Wow a lot has happened over this last weekend. Lets start with the PvP.
So, early Saturday morning it starts. I log on and we have found TLC in the backdoor. I put my alt in an Interceptor and use it for anti-tackle purposes at first (chasing away their Crow). We chase the Crow all the way back to their home C6 system, where Ilaister (in a Daredevil) and I hit a wall of a Wolf, Thrasher, Ishkur, Proteus, Legion plus the Crow we were chasing. I am able to burn away, Ilaister was not as lucky.
Ilaister burns back home and reships and whips people into shape and get a mixed armor DPS fleet together. As they jump in I get into a skirmish with the enemy Crow and he forces me to warp with 38% structure left. I bounce back to the hole and our fleet is fighting on both sides of the hole to maintain tackle, I go for the Dominix about 70km off the hole and hold him until our fleet was finished brawling it out. Once they finished they came out and killed the Dominix, which could have escaped at any time since I had a Disruptor and he had a MJD. TLC are pretty bad.
BR TLC Side
BR Static Side
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Latter that day I feel the crackle of a thunder bolt about to come down on us from SSC, who are sitting on our static with about 8 T3s and 2 Onieros. From past experiances with them and the reputation that they carry around with them, I knew they were capable of bringing more at the snap of their fingers, but we formed up anyway. Three Guardians with 3 Falcons and some Rail Proteus and a Loki with some mixed misc. DPS.
I warp the fleet at 20km and get people immediately aligning back to our staging POS where we came from. I put some pressure on the Tengu at first then switch to the Falcon abruptly. A scout on the other side calls out new targets that are coming in: three Guardians and a few more T3s. With their Logistics now at 5, and their DPS melting through our Falcons with relative ease, we had no chance. At this point it was getting the fleet out in as much of one piece as possible. I just tell Logistics to hold it together as best as possible and keep the fleet aligned back to staging. Some people warp back in stupidly, getting drug into bubbles and dying, but I can't do shit about that, just salvage what I can. We end up nearly 160km off the hole before we get the opportunity to get the survivors to safety, although we sacrificed our Logistics to do it.
Battle Report
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At this point we have a small unofficial Director meeting, with what few we had online and left, and that sets some things in motion. That will be discussed in the next post.
Lets just say it prompted a lot of suicidal and welping thoughts in us as an Alliance. Zero fucks were left. We had none to give and we were going to go into every single fight guns blazing with as much as possible. No logic, no sense, just gogogo and kill and die.
So when we found a Guardian supported fleet we went in guns blazing with no Logistics of our own (well, they were two jumps out) and everyone pretty much died in that first round. I wanted anything and everything. Everyone did. Pure emotion overwhelmed us and we jump an Archon and a Moros into their home with probably the shitiest fleet composition I have ever seen from us. Zero fucks. We are going out in style.
Our Moros and Archon pair thankfully load grid semi close to each other, so we slow boated into refit range and Triaged and Sieged. We are 40km off from their Archon and Moros that they landed on us. Demon starts beating on it best he can at that range but its largely ineffectual. Especially as a Bhaalgorn lands and a second Moros. We try our best to blap the Bhaalgorn but fail at this attempt. We switch to the Archon and try to crack it. After some hammering we abruptly switch back to the Bhaalgorn and blast it into space dust and the newly arrived Armageddon follows.
Demon at this point as exited Siege twice to get capacitor from me to continue tanking the Dreads, and said Dreads are multiplying. a Naglfar lands, another Moros, and another, and another, and another. A total of six Dreads are on grid from them and Demon is tanking them even under the neut pressure of two newly arrived Bhaalgorns. He goes cap dead, and refits for armor tank, they chew through that, and he starts fitting hull tank on. I try to extract my Archon but I fail to and get instantly tackled. Demon exits siege just barely with ~5% hull left. I get one cycle with my three armor reps off on him, and he pops, tanking almost 4 million damage total. I follow shortly after.
All in, and fuck it, that is our mood currently.
Battle Report
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Fast forward to the next day. We had intended to bring two Moros into the fight the previous day, but like the fight earlier in the month against Isogen 5, only one Dread got in. The other got trapped and was forced to jump to null. So we decide to form the pimpiest stupidest most idiotic fleet possible to rescue it.
Final count: Paladin, Dominix, Armageddon, Loki, Proteus, Sacrilege, two Guardians, and a Cruor.
The actual rescue part was quite boring. Earlier that day Lestat had scanned a route from null into low sec through two C5 Wormholes. So it was just a few quick hops and it was safe. From there we decide to head into Curse.
Not two jumps in we encounter a 50 man Celestis fleet. We all say fuck it, and fight it. We slug it out, trying our best to kill as many as possible. Our fleet is slowly whittled down, until I am the last man standing. I am somehow tanking them with just one rep at first, as Celestis and all the frigate support they have do terrible DPS (the majority was from drones, too bad I didn't have smartbombs, fail). They slowly get more DPS on me and I am forced to intermittently pulse my second rep. I have killed two Celestis so far, but their reps are finally starting to hold better, I get a few into structure but I don't seem to be able to kill anymore. Those of the fleet that did not get podded is trying to scrape what they can together and get back to me, mostly with smartbombs and more cap boosters.
Nef arrives with cap boosters just as I consume my last cap booster. I have a sliver of Bastion cycle left, and I take a leap of faith. I turn it off, and start spooling up my MJD. I am instantly pointed, but the cycle keeps going... and going... Nef is dead... its still cycling...
I just start screaming.
I jumped, I'm out, I'm docked. H-O-L-Y F-U-C-K-I-N-G S-H-I-T
I don't know how I did it, I tanked so many for so long and just MJD'd and moonwalked out, all on a simple C-Type tank. I must say though, I thank Nef for showing up when he did in his VNI, because I like to think he took some of the DPS and scrams off of me just enough to get the MJD cycle off and get out. Maybe, maybe not, but he got 200 mill for his commitment and service.
My one regret, didn't take screen shots or a video, as I was afraid of fucking up and dying. It was by far, some of the best if not the best fun I have had in Eve. I don't know how my Alliance mates felt at hearing me tank as they are dead, but man, I was ecstatic after that fight. Just, that was a nerve racking experience and I don't know. Exhausting.
Battle Report
That weekend was some of the stupidest, funnest, idiotic, carefree PvP I have ever had. It was some of the most fun I have had in a year. Which will lead me to my next post...
Blöd
Monday, November 24, 2014
Friday, November 14, 2014
Exploitation and Counters - Null Sec Edition
There is a long history of fights on our killboard with Null Sec roaming gangs. Some go well, some are fairly even, others are just straight up welps. More often than not, fights in null sec for us end in welps, and while others may disagree, I have no fun welping ships and just throwing killmails in people's faces. There needs to be a contest between two forces for it to be fun for me, and welping or getting blobbed offers no fun as a result.
Which is why, as I look at other wormhole entities, I scratch my head and wonder, how are they able to get seemingly so many kills in null sec, where we just fail? Is it persistence? Do they just have the numbers more often? Do they have lots of ex-null pilots so more experience? Do they just play the meta very well (interceptors and Ishtars for example)? I don't know the answer. I don't have the null sec experience to formulate one as I have been in Wormholes since my 3rd month into Eve.
Despite all our losses in Null Sec, we keep going back, repeatedly, and dying nearly every time. So plans go into motion to try to find a way to get content and kills out of Null Sec, without welping the fleet as a result. So I set my eyes on this battle report. What had happened was we had tackled a ratting Thanatos, in Deklein, goon central. I could just smell the thunderbolt getting ready to come down on us, and it did, as we got Titan bridged.
So whats so special about a Titan bridge? Sure it allows force projection, sure it allows instant reinforcements, sure it allows you to save ratting carriers. But there is more to it than that: it allows absolute target selection.
Lets just imagine that we had enough people and a good enough fleet composition to counter what they could have dropped. They would have not had bridged, as why waste an entire fleet when you can just sacrifice a single Thanatos. Now lets imagine that it was a roaming gang, its exposed, easy to pin down, and now within killing range of our superior fleet. One instance has a bridge and saves the fleet (albeit lost a Thanatos), the other has no bridge, and lost the whole fleet.
The point is that a bridge allows you to select what you use your fleet on, while overall keeping the fleet safe from threats while a target is found. Your bait or hunter also is solo or in a very small gang, making you seem easier to take on compared to a giant roaming gang. Its a great tool to level the field instantly, sometimes so much so, you can flip a fight from being a gank in one direction, in the completely opposite direction.
So, what allows us to do something similar to a Titan bridge that is not a Titan? Black Ops.
And so I get EFTing and theory crafting and reading up on it. I have done Blops before, my first one was with Bombers Bar and we got a Thanatos, so I was well aware what they were capable of if we had enough Bombers. I also stop and think of the advantages that we uniquely get using Blops as wormholers. The foremost being we can appear anywhere on the map, as we can be in Feythablois one day and Insmother the next. Also motivation for our members to participate, as everyone in wormhole space praises the Cloaking Device, which Blops use extensively obviously.
So, I've done my theory crafting, now I just need to poke some people and get their interest, and I get a few that help me push the agenda. I train in the meantime, and buy a Redeemer for bridging. After several weeks, we finally get formed up for the first op this last Sunday.
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I throw my Hunter-Killer out and look for targets, all I find is a Sabre and some interceptors and me forcing to use the fear of the cyno to scare them off.
We move staging system, and this one went much better. Exponentially better, as it netted us a 1.8 billion Rattlesnake kill. Everyone is hyped now; we just slaughtered something that a roaming gang of interceptors would have lit up intel channels like a Christmas tree and everyone would be docked.
We move staging system again, and I jump into a small gate camp with my H-K. Cyno is up, bridge bridge bridge! That's three dead ships.
Latter on my partner H-K finds a ratting carrier, but they bring in ISOboxers to save him.
-----
The next day we try our hand at using Black Ops in combat. We cyno on an Occator, which was most definitely a waste of fatigue and fuel.
About an hour latter, my H-K is hacking an ESS for some easy ISK when a Dominix warps in. What he was thinking I have no clue, but he dies to our Sin and Bomber pair.
-----
The next day we try using a Battlecuiser as bait to bust a small gate camp. It works perfectly, even though some of them were able to get away.
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We go Blopsing again two days latter, and hit a wall with only three Bombers as DPS, which was not enough to break a Tengu. So I have to jump in my Redeemer and use neuts to break him, my first time using my Black Ops to get on a kill mail \o/ .
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So far, it has been quite a success I'd like to say, netting us approximately 4 billion in kills, and the only loss being a Hound that died to NPCs. Blops let us take an environment and twist it to our advantage to get the most out of it. Now, it may seem I am a hypocrite, as earlier I stated that I needed a contest of forces for something to be fun, and blobbing something with Bombers does not seem like much of a contest. I respond with this: a contest of forces is not always directly between two groups of spaceships. It can be a contest between the hunter and intel channels, a contest to not be caught by gate camps, a contest to patiently out last your opponent. Things do not simply boil down to which spaceship explodes first, but how you get and arrive at that point. It is why I was attracted to wormholes in the first place, not necessarily the PvP, but the hunt itself.
Despite it all though, we are accomplishing what we wanted, and that is content in null sec without just throwing away our ISK at them every single god damn time. And that is an op success to me.
Blöd
Which is why, as I look at other wormhole entities, I scratch my head and wonder, how are they able to get seemingly so many kills in null sec, where we just fail? Is it persistence? Do they just have the numbers more often? Do they have lots of ex-null pilots so more experience? Do they just play the meta very well (interceptors and Ishtars for example)? I don't know the answer. I don't have the null sec experience to formulate one as I have been in Wormholes since my 3rd month into Eve.
Despite all our losses in Null Sec, we keep going back, repeatedly, and dying nearly every time. So plans go into motion to try to find a way to get content and kills out of Null Sec, without welping the fleet as a result. So I set my eyes on this battle report. What had happened was we had tackled a ratting Thanatos, in Deklein, goon central. I could just smell the thunderbolt getting ready to come down on us, and it did, as we got Titan bridged.
So whats so special about a Titan bridge? Sure it allows force projection, sure it allows instant reinforcements, sure it allows you to save ratting carriers. But there is more to it than that: it allows absolute target selection.
Lets just imagine that we had enough people and a good enough fleet composition to counter what they could have dropped. They would have not had bridged, as why waste an entire fleet when you can just sacrifice a single Thanatos. Now lets imagine that it was a roaming gang, its exposed, easy to pin down, and now within killing range of our superior fleet. One instance has a bridge and saves the fleet (albeit lost a Thanatos), the other has no bridge, and lost the whole fleet.
The point is that a bridge allows you to select what you use your fleet on, while overall keeping the fleet safe from threats while a target is found. Your bait or hunter also is solo or in a very small gang, making you seem easier to take on compared to a giant roaming gang. Its a great tool to level the field instantly, sometimes so much so, you can flip a fight from being a gank in one direction, in the completely opposite direction.
So, what allows us to do something similar to a Titan bridge that is not a Titan? Black Ops.
And so I get EFTing and theory crafting and reading up on it. I have done Blops before, my first one was with Bombers Bar and we got a Thanatos, so I was well aware what they were capable of if we had enough Bombers. I also stop and think of the advantages that we uniquely get using Blops as wormholers. The foremost being we can appear anywhere on the map, as we can be in Feythablois one day and Insmother the next. Also motivation for our members to participate, as everyone in wormhole space praises the Cloaking Device, which Blops use extensively obviously.
So, I've done my theory crafting, now I just need to poke some people and get their interest, and I get a few that help me push the agenda. I train in the meantime, and buy a Redeemer for bridging. After several weeks, we finally get formed up for the first op this last Sunday.
-----
I throw my Hunter-Killer out and look for targets, all I find is a Sabre and some interceptors and me forcing to use the fear of the cyno to scare them off.
We move staging system, and this one went much better. Exponentially better, as it netted us a 1.8 billion Rattlesnake kill. Everyone is hyped now; we just slaughtered something that a roaming gang of interceptors would have lit up intel channels like a Christmas tree and everyone would be docked.
We move staging system again, and I jump into a small gate camp with my H-K. Cyno is up, bridge bridge bridge! That's three dead ships.
Latter on my partner H-K finds a ratting carrier, but they bring in ISOboxers to save him.
-----
The next day we try our hand at using Black Ops in combat. We cyno on an Occator, which was most definitely a waste of fatigue and fuel.
About an hour latter, my H-K is hacking an ESS for some easy ISK when a Dominix warps in. What he was thinking I have no clue, but he dies to our Sin and Bomber pair.
-----
The next day we try using a Battlecuiser as bait to bust a small gate camp. It works perfectly, even though some of them were able to get away.
-----
We go Blopsing again two days latter, and hit a wall with only three Bombers as DPS, which was not enough to break a Tengu. So I have to jump in my Redeemer and use neuts to break him, my first time using my Black Ops to get on a kill mail \o/ .
-----
So far, it has been quite a success I'd like to say, netting us approximately 4 billion in kills, and the only loss being a Hound that died to NPCs. Blops let us take an environment and twist it to our advantage to get the most out of it. Now, it may seem I am a hypocrite, as earlier I stated that I needed a contest of forces for something to be fun, and blobbing something with Bombers does not seem like much of a contest. I respond with this: a contest of forces is not always directly between two groups of spaceships. It can be a contest between the hunter and intel channels, a contest to not be caught by gate camps, a contest to patiently out last your opponent. Things do not simply boil down to which spaceship explodes first, but how you get and arrive at that point. It is why I was attracted to wormholes in the first place, not necessarily the PvP, but the hunt itself.
Despite it all though, we are accomplishing what we wanted, and that is content in null sec without just throwing away our ISK at them every single god damn time. And that is an op success to me.
Blöd
Friday, November 7, 2014
AAR: Its Raining Isogen
With our last encounter with Isogen 5, we got into a classic standoff where one side would be slaughtered if they jumped into the other, and both sides knew it. This time, we got them in the chain again, but instead of being directly connected, we had a single C5 in between us, and it had a Wolf-Rayet effect. We form up about 5 DPS ships and a Jamgu with two Guardians hidden elsewhere. It takes a little time for Isogen to warm up and get something suitable to fight us, which probably involved alot of dual boxing. To keep us entertained they took some frigates out and chatted to us in local a bit and tryed to get a little frigate pew. We were stubborn though and we felt a need to blow up multi-billions, whether it was our own ISK or someone else's ISK. In the end they formed up in their POS approximately 6 Legions, 2 Proteus, 2 Lokis, and a Jamgu, with 4 Guardians for Logistics. When they finally head out, they only bring 3 out of 4 of their Guardians.
Knowing out limitation of Logistics and EWar, we decide to force them to fight in our home system and not fight in the Wolf-Rayet, where they would have ridiculous amounts of armor buffer and would be near impossible to kill anyone before Logistics could reacquire lock and repair them. I decide to relinquish control of the fleet to Ilaister instead and log in my Archon pilot to act as our Logistics as we try to get more people quickly. They have alot of DPS, but it was far below the bar they had to reach to break Triage reps. A few people scream as I bait tank with them (sorry Zeras), but it works out, and our jams eventually break the Guardian chain, and we got one kill from a Sacrilege that was off the hole. Was about a 7 minute fight judging by my Triage cycle, so I had about 3/4 of my Triage cycle to go through.
They seemed content to stay in the Wolf-Rayet, so at that point we had a choice, wait for them to make the move and see if they want to play us from last time and jump into us again, or we can jump my Archon in and see what we can make happen in the Wolf-Rayet. Before we make a choice though our scout in their home system sees 2 Naglfars and an Archon pop on DScan, jump into the Wolf-Rayet, and sit on the other side of the entrance into our home system. Now we send out a ping saying there are capitals to kill possibly and we get a few more people, and people start bringing their alts to party too. And so they jump into us.
Malcom Bilge > LETS PARTY
Now prior to when they jumped in I was fairly confident that two Naglfars would completely wreck my Archon with ease, so I asked an Alliance mate to bring their Archon as well to refit off of. It turns out though it was not a necessary action to take, as when they jumped their capitals in, only the Archon and one of the Naglfars made it though before the hole collapsed, leaving one Naglfar out of the picture. We bring in Dreads of our own, three of them to be precise, two Naglfars and a blap Moros. Guirdarr just focuses fire on the Archon, while the other two start trying to blap sub-capitals. Several sub-capitals die, and I start dual boxing with a Bhaalgorn and start neuting the Archon. It dies shortly afterwords, and the Naglfar follows.
Stjornuvindur > holy shit
Dan Hour > gf
Blodhgarm Dethahal > gf
Foedus Latro > gf
Ilaister > gf
Shaded Ruse Sukarala > gf dudes
Blodhgarm Dethahal > sorry for the blob :( may hav ebeen a bit overkill with all the capitals
Solidus Yanumano > gf
Foedus Latro > so like 3 dreads might have been a bit much
Malcom Bilge > yeaah
Foedus Latro > it's alright though. o/
Sexy Carebear > we did think you were bringing another nag...
Ilaister > from our side?
Sexy Carebear > guess the hole closed...
Ilaister > :/
Zeras Allyndar > gf super stand-up fighting to the last.
Zezar kim > gf
Foedus Latro > sure
Inarii Prost > gf
Alysa Liz > gf
Balor Digenise > gf
Stjornuvindur > gf
Sexy Carebear > gf
Inarii Prost > first time dred pvp :D
Balor Digenise > me2
Balor Digenise > :)
Inarii Prost > next time bring fun into our home?
Blodhgarm Dethahal > deal
Stjornuvindur > /emote spits on palm
Foedus Latro > We expect another gf soon :)
Blodhgarm Dethahal > Bronya Boga's Frozen Corpse YES YES YES
Blodhgarm Dethahal > \o/
Blodhgarm Dethahal > op success
The fight was an interesting one, and could have gone much differently if they had the second Naglfar in. Judging by the Naglfar fit of the one we killed, most likely it was similarly fit to blap sub-capitals, and it would have loaded grid somewhere completely different compared to the other Naglfar, making it hard to keep up transversal on at least one of them, which could have caused us to loose several sub-capitals.
But good fight and thanks for going balls deep Isogen 5, we will definitely return the favor the next time we run into you.
Battle Report
Blog Post From Other Side
Blöd
Knowing out limitation of Logistics and EWar, we decide to force them to fight in our home system and not fight in the Wolf-Rayet, where they would have ridiculous amounts of armor buffer and would be near impossible to kill anyone before Logistics could reacquire lock and repair them. I decide to relinquish control of the fleet to Ilaister instead and log in my Archon pilot to act as our Logistics as we try to get more people quickly. They have alot of DPS, but it was far below the bar they had to reach to break Triage reps. A few people scream as I bait tank with them (sorry Zeras), but it works out, and our jams eventually break the Guardian chain, and we got one kill from a Sacrilege that was off the hole. Was about a 7 minute fight judging by my Triage cycle, so I had about 3/4 of my Triage cycle to go through.
They seemed content to stay in the Wolf-Rayet, so at that point we had a choice, wait for them to make the move and see if they want to play us from last time and jump into us again, or we can jump my Archon in and see what we can make happen in the Wolf-Rayet. Before we make a choice though our scout in their home system sees 2 Naglfars and an Archon pop on DScan, jump into the Wolf-Rayet, and sit on the other side of the entrance into our home system. Now we send out a ping saying there are capitals to kill possibly and we get a few more people, and people start bringing their alts to party too. And so they jump into us.
Malcom Bilge > LETS PARTY
Now prior to when they jumped in I was fairly confident that two Naglfars would completely wreck my Archon with ease, so I asked an Alliance mate to bring their Archon as well to refit off of. It turns out though it was not a necessary action to take, as when they jumped their capitals in, only the Archon and one of the Naglfars made it though before the hole collapsed, leaving one Naglfar out of the picture. We bring in Dreads of our own, three of them to be precise, two Naglfars and a blap Moros. Guirdarr just focuses fire on the Archon, while the other two start trying to blap sub-capitals. Several sub-capitals die, and I start dual boxing with a Bhaalgorn and start neuting the Archon. It dies shortly afterwords, and the Naglfar follows.
Stjornuvindur > holy shit
Dan Hour > gf
Blodhgarm Dethahal > gf
Foedus Latro > gf
Ilaister > gf
Shaded Ruse Sukarala > gf dudes
Blodhgarm Dethahal > sorry for the blob :( may hav ebeen a bit overkill with all the capitals
Solidus Yanumano > gf
Foedus Latro > so like 3 dreads might have been a bit much
Malcom Bilge > yeaah
Foedus Latro > it's alright though. o/
Sexy Carebear > we did think you were bringing another nag...
Ilaister > from our side?
Sexy Carebear > guess the hole closed...
Ilaister > :/
Zeras Allyndar > gf super stand-up fighting to the last.
Zezar kim > gf
Foedus Latro > sure
Inarii Prost > gf
Alysa Liz > gf
Balor Digenise > gf
Stjornuvindur > gf
Sexy Carebear > gf
Inarii Prost > first time dred pvp :D
Balor Digenise > me2
Balor Digenise > :)
Inarii Prost > next time bring fun into our home?
Blodhgarm Dethahal > deal
Stjornuvindur > /emote spits on palm
Foedus Latro > We expect another gf soon :)
Blodhgarm Dethahal > Bronya Boga's Frozen Corpse YES YES YES
Blodhgarm Dethahal > \o/
Blodhgarm Dethahal > op success
The fight was an interesting one, and could have gone much differently if they had the second Naglfar in. Judging by the Naglfar fit of the one we killed, most likely it was similarly fit to blap sub-capitals, and it would have loaded grid somewhere completely different compared to the other Naglfar, making it hard to keep up transversal on at least one of them, which could have caused us to loose several sub-capitals.
But good fight and thanks for going balls deep Isogen 5, we will definitely return the favor the next time we run into you.
Battle Report
Blog Post From Other Side
Blöd
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
AAR: Blue Balls and Greed
New Static new chain, which instantly dead ends into null sec and an ending C4. On the bright side, the null sec is Serpentis Prime, which could have been a prime spot for Black Ops hotdrops, if we had more people with Covert Cynos online. We instead decide to go run all of the 3 Relics in the static.
As we are prepping to close the static I spot a Thanatos log on in the POS, and another capital, and another, and a Golem, and more people start logging in. I scout the anomalies they have quickly and determine their sites have been escalated at some point in the past 3 days and they are going to run sites. So we ping a bit to shore up our numbers a bit and hide our fleet, keeping a scout on our static incase they jump a capital to close it. They had eyes first though, and don't attempt to roll their hole. Instead they look to be trying to get PvP ships set up and get ready to fight us, which is fine by us because they will probably bring capitals, specifically their newly logged in Chimera, as Logistics. In the end though, nothing happened except a lone Eris kill.
I'm slightly butthurt about it all, so I keep my scout in there while we roll the hole. As soon as its rolled they set out to roll the rest of the connections in their system and run their sites. The initial warp in is a cluster fuck of a Chimera, a Naglfar, a Nighthawk, a Golem, and a few other shield Sub-Capitals. The next warp in was a Revelation, and then the final was a Thanatos. And so they went on for 4 sites running them like that. I decide that if their sites are still in existence tomorrow, I will come back with a cloaky DPS ship and pop their Tractor Units, which they were leaving in the sites unattended.
-----
Knowing my alt's limitations with his skillset, I was stuck with Drones, or Missiles for DPS. Which pushed me to fit up a Stratios, as it does more DPS than a Tengu by far. Chain is scanned, my Stratios is bought, time to head back in. Just need one pit stop in a C4 Ore site to say hi to some old friends in retrievers.
Pop goes one. Pop goes the second. Pop goes number one's pod. I love my job, time to extract and continue on to my real mission, I would have anyway if a 3rd party Tengu had not decloaked next to me and tackled me and a Sabre warped in and bubbled me. I try to burn out and break locks with ECM and neuts, which works to a degree, but eventually I give up as I was not having any luck getting both of them off me at once, besides the Sabre could easily drop another 2 bubbles if needed to pin me down. So I swap my ECM drones to DPS and pop the Sabre and his pod. I go back to ECM, and almost get out of the Tengu's reach, if only the new Proteus had not landed. There was no escape now, and I explode with ease.
I make it back out to high sec, and decide to cut my losses and head back home, after all I didn't do too bad for my first Stratios, the fight was good enough. It wasn't until latter I realized that the group the Retrievers belonged to formed up and killed that Tengu and Proteus I was trying to escape from, and then got counter killed by the 3rd party in turn. The Battlereport looked, interesting, to say the least. And I was on the Tengu and Proteus kills, op success.
That was good solo fun, proof that there is room for even the smallest entity in wormhole space.
Blöd
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
AAR: All In
I like using Capitals, I find them fun to fly, despite people saying that Capital warfare is dull and boring. Wormholes allow a nice environment for smaller scale Capital engagements to occur with no interference from Super Capitals. Small scale Capital brawls are fun as hell, and its even better when you are one of the Capital pilots. If I had more ISK on hand and had the motivation to actually sit down and make it, I would be throwing Capitals everywhere for fun, which is why I took my Dread (and someone else) on a suicide mission.
Static is freshly rolled, and we crack a new one open to a nice sight: Sleepless Guardian wrecks on DScan along with Capitals, approximately 4 Dreads and 2 Carriers. The bad news was that they had just finished and were in the process of salvaging. They were not too shy of pushing a fight though, and jumped into our home with a T3 gang and no Logistics (excluding an Archon they had in their home system which they refused to jump in). A small skirmish occurs and we loose a Proteus while killing a Proteus, Rapier, and Oracle in return. They run back into their home system and sit there with their Archon. We know they can drop the two Moros we see in their POS in a second to start blapping us, but we know they are armor PvE ones, so I set about to try to convince Nef to throw his Naglfar at them while I throw a Shield Revelation at them.
Now I realize a Shield Revelation is FAR from optimal, especially in comparison to Nef's Naglfar. However, it still gets better active tank and more DPS than an armor variation of the Revelation, and I had the spare hull laying around in low sec anyway so I figured what the hell.
Here I am thinking two shield Dreads will trump armor Dreads and their Archon. Things get complicated with the arrival of a Bhaalgorn on grid though, so we hesitate for a few minutes while we debate going in. We were still undecided when our scout declares that they were all warping off and the Archon was alone on grid. We see this as an opportunity to wipe out their Logistics at the beginning and go in.
The Sub-Capital fleet gets in first with tackle and triple Guardian, my Revelation gets in next, and I decide to primary the Bhaalgorn that has landed back on grid, thinking it was going to be an extended fight. I can't break it though with the Triage repping him, so as Nef jumps in we both start shooting the Archon. Its too little too late though, as not just 2 Dreads land, but 4, and with the Bhaalgorn not dead I am soon screaming for capacitor. I pop, and Nef follows shortly afterwords, just pushing the Archon into 20% armor.
This is the risk you take when you bring your Capitals into someone else's hole, they will always have Capital superiority and have the freedom to use it brutally. If we had shot the Archon first we would have killed it with ease, but our inexperience showed, again, and we shot the Bhaalgorn instead. Even if we had killed the Archon though, we would have not lived against 4 Dreads against our two, especially not my Revelation. Perhaps maybe would have killed a Dread as well, but our inexperience (and our cheap fits) lead to certain death. But you cannot learn without mistakes and risks and pain. So, we go on, wiser and more experienced than before.
Static Side
Home Side
Good Fight.
Blöd
Static is freshly rolled, and we crack a new one open to a nice sight: Sleepless Guardian wrecks on DScan along with Capitals, approximately 4 Dreads and 2 Carriers. The bad news was that they had just finished and were in the process of salvaging. They were not too shy of pushing a fight though, and jumped into our home with a T3 gang and no Logistics (excluding an Archon they had in their home system which they refused to jump in). A small skirmish occurs and we loose a Proteus while killing a Proteus, Rapier, and Oracle in return. They run back into their home system and sit there with their Archon. We know they can drop the two Moros we see in their POS in a second to start blapping us, but we know they are armor PvE ones, so I set about to try to convince Nef to throw his Naglfar at them while I throw a Shield Revelation at them.
Now I realize a Shield Revelation is FAR from optimal, especially in comparison to Nef's Naglfar. However, it still gets better active tank and more DPS than an armor variation of the Revelation, and I had the spare hull laying around in low sec anyway so I figured what the hell.
Here I am thinking two shield Dreads will trump armor Dreads and their Archon. Things get complicated with the arrival of a Bhaalgorn on grid though, so we hesitate for a few minutes while we debate going in. We were still undecided when our scout declares that they were all warping off and the Archon was alone on grid. We see this as an opportunity to wipe out their Logistics at the beginning and go in.
The Sub-Capital fleet gets in first with tackle and triple Guardian, my Revelation gets in next, and I decide to primary the Bhaalgorn that has landed back on grid, thinking it was going to be an extended fight. I can't break it though with the Triage repping him, so as Nef jumps in we both start shooting the Archon. Its too little too late though, as not just 2 Dreads land, but 4, and with the Bhaalgorn not dead I am soon screaming for capacitor. I pop, and Nef follows shortly afterwords, just pushing the Archon into 20% armor.
 |
| Lucky Archon |
This is the risk you take when you bring your Capitals into someone else's hole, they will always have Capital superiority and have the freedom to use it brutally. If we had shot the Archon first we would have killed it with ease, but our inexperience showed, again, and we shot the Bhaalgorn instead. Even if we had killed the Archon though, we would have not lived against 4 Dreads against our two, especially not my Revelation. Perhaps maybe would have killed a Dread as well, but our inexperience (and our cheap fits) lead to certain death. But you cannot learn without mistakes and risks and pain. So, we go on, wiser and more experienced than before.
Static Side
Home Side
Good Fight.
Blöd
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