tested methods at larger scales. Talk to the people who do smaller-scale PvP, and you’ll find that there’s a lot more room for individual piloting, varied ship selection and varied fitting choices.