Monday 11 April 2011

Punisher 16.2


The fit:

3 Gatling Pulse Laser II (Navy Multifrequency & Scorch)
5W Infectious Power Malfunction

Cold-gas Arcjet Thrusters
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Inhibitor

2 Adaptive Nano Plating II
Damage Control II
200mm Rolled Tungsten


The hunt:

I was on a Molden Heath roam, and I had gone north into Metropolis/Heimatar when I saw a Rifter on scan in a system that connected to highsec, albeit in a fairly remote location. He was a fairly new player, but he knew enough to quickly disappeared off D-scan. I guessed he had docked up, and I set about loitering in the system.

After about 10 minutes or so, he became used to my presence and ventured out again. I began scanning him down, but every time someone else entered the system he docked up until they left, which meant I had to keep starting from scratch.

Now, I was fairly certain he was missioning, but I wanted to be sure, so I persisted. However, over the course of a few minutes several cruisers and another Rifter entered the system, but did not seem to have any intention of just passing through.

Two of the ships, the Rifter and a Stabber, where in the same corp, and they were clearly hunting. They tried several times to pin me down, but I did not fancy my odds, 2v1.  The other two cruisers were from different corps, and seemed to be minding their own business.

As much as I did not want to tangle with the two hunters together, I did fancy my chances against the Stabber pilot. He was fairly new, and I thought I had a decent shot, if only I could separate him from his fleet mate.

After continually trying to track me down, the hunters seemed to get the message, and the next time I saw them it was just the Stabber pilot. I had burned quite some way from the warp in point, so he activated his mwd and moved to intercept me. Perfect.

I moved to engage him, but just as we pointed each other, BOTH of the other two cruisers warped in. Unable to warp out, all I could do was commit to the fight and hope that the cruisers preferred the cruiser killmail to the frigate killmail.

My guess about the Stabber pilot proved correct; he lacked the skills for the ship he was flying. He launched no drones, had no web, and I was completely under his guns. He did have a neut, however, which I countered with my nos, and I overheated my guns.

Ultimately, though, the two new cruisers both targeted me, and I started to get some drone action from the second Stabber. Although I had not yet taken a huge amount of damage, the outcome was now clear, and my thoughts turned to preserving my pod. I aligned to a celestial and started spamming the "warp to" button. Incidentally, this meant that I was no longer keeping up my transversal, and the original Stabber started doing massive damage to me. I think I found out where he put his skill points.

Eventually I popped, but I did manage to get out. I offered them a "gf" in local, which was not returned.

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: Strategic Conflicts Incorporated
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Punisher
System: Aralgrund
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 1725

Involved parties:

Name: Zakraln (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.1
Corp: Old Spice l
Alliance: EveBowl Alliance
Faction: NONE
Ship: Stabber
Weapon: Dual 180mm Gallium I Machine Gun
Damage Done: 1156

Name: Rikhturh
Security: 2.9
Corp: T.R.I.A.D
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Minmatar Republic
Ship: Stabber
Weapon: Hobgoblin I
Damage Done: 569

Name: Lord Frifri
Security: 4.7
Corp: Warpig Industrial Solutions
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Caracal
Weapon: Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Damage Control II
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Small Armor Repairer II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Dropped items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 3
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 2
E5 Prototype Energy Vampire
Scorch S, Qty: 3 (Cargo)


Post battle review:

Well, I'm a both pleased and disappointed. I'm pleased that I was able to correctly access the capabilities of my enemy, approach without taking damage, get under his guns, and counter his neut. Whether I would have won or lost would depend on whether he was able to shut down my afterburner, and if he could, whether this lowered my transversal enough for him to start hitting me. I can't be sure, but if I could have that fight again as a 1v1, I would take it.

However, I'm disappointed that I engaged in such an unsafe system. I wrote off the possibility that the cruisers were working together just because they had different tickers, and that was obviously a silly thing to do.

At the time, I really kicked myself for accepting the fight, and for my lack of discipline. After that initial reaction, though, my views have softened. I need two above class kills, and if things had gone a little differently, this guy stood a really good chance of being one of them. 
Equally, I could spend a great deal of time worrying about traps, but Eve is just a game, and I think I'll enjoy it more if I play with enthusiasm rather than with caution. So yeah, they got me. 

This time.


Lessons for the future:

Fleets do not necessarily enter a system all at once, and they are not necessarily wear the same corp badge. So if local spikes, assume they are all together, and they are all looking for me.

None of that means I shouldn't try to kill them.

2 comments:

  1. Your pod essentially insta-warps so there isnt a need to align to save it, maybe next time just orbit the first stabber see if you can get him, if not you just start spamming warp when you hit hull.

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  2. quite often in gangs there's this tactic: send in someone to get the enemy to engage, then jump the fleet in once the enemy has engaged. This often prevents the target from leaving system because of aggression and has the added benefit of perhaps letting the fleet sneak up on the target. This tactic is largely used on gate where the fleet can wait on the other side, jump in, and engage immediately.

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