Last night I clone jumped up North to fight with some corpmates. By the time the Celtics Lakers game ended, they were loggin off. So I joined a gang that went up, and brought a Curse I had bought from a corpmate. 125 mill, fully fitted. Not too shabby.
We moved out, and immediately I started getting agitated. There was way too much chatter in fleet, there were too many scouts and we were losing kills and opportunities for kills because of the disorganized nature of the gang.
I almost blew my top when, in Deklein, we caught an Onyx jumping into us. Our scout reported him landing on the CCP- gate, and pointed him to push him through. Onyx jumped, decloaked and we lit him up. As he was going through armor the FC started screaming at us to hold DPS. Reason? To get the Vagabond scout on the kill. Most people held DPS, I kept my drones and neuts on him. The FC then ordered the logistics to keep him alive. But he dissapeared anyways.
Our FC screamed. Literally screamed. I felt like I was listening to a 5 yr old. He threatened quitting and logging because we wouldn't listen to him. I felt like laughing on open comms, but thought better of it.
Finally someone who had been trying to talk, but couldn't be heard due to the emo raging, was heard.
"There is no wreck... and log shows no one shot it."
Silence.
"Yeah, he logged off. No kill"
I blanched.
We had just lost a T2 Cruiser kill because of some e-honor bullshit of trying to get a scout on the mail. As a result no one got a kill
I'm very often a scout. When I scout, I accept responsibility for finding targets and know that there are times I won't get on the mail. I also know there may be times I get solo kills or on mails that slower and larger ships don't get on.
It balances out in the end.
I very, very rarely ask fleet to hold DPS because its almost always a bad idea. Sometimes it can even get people killed.
We moved on, and got 3 battlecruiser kills on the night. Drake, Drake, and Hurricane. We also lost a Vagabond because he made a tackle while gang was spread out over 3jumps after burning far too long without regrouping. We also lost a Deimos who, for whatever reason, warped to a POS.
I counted 4 ships that we surely would have killed had we not flooded local before getting a good tackle or aggression.
The kills were nice, but the headache and frustration I had after fleet ended were not.
So aspiring FCs... remember the above follies. Keep channels clear. Fleet comms don't give the FC an excuse to ramble about useless shit like what happened yesterday and how your ship is fitted. You need to shut the hell up too. You should be giving clear and concise orders. You should keep track of your gang. You need to keep gang together. You need to have ONE scout. ONE. Don't send 4 people into a station system and try and play it like normal FCs do when they send in one. Keep your scout within saving distance.
These things and more will help your fleet members not hate you.
That is all.
June 4, 2010
June 3, 2010
PK's Stats
Lots of bloggers seem to be posting stats, so here are mine.
Most pilots that fly with me understand that efficiency and performance are very important to me. Personally and on a corporate scale. I check our kill/losses frequently and address performance issues within the corp. As long as someone listens and learns I don't get too mad (with a few exceptions).
Personally I value PK's stats in the highest esteem. When I lose a ship, I honestly care less about the ISK loss. By no means am I rich but I can rat for a ship when I have to. I worry more about the blow it does to my k/d ration and efficiency.
I value Battleclinics rankings in a very large way. They are unique in their formula, and the points are given out based on the difficulty of the kill. The fleet fight where 70 people get on the mail gives out less points and rank, which is fair, as the kills difficulty is very easy. The 1 v 1 kills give out more points, as it was only 1 pilot that won the engagement. So those people that have a ton of kills, but not any skilled kills, are ranked lower than those who have a good k/d ration and have many small gang or solo victories.
Battleclinic stats for PK:
Perseus Kallistratos's combat record - Ranked #12,132
Lifetime kills 1,279 Lifetime losses 133
First seen: 2009-04-25 Est. SP: 20,404,673
ISK Lost 4,819,441,906
ISK Destroyed 120,400,037,362
Success Ratio 25:1
Average ISK/Kill 94,136,073
Lifetime damage inflicted 29,267,918
Lifetime damage received 787,399
Success Ratio 37:1
Damage inflicted last 7 days 1,764,961
Damage taken last 7 days 21,239
Kills last 7 days: 18
Losses last 7 days: 1
Favourite prey Battlecruiser
Ships lost most frequently Capsule
Total pods killed 221
We also have the -MVN- Killboard Stats:
Corporation: The Maverick Navy
Alliance: IT Alliance
Kills: 1106
Real kills: 865
Losses: 108
Damage done (ISK): 99.4B
Damage received (ISK): 3.29B
Chance of enemy survival: 11.1%
Pilot Efficiency (ISK): 96.79%
1106 Ships killed (99.4B ISK) 108 Ships lost (3.29B ISK)
I do what I can.
That is all.
Most pilots that fly with me understand that efficiency and performance are very important to me. Personally and on a corporate scale. I check our kill/losses frequently and address performance issues within the corp. As long as someone listens and learns I don't get too mad (with a few exceptions).
Personally I value PK's stats in the highest esteem. When I lose a ship, I honestly care less about the ISK loss. By no means am I rich but I can rat for a ship when I have to. I worry more about the blow it does to my k/d ration and efficiency.
I value Battleclinics rankings in a very large way. They are unique in their formula, and the points are given out based on the difficulty of the kill. The fleet fight where 70 people get on the mail gives out less points and rank, which is fair, as the kills difficulty is very easy. The 1 v 1 kills give out more points, as it was only 1 pilot that won the engagement. So those people that have a ton of kills, but not any skilled kills, are ranked lower than those who have a good k/d ration and have many small gang or solo victories.
Battleclinic stats for PK:
Perseus Kallistratos's combat record - Ranked #12,132
Lifetime kills 1,279 Lifetime losses 133
First seen: 2009-04-25 Est. SP: 20,404,673
ISK Lost 4,819,441,906
ISK Destroyed 120,400,037,362
Success Ratio 25:1
Average ISK/Kill 94,136,073
Lifetime damage inflicted 29,267,918
Lifetime damage received 787,399
Success Ratio 37:1
Damage inflicted last 7 days 1,764,961
Damage taken last 7 days 21,239
Kills last 7 days: 18
Losses last 7 days: 1
Favourite prey Battlecruiser
Ships lost most frequently Capsule
Total pods killed 221
We also have the -MVN- Killboard Stats:
Corporation: The Maverick Navy
Alliance: IT Alliance
Kills: 1106
Real kills: 865
Losses: 108
Damage done (ISK): 99.4B
Damage received (ISK): 3.29B
Chance of enemy survival: 11.1%
Pilot Efficiency (ISK): 96.79%
1106 Ships killed (99.4B ISK) 108 Ships lost (3.29B ISK)
I do what I can.
That is all.
A Long Freakin Roam
Later last night (long after the PL debacle), I took a roam out. My intention was to move to high sec through Aridia (mainly low-sec) and kill Orphanage Alliance.
After killing the Hurricane yesterday, I found out Easley solo'd an Orphanage Alliance Vagabond with his Hurricane. You can read about it here. Whats even better is that the Vagabond he killed.... yup, same pilot. Same pilot solo'd twice in one day by two members of -MVN-.
So we left 5-C. Nighthawk, Rapier, Curse, 3x Drake and 2 Basilisks. We headed through Delve core with no incidents. Into Aridia we went. We sent the Nighthawk out front in hopes of getting some pirates to aggress and try and kill it. We had no such luck.
We did, however, spot a Dominix, moving in front of us on the same pipe to Vehan. We ended up catching up with him, but he wouldn't take our bait.
Confused, we kept moving, the Dominix neck and neck with our Nighthawk with us behind 1j, out of sight.
Then the Dominix jumped into a camp of 2x command ships. The campers were outlaws, but blue. So in we came, and even our Rapier pilot got a potshot off and warped off (as gate guns would 1 or 2 shot his Recon). Down the Dominix went.
That is a ridiculous fit. One faction 425 railgun... 4x Cap rechargers and MWD.
My only conclusion is that this guy (an '05 player) had suspended his account and finally re subbed.
We moved on through Empire. Our scouts found no wartargets in the same systems that had been populated the previous evening. Even Amarr was empty.
We moved on to Jita, and found 3 wartargets in system. One was even playing around in a Maelstrom and Navy Typhoon in the 4-4 station. We got ready to bait him when he docked up and didn't come out again.
My only theory is that when we entered Perimeter, neutral scouts saw us and gave them warning.
I hate high sec.
We left and headed home. Stopping for a brief bio in Zinkon, we almost got a Golem who was attacking the same command ship pilot as before. The Golem had a neut scout who would probe down the Damnation and warp the Golem in. This time he had convo'd me and we were ready. The Golem took the bait, warped to him and was tackled. We all jumped system and warped to the blue.
The Golem warped off. Stabbed. Much cursing on comms commenced, and we left.
On the way back through Aridia we cross jumped a Rokh. About face and pursuit was initiated. After an hour and a half of no kills and a failed Golem tackle we were blood thirsty.
The Rokh tried to run but our Rapier and me in the Curse caught up with him. Point was made, and we popped drones to spread the gate aggro off our weak sauce ships. Not a moment too soon our Drakes entered system and started hitting the Rokh. His tank was holding, then my neuts nuked his cap. His reps stopped and he dropped fast. Check out the Rokh's Fit.
Ouch. The fact he had a cloak makes me question his piloting skills. Two recons were going to catch him quickly. Hell, even the Drakes would have eventually caught up. Why he didn't warp to a random planet at range and cloak... I do not know. He paid for the mistake with his ship.
We returned home without any more action, and I called it a night. Next time I hope for twice the kills in half the time... but it was certainly a trek. 5-C to Jita and back.
That is all.
After killing the Hurricane yesterday, I found out Easley solo'd an Orphanage Alliance Vagabond with his Hurricane. You can read about it here. Whats even better is that the Vagabond he killed.... yup, same pilot. Same pilot solo'd twice in one day by two members of -MVN-.
So we left 5-C. Nighthawk, Rapier, Curse, 3x Drake and 2 Basilisks. We headed through Delve core with no incidents. Into Aridia we went. We sent the Nighthawk out front in hopes of getting some pirates to aggress and try and kill it. We had no such luck.
We did, however, spot a Dominix, moving in front of us on the same pipe to Vehan. We ended up catching up with him, but he wouldn't take our bait.
Confused, we kept moving, the Dominix neck and neck with our Nighthawk with us behind 1j, out of sight.
Then the Dominix jumped into a camp of 2x command ships. The campers were outlaws, but blue. So in we came, and even our Rapier pilot got a potshot off and warped off (as gate guns would 1 or 2 shot his Recon). Down the Dominix went.
That is a ridiculous fit. One faction 425 railgun... 4x Cap rechargers and MWD.
My only conclusion is that this guy (an '05 player) had suspended his account and finally re subbed.
We moved on through Empire. Our scouts found no wartargets in the same systems that had been populated the previous evening. Even Amarr was empty.
We moved on to Jita, and found 3 wartargets in system. One was even playing around in a Maelstrom and Navy Typhoon in the 4-4 station. We got ready to bait him when he docked up and didn't come out again.
My only theory is that when we entered Perimeter, neutral scouts saw us and gave them warning.
I hate high sec.
We left and headed home. Stopping for a brief bio in Zinkon, we almost got a Golem who was attacking the same command ship pilot as before. The Golem had a neut scout who would probe down the Damnation and warp the Golem in. This time he had convo'd me and we were ready. The Golem took the bait, warped to him and was tackled. We all jumped system and warped to the blue.
The Golem warped off. Stabbed. Much cursing on comms commenced, and we left.
On the way back through Aridia we cross jumped a Rokh. About face and pursuit was initiated. After an hour and a half of no kills and a failed Golem tackle we were blood thirsty.
The Rokh tried to run but our Rapier and me in the Curse caught up with him. Point was made, and we popped drones to spread the gate aggro off our weak sauce ships. Not a moment too soon our Drakes entered system and started hitting the Rokh. His tank was holding, then my neuts nuked his cap. His reps stopped and he dropped fast. Check out the Rokh's Fit.
Ouch. The fact he had a cloak makes me question his piloting skills. Two recons were going to catch him quickly. Hell, even the Drakes would have eventually caught up. Why he didn't warp to a random planet at range and cloak... I do not know. He paid for the mistake with his ship.
We returned home without any more action, and I called it a night. Next time I hope for twice the kills in half the time... but it was certainly a trek. 5-C to Jita and back.
That is all.
Home Defense
Yesterday I logged on after a beautiful ride and some weightlifting.
What I found was a PL fleet inbound and a sleepy -MVN- home fleet.
I woke that shit up.
"GET IN FLEET!" That went across comms and corp chat.
Slow response was what I got, but better late than never. We started forming numbers as PL entered system. Recons and HACs was their composition. We formed up HACS, Recons and BCs with good tracking.
We tried to gank a lone Cynabal in Kee- on the 5-C gate, as the PL gang moved up towards Fountain. He aggressed our Drake, and I went through. Unfortunately I landed just inside neut range in my Curse, and he burned away immediately. Had I loaded system closer, I would have had him toasted.
Their gang jumped back into 5-C, presumably as a result of the failed attempt to kill their Cynabal. I got everyone in KEE- to the friendly pos, as we didn't have sufficient numbers to engage... yet. If all my pilots were exceptional it would have been a good fight, but given the mixed nature of industrial and PVP types I played it safe.
All of a sudden I hear "oh no I'm tackled". I was like "whos tackled, by what and where". Apparently someone had warped to the gate instead of the safe POS in a Harbinger. The Cynabal tackled him, and PL was now landing on the KEE- gate in 5-C.
Instead of trying to warp off or force the Cynabal off field, he de aggressed and jumped. Right into the 10 PL on the other side.
He died.
PL eventually jumped into KEE- and moved up the pipe towards NOL. We got a couple more in fleet at this time, and they jumped into KEE-. We pursued all the way up to NOL, but couldn't catch up to anything but their Drake, who had POS'd up.
We fooled around in Delve core, evading the PL cov ops scout in who started following us in NOL-.
I jumped our fleet HM and into AJ-. As we left AJ to a dead end pipe their scout entered local. I sat my Curse on the Q-H gate, and sure enough the cov ops lands and jumps through. I have my Vagabond pilot scouting over in A-E at the time, and PL has no idea where we went. After the cov ops jumped into Q-H I brought my guys in and we moved into Q-H. The enemy scout was in 1-Smeb and didn't see us.
Then my Vaga pilot found their gang. 6Q-, heading A-E. Jackpot. My Vagabond burned back towards us, A-E to Q-H. A Cynabal had been playing with him, but running everytime he tried to kill it.
Scout jumped into 1-Smeb and Cynabal followed. He tackled our Vagabond their gang jumped in. Remember, they don't know where our gang is.
Vagabond was screaming bloody murder as 1-smeb local filled, and I jumped our gang in from Q-H. "Warp to 6Q- gate at optimals gogogog!!!"
As we were landing our Vaga died. The hostile gang now consisted of Vagabonds, logistics and some other fast movers. Our gang landed right on top of them, and Vagas all burned out. But a lone Cerberus was still on field and he was promtly tackled. With our DPS the Cerberus popped very quickly.
We approached 6-Q and held, the enemy gang in system with us. Then they appeared on grid, landing on gate at 0. I surveyed the composition and thought for a moment. 4x Vagabond, Drake, Rapier, 4x Scimitar, Cynabal.
The logistics had me worried. We had a tiny bit of an advantage in numbers and composition, but PL are competent pilots and logistics can change a fight very quickly. I knew if I split our gang to play ping pong with them we would take losses.
So we waited.
They jumped.
So did we. Each team held cloak, the exception being my Onyx pilot, who bubbled up and reapproached. PL waited out session timer and then they all burned back to the gate. I decided to go for it and called a primary, one of the Scimitars.
He made it to the gate in armor and jumped through, along with all of his buddies.
At this point I decided to bail, given that we had spent enough time for PL to scout our composition and form a counter. Because we were only two jumps from KFIE- it would be much easier for them to reship and kill us, and the two command ships were juicy.
We burned to NOL-, and sure enough PL added a few gang members from KFIE and was in hot pursuit. Our command ships docked up while the rest burned a few jumps towars home (5-C). PL didn't pursue past NOL, for whatever reason, so we picked up our docked stragglers and continued home.
1 Vaga lost, 1 Cerb killed.
Meh.
Always remember when scouting that you are on your own. Sure, the gang is close, but they are not there. Be smart.
That is all.
Politics. Ugh.
So its old news now that -A- has reset IT.
I was talking with Wensley (Rifter Drifter) and its a shame, we never got to fly together. -A- was in Pure Blind for a very limited time.
-A- pulling out was somewhat expected. Atlas resetting us was expected. -A- resetting us wasn't something we had planned.
Its not the end of the world, in fact it will give us more targets. I don't expect any sov warfare, although Molle is displeased with -A- continuing to hold Querious systems after deciding to reset us.
As events unfold it should be interesting to see how it all pans out. This should stop the similarity talk between the NC and the now dissolved SC.
NC and SC were never synonymous terms.
Everyone knows I hate politics. I just like to shoot things. I like to leave the political details to Easley. He has gone a bit more in depth with his analysis.
That is all.
I was talking with Wensley (Rifter Drifter) and its a shame, we never got to fly together. -A- was in Pure Blind for a very limited time.
-A- pulling out was somewhat expected. Atlas resetting us was expected. -A- resetting us wasn't something we had planned.
Its not the end of the world, in fact it will give us more targets. I don't expect any sov warfare, although Molle is displeased with -A- continuing to hold Querious systems after deciding to reset us.
As events unfold it should be interesting to see how it all pans out. This should stop the similarity talk between the NC and the now dissolved SC.
NC and SC were never synonymous terms.
Everyone knows I hate politics. I just like to shoot things. I like to leave the political details to Easley. He has gone a bit more in depth with his analysis.
That is all.
June 2, 2010
LOL Wardecs
IT Alliance recently got decced by The Orphanage Alliance, which mainly consists of ex Privateer Alliance Corporation Interstellar Brotherhood of Grave Diggers.
So today I logged into a system in high sec with the Geddon I have been trying to get to Yong. System was clear, so I jumped next system into a camp.
Damn.
I took one look at the camp and decided that despite the easy kills, I would lose and it wouldn't be worth it. So I clicked in space, activated DC2 and ctrl-Qd.
Moving an alt into position I, I watched their gang. I knew my ship was ok, as no insurance payout was received. After a couple hrs I checked in and the camp was gone. So I logged PK in.
And local popped two wartargets, as if on cue.
As I was e warping back to gate in 40% armor (and no local rep, rr fit) my alt sees a Rokh land.
Uh oh.
Then a Hurricane.
So I land, spank mwd and burn to gate. Rokh is hitting me, and Hurricane is just sitting there.
I figure I will jump, get pointed by the Cane and eventually die.
Then the Cane aggresses. I laughed and jumped. All clear on other side, and off I warped in like 15% armor. I docked up two systems away, and the Hurricane enters local. I repair and think.
My alt checks warps to outside of station. Cane is just sitting there. So I undock and bam, he points and shoots. So I dock.
I refit for scram + web and ogres. I undock and bam, same story. Cept this time I scram and web him.. Surprise! He has a good fit, and my mega pulses don't do quite as much damage as I like, but evenutally he succumbs and pop goes the Hurricane.
He then tries to goad me in local into another fight, but I scout out his Huginn and Mega buddies in the surrounding systems.
Good times with high sec lols.
That is all.
So today I logged into a system in high sec with the Geddon I have been trying to get to Yong. System was clear, so I jumped next system into a camp.
Damn.
I took one look at the camp and decided that despite the easy kills, I would lose and it wouldn't be worth it. So I clicked in space, activated DC2 and ctrl-Qd.
Moving an alt into position I, I watched their gang. I knew my ship was ok, as no insurance payout was received. After a couple hrs I checked in and the camp was gone. So I logged PK in.
And local popped two wartargets, as if on cue.
As I was e warping back to gate in 40% armor (and no local rep, rr fit) my alt sees a Rokh land.
Uh oh.
Then a Hurricane.
So I land, spank mwd and burn to gate. Rokh is hitting me, and Hurricane is just sitting there.
I figure I will jump, get pointed by the Cane and eventually die.
Then the Cane aggresses. I laughed and jumped. All clear on other side, and off I warped in like 15% armor. I docked up two systems away, and the Hurricane enters local. I repair and think.
My alt checks warps to outside of station. Cane is just sitting there. So I undock and bam, he points and shoots. So I dock.
I refit for scram + web and ogres. I undock and bam, same story. Cept this time I scram and web him.. Surprise! He has a good fit, and my mega pulses don't do quite as much damage as I like, but evenutally he succumbs and pop goes the Hurricane.
He then tries to goad me in local into another fight, but I scout out his Huginn and Mega buddies in the surrounding systems.
Good times with high sec lols.
That is all.
June 1, 2010
High ho, high ho, off to lowsec we go.
Last night I logged on late and found Sir Easley of Thames chillin in Yong. He had moved some ships there in high sec, and I cloned up to Torrinos to get there for some pirating.
I burned from Torrinos to Yong with a ceptor, and switched out for a Drake. Easley came in Cynabal, and we headed to Kor-Azor.
First system we came into is a low sec trough of sorts, surrounded on all sides by high sec. First was a Covetor in a belt, followed shortly by an empty Itty IV.
Not too exciting.
Then we headed into Gademan. Flashy Crow on gate, who warped off. Easley checked out Panaman. Flashy Crow's buddy in a Drake 100km off the in gate. Easley burned him out and got point on him.
I was in Gad on the Panaman gate at this time, and jumped in. I immediately realized that it would be pointless to try and burn him out, so I warped to a nearby celestial and back to Easley.
30km off the Drake at this point I started dropping Scourge Fury on him. Easley had been doing steady damage but it was slow going, as he was kiting the Drake way outside of optimals for a Cynabal. Lucky enough, the Drake was HAM fit, which means short range.
Once I landed Easley switched out for EM and went close range.
He wasn't able to do anything but put drones out, which Easley tanked no problem. He didn't have gate guns on him since Easley aggressed first, but since he was an outlaw we didn't have GCC either.
The Drake practically melted as soon as he moved in close.
Not a horrible fit... T2 on some of the fittings would have helped him quite a bit, such as the invuln field, LSEs, Ballistic Controls, etc. but you live and learn (or train the skills).
Remember that a Cynabal can do around 1k with afterburner, and well over 2.5k/sec with MWD. Most are dual propulsion fit to maximize survivability.
Also remember that rarely is someone alone. They will usually have help coming. Its just a matter of how long you have to try and kill them before their buddies arrive. That and how many buddies they have compared to how many buddies (if any) you have.
In our case after the Drake melted his buddy came onto grid in a Tempest. We thought about taking him, but he was out of range of gate guns and without their help it would have been difficult to drop.
We played around in Daran for a bit, but couldn't find any targets. The Tempest joined me on station in Daran but didn't aggress till his buddy in a Harbinger showed up (sad, as we had agreed that if the Tempest aggressed on station we would kill him). So I sat, waited for the Tempest to aggro, which he did. Harbinger landed on station and aggrod as well. My tank was doing well, and the Tempest wasn't hitting me for much. I suspected he may have only been cycling some of his autocannons. This is a common tactic, one that I use from time to time. You lull your target into thinking their tank will hold, and when they aggress you(keeping them from docking/jumping) you turn on the full DPS and they die. So I aligned and warped off.
Yes, I warped.
How you ask? Oh, although they were shooting me they decided a point wasn't necessary I guess.
I commented in local "nice point bro". To which I got a response along the lines of "you were at 0km on a station who cares".
Seriously?
I responded with the obvious "Why even bothering to shoot then? Because instead of docked in a kickout station I am now on the outgate jumping. Later"
Never assume the enemy will dock if you shoot them. Noobs may panic and do that... but someone with even a bit of common sense will notice they aren't pointed and vacate the system. Just as a target on the gate at 0 needs to be forced through (i.e. pointed so he can't warp off) to the gang on the other side, the target on a station needs to be pointed to keep him on/in the station.
So they GCCed for no reason and we left before they called in more buddies.
I decided to bring an RRBS down from Torrinos after our low sec playtime. At this point it was 4am and downtime was in an hour. I was watching Russell Brand (a comedian), whom I had heard of but never heard stand up wise. Needless to say I was laughing hysterically (this was on my laptop). I glanced up every 10 seconds or so to continue my 26 jump trek from Torrinos to Yong.
Then the pattern changed.
I jumped into some system (can't remember) and noticed damage and warp disruption messages flash across my screen as I looked up.
Hmmm.
My Geddon was triple trimarked triple plated, but had no local rep.
It was a Cyclone, and he was fit with 425 atuos. Doing decent damage (plus he had been hitting me for 15 seconds without my DC2 on) I aggressed with short range ammo and Hammerhead IIs. Cyclone can fit a mean active tank and I didn't have time to cap him out at this point. If I had a heavy neut instead of RR I would have melted him.
So after aggressing for a minute I realized that I was in a bad situation. The guy was tanking well enough (which he would have done till he ran out of cap charges) and my armor was slowly whittling away. So I pulled drones and de aggressed.
Good choice. His buddy showed up in system as I was spanking the jump button, and this buddy was in a Falcon. Had I not de aggressed (even if winning) the Falcon would have de cloaked and jammed me, saving his friend from death and sealing my own fate.
So I sat on the gate... armor dropping. 50%, 45%, 40%.... at 20% I got the magic session change and one system dissapeared to be replaced by another. To my relief there was no waiting committee on the other side. I immediately initiated warp to a station. As I was approaching warp velocity the Falcon jumped in. I held my breath, waiting for the Falcon to instalock and point. Warp hit and I was off to the station, exhaling as I flew.
Good call. As soon as I docked to repair in came the Cyclone pilot along with two new war target friends. Falcon was gone... but I know how these guys operate.
See, Interstellar Brotherhood of Grave Diggers was a major corp in Privateer Alliance. They recently broke off and formed an Alliance called The Orphanage (or something like that). So they will operate on similar protocals, which is members looking for targets in certain choke point systems in empire and calling for help when they tackle something. You never know how far away their friends are, and aggressing what may look like an easy kill may get you killed instead. They aren't neccessarily the best PVPers skill wise, but they catch lots of idiots trucking through empire in haulers and expensive ships. I got lucky tbh, flying around half asleep late at night.
Needless to say I am at work, running on 3 hrs of sleep (thanks EVE). I need a nap.
That is all.
I burned from Torrinos to Yong with a ceptor, and switched out for a Drake. Easley came in Cynabal, and we headed to Kor-Azor.
First system we came into is a low sec trough of sorts, surrounded on all sides by high sec. First was a Covetor in a belt, followed shortly by an empty Itty IV.
Not too exciting.
Then we headed into Gademan. Flashy Crow on gate, who warped off. Easley checked out Panaman. Flashy Crow's buddy in a Drake 100km off the in gate. Easley burned him out and got point on him.
I was in Gad on the Panaman gate at this time, and jumped in. I immediately realized that it would be pointless to try and burn him out, so I warped to a nearby celestial and back to Easley.
30km off the Drake at this point I started dropping Scourge Fury on him. Easley had been doing steady damage but it was slow going, as he was kiting the Drake way outside of optimals for a Cynabal. Lucky enough, the Drake was HAM fit, which means short range.
Once I landed Easley switched out for EM and went close range.
He wasn't able to do anything but put drones out, which Easley tanked no problem. He didn't have gate guns on him since Easley aggressed first, but since he was an outlaw we didn't have GCC either.
The Drake practically melted as soon as he moved in close.
Not a horrible fit... T2 on some of the fittings would have helped him quite a bit, such as the invuln field, LSEs, Ballistic Controls, etc. but you live and learn (or train the skills).
Remember that a Cynabal can do around 1k with afterburner, and well over 2.5k/sec with MWD. Most are dual propulsion fit to maximize survivability.
Also remember that rarely is someone alone. They will usually have help coming. Its just a matter of how long you have to try and kill them before their buddies arrive. That and how many buddies they have compared to how many buddies (if any) you have.
In our case after the Drake melted his buddy came onto grid in a Tempest. We thought about taking him, but he was out of range of gate guns and without their help it would have been difficult to drop.
We played around in Daran for a bit, but couldn't find any targets. The Tempest joined me on station in Daran but didn't aggress till his buddy in a Harbinger showed up (sad, as we had agreed that if the Tempest aggressed on station we would kill him). So I sat, waited for the Tempest to aggro, which he did. Harbinger landed on station and aggrod as well. My tank was doing well, and the Tempest wasn't hitting me for much. I suspected he may have only been cycling some of his autocannons. This is a common tactic, one that I use from time to time. You lull your target into thinking their tank will hold, and when they aggress you(keeping them from docking/jumping) you turn on the full DPS and they die. So I aligned and warped off.
Yes, I warped.
How you ask? Oh, although they were shooting me they decided a point wasn't necessary I guess.
I commented in local "nice point bro". To which I got a response along the lines of "you were at 0km on a station who cares".
Seriously?
I responded with the obvious "Why even bothering to shoot then? Because instead of docked in a kickout station I am now on the outgate jumping. Later"
Never assume the enemy will dock if you shoot them. Noobs may panic and do that... but someone with even a bit of common sense will notice they aren't pointed and vacate the system. Just as a target on the gate at 0 needs to be forced through (i.e. pointed so he can't warp off) to the gang on the other side, the target on a station needs to be pointed to keep him on/in the station.
So they GCCed for no reason and we left before they called in more buddies.
I decided to bring an RRBS down from Torrinos after our low sec playtime. At this point it was 4am and downtime was in an hour. I was watching Russell Brand (a comedian), whom I had heard of but never heard stand up wise. Needless to say I was laughing hysterically (this was on my laptop). I glanced up every 10 seconds or so to continue my 26 jump trek from Torrinos to Yong.
Then the pattern changed.
I jumped into some system (can't remember) and noticed damage and warp disruption messages flash across my screen as I looked up.
Hmmm.
My Geddon was triple trimarked triple plated, but had no local rep.
It was a Cyclone, and he was fit with 425 atuos. Doing decent damage (plus he had been hitting me for 15 seconds without my DC2 on) I aggressed with short range ammo and Hammerhead IIs. Cyclone can fit a mean active tank and I didn't have time to cap him out at this point. If I had a heavy neut instead of RR I would have melted him.
So after aggressing for a minute I realized that I was in a bad situation. The guy was tanking well enough (which he would have done till he ran out of cap charges) and my armor was slowly whittling away. So I pulled drones and de aggressed.
Good choice. His buddy showed up in system as I was spanking the jump button, and this buddy was in a Falcon. Had I not de aggressed (even if winning) the Falcon would have de cloaked and jammed me, saving his friend from death and sealing my own fate.
So I sat on the gate... armor dropping. 50%, 45%, 40%.... at 20% I got the magic session change and one system dissapeared to be replaced by another. To my relief there was no waiting committee on the other side. I immediately initiated warp to a station. As I was approaching warp velocity the Falcon jumped in. I held my breath, waiting for the Falcon to instalock and point. Warp hit and I was off to the station, exhaling as I flew.
Good call. As soon as I docked to repair in came the Cyclone pilot along with two new war target friends. Falcon was gone... but I know how these guys operate.
See, Interstellar Brotherhood of Grave Diggers was a major corp in Privateer Alliance. They recently broke off and formed an Alliance called The Orphanage (or something like that). So they will operate on similar protocals, which is members looking for targets in certain choke point systems in empire and calling for help when they tackle something. You never know how far away their friends are, and aggressing what may look like an easy kill may get you killed instead. They aren't neccessarily the best PVPers skill wise, but they catch lots of idiots trucking through empire in haulers and expensive ships. I got lucky tbh, flying around half asleep late at night.
Needless to say I am at work, running on 3 hrs of sleep (thanks EVE). I need a nap.
That is all.
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