This week has been a odd week, with some great fights, unbelievable kills and notable losses. Monday was quite a bad day I must say, me only fighting in a couple of engagements. The first was a organised 2vs1 until they brought a blackbird freind along. That didnt end well, with me biting the bullet. I then organized a small gang consisting of Jolo and cap'n tickles. We sought to engage the three other pirates again, and we eventually caught up with them. Again the fight didnt end well, due to the balckbird getting off a stupid number of jams, pretty much stopping all of us from getting a lock. We claimed a vexor kill but lost an arazu and incursus in the process. This was entirely my fault for being too brash, and taught me a lesson or two.
The second engagement was another 1vs1 but was not organised. A thorax pilot had been chasing me a couple of systems, but i didnt want to stop to fight as a brutix pilot was also on my tail. Eventually i gave in and tackled the thorax when he warped to me at a belt. It was a long drawn out fight, but quite an easy one i have to say. I webbed him and scrammed him, and sat at around 8km so that he lost a huge chunk of dps. He popped and i bolted as the brutix arrived at the belt. As it turns out the Brutix pilot was a really nice guy, and he had been chasing the thorax not me. He even kindly dropped of the loot from the wreck for me before saying goodbye.
The final fight was another organised 1vs1 against a thorax pilot which was dishonoured. I even posted a thread on C+P about it. Basically i was killing the thorax at a safespot, then she left our fleet and got a myrm friend to warp to me. The thorax died but unfortunately so did I. I have recieved an apology from the thorax pilot and some of the members of the corp, so i consider the matter done and dusted.
Tuesday was a fantastic day, and it began with me organising a small roam with me, egrat and cap'n. Going into vlrillier we spotted a megathron and retreiver at a belt. The original consensus was that the mega was the guard, but i decided to go have a look anyway. Realising that the mega was infact mining i slowboated towards him and tackled him, ignoring the fleeing retreiver. The rest of my gang warped to me and we made short work of the mining, honour tanked megathron. We couldn't beleive the pilots fitting, he whould have known better as he was around three years old.
The second kill was a pilgrim, who quite liked the idea of attacking me at a belt. I dont know but maller at a belt usually screams bait, but he took it. I was quickly capped before the taranis and jaguar came in and pretty much did the job, i got a few more volleys in and soon his tank broke. We got pretty good drops from this kill including a covert ops cloaking device.
Heading back to HQ we hooked up with Ka Jolo, who was flying a vexor and obeserving the movements of an absolution, arazu and thrasher. We decided to hang around, just to see what was up. It seemed as though the absolution was chasing the thrasher, and at one point he came to sit at a planet. We sent egrat in because his jaguar had stupidly high em resists and a great tank. When he called point the rest of us warped in and began shooting the absolution. The arazu decloaked and began its dampening from 60km away. It was futile however as all of us were withing 5km of the target, rendering the dampeners ineffective. The absolution was tanking like crazy, but soon ran out of charges. Ka Jolo's ecm drones were also reducing the amount of damage coming in at us, and eventually the absolution popped. We suffered no casualties, and we collected over 100M in faction loot. The arazu soon scarpered, and never bothered us again.
At this time i also stumbled across a pos with the force field down. I called the gang in and we destroyed the arrays and scooped what little stuff that dropped. We also bookmarked the location, and Ka Jolo sent a ransom demand to the owners of the pos. If they didnt pay up they would lose their nice shadow control tower and the batteries anchored to it.
Soon Ka Jolo and Egrat left the group, but we were joined by gilad in his vexor. We continued the roam, until we came across a FW gang in a complex. We had a vexor, maller, and taranis while they had a kitsune, harpy, comorant, kestrel, and arbitrator. I went in first as always and got them to attack me. They obliged and i called the others in. Cap'n was ordered to chase that kitsune down and kill it, as it was jamming all three of us heavily. I was taking heavy damage, but could last a while longer. Eventually the kitsune missed a jam on the taranis, and was insta popped. Now it was out time to shine. The vexor and I tore into the surrounding ships, melting them swiftly, I didnt even bother calling primary as they were dying so fast. After the last ship popped we caught a pod. The ransome we offered was refused and so he was executed. I ran a damage report, and we had killed all 5 of our targets and a pod without a single loss. We scooped the loot, and got our repairs done.
We then disbanded the gang for a while, as we all had things that needed doing. I headed back up to oulletta on my own, and came across ar mak who need help in taking down another maller. Me and Vajo responded and made short work of the guy. Vajo (stabber) and I fleeted and went back down to hevrice, rylack joined us with his harbinger.
I found myself once again being bait as I plopped myself down in a belt in Jovainnon, waiting for a curse to come get me. He came, and capped me in a couple of cycles. I called the gang in even though i had no tackle, as the curse had managed to get himself stuck in a group of asteroids. The curse melted as soon as rylack got a lock, and we were rewarded with another nice killmail.
We decided to head back up to ouelletta again, and avan sercedos (incursus), taco raptorian (myrm) joined us, while Vajo hopped into his hurricane. They sat outside the system while i had a look around. There was a huginn on scan, and we decided that I should be bait again. I went to the nearest belt, and indeed the huginn followed. He warped to 0, and I got a tackle, he was not going anywhere. I called the gang in and they warped to me. The huginn was dying quickly and at around 25% armour, one of his freinds in a broadsword appeared. I dropped my tackle on the huginn a everyone else had him, and tackled the boradsword. The huginn popped and we started killing the broadsword. Keeping an eye one scan things got interesting. A hyperion was closing in but we figured we could easily take a hyperion, so we hung around. Then another appeared on scan, then a tempest, then an armageddon. Once the broadsword popped i gave the order to get the hell out. We scooped most of the loot and the majority of us had made it into warp. Rylacks harbinger was tackled, and so was Vajo's hurricane. Vajo managed to MWD out of disruptor range and get away, but unfortunately we lost rylack's harbinger. Despite the loss I'd consider it to be a successful engagement.
While avoiding the BS gang i was tackled by my nemesis in a rifter, an obviously stupid move by him. I popped him without even breaking shield. Most of the gang left but avan, vajo and myself decided to head back to hevrice together. When we were there I decided to jump into jovainnon to get some loot i had left there. On the gate there was another curse, which i let attack me so i could jump through unhindered. I informed my two gang mates of the target, and i headed back to the gate. I jumped through again to see the curse was nanoed and had agressed Vajo's cane. We couldnt hit it from 30km away. So sneakily I ordered the incursus to intercept it and cut of its MWD. As soon as he called point, Vajo activiated his MWD and caught the curse pilot as avan popped. The curse died painfully and we scooped the loot. Checking the KM later we saw he had a faction disruptor worth well over 100M, however this got destroyed.
Wednesday was a day of heavy losses for me, where 5 of my mallers were destroyed. Three of these were lost to bloody gatecamps, that i always fall victim to. The other two were lost in 1vs1's. Both of which were good fights. The first was against a zealot, which I fought at a belt. I managed to get a tackle as usual, but unfortunately he was active tanked, I hate active tanks. Unfortunately i lost that battle but it was extremely close, he was left with about 40% structure. I figured i could have had him if i had switched to conflags at around 3.8Km away (I didn't switch because i thought optimal was 3km, but i was wrong.) That extra 50dps could have made all the difference. The second one was against a vexor, who 'had to drop of loot' before the fight. I thought ok thats fine. He then left the system, and i wondered why? there was already many stations in this system. He returned 5 minutes later, and I got him to warp to me. To my horror, I was loosing and my guns were doing pitiful damage. I popped when he was around 15% armour. I had the sneaking suspician he loaded up on EM hardeners while he was out the system, but i had no proof so i gave him the recognition he deserved.
Things were not all bad on wednesday however as i had a couple of victories, one of them truly remarkable. The first victory was against a stabber that agressed me at a gate. He circled at 12km, but i had trained thermodynamics and the overheated webs caught him easily. He popped but nothing of value dropped. Meaning that i was infact i lost money on that engagement, (repairs in the region of 500k for that fight, but loot was only 200km). This might not seem much but it does add up.
The second engagement was the best and most fun. On my lonesome i headed up to eugales, where i scanned down two harpies, a vexor, a crow, and a buzzard at a complex. Bored and in need of something to brighten my mood, i warped in. I was soon tackled and so was the two harpies. I killed them both easily, and began locking the crow and vexor. I got an overheated web on the crow and maybe a volley, but he warped off sharpish. The vexor also warped of barely a second before i got point. So in a 5/4 vs 1 I killed two and the others fled, I couldnt stop laughing as i am sure if they coordinated their attack i would have been mincemeat.
The third fight was a 2 vs 1, a harpy and thrasher against me. I killed them both with relative ease, much to my disdain. I scooped the loot, which included a deadspace MWD. Checking the killmail revealed pricey rigs and modules on the harpy, while the thrasher pilot showed more sense. I also got an easy rifter kill in that system. I have never understood the need to put pricey modules on fragile ships, it just seems silly. An example of this would appear later on in the week.
I only played breifly on the thursday, managing to kill an enyo and nothing else. As we move onto friday however things get remarkable. As I continued my roam of the FW heavy areas in search of a kill I stumbled across a sabre, who attacked me. I couldn't quite catch him but managed to force him to warp off. I safespotted and logged breifly as someone was at the door. Returning to my PC i logged back on to find the sabre just exiting the system. I also saw a succubus on scan at a gate. Tasty I thought, i figured it was worth going under sentry fire to kill one of those. Oddly enough i didnt have to, the succubus agressed and started orbiting me at 3km a second at a range of 7km. I sat there kinda puzzled, then i kicked it up a notch and displayed my toys. He grounded to a halt, as i pounded away at his rather strong shield tank. For the breifest moment i thought that he could permatank my damage, then i overheated. He exploded wonderfully, and i had a look at what dropped. My mouth watered at the goodies that had, a caldari navy invulnerability field and a dark blood small energy neut. I checked contracts to find 325M worth of loot. I then hurridly posted the KM to see what else he had. To my suprise the total fitting cost of this faction FRIGATE was to the sum of 1 billion isk. I could have hoped for more loot, but i was happy with what i got.
The next engagement involved me and a gang sitting around for a while while a prober scanned out an ishtar and a navy issue vexor doing a level 4 together. Soon enough we got a hit, and we passed through accelleration gate after acceleration gate. I had designated people to tackle each ship, but i needn't have bothered. The ishtar bolted but we got a tackle on the navy vexor. Irritatingly the rats in the mission decided to attack us rather that the vexor. This resulted in us losing a thorax, and me taking heavy damage. We got the vexor though and all the loot as we left for repairs.
After DT Hevrice was packed with many many FW'ers, perhaps around 17 of them but split up into to different groups (6 active complexes at the time). As usual i decided to engage the biggest of the bunch, around 8 people. As I landed they were 70km away from me so I just stayed put. Three warped out, two of which returned in order to get a tackle on me. The tristan and breaher died easily, and i warped out as the others left due to the complex being completed.
As i warped back to station and conversed with my corpmates who were active in the system, it became apparant that there was a typhoon sitting at a complex that would not allow his ship to enter. I warped there first in order to get a tackle, while the rest of the guys were loading up their ships. The typhoon had ecms loaded so my tackle was sporadic at best, but just good enough to catch him before he could warp out. Then the gang arrived consisting of a vexor, taranis, cyclone and stabber. The typhoon exploded and we scooped the loot, the typhoon failed to do any notable damage to any of us.
The larger gang that I had encountered before appeared in another complex. I told my gang to get ready. I went in first, spotting a tristan, incursus, rifter, ishkur, nemesis, lachiesis (RR), and a thorax. I approached and got them all to attack me. I called my gang to come as i began removing some of the frigates. I was taking major damage, and the exqueror was RRing some of the friagtes and the thorax. I managed to dispatch the incursus, tristan, and rifter, before my gang came in. The thorax, exqueror, and ishkur bolted. But we managed to secure a nemeis kill and another tristan and its pod. The other guys either left or safespotted. Those who safespotted were methodically scanned down and dispatched. The local population quickly fell as all FW'ers fled from the system. Hevrice was our's once again.
Saturday, the scheduled op started late as we took apart another pos, but we eventually got underway. The first kill of the evening was my nemesis (i should really stop calling him that considering hes never actually harmed me), but anyway he was in a rapier and agressed me at a gate. I jumped through and went to a belt to bait him. He obliged and was met by the tuskers gang, who killed him easily. He would go onto whine how we were pussies and yada yada yada, so did his corp mates, which is ironic because they use larger gangs than us and more often.
Moving up to ostingele we killed a faction fitted ishkur (well the gang did, I didn't because i'm too slow ;[ ). Then a typhoon appeared (pirate) sitting a few km of the station. I went in first and tackled him, noting the distinct lack of guns on his ship. I warned the gang (who were all in frigate class ships that he could have smartbombs fitted.) Sure enough he did ande began bombing the crap outta me, as the frigates stayed outside the bomb range. The station owner did not take kindly to the discophoon either and the sentries attacked him. His armour and shield went down very quickly, however this phoon was structure tanked. He took a while to bring down but we suffered no casualties. Apparantly he had spotted us before and had just fitted the ship to kill us, it certainly had the potential to ruin the day for us, but we kept sharp and as a result lived.
We moved from system to system without incident until we came into Aulbres, where we spotted a couple of ships on scan and noted the number of people in the same corp in the system (around 6) this wasn't worrying as i was sent once again as bait for a myrm and drake, while the gang sat outside the system. The drake arrived first and i put my tackle on him, the rest of my gang came oin and got to work on the drake. Soon the drake's myrmidon frind arrived, so i tackled him and we switched primary as the drake had a monster tank. Both were destroyed fairly easily, and once again we suffered no losses.
In the next system i was to come under attack from an arazu (non flashy so my gang could not help). However this guy was blaster fit, and had a hell of a shield tank. I won though popping the blarazu just before I entered structure. He even had a nice faction scram for me to take. After this there was little else to kill so we headed back home. Going back to the belt where we had the rapier earlier we took a little break (the gang sat at ss). Then a domi appeared on my overview, a little suprised i tackled him and called the gang in. We took chunks out of his armor, as he pulled in his medium drones and dropped sentries. He was jammed at this point however by pure luck, the sentries agressed joc who was 30km away in his sentinal. He insta-popped and the sentries agressed me again barely damaging me. It was an unfortunate loss, but we still killed the dominix.
The last kill for me would be a thorax at a FW complex. He had an ishkur freind, but he ran. Irritatingly as the ishkur left all the rats in the complex decided i was a better target. I called rylack for backup as i thought i might die, but i pulled through and killed the thorax, warping out in structure.
The last enagement for me was against another Blarazu. Unfortunately i would lose against this one. It was quite close though as he only had 20-30% of his shield left, after which he would have pretty much instapopped. It was a very good fight, and as i checked his killboard for any comments he made, it turns out he knew exactly what i had fitted and had prepared for it. Which only makes me realise im going to have to mix it up a bit.
On sunday we had another large roam, getting a few more nice kills here and there. Sunday was very much the day of the blob (I consider blobs anything above 5 men) as we avoided larger blobs while engaging smaller blobs. To be honest Sunday was very much of a blurry experience for me as I was feeling a bit under the weather. I could barely remember what we were doing 5 minutes beforehand. I also tested out a new maller fitting, which im going to keep under wraps for now. I got Grohal to shoot at it a bit, and he seemed impressed. However even a good tank could not survive the onslaught of the twenty man BS gang I jumped into, on the way back to hevrice.
Damage done:
3,879,338,083 isk
Ships killed in gang:
megathron, pilgrim, absolution, kestrel, comorant, harpy, maller, 2x curse, huginn, broadsword, vexor navy issue, 2x typhoon, merlin, tristan, myrmidon, drake, rapier, dominix, onerios, vagabond.
Ships killed solo:
vexor, 3x thorax, 3x rifter, stabber, 2x harpy, enyo, succubus, 2x tristan, breacher, incursus, arazu.
Damage recieved:
243,808,326 isk (171,808,326) isk after insurance
Ships lost to gangs:
5x maller
Ships lost solo:
4x maller
