Sunday, May 31, 2015

Failure with a small PvE gang

Zappity was sitting in her Myrmidon in Vard. She took it out for a spin, escaped two Garmurs with the aid of the MJD and then promptly died to a Stabber Fleet and his Deimos pal. I nearly killed the Stabber to death but, sadly, he chose the way of the dishonour drone.

I'm finding the lowsec meta a bit difficult at the moment. I think it is partially because the meta is shifting away from solo again but mostly because I just don't have the time to find good fights right now. So after losing my Myrm I decided to take a short detour to Lustrevik, that mission running haven. I jumped into Loot Sweet Loot, my double rep Incursus, and sought out some shiny, big ships.

I soon found a small gang running Level 4 missions: Vargur (probably a bit too tough), Rupture using T1 drones (oh yes, a real possibility) and Comet using T2 drones (a bit of a worry). I started shooting their MTU. This is the only possible course of action where an MTU is involved. When it became clear that I was breaking through the remote reps the Vargur aggressed. I tackled him before systematically killing all his drones. Then the Rupture aggressed! This is the one I really wanted so I switched tackle and went into a tight orbit before killing his drones, too.

The Vargur began repping him (most unfair and very frustrating) so when a convo from the Comet pilot opened I told him that the Vargur was very brave to risk such a valuable ship for an MTU. I wanted him to warp off, leaving the Rupture to die. He refused to do so, but the Rupture managed to cruise out of rep range all on his own. Suddenly his shield was down, and then his armour! Half hull!

Unfortunately, he realised what was happening and started making his way back to the stationary Vargas who I began to suspect was in Bastion. At this point I should have tried bumping the Rupture away from the larger ship. But perhaps I'm in the realms of fantasy considering that I had only a humble afterburner Incursus to work with.

With the Rupture again back at full shields, I re-evaluated the field. The Comet was orbiting out of scram range and I had no web for range control anyway. The Vargur was too tough to break. The Rupture was unlikely to make the same mistake again - probably time to move on. I think I need an Enyo for this. The added deeps would really help.

The Comet made the decision easier by finally aggressing, something he should have done much earlier. The combined damage was too great for me and I had to depart, tail between legs.

I gave them a gf and congratulated them on not losing a ship before continuing my conversation with the Comet pilot. They were a new gang and he was trying to teach them the fundamentals. I recommended against getting the Vargur to aggress in future and advised a re-ship strategy.

That was great fun. Lots to micromanage, no ECM, no dogpiling, and a reasonably balanced engagement (i.e. a billion ISK worth of carebear ships vs my little Incursus). Good stuff!

Video: http://youtu.be/3EDYmxr6KpI

After warping away I realised that I had been very remiss in not announcing myself properly to the locals. "Hello, I am Zappity the Mostly Fearless. I am here to inspect your wrecks for juicy loot and to destroy any who dare oppose me! No ship can stand against the mighty Incursus!"

Suddenly, a rose in the form of Rosco Train suddenly grew from the, um, mud heap. He remembered this thread and we chatted for a bit about solo endeavours before he challenged me to a duel. Now, I'm not usually big on duels because the pre-arranged nature removes half the fun. But in this case, how could I refuse?

We met at the sun in T1 frigates - cliched but true. He wisely warped in at 100 km in what I assumed was a kiting Kestrel (not good news for my utterly predictable blasty Incursus - I bet you couldn't have guessed). I quickly warped out and back in at range, landing almost on top of him. Somehow I managed to land a scram with an overheated afterburner and the rest, as they say, is history:

Kestrel: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?eid=46964128

Video: https://youtu.be/b6QjAwQJ6Po

GF, Rosco. Who knew that highsec could contain such gems? 

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