Friday, October 3, 2014

We could have had a good fight

“We could have had a good fight!”, he complained.

“We did - you died!”, I responded. http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23791495

Well, it was good for me anyway. Apparently I was a pussy for not letting him get under my guns and murder me.

I decided to try out the 250mm rail Thorax again. This particular frigate pilot behaved beautifully by flying straight at me and not having enough time to align out when he realised he was going to die. I had warped to the large plex at range and the Tristan countered by trying to drop on me from a celestial behind my ship. But it was too obvious and by the time he returned I was at optimal for my ammo. Good stuff.

My next fight was more balanced in the form of a Vexor sitting in a medium plex. Not being suicidal (not all the time anyway) I decided to warp to the adjacent large plex at about 30km range. He soon came to visit, also warping in at range though on the other side of the beacon. This should have given me a clue about his fit but for some reason I didn’t think about it. I was totally focused on getting into point, but not scram, range.

His shields started going down fast (those 250s are great) but then his medium drones arrived and started hitting me hard. My low shield alarm went off and with a shock I remembered that I was shield, rather than armour, tanked. I wasn't pointed so I turned away from him and hit the MWD, leaving his recalled drones in my wake.

He didn't take the opportunity to run so I soon turned back and swung around the plex so that a celestial was more or less behind him. I then aligned and locked him on the way in. The plutonium charges finished off his shield at about 40km and by the time I was in overheated long point range I was biting good chunks out of his armour. He exploded!

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23792300

That was satisfying. But he should have won that by sling-shotting and getting under my guns in the first round. I wish I’d remembered FRAPS for that one.

A few Thrashers decided to have a go at me as I loitered outside the gate of another plex. I killed the bravest (or most stupid) one who started heading my way and the rest wisely disappeared before I could reach them. An Algos was a little more intelligent, deciding to warp out in an attempt to drop on me from a convenient celestial. Unfortunately for him, this is exactly what I would have done so by the time he arrived I had moved.

Thrasher: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23794476

Algos: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23800290

And then I lost my ship to a bunch of frigates plus Caracal who took me apart far too easily. They warped into my plex and immediately went of the attack, burning out to meet me. I derped badly. I misjudged how long it would take the fast frigates to reach me, and instead of burning away from them I aligned across their incoming path. This let them get into range much more quickly whilst also lowering my transversal far too much.

Thorax loss: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23792801

But I was determined to have a good experience with a frigate gang. I know it can be done because I've seen it on the telly. So I persevered and found myself another nice little group: a Maulus troublemaker, Condor and Slicer fast tackle, Breacher and Kestrel for some DPS.

Things went better this time. First, I just aligned out to my safe and concentrated on the fight. This freed me up so I could make new and different mistakes.

I prioritized my targets, putting the fast tackle at the top of the list. The Maulus started damping me as soon as he landed which was tremendously annoying because I had to wait for them to get close before I could lock. I switched to CNAM as soon as I realised that my effective range was now about 25km. Unfortunately, I did this while killing the Slicer and, since I stupidly didn't have him pointed, he just warped away. I was more concerned about escaping than catching!

I consoled myself over this missed opportunity by killing the Condor. He went down fast. The next few moments were frustrated by the Maulus damps. I kept locking ships only to find them unlocked when they swung out of range. By this time only the Breacher and Maulus remained in the vicinity, and I adjusted my course to jump on the Breacher. I pointed him and killed him, too.

By now I was thoroughly fed up with that Maulus who was still buzzing about me, especially since he had been trying to distract me with chat requests. I tried to catch him but he saw what was happening and scarpered. I guess there wasn't much point hanging around when the rest of his gang had disappeared.

Condor: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23804454

Breacher: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23804455

Mistakes? I completely forgot about cap management and found myself with everything powered down at one point. A quick cap injection sorted that but the consequences could have been much worse. Also, I was rubbish with my drones. I should have kept ships pointed more during the fight. I could have started safely changing range much earlier, too. I was hundreds of kilometers from the warp-in when we finished.

That was exactly the sort of fight I wanted. I definitely need to do better next time but that was great fun.

My 250mm Thorax adventure finished with a Maller in a large plex. I kept him at the end of point range but was deeply suspicious of the bait-like ship in such a busy system. I kept a close eye on dscan. Sure enough, an Ishtar and Auguror appeared on short scan when I had chewed halfway through his armour. I aligned to my safe and warped after the Ishtar's first volley which hurt a lot. Ishtar is OP.

Still, I didn't fall for the bait and managed to escape. And that's a win in my book.

Video: http://youtu.be/V7IdjG5qIQQ

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