Roams and Hot Drops

Took a gang out last night. Same place... HED- and Providence. This one was much later and not posted, so we got like 14 in fleet.

More fun in my opinion. Precision rather than a stampeding herd of idiots who spoil good kills by lemming over and over again.

Yes, I was still bitter of the previous night's failures.

We moved out and hit up GE-.

Despite the cloaky camp that was in V-3 on the GE- gate... they wouldn't bite. Our gang hadn't even been scouted. I gave up once a neutral alt got eyes on us and we moved towards HED-.

We caught a Drake coming from HED-, he died instantly. We bubbled for his pod, he laughed at us in local (not sure why).

We camped in and around SV5 for a good 15 minutes grabbing several shuttles, noob ships, ceptors and other random small stuff.

After that we moved into Providence, which was dead. On our way out, however, I was scouting into ERVK- and saw 7ish Dead Terrorists in local. Far from home, and no station. Directional popped several ships appropriate for roaming... gang was on the other side of the in gate I was holding cloak on.

Sure enough, DT started landing. Dictors, Canes, a T3, Curse, and some others. As the lead elements landed I broke cloak (I wanted the scout to see me... If he jumped into the next system and saw my gang the gig was up).

Bam.

Instant aggression... and their pro dictor pilot bubbled their entire (aggressed) gang on gate. With no eyes next door.

Did I mention the bubble? I didn't even have to jump in a lone dictor now... they did the job for me.

I waited another 10 seconds to snag point on T3... and called fleet in.

Instantly the DT started running. Primary switched to Curse... as the T3 warped off... My cap was completely empty thanks to the Curse and my point had dropped allowing him to escape.

Curse popped, secondary was the Cane we had tackled. He popped. As he was going down, a second Cane warped in... landing 20km off gate in the bubble.

Now, if I was him, my plan would have been MWD at gate and jump. Good chance of making it before I died, and good chance of all hostiles in due to the fight that had just happened. Logical choice, right?

Not to him.

He burned straight off gate... quick as hell too. But we had good light tackle and held onto him. Pop went the second Cane.

Battle report here. I lived thanks to Dezzy in his Scimitar. Killerkeano, an old Atlas mate whos now with IT held the point on the burning Hurricane... and lived thanks to Dezzy in his Scimitar. Logistics for the win.

We burned home, and disbanded gang. Shooting the shit on comms, a MM gang moved in from Fountain. I quickly re posted fleet and spanked for numbers to take them.

I allowed their scout burn out for me in NOL... he came right at me. I lit him up with barrage... and he immediately got his transversal up. I switched to phased plasma, which hit him every few shots... I wondered if his gang would pop in local soon when he made a bad decision.

He closed from 20km to 10km for what? I don't know.

Needless to say I activated point (up until then I had played oh shit I want to leave oh noes oh noes) and turned on 2x Medium Neuts.

Sha bam! He capped out instantly. Point dropped, MWD turned off. Two volleys later, POOF!-1 Stilletto

I offered a GF in local (as I had been in similar situations... tackler on Cane, I sympathized). No response.

I ended up playing pro bait on Pr- on NOL gate. Killerkeano in cyno Falcon sat nearby, watching.

MM gang, spread around PR- and in NOL, took the bait.

Falcon popped cyno.

Carriers dropped.

Reps kept Killerkeano in his cyno Falcon alive. I couldn't save my bait cane (I was insta primaried and had my shield xfer on the Falcon instead of myself), and we lost a second buffer shield cane to them after I went down. Later evaluation revealed that one of the STK- carrier pilots had overview set up wrong and wasn't giving out reps... he felt bad, I was a little annoyed but what can ya do?

Battle report is sketch. Some of the mails haven't been posted yet, probably STK- pilots. We got a few battlecruisers and at least one HAC. Would have liked to not have lost anything with 3x Carriers and a Nyx on field... but we focused on the Falcon and that one carrier wasn't repping anything.

We tussled with Drunk Gang as well. Tried to cut them off on their way down from Fountain, but they wouldn't shoot my Onyx.

Kinda wimpy, given their gang type and composition, but we jump bridged in front of them and got a fight on the 319-/GY6 gate. First error of the night was a Muninn, who took aggro while we were baiting them to drop caps. He jumped out of 319- to avoid dying to the longer range ships... but didn't wait out his timer in GY6. He broke cloak and the Drunk gang hanging out at off gate spots (in Vagas, Ceptors and 2x Cynabals) saw the opportunity and swooped down on gate. His Muninn melted. I wasn't happy.

We ended up getting our fight in 319- on the GY6A gate. We killed a Rook (actually earlier in C3N as they were burning home) , Vagabond and Hurricane of theirs... but then my Onyx moved out of rep range (dual boxing fail)... and due to bumps and scam/webs, I was unable to get back in time and I died.

Ugh.

I called it at this point, as Drunk gang was getting more gangmembers on field and we weren't. Got caps out and got pod home (for the second time).

Looking at killboard, looks like we lost a Deimos to them too. Didn't see him in gang or hear him on comms, but he was in the system at the same time. Should have gone to sleep 2 hrs before this... and in retrospect, I should have called the Drunk Gang engagement off long before we lost the Curse and Onyx. The fight itself lasted a good 20-30 minutes, much of it ranged, stand offish engaging.

Fail.

Oh well, you live and learn. It was way past my bedtime anyways (4am-5am).

That is all.