Enjoy
December 14, 2010
Screenshots
Just finished first final today, figured I would post some of the screenshots from the last few weeks. I burnt out my old graphics card last week and got an Nvidea 460 GTX. Its pretty sweet.
Enjoy
Enjoy
December 7, 2010
Fights
Got home from work and saw we had action brewing. We had a fleet up and running in GE-, sandwhiched between NCdot in V-3 and a Drake Army by -A- and friends.
NCdot jumped in from V-3 as we were burning off gate, we fought. -A- warped around as did NCDot. It was a good fight, and our heavy Maelstrom count really did a number on both enemy fleets.
NCdot bailed out the back door route, burning through 5-N in a giant loop. We got fleet on titan and plan was to jump to cloaky hic w/cyno but his client failed hard. We ended up bridging to an INIT cyno, catching NCdot by surprise. By last count 2 of their BS made it out alive by logoffski's.
Important Internet Spaceship League was reported en route with 50ish bs heavy as we probed down the last couple of NCdot in EX6. We formed up in GE- on the V-3 gate, and burned gang out to 70 off gate and waited. Dictors were cloaked and waiting below and above the in gate.
IISL entered V-3 and warped GE-. We waited for a couple minutes as they deliberated, and then they jumped in. We fought for several minutes, Cflux calling targets. Aligning We counted about 26 of their wrecks on gate as their remnants warped out. They were bouncing safes in GE-, so I sent scouts to all gates.
They were reported landing YHN- a couple minutes later. As luck would have it I was in warp to that gate and jumped with most of their leftovers. Bubbled up,and I died, but our gang jumped in and was able to kill more of them, about 10, that got caught in the bubble.
Last count had the remaing 15-20 IISL hiding in a -A- pos in YHN. We held in system for the last 5 minutes of the TCU onlining, and stood fleet down after that.
I took a snipe hac gang out at that point, found a few targets, and burned home when TEST showed up. Their scout spotted us returning, so the only kill we managed was him (Stabber). The rest ran back home.
It was a great night, we took very few losses and inflicted heavy casualties.
Oh, and it was fun.
NCdot jumped in from V-3 as we were burning off gate, we fought. -A- warped around as did NCDot. It was a good fight, and our heavy Maelstrom count really did a number on both enemy fleets.
NCdot bailed out the back door route, burning through 5-N in a giant loop. We got fleet on titan and plan was to jump to cloaky hic w/cyno but his client failed hard. We ended up bridging to an INIT cyno, catching NCdot by surprise. By last count 2 of their BS made it out alive by logoffski's.
Important Internet Spaceship League was reported en route with 50ish bs heavy as we probed down the last couple of NCdot in EX6. We formed up in GE- on the V-3 gate, and burned gang out to 70 off gate and waited. Dictors were cloaked and waiting below and above the in gate.
IISL entered V-3 and warped GE-. We waited for a couple minutes as they deliberated, and then they jumped in. We fought for several minutes, Cflux calling targets. Aligning We counted about 26 of their wrecks on gate as their remnants warped out. They were bouncing safes in GE-, so I sent scouts to all gates.
They were reported landing YHN- a couple minutes later. As luck would have it I was in warp to that gate and jumped with most of their leftovers. Bubbled up,and I died, but our gang jumped in and was able to kill more of them, about 10, that got caught in the bubble.
Last count had the remaing 15-20 IISL hiding in a -A- pos in YHN. We held in system for the last 5 minutes of the TCU onlining, and stood fleet down after that.
I took a snipe hac gang out at that point, found a few targets, and burned home when TEST showed up. Their scout spotted us returning, so the only kill we managed was him (Stabber). The rest ran back home.
It was a great night, we took very few losses and inflicted heavy casualties.
Oh, and it was fun.
December 6, 2010
Sunday = Football & EVE
Yesterday was half assed camping in my Sabre combined with some late night fleet action.
We hit a -A- TCU in YHN, I didn't FC as I hate no brainer structure shooting. I did camp the V-3 gate in GE-, however, and snagged cov op kill after cov op kill coming in. Let me tell you, those Covert Ops Cloaks add up quite nicely.
After the fleet action was over, I decided to take a roam out for a little while. We found a True Reign gang, but they dissapeared before we get to them (found out later they went to Curse, but poor scouting couldn't find them). Important Internet Spaceships brought a gang, and we managed to kill a few of them and the rest dissapeared.
We moved into Providence, grabbed a Deimos in X-3... but missed the Tengu Curse and Cynabal on gate. Curse was actually tackled (scrammed) but neuted his only tackler and GTFO'd. My cloaky eyes I had left behind watched the Important Internet Spaceship League gang log back in... smart but I still laughed.
We rolled back to GE- and I was about to stand down when INIT convo'd me for help, as -A- had a 25ish man gang next door of LR BS and BC hitting their TCU. -A- had also onlined their own TCU.
We went in together scattering -A-, and started hitting their TCU. No kills, as INIT had one bubbler and not fast tacklers so the enemy just warped off field. -A- formed more numbers, and due to our horrible turnout in Aussie primetime (often weak, as its between US and EU prime), we weren't able to hold the field. INIT ended up getting hit hard on the -A- warp in (after they bolstered their numbers considerably), we didn't lose anyone but didn't kill anything either. No tacklers or bubbles to keep them on field. I called it after deliberating with the INIT FC.
This Sabre has lasted me 2 days... I think thats a new record.
Oh, and I used Hail yesterday for the first time on a Harbinger we found running the HED- GE- pipe. My Cane was pummeling him for 500-600 a volley... which isn't bad at all. Cheaper than Republic Phased Plasma... I was happy.
That is all.
We hit a -A- TCU in YHN, I didn't FC as I hate no brainer structure shooting. I did camp the V-3 gate in GE-, however, and snagged cov op kill after cov op kill coming in. Let me tell you, those Covert Ops Cloaks add up quite nicely.
After the fleet action was over, I decided to take a roam out for a little while. We found a True Reign gang, but they dissapeared before we get to them (found out later they went to Curse, but poor scouting couldn't find them). Important Internet Spaceships brought a gang, and we managed to kill a few of them and the rest dissapeared.
We moved into Providence, grabbed a Deimos in X-3... but missed the Tengu Curse and Cynabal on gate. Curse was actually tackled (scrammed) but neuted his only tackler and GTFO'd. My cloaky eyes I had left behind watched the Important Internet Spaceship League gang log back in... smart but I still laughed.
We rolled back to GE- and I was about to stand down when INIT convo'd me for help, as -A- had a 25ish man gang next door of LR BS and BC hitting their TCU. -A- had also onlined their own TCU.
We went in together scattering -A-, and started hitting their TCU. No kills, as INIT had one bubbler and not fast tacklers so the enemy just warped off field. -A- formed more numbers, and due to our horrible turnout in Aussie primetime (often weak, as its between US and EU prime), we weren't able to hold the field. INIT ended up getting hit hard on the -A- warp in (after they bolstered their numbers considerably), we didn't lose anyone but didn't kill anything either. No tacklers or bubbles to keep them on field. I called it after deliberating with the INIT FC.
This Sabre has lasted me 2 days... I think thats a new record.
Oh, and I used Hail yesterday for the first time on a Harbinger we found running the HED- GE- pipe. My Cane was pummeling him for 500-600 a volley... which isn't bad at all. Cheaper than Republic Phased Plasma... I was happy.
That is all.
December 3, 2010
Back in the Sabre
Yesterday I headed to Catch. I picked up a Sabre in Agil (I lost my last one weeks ago) and headed through HED-.
Convo'd by some INIT renters who were camping the SV5 gate. They were interested in sorting standings, so I got some important diplo types involved and let them run with it.
In the mean time, these neut guys were camping with Cane, Drake X2 and Flycatcher. They also had Cynabal running around the system somewhere. Psyco and King Curt were there shortly after I arrived, and together we moved into SV5. Flycatcher tried to catch me, but I had already broken cloak and recloaked in my Sabre before he even loaded grid.
We moved to WD- gate, and Castlekin joined us. Castlekin is an industrialist (miner) who got thirsty for blood and is PVPing more than half the "PVP"ers in corp at this point.
The Flycatcher had jumped in twice in the past couple minutes, bubbling both times for stuff (but not catching it). So we set up on HED- gate and sure enough, red bumped local and in comes the Flycatcher. Loki decloaks and cloaks (if I was bubbler I wouldn't have even tried, 9/10 times in null sec hes nullifier fit). Yet the Flycatcher bubbled way late... game time.
I broke cloak and immediately warped in the Flycatcher's bubble aggressing him. Decloak delay meant it took 10 seconds to lock his ass, but he sat in the bubble not moving. I aggressed him again as the 3x bombers decloaked and lit him up. He started to realize the problems facing him at this point, and tried to burn off. I was able to lock him at this point, however, and a scram/web combo kept him still.
His buddy in a Drake came through, which I expected (I had eyes on the other side), but his DPS was minimal. The Flycatchers tank was starting to break at this point.
Then I noticed blue drones hitting me. Hard. wtf???
I knew that INIT had these guys blue and that tomorrow they would probably be blue... but for now, they were neut. I switched overview and a blue INIT Myrmidon was beating the hell out of me.
I started burning off, fast, outranging the Hobgoblins that were eating me alive. Flycatcher popped, I was in low armor. Volley of heavies slammed into my Sabre, sending me into structure. I kept burning, overheating MWD. Align and warp was impossible; I would get volleyed. I saw a flight of heavies coming towards me... slowly. I held my breath, in the hopes I would outrange the bastards. Closing every so slowly, distance approaching 70km from Drake... my mail flashed.
Dammit!
The most annoying shit in this game is the insurance mail appearing before your ship even "dies".
So I warped my pod off, while dropping a wtf in local to the INIT Myrmidon. Without his dumbass, that would have been a clean kill. Looking at the lossmail (Sabre) he dealt 57% of the damage. In my calculations I hadn't planned for a blue Myrmidon to shoot me. Standings issues in 0.0 are always a concern, but I stick with NBSI 100%. Even in gangs where some of the guys aren't blue, I will say "Hey, if hes neut to you, we hold back go have fun". Gentleman's law.
That guy screwed up, and after some discussions he realized the grave error. He mentioned alcohol, but the simple fact was that I was still blue. So I got a new Sabre and fittings... which was nice... but the thing I disliked the most was a lossmail that shouldn't have been on my record. Oh well...
Shortly after I snagged a Manticore that came into 9KOE-. He was smart in burning off when he saw Sabre, but he burned straight up with no transversal, so I ran him down and decloaked him.
While we were messing around with the wreck, we got a new neut. Ares on scan... he landed. I jumped through before he landed and cloaked up. Sure enough, he came right on through. I decloaked and bubbled... bam. He stopped moving completely. I burned him out, spamming lock waiting for my decloak delay to finish.
Still wasn't moving.
Finally he started reapproaching but it was too late, as scram/web ensnared him. Gang was jumping through, but his died instantly. His Ares was carrying some random goodies of goodness, which we snagged on got safe.
Another new neut in system... Everyone cloaked up except for my cov ops alt. Sabre on scan... interesting. He landed on gate with my decloaked cov ops, but jumped through. So I jumped the cov ops too.
On the other side he was a bit more ballsy. He reapproached the gate, pre cursor to a decloak attempt. I broke cloak with my alt and started moving... he bubbled. Funny part was, the bubble was 8km short of even catching me. Yet he tried to burn me out anyways, but I was already moving away from his trajectory. He kept burning and aligned to the outgate.
As he was burning off I jumped my Sabre in. As I bumped local he warped off, and I called gang in while spamming warp in my cov ops alt to aggress him.
"everyone to the out gate, everyone go go go"
My Sabre landed on the outgate and sure enough, there he was at 0. I immediately bubbled and he was trapped. I tried to warp my alt again for good measure and dropped web/scram on the Sabre.
"light him up!"
We did.
After what seemed like an eternity his Sabre popped. I was excited... the little maneuvering had worked and due to his incompetence (sitting on a gate when you have aggression is dumb. the gate, to you, is basically a locked door). My enthusiasm was dampened when I found out PG had died. He had landed at 0 on the Sabre and tried to burn off. Next time he will know that in that situation he needs to align off, spank mwd and cloak. Once at safe range (15+km) he could have decloaked and started firing, as he would have been out of the range of the Sabre, and since the Sabre was scram/webbed he wouldn't have been able to pursue.
The Sabre was double MSE fit, which explained why he took so long to go down. Bomber for a Sabre was an okay trade... but I would have rather we had no losses.
Next door an Important Internet Spaceship League black ops gang was on scan, but not really doing anything.
We reset and waited. Then a familiar name popped into local... Dark Templari. Nothing on scan...
We waited... and waited...
Prorator on gate. I decloaked and jumped with him. Loading grid the Prorator decloaked... 5km off of me! I saw where he started burning to and decloaked aligning the same direction. 1...2.....3 seconds went buy and BAM got him! I overshot and he started reapproaching. He managed to cloak back up but I decloaked him a second time, and this time one of the bombers got a lock on him too. As we were sitting in system with 11 hostile IISL (black ops gang) I instructed everyone to overheat to take the Prorator down. After what seemed like forever the cloaky transport popped.
"Cloak cloak cloak everyone off cloak!" I instructed, assuming the neuts in system would be on the way. I popped the pod in my Sabre and burned off the gate.
The neuts never even came to check it out.
Prorator was empty, sad day. Those things are pretty hard to snag too. Managed to snage one more bomber before gang was getting sleepy, and then I popped a pod too. Eyes getting droopy, I logged off for the evening as well.
Heres to more kills in Catch :-)
Convo'd by some INIT renters who were camping the SV5 gate. They were interested in sorting standings, so I got some important diplo types involved and let them run with it.
In the mean time, these neut guys were camping with Cane, Drake X2 and Flycatcher. They also had Cynabal running around the system somewhere. Psyco and King Curt were there shortly after I arrived, and together we moved into SV5. Flycatcher tried to catch me, but I had already broken cloak and recloaked in my Sabre before he even loaded grid.
We moved to WD- gate, and Castlekin joined us. Castlekin is an industrialist (miner) who got thirsty for blood and is PVPing more than half the "PVP"ers in corp at this point.
The Flycatcher had jumped in twice in the past couple minutes, bubbling both times for stuff (but not catching it). So we set up on HED- gate and sure enough, red bumped local and in comes the Flycatcher. Loki decloaks and cloaks (if I was bubbler I wouldn't have even tried, 9/10 times in null sec hes nullifier fit). Yet the Flycatcher bubbled way late... game time.
I broke cloak and immediately warped in the Flycatcher's bubble aggressing him. Decloak delay meant it took 10 seconds to lock his ass, but he sat in the bubble not moving. I aggressed him again as the 3x bombers decloaked and lit him up. He started to realize the problems facing him at this point, and tried to burn off. I was able to lock him at this point, however, and a scram/web combo kept him still.
His buddy in a Drake came through, which I expected (I had eyes on the other side), but his DPS was minimal. The Flycatchers tank was starting to break at this point.
Then I noticed blue drones hitting me. Hard. wtf???
I knew that INIT had these guys blue and that tomorrow they would probably be blue... but for now, they were neut. I switched overview and a blue INIT Myrmidon was beating the hell out of me.
I started burning off, fast, outranging the Hobgoblins that were eating me alive. Flycatcher popped, I was in low armor. Volley of heavies slammed into my Sabre, sending me into structure. I kept burning, overheating MWD. Align and warp was impossible; I would get volleyed. I saw a flight of heavies coming towards me... slowly. I held my breath, in the hopes I would outrange the bastards. Closing every so slowly, distance approaching 70km from Drake... my mail flashed.
Dammit!
The most annoying shit in this game is the insurance mail appearing before your ship even "dies".
So I warped my pod off, while dropping a wtf in local to the INIT Myrmidon. Without his dumbass, that would have been a clean kill. Looking at the lossmail (Sabre) he dealt 57% of the damage. In my calculations I hadn't planned for a blue Myrmidon to shoot me. Standings issues in 0.0 are always a concern, but I stick with NBSI 100%. Even in gangs where some of the guys aren't blue, I will say "Hey, if hes neut to you, we hold back go have fun". Gentleman's law.
That guy screwed up, and after some discussions he realized the grave error. He mentioned alcohol, but the simple fact was that I was still blue. So I got a new Sabre and fittings... which was nice... but the thing I disliked the most was a lossmail that shouldn't have been on my record. Oh well...
Shortly after I snagged a Manticore that came into 9KOE-. He was smart in burning off when he saw Sabre, but he burned straight up with no transversal, so I ran him down and decloaked him.
While we were messing around with the wreck, we got a new neut. Ares on scan... he landed. I jumped through before he landed and cloaked up. Sure enough, he came right on through. I decloaked and bubbled... bam. He stopped moving completely. I burned him out, spamming lock waiting for my decloak delay to finish.
Still wasn't moving.
Finally he started reapproaching but it was too late, as scram/web ensnared him. Gang was jumping through, but his died instantly. His Ares was carrying some random goodies of goodness, which we snagged on got safe.
Another new neut in system... Everyone cloaked up except for my cov ops alt. Sabre on scan... interesting. He landed on gate with my decloaked cov ops, but jumped through. So I jumped the cov ops too.
On the other side he was a bit more ballsy. He reapproached the gate, pre cursor to a decloak attempt. I broke cloak with my alt and started moving... he bubbled. Funny part was, the bubble was 8km short of even catching me. Yet he tried to burn me out anyways, but I was already moving away from his trajectory. He kept burning and aligned to the outgate.
As he was burning off I jumped my Sabre in. As I bumped local he warped off, and I called gang in while spamming warp in my cov ops alt to aggress him.
"everyone to the out gate, everyone go go go"
My Sabre landed on the outgate and sure enough, there he was at 0. I immediately bubbled and he was trapped. I tried to warp my alt again for good measure and dropped web/scram on the Sabre.
"light him up!"
We did.
After what seemed like an eternity his Sabre popped. I was excited... the little maneuvering had worked and due to his incompetence (sitting on a gate when you have aggression is dumb. the gate, to you, is basically a locked door). My enthusiasm was dampened when I found out PG had died. He had landed at 0 on the Sabre and tried to burn off. Next time he will know that in that situation he needs to align off, spank mwd and cloak. Once at safe range (15+km) he could have decloaked and started firing, as he would have been out of the range of the Sabre, and since the Sabre was scram/webbed he wouldn't have been able to pursue.
The Sabre was double MSE fit, which explained why he took so long to go down. Bomber for a Sabre was an okay trade... but I would have rather we had no losses.
Next door an Important Internet Spaceship League black ops gang was on scan, but not really doing anything.
We reset and waited. Then a familiar name popped into local... Dark Templari. Nothing on scan...
We waited... and waited...
Prorator on gate. I decloaked and jumped with him. Loading grid the Prorator decloaked... 5km off of me! I saw where he started burning to and decloaked aligning the same direction. 1...2.....3 seconds went buy and BAM got him! I overshot and he started reapproaching. He managed to cloak back up but I decloaked him a second time, and this time one of the bombers got a lock on him too. As we were sitting in system with 11 hostile IISL (black ops gang) I instructed everyone to overheat to take the Prorator down. After what seemed like forever the cloaky transport popped.
"Cloak cloak cloak everyone off cloak!" I instructed, assuming the neuts in system would be on the way. I popped the pod in my Sabre and burned off the gate.
The neuts never even came to check it out.
Prorator was empty, sad day. Those things are pretty hard to snag too. Managed to snage one more bomber before gang was getting sleepy, and then I popped a pod too. Eyes getting droopy, I logged off for the evening as well.
Heres to more kills in Catch :-)
December 2, 2010
1 Day 2 Losses
Couple days ago I took a snipe HAC gang out heading north. I jump out of Fountain we snagged a Fatal Ascension Muninn, all by his lonesome self. Heading North, I received intel that Wildly Innapropriate had a 50 man hac gang incoming. Given our numbers of 25 (including dictors/tacklers) I figured it would be a bad idea to engage.
Behind us was a smaller PL gang made up of mainly light stuff. We formed up at snipe position off the gate they would come in through, and watched as their scout bumped local in a Dramiel. He waited session timer and reapproached, but mis-timed his jump and bounced way off the gate. Within a couple seconds the Dramiel popped. As I was cloaked I didn't get to whore on the mail :-(
Dramiel pilot wasn't happy, as local chat lit up. But we had no time to chat. PL had turned around and was burning away, and WI was very close to catching us. We started burning on the tails of PL, local bumping behind us.
I had dictor leave FU bubbles behing for several jumps until we got clear. Instead of Pure Blind we headed to Syndicate. No targets to be found, until I jumped into FD-...
I entered FD- local with snipe hac gang 1j behind. 11 neuts, scan showed clear. I broke cloak and started aligning off gate with the intention to drop probes (usually there is a gate camp in that system, with off gate warp points). As soon as I dropped cloak all hell broke loose...
3x Sabre decloaked as well as a bomber and a Falcon. I immediately started reapproach, but was webbed by at least 4 webs. Falcon got a jam cycle off immediately. I called gang into next door system; they were landing when I popped.
Whelp... I had been slapped in the face by the infamous Zhoul. The Sabres dealt the majority of the damage, and being a probe fit Rapier I didn't have much in the way of DPS (Rapiers usually don't anyways). Not that it would have mattered, I was permajammed until I died. Pro camp and it got me.
I had King Kurt FC the fleet home, as I was in a fresh clone in 5-C. I went out with Easley on a Vaga + Rupture roam (I have a new found love for the ruppy). For some odd reason, my MWD was bugged. I noticed it in our first fight in Curse. I needed to reapproach to get back into a system I had left to help Easley. I hit MWD and got the "due to external bla bla bla you cannot MWD" message, the one that usually means you're scrammed. Except I was the only person in local and wasn't scrammed. This continued to be an issue, and about 15 min later it killed me.
I jumped into a gate camp, with a ceptor on gate. The rest of his gang was camping a drag bubble 50km off the gate. I saw why when an Initiative bomber landed in the bubble and the pounced on it. Figuring this was a good time to try and make it back in my 1600mm plated triple trimarked Rupture of pwn... I broke cloak and spanked MWD.
Except the MWD spat out that error message again and my glorious reapproach turned into a crawl back to gate.
All was well until that lone ceptor on gate noticed and tackled me. I held onto hope as his point was not followed up by a web.
I continued crawling to gate... but my hopes were dashed when DPS from the bubble campers started impacting. But... my tank was holding!
Then I saw the webs ensnare my ship... and my crawl turned into a really slow crawl. 5km off the gate I died.
Seems to be my theme lately, killed on reapproach. I filed a petition, not that the Rupture was that expensive. It was more the fact that CCP failed and I now have a lossmail I shouldn't. Playing with a Russian Goonswarm gang, cynabal and Maelstrom that evening with Easley and a gate camp that shouldn't have gotten me got me. Damn the new patch and its fail.
Ideally I would have reapproached and jumped through, the campers all agressed except for one lone ceptor that had jumped through in case I made it. That ceptor would have died or warped off.
Oh well.
Until next time...
Behind us was a smaller PL gang made up of mainly light stuff. We formed up at snipe position off the gate they would come in through, and watched as their scout bumped local in a Dramiel. He waited session timer and reapproached, but mis-timed his jump and bounced way off the gate. Within a couple seconds the Dramiel popped. As I was cloaked I didn't get to whore on the mail :-(
Dramiel pilot wasn't happy, as local chat lit up. But we had no time to chat. PL had turned around and was burning away, and WI was very close to catching us. We started burning on the tails of PL, local bumping behind us.
I had dictor leave FU bubbles behing for several jumps until we got clear. Instead of Pure Blind we headed to Syndicate. No targets to be found, until I jumped into FD-...
I entered FD- local with snipe hac gang 1j behind. 11 neuts, scan showed clear. I broke cloak and started aligning off gate with the intention to drop probes (usually there is a gate camp in that system, with off gate warp points). As soon as I dropped cloak all hell broke loose...
3x Sabre decloaked as well as a bomber and a Falcon. I immediately started reapproach, but was webbed by at least 4 webs. Falcon got a jam cycle off immediately. I called gang into next door system; they were landing when I popped.
Whelp... I had been slapped in the face by the infamous Zhoul. The Sabres dealt the majority of the damage, and being a probe fit Rapier I didn't have much in the way of DPS (Rapiers usually don't anyways). Not that it would have mattered, I was permajammed until I died. Pro camp and it got me.
I had King Kurt FC the fleet home, as I was in a fresh clone in 5-C. I went out with Easley on a Vaga + Rupture roam (I have a new found love for the ruppy). For some odd reason, my MWD was bugged. I noticed it in our first fight in Curse. I needed to reapproach to get back into a system I had left to help Easley. I hit MWD and got the "due to external bla bla bla you cannot MWD" message, the one that usually means you're scrammed. Except I was the only person in local and wasn't scrammed. This continued to be an issue, and about 15 min later it killed me.
I jumped into a gate camp, with a ceptor on gate. The rest of his gang was camping a drag bubble 50km off the gate. I saw why when an Initiative bomber landed in the bubble and the pounced on it. Figuring this was a good time to try and make it back in my 1600mm plated triple trimarked Rupture of pwn... I broke cloak and spanked MWD.
Except the MWD spat out that error message again and my glorious reapproach turned into a crawl back to gate.
All was well until that lone ceptor on gate noticed and tackled me. I held onto hope as his point was not followed up by a web.
I continued crawling to gate... but my hopes were dashed when DPS from the bubble campers started impacting. But... my tank was holding!
Then I saw the webs ensnare my ship... and my crawl turned into a really slow crawl. 5km off the gate I died.
Seems to be my theme lately, killed on reapproach. I filed a petition, not that the Rupture was that expensive. It was more the fact that CCP failed and I now have a lossmail I shouldn't. Playing with a Russian Goonswarm gang, cynabal and Maelstrom that evening with Easley and a gate camp that shouldn't have gotten me got me. Damn the new patch and its fail.
Ideally I would have reapproached and jumped through, the campers all agressed except for one lone ceptor that had jumped through in case I made it. That ceptor would have died or warped off.
Oh well.
Until next time...
November 29, 2010
Ensnared.
I'm going to preface this one by saying I decided to buy a Vagabond yesterday, because the things are so damn addicting.
I also lost said Vagabond later in the day to a TEST gate camp. She popped 4.5k from the gate on a reapproach. I call bullshit.
With that out of the way, I did manage to cap two test guys running the Delve pipe. It went something like this:
I had just logged on, wiping the sleep out my eyes when I saw a red pop into 5-C local. Inquiries into intel revealed he was in a Vagabond with a friend still in ZXB- in a Curse. This later turned out to be incorrect, as his accomplice was flying a Pilgrim. Similar... but very different ships.
I sat my Abaddon on the KEE- gate in hopes of a fight, and got none. The Vaga was reported entering M-2, so I went to the M-2 gate in time to see the Pilgrim jump through.
Jackpot.
I jumped my Abaddon through, and there they were. Drones out and waiting. M-2 local was also much more empty, always helpful when baiting. I held cloak until it dropped (like a noob), and sat there for a couple seconds before reapproaching. Sure enough, both red boxed me instantly. I started my lock time on the Pilrim as the Vaga was kiting at range... 6 seconds to go and gate fire, Pilgrim cloaks and Vaga burns off.
wtf
I had told the guy in gang (Falcon, taranis, Cane) to hold the gate.
Alliance Viator. Dammit.
Viator decloaks and warps, Pilgrim decloaks and locks me up again. I start the locking...
At that point our Ranis and Falcon decided to come through too.
fml
Sure enough, Pilgrim cloaks again. This time, being combat ships they bugged out.
I emo raged on comms for 20-30 seconds before dropping to a different channel. The reds messed around in M-2 for 5 minutes or so, and I decided to try again. I had played the noob in M-2 local very well, maybe they would fall for it again.
Cat and mouse games all the way to D-W (road to NOL-) and they finally tackled me on the in gate in D-W. My Abaddon's tank held well, so I put ECM drones on the Vaga to aggress myself in a noobish way. It worked. Pilgrim closed to 10km, Vaga was kiting at 20km. As I hit 90% armor :-) with my gang on the other side of the gate, I hit approach on the Pilgrim. He didn't move. Vaga was approaching 0km on the gate in his orbit, the time was now. Overheated scram/web ensnaredthe Pilgrim as I activated my guns. My 24km point grabbed the Vaga, but not for long.
"Everyone in everyone in! Grab points/webs on Vaga, he is primary!"
Low and behold, our Ranis pilot was able to get scram/web on Vaga. He was screwed. Pilgrim was slowly going down (large pulse lasers with 2x tracking disruptors on you don't hit hard) when Vagabond popped. He was finished quickly.
TEST was pretty chill about the losses; they knew they had taken the bait hook line and sinker.
Later that evening (after football), we (Cardking and I) took a roam to Pure Blind and Deklein. We grabbed some decent kills, including this WI Sleipnir who must have not been paying attention to intel when he jumped in and aggressed me scouting. Gang came in and warped to me, Falcon got jams and he died. I was worried about getting caught in any one of the Deklein pipes, as we knew WI was forming a response gang, and TEST as well.
So the earlier engagement made it all the more ironic when I jumped into the TEST camp in Deklein, waiting for our gang to try and leave. I don't know why its so hard to reapproach gate these days, but I died within fingers reach of it. Sad day, happy day.
That is all.
I also lost said Vagabond later in the day to a TEST gate camp. She popped 4.5k from the gate on a reapproach. I call bullshit.
With that out of the way, I did manage to cap two test guys running the Delve pipe. It went something like this:
I had just logged on, wiping the sleep out my eyes when I saw a red pop into 5-C local. Inquiries into intel revealed he was in a Vagabond with a friend still in ZXB- in a Curse. This later turned out to be incorrect, as his accomplice was flying a Pilgrim. Similar... but very different ships.
I sat my Abaddon on the KEE- gate in hopes of a fight, and got none. The Vaga was reported entering M-2, so I went to the M-2 gate in time to see the Pilgrim jump through.
Jackpot.
I jumped my Abaddon through, and there they were. Drones out and waiting. M-2 local was also much more empty, always helpful when baiting. I held cloak until it dropped (like a noob), and sat there for a couple seconds before reapproaching. Sure enough, both red boxed me instantly. I started my lock time on the Pilrim as the Vaga was kiting at range... 6 seconds to go and gate fire, Pilgrim cloaks and Vaga burns off.
wtf
I had told the guy in gang (Falcon, taranis, Cane) to hold the gate.
Alliance Viator. Dammit.
Viator decloaks and warps, Pilgrim decloaks and locks me up again. I start the locking...
At that point our Ranis and Falcon decided to come through too.
fml
Sure enough, Pilgrim cloaks again. This time, being combat ships they bugged out.
I emo raged on comms for 20-30 seconds before dropping to a different channel. The reds messed around in M-2 for 5 minutes or so, and I decided to try again. I had played the noob in M-2 local very well, maybe they would fall for it again.
Cat and mouse games all the way to D-W (road to NOL-) and they finally tackled me on the in gate in D-W. My Abaddon's tank held well, so I put ECM drones on the Vaga to aggress myself in a noobish way. It worked. Pilgrim closed to 10km, Vaga was kiting at 20km. As I hit 90% armor :-) with my gang on the other side of the gate, I hit approach on the Pilgrim. He didn't move. Vaga was approaching 0km on the gate in his orbit, the time was now. Overheated scram/web ensnaredthe Pilgrim as I activated my guns. My 24km point grabbed the Vaga, but not for long.
"Everyone in everyone in! Grab points/webs on Vaga, he is primary!"
Low and behold, our Ranis pilot was able to get scram/web on Vaga. He was screwed. Pilgrim was slowly going down (large pulse lasers with 2x tracking disruptors on you don't hit hard) when Vagabond popped. He was finished quickly.
TEST was pretty chill about the losses; they knew they had taken the bait hook line and sinker.
Later that evening (after football), we (Cardking and I) took a roam to Pure Blind and Deklein. We grabbed some decent kills, including this WI Sleipnir who must have not been paying attention to intel when he jumped in and aggressed me scouting. Gang came in and warped to me, Falcon got jams and he died. I was worried about getting caught in any one of the Deklein pipes, as we knew WI was forming a response gang, and TEST as well.
So the earlier engagement made it all the more ironic when I jumped into the TEST camp in Deklein, waiting for our gang to try and leave. I don't know why its so hard to reapproach gate these days, but I died within fingers reach of it. Sad day, happy day.
That is all.
Its been Awhile
Finals are coming up dear friends, I fear my posting has grown lax.
Let me bring you up to speed.
I've been running snipe hac gangs with more frequency. Last week we had a run and gun fight with WI/TEST/GOONS in J5A after they SBU'd the system.
Due to low turnout (~60) in USTZ all we could do was long range snipe hac engagements, while NC had 100-120 on field at all times. After a 4.5 hour fight, they reinforced the i-hub.
Initially our losses were not good; several hacs and logistics died. I was on field in a cloaky watching as the first three died... careening upwards into the enemy fleet. Why? Spamming ctrl-left click... which makes you approach. In a paper thin snipe hac traveling at 2km/sec... you close the gap real fast. They died.
As we were burning off the enemy gang, I noticed logstics falling behind. Very bad. Logistics should always be at the front of the gang, warped in 20km shorter if possible. Not behind. In one particular instance, we held alignment on field for several minutes, as idiots from WI burned out to us (and died). I kept yelling at Scimitars to spank MWD... and yet they died. The culprit was finally revealed as a frustrated Scimi pilot yelled "I DON'T HAVE A MICROWARP, I HAVE AN AFTERBURNER!"
Fucking fail.
The inexperience level had led to 4 logi deaths. Inexperience in snipe hac tactics. IT shield fleets consist of Maelstroms, Apocs and Drakes with afterburner Scimitars. Many had brought these Scimitars, unaware that they would not meet the criteria. Ironically, IT has a snipe hac fit for Scimitars on our forums, and has for over a month. I have now been verifying that the Scimitars are mwd fit, and turn down Basilisks (as there aren't any viable MWD gang Basi fits that I have found, and they are just slow anyways).
After a couple hours, the fleet started getting into a rhythm, and our losses (except dictors) dropped to nothing. Every warp in we would kill one or more, and force them off field. Unfortunately, NC reinforcements were streaming through from Pure Blind in ones and twos. Blast suicided a bs fleet on the NC gang at the onset, and had reshipped to BC. I requested he form bombers to kill the sbu (bomber damage is hella pro on structures) but he didn't want to. They couldn't hold the field (neither could we) and they couldn't scrap with the NC gang (due to similar compostion and inferior numbers), so I didn't understand why he chose to stay with the ships he was in. I also asked him to camp the path from Pure Blind to Fountain, in the hopes he could gank the one and two man reinforcements coming into the system. He didn't listen.
In different circumstances I would have exploded on the ally FC, but I was just too damn busy to do anything about it. Next time I will send one of my co-FCs over to help sort things.
Battle report here: http://www.killboard.it/?a=kill_related&kll_id=221107
The day before that we had a fight in Period Basis, in which Goons brought a 50 man gang down to harass IT/Sys-K while we pounded on the SBU. Havoc was in local doing their little 10 man gang thing (5 unprobable snipe faction bs, with 4 Dramiels buzzing around). We got ready to pound Goons when they came in, but weren't able to pin their gang on the gate and Goons warped off field. So Sys K and IT continued to hit the SBU, interruped 2-3 times by Goons warping in, turning around and warping off. I snagged a Zealot on one of the warp outs, but other than that Goons hid in the -A- pos that was provided for them. Their victory came when spy gave up the pos password to the Sys-K pos we were using to stage out of, and they stole some ammo in cans that was supplied for us by Sys-K. You would have thought they re took delve with the local chatter that ensued. :-)
After SBU died we headed back to Delve, the majority of the gang re shipping to snipe hacs. As soon as we left another sbu was anchored, but Sys K ninja onlined it (anyone can online an anchored SBU). Oooops :-)
Goons left shortly after... with their 50 man gang.
We were waiting.
Using jump bridges and fast speed snipe HACs, we engaged the Goons all the way through Delve and into Fountain, ending in KVN-. 7 Goons were online and left into Cloud Ring. 10-20 had logged in various Fountain and Delve systems, and the rest died.
I lost 2 interceptors and a Keres.
GF
This weekend EUTZ actually took a snipe HAC gang into Catch/Providence. Nilie FC'd, and the gang didn't die! It was loads of fun, but the EUTZ was just as bad (worse) as USTZ at the snipe hacs. But, due to the safety net of no real opponent and overwhelming numbers, their mistakes weren't fatal. Clearly lots of work to be done if they want to actually be succesful with the snipe hac gangs. But the USTZ must become effective at using them due to the lack of overwhelming numbers we have.
Yesterday was quite a bit of fun with smaller gang PVP, which I will write about in my next post.
That is all.
Let me bring you up to speed.
I've been running snipe hac gangs with more frequency. Last week we had a run and gun fight with WI/TEST/GOONS in J5A after they SBU'd the system.
Due to low turnout (~60) in USTZ all we could do was long range snipe hac engagements, while NC had 100-120 on field at all times. After a 4.5 hour fight, they reinforced the i-hub.
Initially our losses were not good; several hacs and logistics died. I was on field in a cloaky watching as the first three died... careening upwards into the enemy fleet. Why? Spamming ctrl-left click... which makes you approach. In a paper thin snipe hac traveling at 2km/sec... you close the gap real fast. They died.
As we were burning off the enemy gang, I noticed logstics falling behind. Very bad. Logistics should always be at the front of the gang, warped in 20km shorter if possible. Not behind. In one particular instance, we held alignment on field for several minutes, as idiots from WI burned out to us (and died). I kept yelling at Scimitars to spank MWD... and yet they died. The culprit was finally revealed as a frustrated Scimi pilot yelled "I DON'T HAVE A MICROWARP, I HAVE AN AFTERBURNER!"
Fucking fail.
The inexperience level had led to 4 logi deaths. Inexperience in snipe hac tactics. IT shield fleets consist of Maelstroms, Apocs and Drakes with afterburner Scimitars. Many had brought these Scimitars, unaware that they would not meet the criteria. Ironically, IT has a snipe hac fit for Scimitars on our forums, and has for over a month. I have now been verifying that the Scimitars are mwd fit, and turn down Basilisks (as there aren't any viable MWD gang Basi fits that I have found, and they are just slow anyways).
After a couple hours, the fleet started getting into a rhythm, and our losses (except dictors) dropped to nothing. Every warp in we would kill one or more, and force them off field. Unfortunately, NC reinforcements were streaming through from Pure Blind in ones and twos. Blast suicided a bs fleet on the NC gang at the onset, and had reshipped to BC. I requested he form bombers to kill the sbu (bomber damage is hella pro on structures) but he didn't want to. They couldn't hold the field (neither could we) and they couldn't scrap with the NC gang (due to similar compostion and inferior numbers), so I didn't understand why he chose to stay with the ships he was in. I also asked him to camp the path from Pure Blind to Fountain, in the hopes he could gank the one and two man reinforcements coming into the system. He didn't listen.
In different circumstances I would have exploded on the ally FC, but I was just too damn busy to do anything about it. Next time I will send one of my co-FCs over to help sort things.
Battle report here: http://www.killboard.it/?a=kill_related&kll_id=221107
The day before that we had a fight in Period Basis, in which Goons brought a 50 man gang down to harass IT/Sys-K while we pounded on the SBU. Havoc was in local doing their little 10 man gang thing (5 unprobable snipe faction bs, with 4 Dramiels buzzing around). We got ready to pound Goons when they came in, but weren't able to pin their gang on the gate and Goons warped off field. So Sys K and IT continued to hit the SBU, interruped 2-3 times by Goons warping in, turning around and warping off. I snagged a Zealot on one of the warp outs, but other than that Goons hid in the -A- pos that was provided for them. Their victory came when spy gave up the pos password to the Sys-K pos we were using to stage out of, and they stole some ammo in cans that was supplied for us by Sys-K. You would have thought they re took delve with the local chatter that ensued. :-)
After SBU died we headed back to Delve, the majority of the gang re shipping to snipe hacs. As soon as we left another sbu was anchored, but Sys K ninja onlined it (anyone can online an anchored SBU). Oooops :-)
Goons left shortly after... with their 50 man gang.
We were waiting.
Using jump bridges and fast speed snipe HACs, we engaged the Goons all the way through Delve and into Fountain, ending in KVN-. 7 Goons were online and left into Cloud Ring. 10-20 had logged in various Fountain and Delve systems, and the rest died.
I lost 2 interceptors and a Keres.
GF
This weekend EUTZ actually took a snipe HAC gang into Catch/Providence. Nilie FC'd, and the gang didn't die! It was loads of fun, but the EUTZ was just as bad (worse) as USTZ at the snipe hacs. But, due to the safety net of no real opponent and overwhelming numbers, their mistakes weren't fatal. Clearly lots of work to be done if they want to actually be succesful with the snipe hac gangs. But the USTZ must become effective at using them due to the lack of overwhelming numbers we have.
Yesterday was quite a bit of fun with smaller gang PVP, which I will write about in my next post.
That is all.
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