Sunday, January 6, 2013

A Caldari Crumble and a Game of Drones

At the end of last week I packed a carrier full of frigates, destroyers and cruisers and jumped over to Nikkishina. Our time over there is to be spent helping capture Hasama for the Gallente Federation. Frog power! The Caldari are struggling to cope* and have a mere four systems left, or do they? Let me just ask on the alliance forums whilst I draft this up.


The issue we have now in capturing systems is that the Caldari Militia living in low-sec are being forced into a handful of systems and therefore they are much better able to defend those systems. Eha was at 88% Saturday night and I am hearing from my forum post that a 70-man T1 frigate and destroyer fleet took it overnight. Seriously guys? You took frigates and dessies to a structure bash??

So that leaves the Caldari with Hasama, Ladister and OMS. Hasma is around the 50% contested mark. It will be interesting to see what today brings. As for the Caldari strongholds of Ladister and OMS, where the hardcore plex'rs live, time will tell. If you are fighting in that area in a fleet I always like to add in ".. who always pays his debts." any time someone mentions the system.

"Fleet align Ladister."
".... who always pays his debts!".

You're FC will LOVE that!**


One problem I've found PvP'ing away from my normal stomping grounds of Nisuwa, over Nikkishina way, is that it is much more blobby than Northern Black Rise. Now I know the term blob is subjective, but if the enemy have double your numbers, I guess you can call it a blob. Around the Nisuwa area I rarely run into a hostile fleet meaning I can easily solo. Over Nikkishina way I've lost half a dozen ships in one weekend where I usually loose around 10 for a whole month. But I'm not complaining, had some good fights and have an 80% efficiency with still more to come. But it does appear there are more fleets hanging around that area. Is it because in Northern Black Rise we have the Samurai Pizza Cats, Drunk 'n' Disorderly and Snuffbox prowling the space lanes? Three organisations that like a good fight!

I had taken a few Cruisers over. My biggest lost over the weekend was my lovely Fleet Stabber. I was in a medium plex when a Vexor Navy Issue appeared on short-range. He came in and I engaged. I thought this could be a good fight..... if it wasn't for that ominous local spike as he pointed me. Anyway I chewed through the Vexor but his mates were on me. I vaporise a frigate but the other 8 or so were too much. Always go down fighting! G'aaarrrrrrrr! That was one of many fleets I came a cropper to over the weekend. I lost a HAM Caracal and also my Bloa (Blaster Moa, they do some nice DPS these days).

With all this PvP'ing, one problem I did have was that I ran out of cruisers quickly! I had plenty of destroyers but they aren't much good in the middle of a cruiser brawl. We had a fight in a medium Plex and I couldn't offer anything to help so I was lent one for the fight by a Corpie. It was a Vexor, not a ship I've flown much and have certainly not flown one since the T1 cruisers were teiricided in Retribution. So what do we have in this ship....


Wow! It's actually a nice little ship these days. You've got a decent tank on it and good DPS. Of course the DPS is mostly drone based and they can be shot down/smartbombed. The double web means that any short-range tackle is going to be in serious trouble. I liked the ship so much I bought it off him!

I've been looking a bit more at armour cruisers since we started this system capture campaign in late December. Armour logistics are the most efficient and as mediums only let cruisers and below in, there are obvious reasons for me swapping from my usual shield based cruisers.

The armour based cruiser hull I'm dying to try out is my new Sacrilege. After the Battle for Rakapas I knew a armour HAC would be a useful ship to have in my hanger. I recalled reading on Eveogander that fellow security status-challenged pilot Rixx Javix has been having fun, pew-pew and some success in a HAM Sacrilege  So I sent my alt off to high-sec to grab the hull and mods, squeeze it into a cloaky Iteron and bring it to low-sec. The first thing that struck me, smeggin' hell, that is an awesome looking ship! I'd not really paid attention to the hull and looked at it close before, but wow. I really like it.


There is obviously some minor similarities to my other favourite looking ship, the Caracal. I think it must be the Star Trek nacelles/Klingon Bird of Prey style I really like.

It has a high resist armour tank and the HAMs deal out sufficient damage to upset most pilots. Given the blobby nature of my current home and my current luck I won't bother solo'ing it out here, but soon (TM).

For now, time to undock the Vexor and go set my drones one someone. See you in space o7


* I know the Caldari captured EVERYTHING in 2009! We're just enjoying it ourselves atm!
** First, no he won't and second, yes I know the difference between Ladister and Lanister but FFS it is close enough for the joke!

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