Today I took control of a gang that was camping a nullsec entrance to Derelik. Lots of random ships, double and triple sensor boosted killmail whores. Told em to reship and get ready for a roam.
As we were reshipping... my alt happened upon two wartargets in local next door to our staging system. Turns out they were on the Arnola gate... I got gang on the Arnola gate in an adjacent system. Hostile was reported in Arnola... third member of their gang in a Scorpion. He jumped into another high sec system. I had two Canes jump into Arnola (since they were the best tanked ships currently in gang). Both went to the gate the Scorpion had jumped through. Since my alt was out of corp the wartargets had no idea we had them scouted. I had one Cane jump in and the other hold the gate. Sure enough, Scorpion aggressed the Cane that went through, and I had him reapproach. Second wartarget entered local... the Tempest! He warped straight to the gate my Cane was waiting at. At this point I was cloaked off the gate in a Falcon. He saw the Cane sitting there and opened up. By this time the Cane with the hostile Scorpion had reapproached and jumped back in. The Tempest was aggressed, the third neut in an Abaddon had entered local and was reported in warp to our gate, so I decloaked and jammed the Tempest.
Well at least thats the idea. But those damn dice rolls screwed me and all 4 racials and my 1 multi spec failed to jam him. This was made all the worse when he locked me up and my 10k distance from him seemed within touching distance. Yet... his point stayed on General Yurizan in his Hurricane, as did his drones. Curious, as he could have killed or forced me off field.
My second try jammed him with the Minmitar racial... and Yurizan's cries of impending death seemed to disappear. I called the gang in at this point, and in they came. Abaddon landed about the same time, and was off gate (he may have warped to the Tempest). I tried to jam up the Abaddon, but failed, so I instead focused on the Tempest. At this point the Scorpion jumped in, but he reapproached. My first try jammed him up... and he wisely stayed unaggressed and re-approached. He jumped back out and left his comrades to die. Tempest popped... but so did my Cane pilot!
"How the hell did you die!!" I yelled...
"I was pointed"
"Bullshit! I've gotten off 5 or so jam cycles on that Tempest, you should have been hammering warp!" I responded.
But now was not the time for a lecture, as we dropped the Tempest and started to work on the Abbadon... who made no efforts to reapproach. Finally he popped... in total I got off ONE jam cycle on his ass. Looking at his mail, however, and you can see why A. he didn't reapproach B. He lasted so long and C. why I couldn't jam him up.
Loot went to our downed Cane pilot, but I was happy we got two battleship kills. Would have liked the Scorpion... but 2/3 is good. Too many times FC's will go for the one kill... but with some patience and brains you can usually get a bit more.
After we finished reshipping, we left on our roam, heading to N-RAEL. We got there... nothing to kill. I was scouting in a Sabre and the closest we got to action was a Red Alliance Sacrilege who logged mid warp to the out gate. Unfortunately I wasn't there (3 gate system) and he dissapeared from scans. A few minutes later his alt shows up in local and despite a logon trap we aren't able to get him to bite. Oh, how did I know his alt was in local? It said in the guys bio "alt of thisguy".
So on we moved, heading back to Derelik so that a couple of the guys could logoff. One of the -MVN- guys was burning well ahead of the gang (I guess he really needed to get home) and reported a 3 man gang, Vaga Rapier and Heretic. They were traveling along the same pipe, heading towards us.
I had gang hold 2j out from their position when they left local with out "advance scout". I got ready to lay a trap when new neut came into local... same corp has this gang. Falcon decloaked... unexpected scout for their gang! I bubbled and burned right at his last known location before he cloaked. Sure enough, he was burning straight out of the bubble and I got him. Then he got one volleyed by a Cane in gang (who was more than likely sensor boosted to hell, despite his protests to the contrary). So, scratch one Falcon, but the rest of his gang bailed out.
Short break for the crew and we tried to bait some pirates a few jumps away... giant waste of time. Then we tried to engage some more wartargets near Rens... but due to miscommunication we lost a Gila Kill. So after wasting almost an hour on high sec shenanigans (once again, I hate high sec warfare... neutral alts for repping and eyes and all that crap) we headed to Curse.
Curse proved pretty empty, but we picked up some NEXE guys in Hemen and moved on into Catch. We went to go play with En Garde in GJO- but nobody wanted to play. So we went to GE- and caught this Typhoon jumping into us. I was scouting, jumped into Ge- in time to see him cross jump me. I prayed that the fast movers in gang would be landing quickly enough to point him... they were. He melted insanely fast, before I could even reapproach and get on the mail. PVP fit, but with 425 IIs.
Unfortunately that was it for GE-, so we went to HED-. In SV5 there was a ship, that, looking at Battleclinic, was in a stealth bomber and had just popped a ship recently with a gang. Assuming eyes for a gang in HED-, I jumped my Drakes only into SV5... and there were 8 Drakes, a bit more than I thought but oh well. I warped them to the HED- gate as I jumped in with my Dramiel. Loaded system and...
Jackpot.
Mixed gang on the gate at 0. I held cloak, and had Drakes hold. I ordered my two Scimmies in, anticipating a fight... but the moment the Scimmies jumped into SV5 the enemy gang started aligning.
"Jump jump Drakes in tackle what you can!" I yelled.
I had Scimmies jump on contact and as soon as the enemy gang was committed I jumped the reset of the fleet into SV5 and had them get into HED-. The warp from gate to gate in SV5 is very very short, so gang was there quickly. Most of the enemy gang managed to get away, but we scratched off a Myrm, another Myrm, Blackbird, Onyx, and 5k away from my cloaked Dramiel (from the gate jump) was a Nemesis. As soon as the shooting started I broke cloak and tackled/solo'd the Nemesis.
Please note the Nemesis killmail.... and never fly a bomber fit like that. EVER. Small nosferatu... 2x blasters... with 2x Ballistic Control units for... not sure. Combined with his double sensor boosters with point... he was fit to fight? The cherry on top was the improved cloaking device II. Don't know about you guys but I enjoy warping while cloaked while in a bomber... but whatever.
We camped HED- for a few minutes and moved into Providence. Thats when we ran into a -A- snipe HAC gang.
We danced with the -A- gang for a bit, but neither would engage. There was a couple pucker moments but I decided to bail based on the lack of intel in the area and the fact that a smart -A- fc could jump into us, take some losses but burn off rather quickly and start raining hell down on us if we were bubbled. We ended up at 0 with them on a gate a couple times, but both times they smartly jumped through and none of their guys lemming aggro'd us. Since they wouldn't play my game, I said eff it and off we burned.
Unfortunately we lost 2 Drakes and a Zealot on the warping around... all 3 which could have been avoided with better communication ("Help I'm tackled") or following orders.
We tussled with a few of the Providence locals but couldn't get anything solid... so back home we headed. I had to pack for the flight to visit home/family (I'm currently writing this from an airport) and we had been roaming for a few hours.
Gotta love the fights around Derelik though... shout out to Darthdeaconrage in his home region :) Except for the really lame pansy pirates in Ubtes who won't engage anything. And thanks to Snatch Victory, our high sec wardeccers... for the battleship kills and this Tengu we bagged yesterday. I bet he cried.
That is all.
August 17, 2010
August 12, 2010
No Battle Stories... Well Sorta
I haven't played much EVE the past few days due to very nice weather and hours of riding. As it stands I just got to work (8:30AM) after going to bed at 4:00AM. No tickets, no accidents for anyone out riding in our group last night, so it was a good time.
I did lose an Onyx to CVA. I was embarassed. It went like this:
I logged into Yong after work. A trio of pirates we had tussled and talked with was docked, one with GCC. One CVA in local. Thinking nothing of the above, I undocked in my Onyx after the CVA guy undocked. He was in an Occator, and warped to Gemodi gate (Gemodi also being lowsec). I jumped through with the Occator, and waited on the other side, slowboating back to the Yong gate. Occator held cloak, then started a slowboating reapproach. Fair enough. He then started to align off, so I pointed and let loose.
First thing I noticed was that my missiles put his shields at 95%. Uh oh. Serious tank...
Second was the point and painter he turned on. Damn...
Third was about a minute later when local spiked with 7 CVA & Pets. I deaggressed on the Yong gate, jumped through in about 40% shield. Unfortunately for me, there was a Harbinger and Tempest on the other side. I aligned, hit my damage control and logged.
Kuzzi was in system and undocked, spamming scan. Unfortunately for me, my wreck showed up on scan shortly after loggin. Between the gate guns and the Harbinger/Tempest, they were able to finish me off. A for effort, but in the end the unexpected happened and I got caught.
Speaking with the pirates in local with me, it appears that they had stirred up CVA... and I happened to walk into a trap meant for them. Oh well, that Onyx got me plenty of kills :)
Couple things I read in the blog pak yesterday I wanted to touch upon. My Loot Your Tears had an article addressing some interesting feedback concerning angry-emo readers. "Paul and I were just discussing our different styles of posting stories on My Loot, Your Tears. In particular we are both highly amused that we often get people giving us grief in the comments section, because they don’t like the content of our stories."
Not much to say on that, except this: If you don't like reading it don't. Reading it then whining to the authors is retarded. Just shut the fuck up and go read something else. Its like whining about TV... change the damn channel. That being said, I find the tears and expensive carebear deaths on that blog to be extremely entertaining and have no desire for them to go away. I do believe there are quite a few ninja/pirating blogs, and not enough hardcore nullsec PVPers... but I can live with that.
Second was the Stealth Bomber Guide from a Merry Life and a Short One. He has some excellent ideas and fits from the torping side of things... but I am here to offer insights on the actual bombing part of the bomber.
As you can see from my stats (if you have ever looked) I have lost lots of bombers. You can also see I have killed shit tons of ships with bombers. In 0.0 bombers have the capability to wreak havoc on large numbers of enemies with relatively few resources (7-8 bombers and maybe a dictor).
Theres a few tactics, touched upon briefly in the guide. I'm going to go into a bit more detail. Depending on situations some of these will work better than others.
The POS shoot: Oftentimes you will have to engage an enemy force reinforcing/destroying one of your towers. Due to TZ differences or just who you are fighting, you are unable to go toe-to-toe with the engaging force. You need a cov ops alt or a volunteer stealth bomber to get into position anywhere from 15-45km from the enemy fleet. If the enemy fleet is aligned and moving towards a celesital (warp-out) then the scout needs to be near the largest clump of targets. Draw an imaginary line from the target area to the scout ship. Then continue that line in both directions. Behind the target should be a warp out point, or prerably multiple warp out poins. Behind the scout should be a celestial (often a moon) that has your fleet of bombers. On cue, all bombers should align towards the moon with the enemy ships full speed. If your gang is 8 or less, all will warp on the FC's command. If it is over 8, you should split into two or more waves. Although bombs have resistance to their same damage type, enough of them will cause the last launched bombs to be destroyed.
As the bombers warp in, they immediately align to the targets (should already be in position for the most part) drop bombs and warp out. Some will die if the enemy is on its toes, but properly executed a 20 mill bomber or two will die but several HACs or BSs will die.
Make sure to rotate warp in points... using the same spot more than once will get you all killed. Also be ready to hit the enemy fleet as it leaves system, have points set up on the gate and in the next system.
Second is the gate bombing. There are two ways to do this, on the jump in or the out gate. In a hurry, the jump in is the most effective. Have your bombers 35km off the gate wherever they want to be as long as they have a warp out point behind the gate. Make sure they aren't closer... bombs will impact on objects (gate) before detonation and will not detonate. The downside to this is that your bombs are hitting the majority but not all of the ships coming through. Overlap of damage will not be as substantial.
My favorite is the out gate. This requires a dictor (with cloak)at the out gate and a scout on the in gate. The key is timing...
All bombers (minus scout) need to be 30km off the dictor. Said dictor should be in a drag bubble position somewhere behind the gate (or pull bubble in front, I prefer sucker bubbles behind as it gives the prey the "oh shit" feeling as they zoom past the gate).
Dictor will allow scout to pass and report the outgate clear. As enemy fleet enters local and starts their warp, scout will instruct dictor to drop bubble. Dictor will GTFO (as he is on every mail at this point, and cannot survive the bombs or the enemy fleet). Once again, make sure you have the same bomb types loaded and if you're bomber composition is more than 8 break it into waves. One wave on initial fleet landing, the other afterwards (or if they are in a big clump hit them MWDing back to the gate, its awesome!)
The best is some alliances who feel that fleet warping every gate is super awesome. You can hit the entire fleet in one volley. Those gangs usually have scout in next system before they even initiate warp to the next gate... meaning they have no clue whats coming until they land in the gate and see bombs flying at them.
Make sure you launch bombs as soon as the enemy fleet appears on grid. The 10 second flight time means they will have landed and started turning/burning out of the bubble when bombs impact. Wait too long... they may be late. Too soon, you get nothing. The drag bubble pretty much is a win win scenario though.
Worst case... you didn't get them on the in gate and you have no dictor. Line up 35km from the out gate (aligned to the point of the gate the enemy fleet will land on). As soon as the lead elements appear on directional start the launching. It really only works with a medium to large fleet, where ships get caught due to jump lag. Small gangs are almost pointless to try this on.
These ships should not be fit expensive. Torp DPS doesn't matter. Some of the bombers I've used (and killed) won't even fit torp launchers. Speed and maneuverability are paramount on these ships. Expect
[Manticore, Brown Bomber]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
1MN Microwarp Drive II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device
Bomb Launcher - Shrapnel X2
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing
2x Shrapnel in Cargo
Or, if you are looking for a hybrid of sorts, you can fit both tasks. Penalty will be torp range and the agility of the bomber will not be the same as the fit above. I don't believe in the tracking disruptor because it only works on a portion of the ships out there, whereas a sensor disruptor works on all. Two damps multiplied by X number of bombers means you can damp the hell out of whatever target(s) you're engaging. Most BCs will have lock range for only 10 or so kilometers, battleships 20-30. Very effective.
[Manticore, The Magician]
Power Diagnostic System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Cold Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor - Dampening Range Script
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor - Dampening Range Script
Target Painter II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device
Malkuth Siege Missile Launcher
Malkuth Siege Missile Launcher
Malkuth Siege Missile Launcher
Bomb Launcher - 2x Shrapnel
Low Friction Nozzle Joints
Warhead Calefaction Catalyst
2x Shrapnel
2x Scan Resolution Dampening Script
Caldari Navy Juggernaut (however many you can hold)
Then we have the standard torp only fit, often used in Black Ops gangs and such. I do enjoy the bombers range, however I value agility and speed over all else. Stock, I can hit out to 60km in my bomber. Thats more than enough for me. The ability to align and warp out quickly is paramount in a craft that is extremely slow in alignment. Arbalest are nice, but I only fit them on this type of craft. The point is for redundancy. I have seen hero tackles by bombers on many different occasions. Engaging at close range is dangerous, but holding a point for a few extra seconds can get you a kill, and these bombers overheating MWDs can hit 2.5k/second easily, and get out of range. Just make sure you keep your transversal up on egress. The Ballistic Control Unit increases damage and range, whereas the Calefaction Catalyst just increases damage. As I stated before, I don't believe in the tracking disruptor because it only works on a portion of the ships out there, whereas a sensor disruptor works on all. If the gang has several dedicated tacklers I will drop the point for a second Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor. For the record, this is my least favorite fit.
[Manticore, Gotcha Bitch]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Ballistic Control Unit II
Target Painter II
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor - Dampening Range Script
Warp Disruptor II
1MN Microwarp Drive II
Arbalest Siege Missile Launcher
Arbalest Siege Missile Launcher
Arbalest Siege Missile Launcher
Covert Ops Cloaking Device
Salvager (Offline)
As was mentioned in the bomber guide, be careful of the shiptypes engaged. Zealots are death on wheels for bombers. Drakes, Sacrilege, other missile boats should be engaged with caution. Enough damps on them and you're on easy street. Otherwise, those missiles will eat you alive. A Drake loaded with Precision Scourge will two volley your ship. Even tech one missiles will drop you in a relatively short period of time. Remember to keep up orbit on any ship you are shooting, to avoid warp ins or an easy intercept vector. Against turret boats it will decrease damage to your ship. Don't spank your MWD unless you need to GTFO or make range on your target(s). When in doubt, warp out and back in. Make sure to drop a bookmark on field so you don't land in a bubble or on top of a target. Warp back in cloaked (especially against multiple targets). Never underestimate the power of bombers with painters... once upon a time I remember killing an interceptor with 5 bombers and painters... it took about 20 seconds.
Don't solo in a bomber, its retarded. Even dumber is launching a single bomb on a gate at a gang. Unless there is a MWDing frigate, you won't get any kills. Worst case, a fast locker or bubbler will get your ass and I can't tell you how many of those I've killed.
As with any engagement, there isn't a pre determined course of action (game plan) for the situation. Use your best judgement and remember the advantage of your shiptypes. In this case, its the ability to disengage and bug out on whim that makes your gang a survivable one. Don't try and get into a slugfest with any other gang... you will all die.
That is all.
PS: Feel free to comment. These fits... yeah they are just guidelines. I switch fits all the time, tweaking for a specific gang. I suggest you do the same. If you like these little guides, let me know. I usually write battle reports, but I have these little speeches with my corpmates all the time, and am happy to share with all of you. Makes for more worthy and fun opponents :-)
Middle: Blue bike is mine
Bottom: My bike is the blue one in the middle (with pink and blue helmets on the mirrors). I'm on the far right, holding a girl in the air :)
I did lose an Onyx to CVA. I was embarassed. It went like this:
I logged into Yong after work. A trio of pirates we had tussled and talked with was docked, one with GCC. One CVA in local. Thinking nothing of the above, I undocked in my Onyx after the CVA guy undocked. He was in an Occator, and warped to Gemodi gate (Gemodi also being lowsec). I jumped through with the Occator, and waited on the other side, slowboating back to the Yong gate. Occator held cloak, then started a slowboating reapproach. Fair enough. He then started to align off, so I pointed and let loose.
First thing I noticed was that my missiles put his shields at 95%. Uh oh. Serious tank...
Second was the point and painter he turned on. Damn...
Third was about a minute later when local spiked with 7 CVA & Pets. I deaggressed on the Yong gate, jumped through in about 40% shield. Unfortunately for me, there was a Harbinger and Tempest on the other side. I aligned, hit my damage control and logged.
Kuzzi was in system and undocked, spamming scan. Unfortunately for me, my wreck showed up on scan shortly after loggin. Between the gate guns and the Harbinger/Tempest, they were able to finish me off. A for effort, but in the end the unexpected happened and I got caught.
Speaking with the pirates in local with me, it appears that they had stirred up CVA... and I happened to walk into a trap meant for them. Oh well, that Onyx got me plenty of kills :)
Couple things I read in the blog pak yesterday I wanted to touch upon. My Loot Your Tears had an article addressing some interesting feedback concerning angry-emo readers. "Paul and I were just discussing our different styles of posting stories on My Loot, Your Tears. In particular we are both highly amused that we often get people giving us grief in the comments section, because they don’t like the content of our stories."
Not much to say on that, except this: If you don't like reading it don't. Reading it then whining to the authors is retarded. Just shut the fuck up and go read something else. Its like whining about TV... change the damn channel. That being said, I find the tears and expensive carebear deaths on that blog to be extremely entertaining and have no desire for them to go away. I do believe there are quite a few ninja/pirating blogs, and not enough hardcore nullsec PVPers... but I can live with that.
Second was the Stealth Bomber Guide from a Merry Life and a Short One. He has some excellent ideas and fits from the torping side of things... but I am here to offer insights on the actual bombing part of the bomber.
As you can see from my stats (if you have ever looked) I have lost lots of bombers. You can also see I have killed shit tons of ships with bombers. In 0.0 bombers have the capability to wreak havoc on large numbers of enemies with relatively few resources (7-8 bombers and maybe a dictor).
Theres a few tactics, touched upon briefly in the guide. I'm going to go into a bit more detail. Depending on situations some of these will work better than others.
The POS shoot: Oftentimes you will have to engage an enemy force reinforcing/destroying one of your towers. Due to TZ differences or just who you are fighting, you are unable to go toe-to-toe with the engaging force. You need a cov ops alt or a volunteer stealth bomber to get into position anywhere from 15-45km from the enemy fleet. If the enemy fleet is aligned and moving towards a celesital (warp-out) then the scout needs to be near the largest clump of targets. Draw an imaginary line from the target area to the scout ship. Then continue that line in both directions. Behind the target should be a warp out point, or prerably multiple warp out poins. Behind the scout should be a celestial (often a moon) that has your fleet of bombers. On cue, all bombers should align towards the moon with the enemy ships full speed. If your gang is 8 or less, all will warp on the FC's command. If it is over 8, you should split into two or more waves. Although bombs have resistance to their same damage type, enough of them will cause the last launched bombs to be destroyed.
As the bombers warp in, they immediately align to the targets (should already be in position for the most part) drop bombs and warp out. Some will die if the enemy is on its toes, but properly executed a 20 mill bomber or two will die but several HACs or BSs will die.
Make sure to rotate warp in points... using the same spot more than once will get you all killed. Also be ready to hit the enemy fleet as it leaves system, have points set up on the gate and in the next system.
Second is the gate bombing. There are two ways to do this, on the jump in or the out gate. In a hurry, the jump in is the most effective. Have your bombers 35km off the gate wherever they want to be as long as they have a warp out point behind the gate. Make sure they aren't closer... bombs will impact on objects (gate) before detonation and will not detonate. The downside to this is that your bombs are hitting the majority but not all of the ships coming through. Overlap of damage will not be as substantial.
My favorite is the out gate. This requires a dictor (with cloak)at the out gate and a scout on the in gate. The key is timing...
All bombers (minus scout) need to be 30km off the dictor. Said dictor should be in a drag bubble position somewhere behind the gate (or pull bubble in front, I prefer sucker bubbles behind as it gives the prey the "oh shit" feeling as they zoom past the gate).
Dictor will allow scout to pass and report the outgate clear. As enemy fleet enters local and starts their warp, scout will instruct dictor to drop bubble. Dictor will GTFO (as he is on every mail at this point, and cannot survive the bombs or the enemy fleet). Once again, make sure you have the same bomb types loaded and if you're bomber composition is more than 8 break it into waves. One wave on initial fleet landing, the other afterwards (or if they are in a big clump hit them MWDing back to the gate, its awesome!)
The best is some alliances who feel that fleet warping every gate is super awesome. You can hit the entire fleet in one volley. Those gangs usually have scout in next system before they even initiate warp to the next gate... meaning they have no clue whats coming until they land in the gate and see bombs flying at them.
Make sure you launch bombs as soon as the enemy fleet appears on grid. The 10 second flight time means they will have landed and started turning/burning out of the bubble when bombs impact. Wait too long... they may be late. Too soon, you get nothing. The drag bubble pretty much is a win win scenario though.
Worst case... you didn't get them on the in gate and you have no dictor. Line up 35km from the out gate (aligned to the point of the gate the enemy fleet will land on). As soon as the lead elements appear on directional start the launching. It really only works with a medium to large fleet, where ships get caught due to jump lag. Small gangs are almost pointless to try this on.
These ships should not be fit expensive. Torp DPS doesn't matter. Some of the bombers I've used (and killed) won't even fit torp launchers. Speed and maneuverability are paramount on these ships. Expect
[Manticore, Brown Bomber]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
1MN Microwarp Drive II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device
Bomb Launcher - Shrapnel X2
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing
2x Shrapnel in Cargo
Or, if you are looking for a hybrid of sorts, you can fit both tasks. Penalty will be torp range and the agility of the bomber will not be the same as the fit above. I don't believe in the tracking disruptor because it only works on a portion of the ships out there, whereas a sensor disruptor works on all. Two damps multiplied by X number of bombers means you can damp the hell out of whatever target(s) you're engaging. Most BCs will have lock range for only 10 or so kilometers, battleships 20-30. Very effective.
[Manticore, The Magician]
Power Diagnostic System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Cold Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor - Dampening Range Script
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor - Dampening Range Script
Target Painter II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device
Malkuth Siege Missile Launcher
Malkuth Siege Missile Launcher
Malkuth Siege Missile Launcher
Bomb Launcher - 2x Shrapnel
Low Friction Nozzle Joints
Warhead Calefaction Catalyst
2x Shrapnel
2x Scan Resolution Dampening Script
Caldari Navy Juggernaut (however many you can hold)
Then we have the standard torp only fit, often used in Black Ops gangs and such. I do enjoy the bombers range, however I value agility and speed over all else. Stock, I can hit out to 60km in my bomber. Thats more than enough for me. The ability to align and warp out quickly is paramount in a craft that is extremely slow in alignment. Arbalest are nice, but I only fit them on this type of craft. The point is for redundancy. I have seen hero tackles by bombers on many different occasions. Engaging at close range is dangerous, but holding a point for a few extra seconds can get you a kill, and these bombers overheating MWDs can hit 2.5k/second easily, and get out of range. Just make sure you keep your transversal up on egress. The Ballistic Control Unit increases damage and range, whereas the Calefaction Catalyst just increases damage. As I stated before, I don't believe in the tracking disruptor because it only works on a portion of the ships out there, whereas a sensor disruptor works on all. If the gang has several dedicated tacklers I will drop the point for a second Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor. For the record, this is my least favorite fit.
[Manticore, Gotcha Bitch]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Ballistic Control Unit II
Target Painter II
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor - Dampening Range Script
Warp Disruptor II
1MN Microwarp Drive II
Arbalest Siege Missile Launcher
Arbalest Siege Missile Launcher
Arbalest Siege Missile Launcher
Covert Ops Cloaking Device
Salvager (Offline)
As was mentioned in the bomber guide, be careful of the shiptypes engaged. Zealots are death on wheels for bombers. Drakes, Sacrilege, other missile boats should be engaged with caution. Enough damps on them and you're on easy street. Otherwise, those missiles will eat you alive. A Drake loaded with Precision Scourge will two volley your ship. Even tech one missiles will drop you in a relatively short period of time. Remember to keep up orbit on any ship you are shooting, to avoid warp ins or an easy intercept vector. Against turret boats it will decrease damage to your ship. Don't spank your MWD unless you need to GTFO or make range on your target(s). When in doubt, warp out and back in. Make sure to drop a bookmark on field so you don't land in a bubble or on top of a target. Warp back in cloaked (especially against multiple targets). Never underestimate the power of bombers with painters... once upon a time I remember killing an interceptor with 5 bombers and painters... it took about 20 seconds.
Don't solo in a bomber, its retarded. Even dumber is launching a single bomb on a gate at a gang. Unless there is a MWDing frigate, you won't get any kills. Worst case, a fast locker or bubbler will get your ass and I can't tell you how many of those I've killed.
As with any engagement, there isn't a pre determined course of action (game plan) for the situation. Use your best judgement and remember the advantage of your shiptypes. In this case, its the ability to disengage and bug out on whim that makes your gang a survivable one. Don't try and get into a slugfest with any other gang... you will all die.
That is all.
PS: Feel free to comment. These fits... yeah they are just guidelines. I switch fits all the time, tweaking for a specific gang. I suggest you do the same. If you like these little guides, let me know. I usually write battle reports, but I have these little speeches with my corpmates all the time, and am happy to share with all of you. Makes for more worthy and fun opponents :-)
Top: My bike is second from the left, and I'm the guy on the left.
Middle: Blue bike is mine
Bottom: My bike is the blue one in the middle (with pink and blue helmets on the mirrors). I'm on the far right, holding a girl in the air :)
August 9, 2010
Pirating, and anti-Pirating
Did some roaming yesterday through low sec. We snagged some fun kills, and some really dumb ones.
Easley took a couple of us out from Yong to find some targets. First was this Harbinger, who we tackled in a belt ratting. He convo'd Easley, asking for ransom... but started trying to burn out of range. Ishkur had no problem keeping him tackled but our Geddons were struggling to keep up. Figuring it was bullshit since he was running, we blew him up.
Next we found this Harbinger, sitting, afk on the high sec gate inside Rammi. Looked like he jumped Rammi and went afk. We jumped in and tackled him... and at about half armor he woke up and tried to make it back to gate. We overheated and sicked Ogres on him, and were able to pop his ship before he was able to jump high sec.
We roamed around for another 20 or so minutes before Easley found a small camp in Daran. They were camping our out gate. Easley was in an Ishkur, so as we got in position in Ami on the Daran gate, he warped to the Pananan gate and started burning off. The camp consisted of Drake, Armageddon and Gila (at this point). The Drake peeled off and gave chase, getting suckered further and further off. I wanted the Gila, however, and since Easley's kinetic resists were sky high we had him tank the Drake and tackle it 80km off gate.
The Gila started coming out to assist the Drake, and at that point I jumped myself in, holding Titus so as to not cause too much alarm. I warped to Easley, landing right on the Drake. As I was in warp the Gila reached Easley and Easley switched his scram/web combo to the Gila. We primaried the Drake, but he started burning off and I wasn't able to catch up to him in my Armageddon and Easley wasn't going to switch off the Gila, given that that kill was much more worthwhile.
Titus jumped in and joined the fight and the Gila started to go down. The Drake was burning off, but a second Drake landed on field. Neither Drake stuck around for long, which made it all the more odd when the Geddon warped out and back in right on top of us. It made sense when Easley's scram/web combo dissapeared and he hollered on comms "I'm getting neuted to hell by this Geddon, you guys have secondary points?"
"yeah" both Titus and I had it covered.
It was then that I realized my capacitor was dangerously low, as I was being neuted as well. A little puzzled, as the neuting power to cap out a battleship is pretty high, but I started injecting cap charges and cycling my guns to maintain point. As Gila started into armor I switched point to Geddon.
The Gila popped, as Titus wasn't being neuted at all and Easley cycled his cap boosters enough to keep it from burning away. Geddon was next, and he took a decent amount of time to die. Looking at his killmail, you can see why, with the 4x 1600MM Rolled Tungsten Plates. You can also see why he was neuting me so badly... a full rack of neuts in the highs. No guns, just neuts. Damn.
We offered good fights in local and moved on. I ended up logging in the first high sec system we entered to head out for fun times. Not a bad day for the life of a pirate, and that last tussle we didn't even have to GCC on since they tried to kill Easley. Anti-pirating FTW.
Easley's account:
Heading back towards Domain, we finally encountered another gang. Their composition was Drake, Gila and Armageddon. After attempting to get them to aggress me on-gate, I warped off and back to 70km where I defiantly aligned to a celestial that was slightly aligned to the gate. As I closed a few kilometers to the gate, I got the reaction I wanted: the drake was moving for me with his propulsion mod active!
Keeping my head about me, I waited for the drake to point me before doing anything hostile. As the drake went flashy, gate guns began to zap him and I finally made my move. I set a close orbit, activated my afterburner to reduce missile damage and scrambled the battle-cruiser. I launched drones and began chipping away at his shields with my blasters. Whenever he launched light drones, I would primary them immediately and he would recall them. I managed to pop 3 drones before he gave up on using them. At this stage my tank was holding easily and the drake was down to half-shields.
Then I got what I really wanted, the Gila. He had caught up to the drake and I immediately switched my tackle over to the faction cruiser. My backup was called-in at this point (2 close range BS and 1 Drake) and I only had to last a limited amount of time at this point to ensure some quality kills.
The Gila’s dps was a concern for me. Damage-boosted light drones could cause me serious harm (especially if the drake also deployed his remaining drones) and the potential missile damage was not easy to overlook.
However, this Gila made the WORST possible choices in this engagement. At less than 3km range from me, he deployed Wardens, the longest-range sentry drone with horrible tracking in close quarters. These are also kinetic-based (being Caldari) and my Gallente AF has excellent kinetic resists. That’s to say nothing of the radial velocity issues at that range with sentries firing upon an AB-fit AF.
With my gang landing, the drake was pointed and we primaried the Gila, who could not last long against our combined DPS. By this point, we were very comfortable. The Geddon who joined the fight late brought a full rack of heavy neuts, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from being tackled. There were simply too many of us and most of us had cap-injectors fit. The Drake warped off-field shortly after the Geddon went down."
http://couldhavetakenitsolo.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/sunday-slaughter/
That is all.
Easley took a couple of us out from Yong to find some targets. First was this Harbinger, who we tackled in a belt ratting. He convo'd Easley, asking for ransom... but started trying to burn out of range. Ishkur had no problem keeping him tackled but our Geddons were struggling to keep up. Figuring it was bullshit since he was running, we blew him up.
Next we found this Harbinger, sitting, afk on the high sec gate inside Rammi. Looked like he jumped Rammi and went afk. We jumped in and tackled him... and at about half armor he woke up and tried to make it back to gate. We overheated and sicked Ogres on him, and were able to pop his ship before he was able to jump high sec.
We roamed around for another 20 or so minutes before Easley found a small camp in Daran. They were camping our out gate. Easley was in an Ishkur, so as we got in position in Ami on the Daran gate, he warped to the Pananan gate and started burning off. The camp consisted of Drake, Armageddon and Gila (at this point). The Drake peeled off and gave chase, getting suckered further and further off. I wanted the Gila, however, and since Easley's kinetic resists were sky high we had him tank the Drake and tackle it 80km off gate.
The Gila started coming out to assist the Drake, and at that point I jumped myself in, holding Titus so as to not cause too much alarm. I warped to Easley, landing right on the Drake. As I was in warp the Gila reached Easley and Easley switched his scram/web combo to the Gila. We primaried the Drake, but he started burning off and I wasn't able to catch up to him in my Armageddon and Easley wasn't going to switch off the Gila, given that that kill was much more worthwhile.
Titus jumped in and joined the fight and the Gila started to go down. The Drake was burning off, but a second Drake landed on field. Neither Drake stuck around for long, which made it all the more odd when the Geddon warped out and back in right on top of us. It made sense when Easley's scram/web combo dissapeared and he hollered on comms "I'm getting neuted to hell by this Geddon, you guys have secondary points?"
"yeah" both Titus and I had it covered.
It was then that I realized my capacitor was dangerously low, as I was being neuted as well. A little puzzled, as the neuting power to cap out a battleship is pretty high, but I started injecting cap charges and cycling my guns to maintain point. As Gila started into armor I switched point to Geddon.
The Gila popped, as Titus wasn't being neuted at all and Easley cycled his cap boosters enough to keep it from burning away. Geddon was next, and he took a decent amount of time to die. Looking at his killmail, you can see why, with the 4x 1600MM Rolled Tungsten Plates. You can also see why he was neuting me so badly... a full rack of neuts in the highs. No guns, just neuts. Damn.
We offered good fights in local and moved on. I ended up logging in the first high sec system we entered to head out for fun times. Not a bad day for the life of a pirate, and that last tussle we didn't even have to GCC on since they tried to kill Easley. Anti-pirating FTW.
Easley's account:
Heading back towards Domain, we finally encountered another gang. Their composition was Drake, Gila and Armageddon. After attempting to get them to aggress me on-gate, I warped off and back to 70km where I defiantly aligned to a celestial that was slightly aligned to the gate. As I closed a few kilometers to the gate, I got the reaction I wanted: the drake was moving for me with his propulsion mod active!
Keeping my head about me, I waited for the drake to point me before doing anything hostile. As the drake went flashy, gate guns began to zap him and I finally made my move. I set a close orbit, activated my afterburner to reduce missile damage and scrambled the battle-cruiser. I launched drones and began chipping away at his shields with my blasters. Whenever he launched light drones, I would primary them immediately and he would recall them. I managed to pop 3 drones before he gave up on using them. At this stage my tank was holding easily and the drake was down to half-shields.
Then I got what I really wanted, the Gila. He had caught up to the drake and I immediately switched my tackle over to the faction cruiser. My backup was called-in at this point (2 close range BS and 1 Drake) and I only had to last a limited amount of time at this point to ensure some quality kills.
The Gila’s dps was a concern for me. Damage-boosted light drones could cause me serious harm (especially if the drake also deployed his remaining drones) and the potential missile damage was not easy to overlook.
However, this Gila made the WORST possible choices in this engagement. At less than 3km range from me, he deployed Wardens, the longest-range sentry drone with horrible tracking in close quarters. These are also kinetic-based (being Caldari) and my Gallente AF has excellent kinetic resists. That’s to say nothing of the radial velocity issues at that range with sentries firing upon an AB-fit AF.
With my gang landing, the drake was pointed and we primaried the Gila, who could not last long against our combined DPS. By this point, we were very comfortable. The Geddon who joined the fight late brought a full rack of heavy neuts, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from being tackled. There were simply too many of us and most of us had cap-injectors fit. The Drake warped off-field shortly after the Geddon went down."
http://couldhavetakenitsolo.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/sunday-slaughter/
That is all.
August 6, 2010
Lots and lots of EVE Pt 2
After our little tussle with -A-, I clone jumped up to Yong with Easley Thames, Bonecaya and Agro Cathaldus.
Yarrrrrrrrrrrr
Started off with the easy hauler kill. This one was empty, but hey... it was a warm up.
Then my cloaky alt found a Harbinger sitting in a belt... with no rats... at 0... not moving.
Yeah, I thought it too.
But we decided to snag the bait anyways. So in I went with the Onyx... except he was gone.
So I scanned for a good 20 seconds and found him at a different belt. Warped... landed... made the tackle. Harbinger just kinda sat there, local spiked but only with my guys. Harbinger aggresses me (crap damage but his neuts were annoying) and gang lands in belt. Harbinger starts dying really fast, local bumps 2 and his buddies in a Drake and Raven land on field. Drake is at range and GTFOs... Raven is in close and I switch infinipoint to him.
Harbinger dies, Raven warps.
What?
Yeah, Raven warps. Apparently the neuts from the Harbinger capped me out and I didn't notice, so my point cycled once and dropped. Fail.
We poked around Mamet area for a good 10 minutes with no luck, so off we went to Yong. As our gang jumped Biphi, however, a Vexor landed on the Biphi gate. We were already gone, so he didn't see us in front of him and in he jumped. He held cloak for a good 15 seconds and then broke. I immediately locked him (sensor booster + 2 remote sensor boosters FTW) but held the infinipoint until his speed started to accelerate... and then BAM! he stopped dead. Easley was already burning at him and got web + scram. He was screwed at this point and with little trouble his Vexor exploded.
Killed an Itty V shortly after the Vexor popped, then we returned to Yong.
A short while after we returned, an incoming Drake jumped into us in Yong. Same trick.. let him start to warp then drop the point on him. His Drake exploded without much trouble at all, and the fit explains it all. No buffer... ratting fit.
After that Agro logged, apparently his wife needed attention or something. We couldn't figure that one out... but hey :-)
Next to come through was a Cyclone. Same story... and he died really fast. The Cyclones fit was horribad. Always, balancing between resists and buffer is very important. Even active tanks need some amount of buffer to be succesful (unless ratting). At first glance Easley and I though missioning, up until you spot the warp disruptor. Extender rigs may have helped as well.
After the Cyclone died we played around for a bit longer, Bone logged off and we were about to call it a night. A Harbinger and Hurricane were playing around in Yong, but safed up near a planet and due to no probe ships, we couldn't get them. As we were docking up, local dropped the Hurricane...
"Lost a neut... hmm, I'm going to check Biphi"
"You think he went there...? hmm... yeah Shousran and Gemodi show clear"
"Makes sense... yeah hes in here" I said as my alt entered Biphi. The Hurricane was sitting at 0km on the gate. His Harbinger buddy was still floating around Yong.
"I'm gonna bait him with my alt" I said
I warped my Onyx to Biphi gate, and broke the cloak on my alt. Started slowboating back to the gate. Immediate yellow box from the Hurricane, and after about 5 seconds yellow box turned red.
"Aggressed agressed!" I yelled.
I jumped my Onyx in... prayed for a good spawn and sure enough, I was 22km off the Cane. Immediately I spammed approach and locked up the flashy red Hurricane. He didn't burn off... which was really surprising. I figured he would go for it and call his Harbinger buddy from next door. My alt was two volleyed, but waited out her session timer (somehow) and jumped through into Yong. The Hurricane was tanking the gate guns pretty well, but couldn't leave due to the infinipoint on him. Easley jumped in with his Megathron, and it was game over. The Hurricane's buffer evaporated and boom! he was gone.
Best part? No GCC. I glanced at my laptop and noticed his Harbinger buddy was sitting at 0km on the other side of the gate... I hammered my jump button but before my aggression timer expired he warped off. Sad panda... but the Hurricane kill was worth it. Tactics FTW.
We hunted the Harbinger for 5 minutes but got bored... and close to 5am I finally went to bed.
At 9am when I woke up for work I cursed my EVE addiction. Until I drank a large amount of Mountain Dew :)
That is all.
Yarrrrrrrrrrrr
Started off with the easy hauler kill. This one was empty, but hey... it was a warm up.
Then my cloaky alt found a Harbinger sitting in a belt... with no rats... at 0... not moving.
Yeah, I thought it too.
But we decided to snag the bait anyways. So in I went with the Onyx... except he was gone.
So I scanned for a good 20 seconds and found him at a different belt. Warped... landed... made the tackle. Harbinger just kinda sat there, local spiked but only with my guys. Harbinger aggresses me (crap damage but his neuts were annoying) and gang lands in belt. Harbinger starts dying really fast, local bumps 2 and his buddies in a Drake and Raven land on field. Drake is at range and GTFOs... Raven is in close and I switch infinipoint to him.
Harbinger dies, Raven warps.
What?
Yeah, Raven warps. Apparently the neuts from the Harbinger capped me out and I didn't notice, so my point cycled once and dropped. Fail.
We poked around Mamet area for a good 10 minutes with no luck, so off we went to Yong. As our gang jumped Biphi, however, a Vexor landed on the Biphi gate. We were already gone, so he didn't see us in front of him and in he jumped. He held cloak for a good 15 seconds and then broke. I immediately locked him (sensor booster + 2 remote sensor boosters FTW) but held the infinipoint until his speed started to accelerate... and then BAM! he stopped dead. Easley was already burning at him and got web + scram. He was screwed at this point and with little trouble his Vexor exploded.
Killed an Itty V shortly after the Vexor popped, then we returned to Yong.
A short while after we returned, an incoming Drake jumped into us in Yong. Same trick.. let him start to warp then drop the point on him. His Drake exploded without much trouble at all, and the fit explains it all. No buffer... ratting fit.
After that Agro logged, apparently his wife needed attention or something. We couldn't figure that one out... but hey :-)
Next to come through was a Cyclone. Same story... and he died really fast. The Cyclones fit was horribad. Always, balancing between resists and buffer is very important. Even active tanks need some amount of buffer to be succesful (unless ratting). At first glance Easley and I though missioning, up until you spot the warp disruptor. Extender rigs may have helped as well.
After the Cyclone died we played around for a bit longer, Bone logged off and we were about to call it a night. A Harbinger and Hurricane were playing around in Yong, but safed up near a planet and due to no probe ships, we couldn't get them. As we were docking up, local dropped the Hurricane...
"Lost a neut... hmm, I'm going to check Biphi"
"You think he went there...? hmm... yeah Shousran and Gemodi show clear"
"Makes sense... yeah hes in here" I said as my alt entered Biphi. The Hurricane was sitting at 0km on the gate. His Harbinger buddy was still floating around Yong.
"I'm gonna bait him with my alt" I said
I warped my Onyx to Biphi gate, and broke the cloak on my alt. Started slowboating back to the gate. Immediate yellow box from the Hurricane, and after about 5 seconds yellow box turned red.
"Aggressed agressed!" I yelled.
I jumped my Onyx in... prayed for a good spawn and sure enough, I was 22km off the Cane. Immediately I spammed approach and locked up the flashy red Hurricane. He didn't burn off... which was really surprising. I figured he would go for it and call his Harbinger buddy from next door. My alt was two volleyed, but waited out her session timer (somehow) and jumped through into Yong. The Hurricane was tanking the gate guns pretty well, but couldn't leave due to the infinipoint on him. Easley jumped in with his Megathron, and it was game over. The Hurricane's buffer evaporated and boom! he was gone.
Best part? No GCC. I glanced at my laptop and noticed his Harbinger buddy was sitting at 0km on the other side of the gate... I hammered my jump button but before my aggression timer expired he warped off. Sad panda... but the Hurricane kill was worth it. Tactics FTW.
We hunted the Harbinger for 5 minutes but got bored... and close to 5am I finally went to bed.
At 9am when I woke up for work I cursed my EVE addiction. Until I drank a large amount of Mountain Dew :)
That is all.
Lots and lots of EVE Pt 1
Last night was filled with much PVP.
Started out with a roam to Catch, FC'd by Homegrown. Assault frigs, ceptors, and a couple dictors. On our way in, we caught an Apoc who was... PVP fit? I guess, maybe bubble camping or something. Problem is, we caught him on a gate and he couldnt light of his smartbombs. He finally de agressed and jumped through in structure, but he didn't have enough hit points left on the other side to last. We actually had no idea he was smarbomb fit (as he wasn't lighting em off), so had we gotten in close after he jumped it might have been bad, but he died pretty fast. Sad day for the rest of the gang, who didn't get on the mail.
We moved on to GJO-, to visit En Garde. This has become a fun place to check out, as they always have Hulk mining ops and stuff going on. Unfortunately, this trip had no fruit, as the 2x Hulk and Rokh initiated warp to station before I popped my bubbles and landed at 0. I was a sad panda.
On our way out... Apoc on GJO- gate in A8! We tackled, got him into low armor and...
yup. He popped a cyno.
Expecting 3x carriers and support (like last week) I was surprised to see a lone Archon. We kept shooting, and got him to half structure before the Archon finally locked his failing comrade and gave him some armor love. Sad day. Given that we were all in AFs and Interceptors it was actually a little comical. En Garde better be careful pulling that stunt again; one carrier with a lone Apoc and mediocre support next door is easy pickings.
We moved on into Curse, taking a bio in D87E. I cloaked up in my dictor on our out gate, which is a moderately traveled pipe in Curse.
Sure enough, 5 minutes into the bio I got gate fire. I dropped cloak and waited...
Blackbird decloaks and starts aligning, which is the perfect time to pop the bubble. Which I did, and the Blackbird stopped dead in its tracks. I grabbed point on him, and he just stopped moving. The active fleet members were landing on field, and the Blackbird died quickly. He didn't even move, seemingly giving up. His fit was... unorthodox.
Moving on, we went through VOL- and down towards Jamunda. Stopping by the ever elusive Waterboard in YKE4, we found nobody. I thought it was a bit strange.
I jumped into Hemen along with our Crow scout and figured out where Waterboard was. 20 of them were on the RMOC- gate, in various shiptypes. It was a doable gang, as they were lots of light ships... but it would be tricky. I held session change along with our Crow, and then instructed him to break cloak and reapproach, followed quickly by me. The gang shot Crow first, who easily made it, allowing my Flycatcher to get back to gate and jump at half shield.
In an effort to make the fight more winnable, I had gang land on Hemen, jump, then all wait session timer. On Homegrown's mark, the gang all reapproached and jumped back RMOC-. Point was to seperate some of the Waterboard elements with aggression timers. Unfortunately, due to A. all of Waterboard aggressing our pilots or B. intelligence, none of them came through. I'm assuming A, since they lit up our assault frigs, taking some into deep armor.
So, fleet moved back to KQ- to repair in station, and Waterboard jumped into RMOC-. It was kind of a pucker moment, as I was cloaked 2.5k under the gate as their gang, now 25 or so in number decloaked all around me. Then they reapproached... but due to the large size of the constellation gate I stayed safe. After 30 seconds the Waterboard gang moved to KQ- gate and our fleet was stuck.
Homegrown was ready to engage, but examining their composition from my cloaked position I determined that this was not a good fight to take... their gang had added numbers and those numbers were mainly in recons. Falcon, Arazu, Rapier can all ruin a small, fast moving gangs advantage. So I warped YKE4- gate in RMOC-, aligned down to KQ- and burned 70km off. Gang jumped YKE4, burned RMOC- gate and jumped into RMOC-. This move bypassed the Waterboard camp, and the bubble I dropped 70km off the gate caught the few fast movers they sent to try and intercept or gang once they figured out what we were doing. Our fleet was in RMOC- warping Hemen gate when they started to react, but a second bubble in line with KQ- gate 70 off the Hemen gate kept those quick thinkers from getting us. Combined with our small composition we sailed smoothly out of Heaven Constellation and back into Catch. No logoffski's either, for all you emo raging e honor punks. But I did consider it :)
Moving on home, I attempted to find targets all around Catch, scouting for Homegrown, but got nothing. As we approached 49-U, however, a 4 man gang of -A- was camping the 4-07 gate. We engaged, dipping in and out and keeping them busy while screaming in intel for more firepower. Reason? Tengu/Apoc/Sacrilege/Eris. All formidable opponents for our gang composition. We split our forces on either side, keeping the bad guys interested enough but trying not to die. Despite some extremely close calls, nobody died.
The Tengu ended up bailing in 4-07 after awhile (he was smart). Eris kept playing around, was sitting in armor when a few blues showed up in 49-U and warped to an off gate and cloaked. Apoc and Sacrilege, however, deagressed in 49-U and jumped into 4-07 (Sacrilege had actually been bouncing back and forth for awhile). Problem was, Staticviolence (he was the other dictor) was off gate 50km and unable to bubble, and the two assault frigs in 4-07 had warped off field and were on the way back.
So I jumped into 4-07 with my double bubble Flycatcher, loaded grid and immediately dropped a bubble.
Gulp.
Sacrilege and Apoc immediately opened up. I couldn't jump as I was 14km off gate when I hero bubbled (Apoc was trying to warp) and got aggro. Immediately, drones from both ships were on me and neuts snaked across space and sucked my cap dry. My MWD deactivated and my shields started dropping. Disregarding transversal I held my course away from the neuts and drone range of the two ships... and in very low shield my cap started coming back. I kicked the MWD on and got out of range. Local started climbing as blues came in.
Apoc, already in low armor, died quickly. He tried to de agress and jump into 49-U (which would have still gotten him killed) but he just didn't have enough hit points left and boom went the Apocalypse. The Sacrilege had initially tried to burn off the gate it appeared, but as local spiked he tried to reapproach. It was a fatal mistake, as the numerous assault frigs had him scrammed and triple and quadruple webbed. With the combined DPS now on his ship, the Sacrilege didn't last long.
No losses to our side, and two more nice kills. To this point I re affirm what has been said before: playing around for too long will get your face smashed in. To this point, as our gang started heading back into 49-U, local spiked with around 15 -A- in heavier ships (HAC/BC/Recons). This was, no doubt, a fleet to come help their struggling brosefs. They were too late, but had we stuck around to play with the Eris who had broken his cloak and was doing the ping pong between the systems, we would have lost people to that gang. But we took our kills and called it, and were the obvious victors.
Great roam, executed well by Homegrown. Good scouting and smart tactics meant only 4 kills, but no losses. Had we engaged Waterboard (initially before they phoned everyone to come help) we would undoubtedly have taken losses... with the hope that we would have killed more than we lost. Smartly, we chose to evade and escape, which allowed for the -A- kills in 4-07.
I almost called it a night... but Easley Thames and I decided to have some more fun. Check out the next post for the story.
That is all.
Started out with a roam to Catch, FC'd by Homegrown. Assault frigs, ceptors, and a couple dictors. On our way in, we caught an Apoc who was... PVP fit? I guess, maybe bubble camping or something. Problem is, we caught him on a gate and he couldnt light of his smartbombs. He finally de agressed and jumped through in structure, but he didn't have enough hit points left on the other side to last. We actually had no idea he was smarbomb fit (as he wasn't lighting em off), so had we gotten in close after he jumped it might have been bad, but he died pretty fast. Sad day for the rest of the gang, who didn't get on the mail.
We moved on to GJO-, to visit En Garde. This has become a fun place to check out, as they always have Hulk mining ops and stuff going on. Unfortunately, this trip had no fruit, as the 2x Hulk and Rokh initiated warp to station before I popped my bubbles and landed at 0. I was a sad panda.
On our way out... Apoc on GJO- gate in A8! We tackled, got him into low armor and...
yup. He popped a cyno.
Expecting 3x carriers and support (like last week) I was surprised to see a lone Archon. We kept shooting, and got him to half structure before the Archon finally locked his failing comrade and gave him some armor love. Sad day. Given that we were all in AFs and Interceptors it was actually a little comical. En Garde better be careful pulling that stunt again; one carrier with a lone Apoc and mediocre support next door is easy pickings.
We moved on into Curse, taking a bio in D87E. I cloaked up in my dictor on our out gate, which is a moderately traveled pipe in Curse.
Sure enough, 5 minutes into the bio I got gate fire. I dropped cloak and waited...
Blackbird decloaks and starts aligning, which is the perfect time to pop the bubble. Which I did, and the Blackbird stopped dead in its tracks. I grabbed point on him, and he just stopped moving. The active fleet members were landing on field, and the Blackbird died quickly. He didn't even move, seemingly giving up. His fit was... unorthodox.
Moving on, we went through VOL- and down towards Jamunda. Stopping by the ever elusive Waterboard in YKE4, we found nobody. I thought it was a bit strange.
I jumped into Hemen along with our Crow scout and figured out where Waterboard was. 20 of them were on the RMOC- gate, in various shiptypes. It was a doable gang, as they were lots of light ships... but it would be tricky. I held session change along with our Crow, and then instructed him to break cloak and reapproach, followed quickly by me. The gang shot Crow first, who easily made it, allowing my Flycatcher to get back to gate and jump at half shield.
In an effort to make the fight more winnable, I had gang land on Hemen, jump, then all wait session timer. On Homegrown's mark, the gang all reapproached and jumped back RMOC-. Point was to seperate some of the Waterboard elements with aggression timers. Unfortunately, due to A. all of Waterboard aggressing our pilots or B. intelligence, none of them came through. I'm assuming A, since they lit up our assault frigs, taking some into deep armor.
So, fleet moved back to KQ- to repair in station, and Waterboard jumped into RMOC-. It was kind of a pucker moment, as I was cloaked 2.5k under the gate as their gang, now 25 or so in number decloaked all around me. Then they reapproached... but due to the large size of the constellation gate I stayed safe. After 30 seconds the Waterboard gang moved to KQ- gate and our fleet was stuck.
Homegrown was ready to engage, but examining their composition from my cloaked position I determined that this was not a good fight to take... their gang had added numbers and those numbers were mainly in recons. Falcon, Arazu, Rapier can all ruin a small, fast moving gangs advantage. So I warped YKE4- gate in RMOC-, aligned down to KQ- and burned 70km off. Gang jumped YKE4, burned RMOC- gate and jumped into RMOC-. This move bypassed the Waterboard camp, and the bubble I dropped 70km off the gate caught the few fast movers they sent to try and intercept or gang once they figured out what we were doing. Our fleet was in RMOC- warping Hemen gate when they started to react, but a second bubble in line with KQ- gate 70 off the Hemen gate kept those quick thinkers from getting us. Combined with our small composition we sailed smoothly out of Heaven Constellation and back into Catch. No logoffski's either, for all you emo raging e honor punks. But I did consider it :)
Moving on home, I attempted to find targets all around Catch, scouting for Homegrown, but got nothing. As we approached 49-U, however, a 4 man gang of -A- was camping the 4-07 gate. We engaged, dipping in and out and keeping them busy while screaming in intel for more firepower. Reason? Tengu/Apoc/Sacrilege/Eris. All formidable opponents for our gang composition. We split our forces on either side, keeping the bad guys interested enough but trying not to die. Despite some extremely close calls, nobody died.
The Tengu ended up bailing in 4-07 after awhile (he was smart). Eris kept playing around, was sitting in armor when a few blues showed up in 49-U and warped to an off gate and cloaked. Apoc and Sacrilege, however, deagressed in 49-U and jumped into 4-07 (Sacrilege had actually been bouncing back and forth for awhile). Problem was, Staticviolence (he was the other dictor) was off gate 50km and unable to bubble, and the two assault frigs in 4-07 had warped off field and were on the way back.
So I jumped into 4-07 with my double bubble Flycatcher, loaded grid and immediately dropped a bubble.
Gulp.
Sacrilege and Apoc immediately opened up. I couldn't jump as I was 14km off gate when I hero bubbled (Apoc was trying to warp) and got aggro. Immediately, drones from both ships were on me and neuts snaked across space and sucked my cap dry. My MWD deactivated and my shields started dropping. Disregarding transversal I held my course away from the neuts and drone range of the two ships... and in very low shield my cap started coming back. I kicked the MWD on and got out of range. Local started climbing as blues came in.
Apoc, already in low armor, died quickly. He tried to de agress and jump into 49-U (which would have still gotten him killed) but he just didn't have enough hit points left and boom went the Apocalypse. The Sacrilege had initially tried to burn off the gate it appeared, but as local spiked he tried to reapproach. It was a fatal mistake, as the numerous assault frigs had him scrammed and triple and quadruple webbed. With the combined DPS now on his ship, the Sacrilege didn't last long.
No losses to our side, and two more nice kills. To this point I re affirm what has been said before: playing around for too long will get your face smashed in. To this point, as our gang started heading back into 49-U, local spiked with around 15 -A- in heavier ships (HAC/BC/Recons). This was, no doubt, a fleet to come help their struggling brosefs. They were too late, but had we stuck around to play with the Eris who had broken his cloak and was doing the ping pong between the systems, we would have lost people to that gang. But we took our kills and called it, and were the obvious victors.
Great roam, executed well by Homegrown. Good scouting and smart tactics meant only 4 kills, but no losses. Had we engaged Waterboard (initially before they phoned everyone to come help) we would undoubtedly have taken losses... with the hope that we would have killed more than we lost. Smartly, we chose to evade and escape, which allowed for the -A- kills in 4-07.
I almost called it a night... but Easley Thames and I decided to have some more fun. Check out the next post for the story.
That is all.
August 5, 2010
Back at it. Winning and Losing.
Fiber optic is, for the record, freakin awesome.
I've taken a few gangs out, and not had much time to write about them simply due to increased business at work.
That being said we have netted some fun kills and some fun roams, but the one I shall talk about is a roam to Curse last night that ended in failure.
In retrospect, I can see small changes that could have been made that would have decreased the possibility of failure, but lack of intel is bad no matter what way you look at it. Also, the losses taken were enough to piss me off, but once again, could have been much worse.
So...
Snipe HAC gang to Catch; some guys tagging along in other ships. Dictors/Scimmies are ok.. but we had some BCs that I should have just kicked out of gang, but I wanted the firepower.
We first hit up En Garde in catch, who wouldn't give us a fight at all. Despite outnumbering us. We left that system and headed towards Curse... where we found 35 or so Razor in Doril. Scout started picking a fight with an Arazu 60km off station... reported 3 Apocs on station with the Arazu, the rest were docked (he had docked to verify this). Scout was in a Vagabond.
First problem was, Apocs. Apocs, even pulse fit (Pulsepocs) are ridiculous at range. 60km is cake for even a pulse fit Apoc (with the right crystals 100km optimal is easy). We were holding 2jumps out, and when I heard he was engaging I jumped fleet into Litom and warped them to Doril gate... with instructions to jump gate into Doril and warp to Easley, who was 60km off the Apocs on the station. I figured we may get a fight, and would dictate range and warp ins/outs like snipe hac gangs do.
Didn't work out that way. Scout died to Apocs, which scout was surprised at but I was not, due to 60km being happy time range for Pulsepocs.
This death meant two (2) things:
1. Half the fleet was in warp to the station, the other half had not yet initiated warp when scout died. This led to seperation in the fleet. Bad... very bad.
2. Razor woke up. The station dislodged the rest of their gang... which happened to be battleship heavy with support and logistics. Oh, and a dictor or two. Said dictor happened to pop a bubble on station before gang initiated warp. All things I didn't know about as I ordered us to warp to our scout...
This all ended with random gang members landing in a bubble 20km off of a 25ish man Razor gang. Including my Zealot, which was one shotted by an Apoc. I lost seven ships (including myself) on that fail warp in, the rest managed to bail out. Razor, fortunately enough, was content to hug the station. I got fleet out to Litom, in time to see our exit camped by En Garde in about 20 ships. A gang we would have gladly fought before, but with our current losses we were ill equipped to engage.
With eyes on the En Garde force, I was able to see when they bailed the gate and warped to the station we were sitting at in Litom. I had us all dock up for a 10 min bio, in the hopes En Garde would get bored.
After the 10 min bio, I came back to an empty (almost) system. Hurricane on the undock aggressed my scout, so we all undocked and killed him. Scout reported En Garde in Jomunda, but the in gate was clear. So we warped to Jamunda gate...
In time to see local spike with En Garding coming in from Jamunda, and reapporaching the gate. I ordered everyone through, and En Garde jumped with us, bubbling as well.
I suppose I should have asked the scout specifically if they were on short range scan from the gate. As a scout I would have done that naturally (specifically scanning down planets/moons/belts close to the gate) but as our primary scout was dead, I knew nothing about this guy except that he was in an interceptor. So En Garde, who had eyes on the gate (neutrals in system, can only assume eyes) was at a short warp point and got us. So we jumped into Jamunda, I instructed everyone to hold cloak. Fast movers burn out of bubbles and warp, slow movers reapproach. Late arrivals reported Jamunda gate in Litom clear... En Garde had left no tacklers behind.
Amazingly, it worked. No one died. Even me in my pod of glory managed to get out of bubble and warp off. How none of my guys got tackled amazes me, due to the light nature of the En Garde gang. Everyone safed up, En Garde went 1p- and left local, except for one Cov Ops.
I knew they were sitting next door, as Jomunda and 1p- are both pipes and we needed to get through 1p to get home (quickest). So we sat for 5 minutes, in an attempt to bore En Garde. I then sent the scout through...
they were gone!
We moved into 1p-, noting the Atlas in local. Scout jumped into F4R2... En Garde was sitting there. I immediately went next door to KOCN- which leads to VA6 which goes to F4R2 from another gate, albeit a short warp. KOCN- had En Garde eyes. Damn. So did VA6. Double damn. On a whim, I had fleet jump into KOCN- and reapproach. I had sent our scout into F4R2 using the side path, and he kept eyes. Sure enough, the moment gang entered KOCN- the entire En Garde gang warped off to cover the other entry point into F4R2. I jumped my pod through, and the gate was completely clear! They left no one! Fleet jumped back into 1p- and came to the gate... but as they were landing our ceptor reported them aligning and warping back... and with the 4AU distance... I called it off and had gang safe up. The faster ships would have made it but I wanted no more losses.
Unfortunately for me, I waited too long to warp my pod out, as I was issuing instructions and not paying attention. With a 9AU/Second warp speed, the En garde dictor landed first, and bubbled my pod. I immediately died.
I heaved a sigh of frusteration, as the entire evening had gone horribly wrong. I handed off fleet to Static and instructed him to take gang out through Sendaya, low sec. It took a good 45 minutes, but Static managed to bring the gang home safely. I apologized to gang, made sure reimbursements were in order and em logged.
Looking back at the defining moment, I replayed it over and over in my mind. Embarassed, disgusted, angered, I was still able to see what needed to happen/not happen next time.
First, our scout. Experienced, knowledgeable in tactics, and well versed over years of EVE experience. However, his style has and always will be picking a fight and bringing in a brawling gang.
Those are not tactics you use with a snipe hac gang. Snipe hac gangs are for fights. You don't belt blitz ratters, you find gangs twice your size and kill them while they try and kill you. When they get close, you bail out and come back in. Rinse repeat. Scout's primary job is to provide warp ins.
That being said, I should have sent in a stealth bomber to give us a silent warp in on station. Eyes=knowledge=knowledgeable decisions. I could have sent the Vagabond in after that, but pressure would have been off him as we had eyes, and his only job would have been to force the enemy to play their hand, which, last night, consisted of 20 or so active Razor guys docked in station. As things got hot he would have warped out. At that point, our bomber gives us a proper warp in off the bubble that was just deployed and in we come.
The moment my scout mentioned he might die, I should have held gang up until I had confirmation of what we were getting into. At that point I would have avoided bubbles and we would have warped in at range on the Razor gang. Their small shit would have died or docked or warped, and we would have managed the engagement, because thats what you do in snipe hacs. Hard to hit, fast, agile, they dominate with good warp ins and intel. Hell, if the entire gang had landed in the bubble we could have aligned sun and spanked MWDs and shot at them. But only half the gang landed. That was the fight we wanted and I botched it. En Garde would have been fun as well, they had small ships, recons/afs/ceptors... perfect munching for a snipe HAC gang. But our depleted forces were not enough to take them.
20/20 Hindsight. But, as Avicenna Sarfaraz, MVN CEO said to me in command when I was emo raging...
"what did you learn"
as long as the mistakes are not repeated again, I will chalk it up to experience.
Grats to En Garde for forming up... late... wish I could have given you a fight. Razor, well, I would have chased us down. You would have even gotten a fight with En Garde, and given the Razor composition I would put money on them smashing En Garde. But, they took their seven easy kills and stayed on the station.
Never give up, never go down. I'll be back out again tonight.
That is all.
I've taken a few gangs out, and not had much time to write about them simply due to increased business at work.
That being said we have netted some fun kills and some fun roams, but the one I shall talk about is a roam to Curse last night that ended in failure.
In retrospect, I can see small changes that could have been made that would have decreased the possibility of failure, but lack of intel is bad no matter what way you look at it. Also, the losses taken were enough to piss me off, but once again, could have been much worse.
So...
Snipe HAC gang to Catch; some guys tagging along in other ships. Dictors/Scimmies are ok.. but we had some BCs that I should have just kicked out of gang, but I wanted the firepower.
We first hit up En Garde in catch, who wouldn't give us a fight at all. Despite outnumbering us. We left that system and headed towards Curse... where we found 35 or so Razor in Doril. Scout started picking a fight with an Arazu 60km off station... reported 3 Apocs on station with the Arazu, the rest were docked (he had docked to verify this). Scout was in a Vagabond.
First problem was, Apocs. Apocs, even pulse fit (Pulsepocs) are ridiculous at range. 60km is cake for even a pulse fit Apoc (with the right crystals 100km optimal is easy). We were holding 2jumps out, and when I heard he was engaging I jumped fleet into Litom and warped them to Doril gate... with instructions to jump gate into Doril and warp to Easley, who was 60km off the Apocs on the station. I figured we may get a fight, and would dictate range and warp ins/outs like snipe hac gangs do.
Didn't work out that way. Scout died to Apocs, which scout was surprised at but I was not, due to 60km being happy time range for Pulsepocs.
This death meant two (2) things:
1. Half the fleet was in warp to the station, the other half had not yet initiated warp when scout died. This led to seperation in the fleet. Bad... very bad.
2. Razor woke up. The station dislodged the rest of their gang... which happened to be battleship heavy with support and logistics. Oh, and a dictor or two. Said dictor happened to pop a bubble on station before gang initiated warp. All things I didn't know about as I ordered us to warp to our scout...
This all ended with random gang members landing in a bubble 20km off of a 25ish man Razor gang. Including my Zealot, which was one shotted by an Apoc. I lost seven ships (including myself) on that fail warp in, the rest managed to bail out. Razor, fortunately enough, was content to hug the station. I got fleet out to Litom, in time to see our exit camped by En Garde in about 20 ships. A gang we would have gladly fought before, but with our current losses we were ill equipped to engage.
With eyes on the En Garde force, I was able to see when they bailed the gate and warped to the station we were sitting at in Litom. I had us all dock up for a 10 min bio, in the hopes En Garde would get bored.
After the 10 min bio, I came back to an empty (almost) system. Hurricane on the undock aggressed my scout, so we all undocked and killed him. Scout reported En Garde in Jomunda, but the in gate was clear. So we warped to Jamunda gate...
In time to see local spike with En Garding coming in from Jamunda, and reapporaching the gate. I ordered everyone through, and En Garde jumped with us, bubbling as well.
I suppose I should have asked the scout specifically if they were on short range scan from the gate. As a scout I would have done that naturally (specifically scanning down planets/moons/belts close to the gate) but as our primary scout was dead, I knew nothing about this guy except that he was in an interceptor. So En Garde, who had eyes on the gate (neutrals in system, can only assume eyes) was at a short warp point and got us. So we jumped into Jamunda, I instructed everyone to hold cloak. Fast movers burn out of bubbles and warp, slow movers reapproach. Late arrivals reported Jamunda gate in Litom clear... En Garde had left no tacklers behind.
Amazingly, it worked. No one died. Even me in my pod of glory managed to get out of bubble and warp off. How none of my guys got tackled amazes me, due to the light nature of the En Garde gang. Everyone safed up, En Garde went 1p- and left local, except for one Cov Ops.
I knew they were sitting next door, as Jomunda and 1p- are both pipes and we needed to get through 1p to get home (quickest). So we sat for 5 minutes, in an attempt to bore En Garde. I then sent the scout through...
they were gone!
We moved into 1p-, noting the Atlas in local. Scout jumped into F4R2... En Garde was sitting there. I immediately went next door to KOCN- which leads to VA6 which goes to F4R2 from another gate, albeit a short warp. KOCN- had En Garde eyes. Damn. So did VA6. Double damn. On a whim, I had fleet jump into KOCN- and reapproach. I had sent our scout into F4R2 using the side path, and he kept eyes. Sure enough, the moment gang entered KOCN- the entire En Garde gang warped off to cover the other entry point into F4R2. I jumped my pod through, and the gate was completely clear! They left no one! Fleet jumped back into 1p- and came to the gate... but as they were landing our ceptor reported them aligning and warping back... and with the 4AU distance... I called it off and had gang safe up. The faster ships would have made it but I wanted no more losses.
Unfortunately for me, I waited too long to warp my pod out, as I was issuing instructions and not paying attention. With a 9AU/Second warp speed, the En garde dictor landed first, and bubbled my pod. I immediately died.
I heaved a sigh of frusteration, as the entire evening had gone horribly wrong. I handed off fleet to Static and instructed him to take gang out through Sendaya, low sec. It took a good 45 minutes, but Static managed to bring the gang home safely. I apologized to gang, made sure reimbursements were in order and em logged.
Looking back at the defining moment, I replayed it over and over in my mind. Embarassed, disgusted, angered, I was still able to see what needed to happen/not happen next time.
First, our scout. Experienced, knowledgeable in tactics, and well versed over years of EVE experience. However, his style has and always will be picking a fight and bringing in a brawling gang.
Those are not tactics you use with a snipe hac gang. Snipe hac gangs are for fights. You don't belt blitz ratters, you find gangs twice your size and kill them while they try and kill you. When they get close, you bail out and come back in. Rinse repeat. Scout's primary job is to provide warp ins.
That being said, I should have sent in a stealth bomber to give us a silent warp in on station. Eyes=knowledge=knowledgeable decisions. I could have sent the Vagabond in after that, but pressure would have been off him as we had eyes, and his only job would have been to force the enemy to play their hand, which, last night, consisted of 20 or so active Razor guys docked in station. As things got hot he would have warped out. At that point, our bomber gives us a proper warp in off the bubble that was just deployed and in we come.
The moment my scout mentioned he might die, I should have held gang up until I had confirmation of what we were getting into. At that point I would have avoided bubbles and we would have warped in at range on the Razor gang. Their small shit would have died or docked or warped, and we would have managed the engagement, because thats what you do in snipe hacs. Hard to hit, fast, agile, they dominate with good warp ins and intel. Hell, if the entire gang had landed in the bubble we could have aligned sun and spanked MWDs and shot at them. But only half the gang landed. That was the fight we wanted and I botched it. En Garde would have been fun as well, they had small ships, recons/afs/ceptors... perfect munching for a snipe HAC gang. But our depleted forces were not enough to take them.
20/20 Hindsight. But, as Avicenna Sarfaraz, MVN CEO said to me in command when I was emo raging...
"what did you learn"
as long as the mistakes are not repeated again, I will chalk it up to experience.
Grats to En Garde for forming up... late... wish I could have given you a fight. Razor, well, I would have chased us down. You would have even gotten a fight with En Garde, and given the Razor composition I would put money on them smashing En Garde. But, they took their seven easy kills and stayed on the station.
Never give up, never go down. I'll be back out again tonight.
That is all.
August 2, 2010
Internet. Fail.
So after moving it was time to switch internet providers to something faster.
Unfortunately the transition has been anything but smooth. Hopefully when I get home from work today it will be working. The EVE withdrawals are already starting to set in...
Unfortunately the transition has been anything but smooth. Hopefully when I get home from work today it will be working. The EVE withdrawals are already starting to set in...
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