Another night, another roam.

Yesterday I saw Tron. 3D Imax. It was awesome.
Daft punk put together a legit soundtrack... in that theatre the bass reverberated my whole body. I agree with critics on one point: the 3D aspect could have been much more developed. But on an IMAX screen the movie was more than satisfying. As a lover of sci-fi, it kept me more than entertained.

After I got home Cardking and I took out a snipe hac gang. Again. Easley was off for the night after arguing with corp leadership (for me basically) over a new zinger.

Alliance doesn't support snipe hacs. They are not reimbursible and I was told in several varieties (not all friendly) that I wasn't to continue leading them.

So we took out a snipe hac gang as a "corp roam".

Wouldn't you know, we got about 20 or so alliance guys in fleet in addition to the 20-something MVN, even after I told them it wasn't reimbursible. Maybe it has something to do with the fact I don't get our guys killed (often. and tackle doesn't count lol). Or the fact they are hard to counter for the enemy, and when I can barely get 50 in fleet and want to fight 200-300 NC (Goons, Fidelas Constans, Mostly Harmless, Wildly Innapropriate, etc) the only thing that can actually engage without instant annihilation is snipe hacs.

As it was I was told to "just get in bombers if you don't have numbers"

My first few months of FCing thats all I did. All it takes is one idiot and everyone dies. That and we are told to use torps. Let me tell you something, you may find it obvious...

Bombers with torps going toe to toe with any other kind of gang that has any kind of numbers is really really dumb. Bombers with bombs is effective but will not hold the field. Yes, for a gate camp they are okay. You need a Falcon to keep them alive. But thats the random gank, not the fighting.

Snipe HACs fc'd well and piloted well can seriously hurt an enemy gang thats slower and larger.

Ok, I'm done with my rant. On to story time.

So basically we took out our "corp roam" and headed north looking for a fight. We didn't have to wait long for the fight. I jumped with a Blade gang (not with us, numbering about 10) in to XF- from 4-EP. Hostile Drake on gate was aggressed on the Blade interceptor scout. I immediately decloaked and grabbed the Drake. Hostile count in system was about fifteen, all friends of the Drake. Fleet was landing on other side, instructions were to jump on contact.

Blade had already broken cloak and was taking down the Drake when the Wildly Innapropriate gang landed in a bubble on the 4-E gate. Their Drake had already died, and they were looking to kill the Blade gang.

That idea was short lived as my fleet bumped local and immediately broke cloak. Several of their ships were already burning out and immediately warped off.

Eight, however, were stuck in bubbles on a gate with aggression. They died very quickly.

We looted the field and were preparing to move on when a Scorpion from the same gang jumped into XF- from 4-E. Not sure why. He died really really fast. Full Battle Report Here

We moved upwards towrads G8, Blade gang ahead of us. They engaged an NC gang and the convo I had opened with their FC said "30 hostiles in 9-4R come on"

In my head I though "thats a station system, usually has a few hostiles" and I asked for clarification.

Silence.

I moved quickly into O-BD in time to see local spike with NC, about 20-30 in number. I dropped probes and warped to the 9-4R gate. The NC gang was all 200 above the gate, and before I could move the probes they warped off and pos'd up.

The Blade FC finally responded with something like "why didn't you come in! i told you to we can't take that I couldn't respond I'm dual boxing!"

Cardking simply responded "we are in snipe hacs. without intel we aren't warping blindly anywhere"

I found a Geddon warping to the 9-4R gate in G8... selflessly pointed him and pushed him into the waiting gang. The Armageddon died within seconds. Looking at his fit, you can see why. All resist and no buffer.

A Rote Kapelle gang moved in from FQ9W, armor hac/t3 armor heavy. Very mean, 6-7 Guardians, Loki's Proteus', Phantasms. 20ish in numbers. The kind of gang that we would shred at range and would shred us close. We danced with them for a few minutes before they bailed south towards Fountain and we kep going north into Pure Blind.

In P-2 I found a Mostly Harmless gang, but with hacs 2j behind me, we couldn't get them there in time and they bailed into B-9 and took the JB there to RQH-. I did find a Harbinger and Omen dicking around on P-2 station. I decoaked and grabbed Harbinger... he docked as local filled. I grabbed the Omen who appeared to be off station and gave him a bump to make sure. Fleet landed and down the Omen went. Not very satisfying. We caught a Caracal shortly after, also not too satisfying.

We roamed up towards L-C and O-C... didn't catch anyone. Even the Wayfarer station hugging crew docked up (carriers included!). 50 and 30 in local and nothing.

We headed back home and caught a Drake in Cloud Ring.

In QXW- PG and I found a Mercenary Coalition gang waiting on our in gate. Gang was two jumps behind... and the Mercenary Coalition Scout in a Sabre followed us through. As soon as he left, we jumped gang in and got them to the QXW- gate. I broke claok (PG in his Sabre had already burned back and jumped through). Their gang landed right on top of me. Vaga's Falcon Rapier... fast and survivable gang. Which is why I was surprised they all aggressed me whilst sitting in PGs bubble at 0 on the gate. I (barely) managed to make it back to gate and get out in low shield :)

I jumped tackle in, then full fleet 2 seconds later. They started running. That gang composition is highly survivable. They all could have survived had they not been in the bubble. As it was we got their Falcon and two Vagabonds (battle report here). We lost a Muninn in that engagement... who yelled for reps on comms instead of broadcasting... which means he died.

We moved one more jump and ran into the remnants of the Rote Kapelle gang from earlier. We managed to kill their Stiletto scout first, then drop a Phantasm and lastly a Guardian.

From then on it was smooth sailing home. A very productive evening.. losing one dictor (in the initial engagement with WI) and a Muninn (who shouldn't have died) for lots of kills.

That is all.