Pushing My Luck

GOOD FIGHT...

A Tusker, Easy Target (that's his name, not my description of the Tuskers), showed up in Kurnianen on Friday flying a Hawk assault frigate. I have not fought any AFs after the recent buff and was willing to try so I undocked my Thrasher.

After moving between belts and cross-warping once, we met at the top belt, about 10 kilometres from each other. I burned for the Hawk with overheated tackle and guns and he quickly tackled me back, shuting down my microwarp drive.

As we started trading blows, it became apparent the fight was a close one. Although at first I seemed to be a bit ahead in the damage race, Easy was slowly moving away from me, lowering my autocannons' DPS while his rockets continued to do the same damage.

In the end, however, the Hawk exploded with me at 18% hull. Turns out, Easy used the extra mid slot for range control rather than tank, sporting two webs.



...AND EPIC FAIL
On Sunday night, with Kurniainen and the neighbourhood hit by an Incursion, I decided to check out Providence in a Taranis, a ship I haven't flown for quite a while.

I travelled from KBP7-G to Y-MPWL (two hisec entry systems) without fights, only dodging a frigate plus recon gatecamp once, and created tactical bookmarks that will allow me to roam the area in bigger ships in the future.

In Y-MPWL, I warped to the hisec gate at range from an anomaly rather than a celestial and thus avoided two strategically placed drag bubbles. The gate was camped by a Sabre and a Harbinger. As I made another tactical, the Sabre moved around the gate so that he could bubble me and I decided to try and separate him from the battlecruiser.

I warped straight into his bubble, aligned away, hit MWD and sat perfectly still, allowing him to scram and web me. I guess I just clicked in space too early, while I was still technically in warp. Confused and disoriented, I then tried to AB away rather than brawl and promptly lost my ship and pod. How 1337 of me.

On Monday, however, I saw an evemail from Blake Zacary who told me he had killed the Sabre and nearly got the Harb. So, I ended up performing a successful suicide tackle \0/

Looking at the Sabre fit, which has roughly the same DPS as my Taranis with twice the EHP, I guess I would not have killed it in my dualprop interceptor anyway, if I'm wrong please tell me.

P.S. Just found out that Taranis is not only the Celtic version of Thor but also a British military drone.

Thrashers Suck!

Really, I haven't flown a ship more boring than Thrasher. I've been trying to do some small-ship solo work with it to record a video but realised it's not worth it.

You just find a faction or T2 frigate, wait for them to eagerly engage you, scram, web, neut and watch them die within mere seconds.

Not only does their support fail to arrive in time, your own buddies fail to make it onto the killmail. Jags, Slicers, Comets, Firetails, Taranii, stuff just melts. My only hope right now is meeting some challenge in the form of a Dramiel or a Daredevil.



YAAAAAWN

Trigger Hippie

I've podded people too much lately. It has become an instinct to lock a pod after a ship goes boom. But I really should think more about what I do after that.
The first case was a young Drake pilot running a mission in Siseide. Oblivious to scan probes, he let my mate pinpoint is location to which I then jumped in my Hurricane. I landed a bit too far away so the Drake warped out but soon he returned to the mission site and I got him. We were the only pilots in the system at the moment. I destroyed the Drake, managed to catch the pilot's pod and started negotiating a ransom. My victim was a bit slow with his replies, probably contemplating my offer, and finally said something like "bleh k". At that point I noticed local spike and, being a paranoid that I am, decided a rescue mission may be on its way. I one-volleyed the pod just as its pilot was typing, "wait a sec, I'll transfer the money". Argh!
I felt really bad about the whole thing and sent some money to the guy along with apologies.
The second case took place in Olfeim, a lowsec dead-end frequented by carebears. I spotted a Thrasher in a deadspace complex and went after it in my Wolf. As I engaged the destroyer, a Hawk assault frigate jumped in and started locking me. I quickly finished off the Thrasher, podded its pilot and overloaded my midslots to catch the Hawk. It was a long fight as he kept moving away and I was using short-range ammo, but in the end he died too. With adrenaline rush preventing my brains from working properly I quickly podded the Hawk pilot as well. WHY?!!! I should at least have tried to ransom!!!
Finally, I had a fight with Venom Orchid of the notorious Hellcats. I spotted her Rifter in Amamake's III-1 and started approaching in a Rifter of my own. She accepted the implicit duel offer and we were soon circling each other, shooting and repping. I won the fight (Venom said she was a bit slow with overloading her guns and actovating the repper) and again instinctively locked the pod. I didn't really want to pod Venom and started looting her wreck while thinking about my options. I mean, it's not every day that you get to have a sexy pirate chick next to you, scrambled and defenceless... Oooh the perverted fantasies!
"GET OUT!" a warning from my fleetmate, Leeloo Malaquin of Genos Occidere, brought me back to reality as a Pilgrim recon ship showed up next to us, probably after warping to Venom's wreck. I warped to a safespot as he was locking me, saved by the fact that he went after Venom first. Again, I felt like a dumbass for letting some random guy pod Venom, although she didn't seem to be upset with that.
WTB podding management courses.

Good Morning!

This morning, before getting my cup of coffee, I decided to see what was going on in Amamake.
I quickly scanned down a Stabber at a faction warfare plex and rushed to it. It was at the acceleration gate entrance and I went through the usual tackling routine. Suddenly, my cap was gone - damn, a neutraliser! Rho Jones made quick work of my cap-drained Rifter and I warped out in a pod. Those Stabbers are a coin toss really: you either beat them easily or die quickly.
As usual, I had another Rifter ready at a station and soon undocked again, looking for targets. Belts were empty, but there were a Thrasher and a Punisher moving between safespots. They lingered for too long at one of those giving my friend in a covert ops ship enough time to define their exact location.
I warped in, but the Thrasher quickly disappeared from the grid. I bookmarked the location and returned to my own observation spot. Soon, the pair were back and I was on my way. By the time I arrived, the Punisher had disappeared, but the Trasher was there and was up for a fight this time.
Despite being a relatively young pilot, Cowardly Sniper was hitting me hard, stripping my shield off in a couple rounds. I overloaded my guns and repair systems, settling into a tight orbit and spitting out EMP shells. When the Thrasher's shield - its primary defence level - was gone, his mate in a Punisher showed up. Will my armour hold under the assault or will it crumble? Read the next paragraph to find out!
I went on shooting the Thrasher and finally it exploded, but not before making several holes in my Rifter's hull which started letting out a trace of grey smoke clearly visible against the pitch black sky. Still, my overheated armour repairer was patching up the broken plates when I focused my attention on the Punisher.
Scram, web, orbit at 7.5km, switch to Barrage, keep pulsing the repper, laugh manically, choke with smoke, overheat guns again to break the armour at its peak regeneration level, job done.
I exchanged compliments with Cowardly Sniper and Cloudnebula while I scooped the loot.
The morning looked much better now, but there was more. I waited out my GCC, docked to repair and unload the loot and rushed back into open space. There was a Claw not far from the station, but it did not respond to my baiting attempts. However, a bit later I saw the same Claw at a belt to which I immediately jumped. Luck was definitely on my side as I landed right on top of the interceptor and had a quick tackle. Marlbor0 Man fought well, but Claw's tank is no match for Rifter's.
Satisfied, I docked up and went for my cup of coffee.

Gangsta Trippin'

My first Taranis

I was hanging around in Hadozeko with a corpmate when we saw a Taranis on the scanner. I warped to a planet in my Wolf to scan through its belts, but then the Taranis jumped to me itself. I haven't been attacked by anyone for quite a long time now and got used to the role of aggressor so much that I was a bit lost. Still, I told my mate to warp to me, tackled the Taranis and engaged my weapons. My armour was melting quickly, but the overheated repper was doing its best and I killed the Taranis with 13 percent structure left. My mate arrived when the fight was over and helped me scoop the loot and drones which I had ignored. It was only after the fight that I realised I had RF EMP ammo loaded because I had been chasing a Thrasher earlier. That mistake could have cost me the fight, but now I know the time spent on learning Hull Upgrades V was worth it.

Roxxorz Your Vexorz

A day later, me and the same corpmate, Art Kz, were in Siseide looking for targets. I scanned down a Caracal and warped to it, but then its pilot told me we had a positive standing with his corporation so I disengaged. A few minutes later, I saw the same Caracal in another belt joined by a Rupture and a Vexor. With ten drones flying about, it was obvious they were fighting. We decided to help the Caracal pilot and sent our assault ships to the belt. The Vexor which had engaged the Caracal and his friend in a Rupture was already low on hit points, but so was the Rupture. We finished off the gallente cruiser, allowing the Rupture to warp out to safety.
A bit later we were joined by another corpmate, Azgor Khan, who brought a Vengeance class assault ship. We moved to Vard by that time and eventually scanned down a Vexor which could be in one of two nearby belts. I jumped to one belt and Art and Azgor rushed to the second one. Suddenly, just upon arriving to an empty belt, I was disconnected from the server. When I logged back in I saw my mates fighting the Vexor in their belt - one of them had already lost his Harpy. I warped to them, locked the cruiser and activated my autocannons. That's when I got disconnected again. Logging back in, I was expecting to find myself in an escape pod, but it turned out the Vexor had been destroyed. To make things more funny, I had dealt the final blow despite not being able to see it and the pilot of the Vexor was Kachak, the same guy we had ganked earlier in Siseide.
It looked like he got a bit angry with us - while passing through Vard later in another Vexor he asked me why I was helping noobs and advised me to be more careful about who I fly with. To this I say:
- Don't take it personally, I'd be just as happy to be in a gang with you,
- But if I'm already in a gang with someone I will help them and fight together with them until we agree to go our separate ways.

Gate Fights Are for Good Boys

After that Azgor left our gang, but two more guys joined us, adding a Retribution assault ship and a Manticore stealth bomber to the fleet. We travelled all the way to Hadozeko without a single kill, spending a lot of tiime chasing elusive targets. We finally found a target in Resbroko - a lonely Thrasher ratting in belt. I pointed it and told others to owarp to me so we would share the killmail. We also managed to get the pod.
We then headed for Amamake, but stumbled upon a fight on the Ardar side of Hadozeko-Ardar gate. I remember that a Typhoon, A Zealot, a Drake and a Myrmidon were involved. We targeted the Myrmidon since that would not have triggered sentry fire and it went down quickly.
Unfortunately, by that time the Typhoon switched its attention to me and the rest of the gang could not engage him due to my criminal status. Very soon I was tackled, my cap drained and angry drones were swarming around me. My Wolf exploded and I warped out in a pod. A stupid loss that could and should have been avoided. At least I should remember the lesson.

Ups And Downs

I love it when people complain about being killed in lowsec: "hey, this is not fair, I was fighting rats!". I usually respond with "rat in hisec if you want to be safe", but I guess they still feel offended. That was the case with Yvie Ly whose Rifter I destroyed in Amamake on Tuesday. Don't they read the pop-up message when entering lowsec?
Shortly after that I saw my old acquaintance Brutus Severus in local and offered him to gank a ratting Rupture. Brutus agreed and we warped to the target belt. He arrived first and started to take damage from the Rupture's drones and autocannons. I was dispatching the drones, but by the time I dealt with them my partner's Rifter was destroyed. "I'll finish that Rupture," I thought, settling into a tight orbit around the cruiser with my afterburner on.
Or was it on? Damn, all my cap-dependent modules were off and I was taking damage from the Rupture's guns. I quickly toggled them on and continued to chew through the cruiser's armour, wondering what had happened. Then -- BANG -- my cap dropped to zero, everything went off again and I realised the other pilot was draining or neutralising my cap. Frantically, I tried to relaunch my afterburner to reduce incoming damage, but in vain. My Rifter exploded while the Rupture was just a few percent into structure.
I sent a sincere "gf" to Kastet Mamont, the Rupture pilot and apologies to Brutus for getting him involved in a failed gank attempt.
Just 40 minutes later, having got myself a new Rifter, I noticed another Rifter and a Thrasher in a belt. I figured out that if they were fighting, I could kill the survivor. Well, I was wrong: despite being less than a month old, Dedal Halfov downed my Rifter with Tech 2 150mm autocannons after dealing with his first victim. He was at a comfortable 53% of structure. Guess someone forgot to tell him new players should spend their first months studying learning skills.
Later on that day my homey Dr. Dre came through with a gang of tanqueray I moved to a neighbouring system of Auga and spotted a Rifter in a Faction Warfare complex. I jumped in, but the Rifter, equipped with a microwarp drive, quickly got away. I returned to a safespot to see and wait if he returns. He did, but together with a Blackbird ECM cruiser and my corpmates told me to stay away from that thing. Fortunately, the Blackbird soon disappeared and the Rifter was once again alone so I decided to try again.
This time the other pilot, mr kangaroo, decided to give it a try and started approaching me. We did the usual Rifter dance, watching each other's shields and then armour melt under autocannon fire. The fight was close, just the kind I really enjoy, but the speed advantage was on my side with mr kangaroo's MWD shut down by my warp scrambler. I was at 15 percent structure when his Rifter exploded. We exchanged gf's and discussed each other's setups: turns out he also had no damage control module and used a gyrostabiliser instead.
On Wednesday, I returned to Amamake and soon scanned down a Tristan at one of the planets. Its pilot Sojiuro, who had beaten me once in the same ship, offered a one-on-one. I lost the previous duel after orbiting too close to him, at the range where his Tech 2 blasters outdid my autocannons. I made no such mistake this time, settling into a 7.5 km orbit (actual distance was about 5 km). I destroyed his drone and then his ship comfortably staying out of blasters' range and laying down torrents of barrage fire. As usual, we exchanged gf's while I scooped the loot.
I moved around neighbouring systems in search of new pray and soon scanned down Gambuk's Breacher in Kourmonen. He chose to engage me, but I guess Breacher just wasn't designed to take out Rifters.
My next target on that day was Eddie Monaghan who ratted in Amamake in his Rifter. Unlike some other pilots, he made no drama about the loss.
In the evening, while watching gangs roam through Amamake limiting my attack opportunities, I spotted a lone Osprey cruiser piloted by another Amamake resident Speshtard. I offered him a one-on-one and he agreed, despite noting that his chances weren't good - I like pilots who do that! Indeed, it turned out his missiles weren't hitting me hard while I was dealing with his drones, keeping a tight orbit. I destroyed the cruiser and thanked Speshtard for the fight.
That was a good time to dock up and go to sleep, but I decided to hang around a little longer. Soon, I spotted a Caracal at the infamous belt III-1. I hesitated for a while, knowing this was one of the riskiest places in New Eden to be in, but then said "what the hell" and hit the warp button. Of course, that turned out to be a trap set up by the VooDoo Technologies alliance and the Drunk GanG corporation. As soon as the Caracal had a point on me, a Lachesis, a Jaguar and a Rapier warped in and quickly destroyed my ship. This was the second time I fell into their trap - I MUST become more attentive to pilot identities and affiliations.
All in all, a nice couple of days, but at least one loss could and should have been avoided.