Thursday 28 June 2012

Goodfights at the edge of Placid

A while back, I did a post talking about a few of my fights with the Federal Consensus Outreach, and called it part 1, but the sad state of things is that I let my notes get into this overgrown mass of a .txt file, and I can't really distinguish which fights were theres, and which weren't anymore, so part two isn't really on it's way anymore. 

With that said though, I've had a few good run in's with them, and a few others in that area of Placid.

Having docked up for the night in Kenninck, I undocked my Rupture the next day, scouting around the system I found nothing, and docked up again to take care of a few things. Undocking the cruiser, I found that there was a Cynabal waiting for me. Knowing I didn't really have too much of a chance against a ship like that, I attempted to warp off, but it pointed/scrammed me before I was able to, but the station I was at had a nice large docking radius, so I just docked right away again. Undocking again, I looked for anything that may be a good instant-undock, and there was a moon that was close to straight in front. Hitting warp to that moon, the warp drive kicked in just before the Cynabal's computers managed to get a lock on my ship and disrupt the engines. I was free to go.

Or so I thought, as the Cynabal started chasing me, from gate to gate. Figuring he'd eventually give up as we started down the pipe, I was more and more surprised when he kept coming and coming. Calling out to some of the fellow Repo. agents, darmwand and Maleficas both jumped into Hurricanes and we decided to lay a trap for the Angel cruiser. Getting into Covryn, I warped to the Iges gate, where I held, and the Cynabal followed me. Landing next to me, I locked it up, and waited, to see if he would aggress. The pilot never did, but then it clued in to me, since he had fired upon my ship back in Kenninck, I was still able to shoot him without taking sentry fire from the gate. Locking him up, my Rupture's guns wound up and started firing, as he took shots back at me I told the fellow Repo. members that they were free to come. Under the combined fire of our ships, the Cynabal didn't have any chance, we quickly mopped up and grabbed the loot as he warped his pod out.

Before the end of that day, I wandered back out to Kenninck. That system has a certain appeal to me, after catching miners out there a few times, along with people ratting in belts. The trip out there was rather empty, but getting there, I found an Arbitrator in space, but nothing else. Having no luck scanning it down, I went back to the gate, where it also landed. Locking each other up, nobody decided to open fire first. Eventually he warped off to the nearby planet, and I followed. Landing 50km off him, I started burning for him, getting into range, I started the routine. Lock, point, web, open fire & launch drones. Knowing I would probably be tracking disrupted, I hit approach, and webbed him, hoping that would be enough for my guns to track him. Eating through his shields, I hit a wall with his armor, as his drones kept nibbling through mine (after he had destroyed my own drones). Seeing I would be unable to break his tank before my own broke, I started burning away, though scrammed, I still had a speed advantage due to the web. Hoping that'd be enough. At this point I was also given a glimmer of hope, as my guns were actually landing pretty solid hits on him, but sadly it wasn't enough, as his drones delivered the last hit. Warping the pod out, GFs were exchanged in local. I've gotta figure out a better way to deal with those. They're also definitely on my list of ships I want to fly. I'll probably be training all the racial cruisers to III after I train up BCV, but I'll probably spend the extra time to get Amarr Cruiser to IV just for the Arbitrator, since I've invested in my drone skills fairly well now.

Days later, back in this recurring system, I came in and popped  & podded a Retriever while flying a Wolf. This time though, it woke the hornet's nest. All kinds of ships started undocking, many of them heading for the gate, trying to camp me into this dead-end system. Warping around to various safe spots, I soon spotted a Rifter by itself in a belt. Warping in, it didn't take me long to drop the T1 fit Frigate, but as I was finishing it, an Enyo came in. Thinking that I was flying the half-kiting wolf (Ava Starfire's fit) I started aligning out, but letting him get closer to me as I opened fire, though my damage was far less at range then I was expecting.  Getting it into low structure, while dropping to around half armor myself, it managed to run out of point range and warp off before I could get it, too bad. 

Repping up my armor, I kept an eye on d-scan, and soon I found another Rifter, with a similar name to the one I dropped, along with the Enyo in a belt again. Warping in on it, I landed near the Enyo and started to do the same thing, it too had repped it's armor back, but still had the hull damage. Getting in close this time, everything heated it was a race through the armor, with my rep holding out just enough to get the edge. I was able to pull range a few times through the course of our deadly dance, which was just enough to mitigate some of the damage he was able to dish out, while laying the hurt on him (I found out after the fact he stopped using his web to conserve some cap for his rep, not sure it was the best of ideas). With most of his structure already gone from the first engagement, once I got through the armor, the Gallente Assault Ship vented atmosphere, and I turned my attention to the Rifter. Opening fire and getting as close as I could, the Rifter was taking really heavy damage, but with the help of his web started to pull range. Once again, I was perplexed at the damage I was doing at range, but I thought I got him as he wapred out, and I turned my attention once more to another new ship landing here, an Ishkur that landed 40km off. 

Starting to burn towards this new hostile, he warped off before I got too close, so my thought then went to grabbing loot, but that only lasted so long when a Demios entered the belt. That was a little more then I was prepared to try and take on, so I got out of there as fast as my Wolf's warp drive could take me. Waiting out the GCC I had, I jumped the gate camp, and made it un-eventfully back to Iges, no loot, but feeling great after that fight, with getting the ship out. It was when I got back, I noticed what had been bothering me the entire time there, this wasn't the fit that Ava wrote about, but I had put a 200mm plate in there rather then the TE, which had been my standard fit before. 

Fast forward to today. Flying a Stabber Fleet, I made my way out to that side of Placid, and while there was nothing in Kennick, but getting into Espigoure there were a bunch of the Federal Consensus guys out. Seeing a Thorax in a belt, I warped in and burned towards it. Getting in range I turned off the Microwarp and hit the Afterburner, and settled into an orbit around it. Before too long though, I noticed d-scan filling up, and a Drake and Taranis landed on us. Burning down the Thorax, figuring that my tank may be able to hold up to the Taranis and HML Drake, but it seems like I was putting a little too much faith in the DMAR SFI's tank without drugs. It wasn't too long before they had it reduced to scrap metal. 

Talking with Mal on mumble, we decided to grab our Hurricanes and head back down there for round 2. Aaron Stark, a new Repo. recruit joined us with a Rifter as our scout/tackle. Getting back to Espigoure , we decide that if Aaron and I go into system, it may work best as Mal has a shield-cane and could get to us fairly well, and it wouldn't scare them too much. Hitting my directional scanner right away, I noticed something I didn't quite expect, they had some Retrievers out, along with a Moa. Scanning the belt right near the gate, they were there, and I warped right away, not waiting for anyone else, while I called it out on comms.

Landing 20km off the closest mining barge, the Moa warped off, and  I heated prop and tackle to get to the barge, which seemed to be stuck on rocks trying to warp. Landing tackle, it melted under the fire from my Battlecruiser. The other Retriever still hadn't warped off, and was 20km off of me at this point so I started heading over to that one, as a Brutix warped in for Defence... and proceeded to warp out again. Able to get tackle on the other barge, it too didn't last long. I thought about holding it to let the other guys on the mail, but that's when a Drake from their alliance landed. Getting a point on that before it too could warp off, the combined fire of the two Hurricanes dropped it rather quickly, along with grabbing the pod, which he didn't want to pay to keep.

With Aaron scouting us back, we decided to check if there was any action in Kenninck before heading home. Telling him to scan from the gate, and then warp to one of the 9 cluster belts, as the residents seem to dock up rather quickly when Repo. enters system, he ends up in belt 9-1, with a Myrmidon. Getting tackle on it, both Mal and I jump into system and enter warp, as he calls out that he was down already. Sending up prayers that his hero-tackle wasn't in vain, we both land on top of the Myrm and open up. Neuts on it, it didn't seem to have too great of an active tank, and was overwhelmed quickly (our killboard didn't like that, and neither did eve-kill apparently, there were no low-slots, if I remember I'll link the Repo. killboard link when darm works his magic on the killboard and makes those items show).

All in all, even though it's a slow end of the Universe (until you hit Syndicate, but I try to avoid that most of the time, I prefer to keep the impants in my head, I want to get my skillpoints up asap.

This'll probably be my last post for two or three weeks, something like that, but I definitely will be posting when I'm able to again.

Fly dangerous
'Chord

Friday 22 June 2012

Inactivity

Well, that thing called life has caught up with me, and the next month or so I probably won't be on much, though I'll try work through my back-log of notes to do a few posts in the meanwhile.

Today was another day of expensive losses.

Saw a Cyno up, with an Augoror on scan, which does scream bait, but I went for it anyways. I grabbed my Stabber Fleet Issue, and warped to it. Locking up and firing, I ate through it's shields, and did well into it's armor, drones taking the heat off of my ship for a little as I do the main damage. The Amarr cruiser was into low armor, with my own buffer wearing to near half when a Nidhoggur warped in. Starting to see structure damage peak through, and then suddenly the Augoror was full shields. The entire time it had been scramming and webbing me. Aligned to the sun I hit the afterburner and tried to get out, but with the added DPS of drones from the Carrier I got to 8km away before my pod warped away. Had I overheated my AB? That would have been a different story.


Coming back a while later, I went into the Avaux loop, knowing there were some locals out. Trying out the VagaWolf I had fit ages ago, and then realized I didn't have the cap skills to use.

There was a flashy-red Crusader on station in Ruerrotta, who docked as I came in, and then brought an Ishkur out, before long though he had another member of his corp come out in a Scorpion. Figuring I could play around and get out without too much trouble I still engaged. He dropped his flight of drones, which I took care of in short order, before I got jammed and disengaged. Coming back for round two, I did the same thing, until I was jammed again. After the third try though, I was jammed right from the start, and having switched my overview to try and go for his drones again, I didn't notice the Ishkur get close to me, and by the time I did it was too late to correct, and I had been scrammed and webbed. Game over.


Anyways, as stated, the next month will be mostly a training month, Weapon Upgrades 5 being a priority, since I just finished my t2 drones training, followed by BCV and Minmatar Cruiser V, and probably Assault Frigate V. We'll see where I go after that though. Still lots I can put into Gunnery, but I'm always feeling the itch to cross train and get something new. The Amarr Cruiser line is always tempting me, the Arbitrator just looks like an interesting boat to fly, we'll see. There's a good chance I'll end up getting  BCV, then training basic Frig/Cruiser skills in all the races so I'll be sure to have their BC skills if/when CCP changes that skill around.

Fly dangerous

'Chord

Thursday 7 June 2012

Blasted Battlecruisers

Today was my most expensive day ever I'd hazard a guess, not totally stoked by how I lost it, but it was a good day yet. 

Got on earlier then usual, as I came home from work early, and after interviewing a new member for the corp, I started my normal roaming. It wasn't too long until Dahren had seen a Drake on scan in Cumemare. There's been a new corp in there with new players, that have been fodder most of the time, but now they dock up or run to station as soon as they see Repo. in system. 

Telling Dahren to leave system, I bring my prober in and eventually find their ships, a Drake and a Rifter on station, approaching/bumping each other. Watching them for around 10 minutes, they finally warp off to one of the belts, right near the Aunsou gate, so Dahren goes and takes the long way around to Cumemare through Dastryns. About one jump from getting to Cumemare, the two ships warped away. Soon enough finding them at the ice belt, I called for Dahren to jump in. Before long he called point and I was bringing Dischord in, and telling  Varah  to get in, as he's needing points for his recruit assessment in Repo. It turns out that we didn't actually relay what system we were in to  Varah , so once we had the Drake in structure, we held it until he was able to come. 

While we were doing this a Cormorant from the same corp came in and started firing on us, with my point on the Drake, Dahren went and grabbed a point on the Cormorant, and I set my drones on it, nearly knocking it out before Vah landed. With him on the killmail we dropped the Drake, and then the Cormorant, which Varah sadly didn't make it on, but did grab the pod, who didn't want to be ransomed. 


Dahren and I soon went out in our Thrashers and tried to find some people in minor FW plexes, unlucky on finding anyone attacking a plex, we settled on trying for a Stabber Fleet Issue. Chasing it around from a few Celestials, I eventually landed 100km off of him and started burning, with Dahren warping in. It was soon apparent that this wasn't going to work when Dahren's tank was getting eaten through, I still went in as Dahren's thrasher disintegrated, and started firing, hoping that it was actually a shield tanked, since we were almost through the shield, but it wasn't. I got it to around 3/4 armor before my Thrasher suffered a similar fate. 

Later on, after a while of fail-scanning, we had a Celestis on scan in Iges, a couple passes later we had it scanned down and went in. With no resistance as we dropped the ship, darmwand went for the ransom on the pod, and I've gotta say this was one of the most interesting ransoms I've seen in a while. 

All the while when this was going on we saw a Hurricane and Harbinger on scan looking like they were wanting a fight. As we were getting ready to fight, Maleficas logged on and we were getting him on it, but they left system. Before too long one was back with a different friend in a Harbinger. Deciding this was a good time to test out my Cyclone, even though I'm currently only Battlecruiser III, I got into it and started looking for them, knowing I've got a couple Hurricanes and a Rupture at my back. Finding them at  a belt, I warped in with everyone else aligning.

Landing on top of one of the Harbingers, I overheated everything, and forgot to use the Blue Pill I got from Dahren.... and my shield melted away, and came back a few times, but it was soon apparent that even overheated it wasn't going to be lasting all that well, and before long my first Battlecruiser vented atmosphere. As everyone landed, their trump card soon came into play, when a falcon uncloaked. Excuse my french, but, fuck ecm. With some of our guys jammed, the fight started to turn. darmwand was getting to low structure, but managed to get a last volley out of his arty-cane to drop the first Harbinger and warp out.

During this, Maleficas' Hurricane was taking heavy damage, and I was re-shipping into my Rupture, knowing the Falcon was there, I bounced to the Covryn gate and warped back at 100. Landing 20 off the Falcon, it warped out before I could get into point range, and in low armor the other Harbinger warped off, but not before both Mal's Hurricane and Dahren's Rupture had become space junk. 

Figuring that the fight was over, with other corp-members docked up and re-shipping, I went in and tried to loot the field, after grabbing a couple of wrecks worth of loot, the Harbinger warped back in, locking it up and opening fire, the Falcon once again de-cloaked. Calling for everyone to come back, I was from then on perma-jammed, watching the lasers eat through my hefty tank, while my drones nibbled away. Before I popped someone managed to grab a point on the Amarrian Battlecruiser, and they dropped it as I was grabbing a Wolf to come out and try get the Falcon.

With the engagement actually over, we looted the field and docked up. Good fight sirs, though relying on using ECM was a bit of a low-blow. 

Later, I got a call from Superpooper that he had a lowsec to lowsec wormhole with a Gila on the other side. He's a resident of the Amoen loop, so I had to take something smaller and fast through there, so I grabbed my Wolf and headed over, with darmwand beside me in an Incursus, Sadly, by the time we got there, the Gila was gone, but there was a Worm and a few other ships running a minor outpost. Going and re-shipping into my ASB Rifter, I came back, but the plex was gone. The worm was still on scan, so Super grabbed a probe ship, but never got a bead on it. He came back in a Coercer as we saw them on the gate of the major plex. Warping in, we landed on top of the Worm, and I called it primary, but it was able to warp out before anyone got lock. Trying to go for the Cormorant that was there, none of us were able to catch the Railgun fit ship, so we gave up and warped off, taking no losses. 

Roaming back the 15 jumps to Iges instead of taking the Wormhole, it was fairly empty besides a couple FW blobs. Eventually seeing DARKSTAR POWNYOUALL in a Wolf, and asked if he was interested in a t1 frigate 1v1, he agreed and soon I was waiting for him to reship at the sun. Landing on me our deadly dance began, with my ASB handily dealing with all the incoming damage, but too well as I let it run a couple cycles where it didn't repair nearly as much as it could have. Both of us neuting each other, he capped me out before I had gotten him down, I'm guessing it was a cap-boosted fit, as he was also running an armor rep. My guns tore into his armor quite well, but his rep was dealing with it as well as mine was.

And then the horrible thing with the ASB happened, out of charges. No more tank, with everything overheated, the remaining time was nailbiting as his armor kept edging lower and lower. My shields were gone, and he was around 1/3 armor, but a couple volleys later my armor was nearly gone, and his rep had kept his stable. The end was in sight, and my Rifter was on the losing end

Definitely one of the best fights I've had in ages. 


To end the day, I solo ganked a Covetor, and then was in on a Hulk and pod soon after..

Rather eventful day. I probably won't be touching my Battlecruisers (I've got another Cyclone fitted, along with a Hurricane, and another of each sitting in Jita that I won on blink earlier today that I'll be bringing down) until I have BC IV finished, which will be in 3 and a half days. I look forward to that, and seeing what I may be able to pull with a Cyclone out solo. Also makes me glad I've got a scout in a covops ship now too.

Fly dangerous
'Chord



Friday 1 June 2012

Busy days

The past few days have been some of the busiest ones since I've started playing Eve. Lots of kills, lots of losses, mostly in good fights.


To start it off, yesterday I went on a roam down to Kenninck, but when I arrived I ended up having to do a few things out of pod when I docked up. Undocking my rupture when I got back, there was a Cynabal waiting for me outside. Trying to warp off, it locked me, pointed me and got a volley off, so I docked back up. Deciding to try again, I also enabled moons on my screen, and saw one that was quite close to being an insta-undock, able to warp to it, I then went to the gate to leave system, and soon noticed the Cynabal following me.


Each jump I took, it followed me, so as I got close to home I put the call out to a couple other Repossession agents that were at home to jump in ships that could take gate guns, because we were going to drop this Cynabal. Landing on the Iges gate in Covryn, it landed right beside me, and this time I didn't jump through, but started aligning elsewhere, hoping for the other cruiser to engage, or at the very least to get off the gate. As we burned a ways off the gate, I decided that was enough, and opened fire. Because the other pilot had agressed earlier, I didn't take any gate-fire. With my two friends jumping through in Hurricanes, and the Cynabal scrammed and webbed, it was apparent how this was going to go down. GFs were exchanged, and I scooped the loot and went home.


Not all that much later, I undocked from the station, and while thinking about where to go, a Tempest undocked from the station. Looking at the pilot, I saw he was quite a new player, so I decided to see what he was going to do. It didn't take long before the battleship locked up my cruiser, and opened fire, so I returned the favor and let my guns go to work. His large calibre guns weren't able to track my ship, though he did have one gun that was hitting me, while my guns were constantly landing solid hits. With his shields gone quite quickly, and armor going down fast, Maleficas, one of the other Repo. agents in system came in, and helped finish this battleship off quickly.


Deciding it was a good time to roam the Amoen/Avaux loop, I then headed down there, getting to Avaux, I found a Covetor and Hurricane on scan in a belt. Thinking I had a decent enough chance to pop the Covetor and get out before the Hurricane could get me, I warped in. Landing close to the Covetor, I lock it up and open fire, doing decent damage, while receiving little from the Hurricane. I got it into structure, and started to align out towards the sun, but then my damage started to fall off quickly. Deciding to go back in for the kill, I turned around and burned back for the Covetor, and once in range, it dropped. The problem then was that I was in range of the Hurricane's 425mm autocannons, and though I was nearly at the edge of distruptor range, he manged to get the final blow on my Rupture.




Once again back in Iges, I heard darmwand take out a Malediction in his Wolf, but had burnt out his MWD at the same time. As he was salvaging the wreck, a Sentinel warped in on him, so he left. Hearing that, I jumped in a thrasher, and went to the sun to see if the Sentinel stayed there. He didn't but as it turns out, he thought a Thrasher would be a good target. It was soon apparent that he made the wrong choice, as the seven autocannons tore straight through his shield, armor, and hull. If he had been aligned out and spamming warp, there's a good chance the other pilot could have gotten out, because the neuts dropped my point near the end.


Able to get a point on the pod, He proceeded to agree with the 75m ransom for the pod.
When ransoms go that smoothly, I always wish I had asked for more to start with. Not complaining though.


Later on that night, there was a Jaguar hanging around in Iges. At first I chased it in my Rupture, but he wasn't interested in that fight. Re-shipping into a Wolf, we never landed in the same spot as each other, and eventually he went to Covryn. Following him there, he went into the Gallente Infrastructure Hub and waited there. Warping in at 20, I locked up and began my slow-kiting, aligned away from him. Getting him to around half shields I started to go in on him, and got him into armor only having to pulse my rep once or twice, when he decided to disengage. He warped off to a station and repaired, as I used my rep to finish repairing my armor as I went to a safe to wait out my GCC.


It wasn't too long before he was back in the Hub, and I warped in again. This time I decided not to kite so much, and went in much sooner. The results turned out much the same, with his shield failing while my tank was holding, but this time when he disengaged I managed to cut off his route when he was aligning and get into overheated scram range, and finish him off.


To round out that night, I was in Kenninck again, and there was an Arbitrator on the gate. Neither of us sure about the fight, we end up warping around at different ranges to various celestials. Finally landing near enough to him at a customs office, I go in for the kill. Knowing I'd be tracking disrupted, I thought best would be to approach and then once in range stop moving. Turned out this didn't work very well, and his drones started to eat me while I had serious issues tracking. Deciding it was time to try disengage I started aligning out and spamming warp. While I did this, I noticed my shots landing, and landing hard, but it was too little, too late as the structure failed in my Rupture.


Not really sure what I should have done better there, though I did notice he was actively repairing his armor, I probably should have used my neuts from the start of the fight, and probably tried to get out quicker then I did.




Today was another fairly eventful day, from popping a Retriever next door in Uphallant, to grabbing another Retriever in  Kenninck, which in turn got the local alliance mad at me, and then camped me in with a Proteus/Arazu and various other ships. They were probing me down, so I kept warping to safe spots, and this kept up for a solid hour before they had gotten one of my safes and waited there. I warped in on their ships and right away started to spam warp to another safe as best I could, and though a few of them were able to lock and do damage to me, none of them pointed me, and I was able to get out. Saying something about their lack of points, I then noticed the Arazu off the gate, and warped through, and got out to freedom from there.


Heading back home, I found haerod of Black Rebel Rifter Club in Dastryns, and though he wasn't interested in playing with my Rupture, he was much more inclined to take on my Firetail.


Waiting for him on the gate of a Gallente Outpost, he warped in. having previously tested out vs Merlins with Penumbrawolf of Repo. I knew my best chance was to just get close, and stay close while using my TD to hamper his guns tracking, and it worked well, able to eat through his shields, and make real quick work of his armor and hull, when he just started to damage my armor. It was at the end of this fight that I also realized I had been firing Fusion at him the entire time too, hitting his shields' best resist.


With the word of a Myrmidon next door, I then took my prober over there, while I grabbed my Rupture once more, and darmwand grabbed his arty-cane. Warping us both in, with darm slightly ahead of me, he was able to get point while I burned in, attempting a ransom, the other pilot didn't like the 60m price we put on it, and so we dropped the ship (though the rats were nearly going to do that while we were attempting the ransom).


And to round out the events of tonight, there was an Enyo on scan in Iges. Jumping in my trusty wolf, I went to find it, as it turned out it was on a station. Not too keen on letting an Enyo get close to me, I warped to the customs office near there, and the other pilot followed, but warped in at range. Then worried that it may be rail fit I warped to the planet at range, hoping for a close engagement (I should have looked at, yes I know). Not coming there, I eventually caught up to the pilot at the same station again. This time deciding just to go for it, I nearly suicided myself by firing before the non-flashy pilot had engaged. The Enyo was MWD fit, so I figured there was a good chance of having some good range control, getting straight through it's shield, and making quick work of it's armor, I was feeling pretty good, and then started to get closer, trying to make sure I'd be in range to grab the pod, when my armor just melted, and hull soon after.


Apparently the Enyo was at 36% hull. Gf.


Grabbing the other fit Wolf I had, I right away went looking for the Enyo. Warping to the top station, which has repair facilities, I had hit dock, but then saw the Enyo undock as I came in. Scrambling to not dock, and give chase, I locked up the station. When my lock resolved on the Enyo, right as it was at the edge of scram range, I opened fire, and hit my scram, on the station, and soon was destroyed by the guns from said station.


Not my finest hour, that's for sure. Oh well, I've done enough stupid flying, it was sure to catch up with me.




Fly dangerous
'Chord