The Small Ones can be the Best

I was having a little roam in my Hawk the other day when I came across a squid (Caldari Militia member) in a Dramiel. He was sat on a gate at zero as I jumped in. I let my session timer tick a bit before burning at him. My thought being, if he get's range, and therefore not a fight I want to be in, I can jump out before agressing. If he comes in at short range then I'll give it a go.

 

I wasn't holding out much hope. It had been a futile roam so far with every squid I'd seen either running, or in a cloaky ship. Anyway I thought I'd give it a go and see what happens.

 

He indeed agresses me at close range so I agress back. He's hitting me hard but my shield booster is doing it's job. I'm bleeding a bit of armour so pop a blue pill. Arse! Side-effect! A penalty to missile explosion velocity is not what you want when fighting a speedy Dram. Anyway I'm still getting the boost to my shield and he's getting into armour, although I'm not hitting him as hard as I was before popping that combat booster. At this point the outcome of the fight is too close to call. I'm lower armour than him but the shield booster is giving me that extra bit of shield each cycle that he's got to get through, his armour is going down at a constant rate.

 

We're both into low armour when he burns away from me. I try to follow, but he's much faster than me so I won't be able to keep up. Also his drones and AC's can still hit me at range. I won't be able to do the same as my rockets won't hit him once he's out of range. He gets out of my rocket range and my DPS hits 0. However, being out of range of my rockets also means that he is also out of point range. I am still taking damage, I cannot hit him now at all, but I'm no longer pointed, so I warp off in low armour leaving him also in low armour.

 

We have a quick chat in local, I said that he "won" as if I'd stayed he have killed me, as a few other guys arrive. Nice guy and agreed it was a very good fight. I'm in no condition to fight anymore and there is no station in system to repair so I head home.

 

Not really an epic fight, and not a great story to tell, but it was bloody good fun! When your hands are shaking after a fight, win or lose, it's a good fight! Two frigate hulls dueling one-on-one. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses and requiring a bit more thought to go into the fight and tactics rather than the normal MMOG style fight of kicking each other in the shins until one falls over.

 

You don't need two blobs with ECM and logistics and a hotdrop to make an epic fight. Sometimes all you need is two pilots, the willingness to risk your ship and a bit of space.

gf Ganndor, gf o7