Sunday 25 November 2012

Brawling in Saikamon

So, with some discussions among the corp as to possibly moving to a new area of space for a while, it came up that there were some good looking systems out in the Bleak Lands to possibly check out. Feeling the need to get out of Placid for a while, I right away offered to check the area out. Grabbing what I needed, and heading out in my Wolf yesterday, I had a rather uneventful trip out. The first while I was in the area, I just wrote some reports on activity, and the local groups, but didn't look for any fights.

Today though, while sitting in station in Saikamon, I saw that there were a few more people in local. Deciding to check what was outside, I undocked, seeing a Cormorant, and Enyo on scan. The Enyo seemed to be towards the sun, but by the time I warped out there, he was gone, and both were on scan at a FW Major complex. Warping there, had the Corm sitting 40km off the gate, and the Enyo nowhere to be seen. Going though into the complex, the Enyo still wasn't there, so I warped back out, and came back for the Cormorant. Warping at range this time, I still landed around 40km off the Cormorant, but went for it this time. Figuring it was a rail-rant, I kept transversal as high as I could, though I wasn't sure how much good it'd do. He let me spiral in close, and never activated any prop mod, and his tank didn't last.

With short-range scan showing a Caracal, Thrasher, and the Enyo, I figured I had better bug out. Warping to my safe spot near the sun, I repaired my guns from heat damage while keeping an eye on scan, and where these guys were. The Thrasher and Enyo were at the sun, looking for me it seemed, so I warped at max range to get a good look at them. Blasters, and artillery. Warping at range to a planet, I hoped the Thrasher may land on top of me. Sure enough, waiting a little has the Thrasher right on top of me. He scratched me with a couple volleys, but not too much damage as his guns couldn't track, and the second destroyer popped. 

With the Enyo landing on grid, I wasn't sure about fighting him yet with the Caracal around, so I warped back to my safe, and waited to see what they would do. With the Enyo still at the same planet, and the Caracal elsewhere, I warped back to the planet, to see the Enyo just over 100km off of my warp-in.

Hitting the afterburner and heading out towards him, he did the same, locking each other up, I opened fire just under 20km landing some glancing blows. I missed my normal timing to try burn away from him and keep range as large as possible, and soon he had his web on me. Overheated guns, point, and afterburner, I tried to open up as much space between his blasters and my hull as possible, with him already taking armor damage before even hitting me, I was already in good shape. Overheating the rep, I didn't turn it on nearly quick enough, and saw massive chunks of my all-too-thin armor get blasted away. With his ship taking structure damage already I was fairly confident, but didn't want to keep range at all yet. My armor repair getting a couple of cycles in, it was enough to drop him before any damage made it to my own structure.

With the Caracal on scan, I bookmarked the wreck, and got out before I was at any risk, and when the Cruiser wasn't on scan towards that planet anymore, went back and grabbed my loot. A good first time in the area.

Fly Dangerous
'Chord

Saturday 24 November 2012

Carrier down! and ~goodfites~

This game just keeps getting better. Though this month started with my most expensive loss to date, it's come back, and I'm over 75% efficiency when I post this. Most of that though, came at one time.

I did some null-sec roaming a little while back, with a stock of Ruptures that I had earmarked to lose out there. While mostly unsuccessful I grabbed a Crow out of a Frigate gang, along with nearly a Hawk before the Kitsune was able to jam me, and I ran. Soon later I lost that rupture as I was expecting a Stiletto to actually try tackle me, but instead he provided a warp-in for the rest of his gang who were ~70 from me, but the Stiletto got out to range.


More recently though, while in Amasiree I noticed a couple players from Forsaken Federation leaving system, but not being in the rest of the local systems. Letting Superpooper and Vulturus know about it, I brought my prober out and scanned down the wormholes in system. The first one I checked, sure enough the Talos and Retriever I had seen were in the Wormhole there. As we all warped to the hole, the Talos came back to the hole, while I was sitting there with my cloaky alt. We were all waiting for him, with a Hurricane, Malediction, and Falcon. The Talos jumped through, and soon enough was locked down, didn't move and I'm guessing never had a chance to lock as we dropped him. Before long, the Retriever tried to get through too, but managed to get out. We all added him to watch list as we noticed him log out, and within about 15 minutes he was back on. All of us warping back to the hole, we didn't make any mistakes this time, and dropped his barge, and pod.

Heading back home after that, I noticed a Chimera on scan, and jokingly asked if anyone wanted to go for it. Sure enough, Andrejs, from Ninja Unicorns was interested. With Super getting a cyno ready, I probed out the Chimera, and went for tackle. Landing 100 off in the mission, it was pre-aligned and warped off.

Andrejs wasn't done with that though, sending a cloaky alt over, he parked it in the mission and we all left system. Soon enough the Chimera came back in, and he tackled it. For reasons I can't explain, I had jumped into a Rupture, instead of anything heavier for this. Warping in and getting tackle, the his cloaky alt had to warp out, as he couldn't light a cyno in the mission, and  they bridged in multiple Armageddon Navy Issues, and regular Armageddons. As the Carrier's shields were running out Andrejs said in fleet that there's incoming backup so heat everything. Sure enough, members of Deadly Intent, a former Ninja Unicorns corp came in. As it turns out, the corp that (wasn't blue to Unicorns) the Carrier was in, is an alt corp of Deadly Intent. They soon drop my Rupture, and Superpooper's Pilgrim, but don't manage to save the Chimera.

So, that was my first Capital (and Repo.'s first cap kill), along with Pug's too I think. There was lots of drama in local afterwards as D.Int is apparently still set blue to Ninja Unicorns.


A couple days later, I was back in the Amoen/Avaux loop, seeing if any Malum or Forsaken wanted to play. Being in my Artillery Dramiel, I was hoping that they'd send out some fast tackle for me to play with, and at first that didn't happen. Instead, all I got at first was a sniper Talos and Oracle.

Eventaully Icon OClast came with his Ares trying to tackle me on station with some other ships around, but after a couple volleys he seemed to want to get back to the station and dock, but being in an untanked interceptor didn't do him any favours there.

Docking up and going for a while, I came back, and Civus Caldara was there with a Crow, on station. As more and more of them undocked, and we warped around a bit, Civus never really seemed interested in coming after me. With about 5 of them on grid though, he finally went for tackle. As he came in I got a couple volleys on him, but while trying to keep decent range from the rest of his gang, I let him get a scram on me. Watching his friends close in, I was worried. My drones were doing the best they could to avoid the demise of my Dramiel, as he orbited close, and my arties had trouble landing decent hits. His rockets started to chew through my minor shield buffer, and I had to start blowing through my cap, using my shield rep. Sure enough though, the first couple volleys that I had landed let my drones finish the job, and let me GTFO before his friends arrived.

After that, I played around with them a while longer, getting Phjil's Eris down fairly far a couple of times before getting out of lock range, and running to avoid the rest of his friends, before they brought logistics out, and I figured discretion to be the better part of valour in that situation.

It's been an interesting couple weeks. I'm really starting to get amped for the expansion and having new ships to fly, along with the HAM changes. I've pushed HAMs to the front of my training queue for a while now, and should have t2 trained, with decent support skills before the patch hits. I've already picked up a bunch of Stabbers and Bellicose' to play around with once the time comes, and there's a good chance that I'll end up grabbing a couple Drakes also. With the removal of the penalty for t2 missiles, Javelin's on the Stabber may be a good bet. It'll be cool to fly a few more ships again.

Another thing that I'll probably train sooner rather than later now is Command Ships, as I realized I'm 10 days out from being able to get into a Sleipnir. I really do have a bad case of "Ooh Shiny!"

Anyways,

Fly Dangerous
'Chord

Thursday 8 November 2012

Back loving the Wolf

As the title says, this week I decided to start flying my old favorite more again, and I started taking my Wolf out more often, and it's been far from disappointing.

Since I've been able to fly larger ships, I've constantly been gravitating towards flying them, and I've put a lot of time in my Ruptures/Hurricanes, and had put most ships to the wayside (other then the arty-thrasher, which I flew when I wanted something smaller) and my Dramiel, which met it's end.

This week in my Wolf, I'm 6-0, all of the fights 1v1 (with two of them being somewhat arranged beforehand).

Started with Simon Pirodet. I landed on the Dastryns gate, about to head out roaming, when he came through in a Jaguar. He was flashy-red, so I right away went to engage. Pulling a little range, hoping he'd chase me after I aggressed, he warped off (I assume to load a better ammo-type). After a little chatting in local, we met at the sun and started our fight in earnest. I had been waiting there, and burned a little off the warp in. Locking and opening fire from around 20km, my "Kiting to be caught" fit (stolen from Ava Starfire) did what it was supposed to, starting to land some hits from that range. I closed in carefully, trying to stay out of overheated web range as long as I could, while whittling away on his shields. The entire time he wasn't hitting me all too hard. Finally feeling it was a good time to commit, when his shields were running low, and my armor was just starting to show some wear, I jumped in for the kill. He got his pod out, which conveniently he went to the station I call home.  I warped there, and noticed he was self-destructing, so I took a pot-shot at it to whore on the killmail. It turns out he's also a regular in the Bringing Solo Back channel, which got me another fight with him later.

The day after, I was able to get on much earlier then usual and figured taking the Wolf through some FW areas (and running the static 1/10s in Placid) could be fun. Getting into Intaki, I saw Daniel Alpena, who is usually good for a fight, and usually flying a Catalyst, and he did not disappoint. Catching up to him at a Planet (he seemed to be waiting for me) I set my orbit out to the edge of scram range, and hoped I'd have the damage to break him sooner then he broke me, which I did. Ended taking some armor damage, but my rep soon took care of that.

While waiting for the nanite past to finish repairing my modules, I noticed a Cruor on scan, which I figured wouldn't want to fight, but I warped to the Faction Warefare outpost just in case. Seeing him on scan towards a planet with no stations, I warped there, only to find nothing. Scanning back towards the outpost I had just left, he was there, seems like he does want to fight.

Warping in, and landing nearly on top of him once through the acceleration gate, I overheated ALL the things, and hoped I'd at least keep my scram running with my nosferatu, as I didn't expect that his lasers would be too much of a threat. Sure enough all went as planned, I was able to keep him scrambled as my autocannons tore through his armor and structure. All this time, Simon Pirodet and I had been chatting, and he had been working his way over to get a rematch with a Harpy. As I finished off the Cruor, he came into system. So I dropped off my loot in a safe spot, repaired my damage, and warped to the sun. This time he knew how I flew this Wolf, and I was expecting a much tougher fight. He didn't disappoint.

Landing 30 off of him like I expected, I aligned somewhat away from him, but he never approached directly. starting to burn at an angle towards him, I kept a close watch until I was able to start landing decent shots, and right away started burning away. Range closed a little too much though, and he was able to get his web on me and reel me in. His shields dropped fast, taking big chunks with every volley, just to see them rep up again. My own shields were depleted quickly, and soon my overheated armor rep was going full tilt, and not nearly keeping up. My own DPS was higher then his ASB repping, with a little bit more armor damage peeking through between each cycle. Thinking I was probably going to be on the losing side of this battle, finally his reps gave out, with me having to cycle my own whenever I had cap. Blasting through his armor, and structure, the extra couple cycles from my rep kept me alive, with fire trailing from my hull. That was definitely a fight for the ages.

The last fight I've gotten with the Wolf isn't really one that was all that special. Heading back out to the 1/10 in Oicx, there was an Exodus. gang on the gate from Vlillirier, with a Retribution, and some larger ships. Jumping and warping straight to the 1/10, which only allows frigates, I activated the gate, and burned a little off the warp-in. With the Retribution following me, I locked and began firing as I burned away, in turn to see him burn away from me, at MWD speed. Getting around 40km from each other, I went towards him, overheated my AB and scram, and landed it, and that was about all she wrote. Not activating my armor rep, I was at around 75% armor when he went down. Not sure what laser boats are really thinking going after Minmatar t2, but I won't complain at all.

Definitely glad I decided to jump back into this frigate. Most of my fights of late in the larger hulls have been no more then ganks, so this is a very welcome change.


Fly dangerous
Chord

Sunday 4 November 2012

Whelping, and the blob.

Lately has been fairly slow, with the exception of a couple rather noteworthy events. Thursday night, we randomly had a bunch more people on then we were used to, so we decided to actually form up into a fleet. Someone asked the comp, and right away the two words Kitchen Sink were thrown out. I felt like bringing something a bit larger out, so I jumped in my Cyclone. We also had a Caracal, Rupture, Arbitrator, Jaguar, Slasher, and Rifter. Call went out as for who would FC it, I offered on the conditions that everyone didn't expect to come home with a ship, and that I'd whelp the fleet. Everyone was fine with that, and it was a real prediction of what was to come.

Getting three jumps from home, into Agoze, Maleficas who was scouting in his Jaguar said that there was a Vexor sitting on the gate of a minor FW complex. I told him to go for tackle, and soon enough we were all in warp to take him out. As soon as we all landed though, local exploded, lots of Destroyers and T1 frigs coming to help out the Gal-Fed Vexor. With the Vexor going down fast, the ships that nobody had noticed on D-scan landed, a pair of Blackbirds, which really were what turned this fight. Not being able to get a lock from right about when the Vexor popped, until I was finally taken down, the last of ours to die, I was effectively out of the fight for most of it, along with the Rupture. Our Arbitrator had been having connection issues all night.

If I say I'm going to whelp I fleet, I do it good.


Today, another great loss. Out in my Cloki, and there's a Harbinger ratting. Couldn't be bait right?\


It occurred to me after I had scrammed and webbed, that the pilot Jordan Frost, had baited us before. Sure enough, local exploded. Ships landed. I lost SP.


Last month  was rough. Had a bad start to it, got pretty annoyed with the game for a while, ended up coming back strong and finshing the month with a positive efficiency (which is always my goal). I don't care much what it is, as long as it's positive. That'll be my goal again this month, but boy have I ever given myself a long road ahead of me.


I noticed the other day that I hit a few milestones recently also. Currently sitting at 500 kills on the Repo. killboard (Pods included), so I'm probably a little higher then that on Eve-Kill or Battleclinic. I'm also nearly breaking into the top 10k on the Battleclinic rankings, so I'm pretty stoked on that (for all that it means). It's not something I pay too much attention to. I've been in Repo. now for just over 8 months.

That's about all I've got to write for now, gonna be flying cheaper now, that's for sure. I'm damn glad I've started to come up with a steady income from running various lowsec sites now.

Fly dangerous
'Chord