Now I Am Become Death....

.....Destroyer of Squids.

You know those Eve Online sessions that follow Murphy's Law? If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong? I get plenty of those. Lose a ship, reship, immediately lose that ship, reship, die and then rage quit before losing any more ships trying to turn around the losing streak. Well last night it went the other way.

Despite what some Squids are commenting the Nisuwa area is damn full of farming squids. I don't really know if their "PvP forces" are concentrating on other areas, but currently there is no real effort around us. So when I logged on I thought I'd camp the Nisuwa gate in Notoras with a Thrasher and kill some of them.

After a while there was gate-fire and a squid in local. I pre-overheated my guns and hovered ready to try and catch him. Another gate fire, another squid. OK, two of them. But this is Notoras, a dead-end system popular with farmers. I might be able to kill them if they are plexing fit. A third gate fire but I didn't care. A Daredevil decloaked! I don't care what is jumping through, I want that DD!

I grab point and my first volley wipes out his shields. He posts something in local in Russian as my second volley turns him into a wreck. I assume he has saying "I say old chap. Jolly good catch there!". The 2nd squid had decloaked during this and I am now pointed by a Vengence. I am happy with my DD kill so I return fire on the Assault frigate not expecting to survive. He dies, quickly! By then the 3rd and an unseen 4th squid have me in a Slasher/Rapier combo and I go down. A T2 fit Thrasher for a Daredevil and a Assault Frigate? I'll take that any day of the week. I reship in system and head back to the gate. All three wrecks are still there so I scoop the loot and post my DD kill in corp. Its only after a corpie starts laughing that I relook at the kill-mail. Yes, it's a Daredevil with a cloak!

I go AFK a few minutes to start cooking dinner and when I get back I find a squid Hawk in system. I jump into a different fit Thrasher and decide to give him a go. I scan him down with the D-Scanner to a medium plex and find him sat on the acceleration gate. We engage and I am in low armour as he pops. Super!

I scoop the loot, repair in station and go back to the medium plex to capture in. After a few minutes the squid Rapier pilot who got me on the DD engagement appears on short scan and I align. He warps in, I warp out. The D-scanner indicated that he had cloaked up inside the plex so I relay that to the intel channels, its a tarp!, and head to a small plex that he cannot get in and start capturing that one.

A few minutes later the Hawk pilot is back in a brand new Hawk! He enters my plex and I'm a happy bunny. The last fight was close as he started with a bit of range. This time we're 500m from each other. My AC's tear him a new one and he pops as I'm just entering armour. We have a chat in local as he is wondering what he is doing wrong (but nobody uses local chat right?) and I give him some pointers. I've already decided I'm not going to fight him a third time as I just told him how to fight an AC Thrasher in a Hawk. I suppose I could have then swapped to an Arty Thrasher....

... but in the end he didn't try for a third time.

Next up a fellow QCat was engaging a Cormorant next-door and was having trouble so I went to help. He was MWD snipe fit and I couldn't catch him as I was AB/AC. Took some creative flying with liberal overheating of the afterburner to shake off his long point and warp back to station in 40% structure. How did I get away? Another corpy snagged him and killed him so for me that was just a whore-kill. But again, it was amazing I was able to get away from him.

Back in Nisuwa I decided to camp the Kedama gate next. I swapped ships and waited. Gate-fire and new squid! I recognised the name, it's the guy who flys Merlins with a full rack of warp core stabilisers  He decloaks, I grab point and he just sits there as I two-volley him. Strange! However as I'm podding him for flying with so many stabs, two neuts have appeared and see a juicy pirate ripe for killin'. I accept I'm in trouble, this Thasher has zero tank and no prop-mod and is simply set up for sitting on a gate at zero and insta-locking stuff and dealing two massive volleys. The Rifter comes in close and I align hoping to give the 280mm's enough range to track. His Kestrel mate is also closing fast, I assume the Kessy is short-point and rocket fit as I see no light missiles coming from range. The Rifter takes a few glancing blows before I get a lucky shot and pop him. By now I'm in low armour and the Kestrel has me pointed. Again my luck holds and I pop him in two good shots. I warp to station with my ship on fire and in low structure thinking "What is happening tonight?". That is a 4v1 and and 3v1 where I've come out grinning plus the two 1v1's and a lucky escape with that kitey Cormorent.

I go AFK to eat and come back an hour later. Nisuwa is now packed with blues. I'm about to call it a night when someone spots a Hurricane on the Oin gate. I was docked so I hop in my RJ Sacrilege and undock. The 'Cane is reported to have jumped through whilst I was in warp to the gate. I land and jump after him knowing other QCats are warping to the gate, I tell them to hold as I have jumped into a small gate camp. Certainly nothing to worry about with the 'Cane, a Hawk and an Incursus. My Sacrilege has a massive buffer tank and could easily slow boat back to the gate even when webbed. In fact that gives me an idea for snagging all three even though it was the 'Cane I wanted.

I decloak and align back to the gate. I don't activate my MWD and the 1600mm plate makes the align nice and slow. As expected they think I'm trying to run and get back to gate. Seriously guys? With no prop mod? The Hawk gets a web on me which is when the Hurricane and Incursus red box me thinking I won't be able to make it when webbed.

"They are red boxed! I mean red circled! Oh whatever you want to call it these days, jump in and kill 'em all!"

Points are spread, squids are killed and my armour hardly took a scratch. A good finish to a great night of PvP between doing small jobs around the house, burning some mix CD's and cooking a Tandoori chicken dinner. Lets end this happy, happy blog post with some happy, bouncy music..... with ponies... and DEATH!!!!!

Is This the State of Faction War?

I chased a Algos around Nisuwa last week. I was having a real hard time catching him as he'd always "warp away" before I landed inside the plex. I'd have him on short range scan as I activated the plex gate and when I landed, he wasn't there! It was highly frustrating until I managed to warp into the plex whilst he was still there and I saw him vanish. He wasn't warping off, he was cloaking!

Now that was bad enough, a destroyer with a cloak. However later it got a lot worse. Fellow QCat pilot Rabugento was able to do what I hadn't be able to do. He caught him and killed him. Below is a screenshot of the kill-mail. Go on, click it to make it bigger and have a look.

OK, if you need to go to the bathroom to throw up I'll wait.

OK?

Done? Have a drink to wash the taste away!

Yes your eyes were not deceiving you. That is a militia pilot in an Algos with a cloaking device, an ECM burst module and a warp core stab!

A limited case I hear you say?

No.

Almost one hour earlier I caught this....

Yes, its a Thrasher with a cloak.

And lets not even dwell on this fitting who I caught in the same session.

These are just a few from my weekends Eve. So why are we seeing this massive spike in shit-fits? Well it all started in December and comes down to loyalty points....

In December Gall Mil announced it would have a concentrated effort to capture the whole warzone. It would be our "Christmas gift" to everyone. And we plexed, and plexed and plexed and plexed. My god that is boring! Slowly but surely we advanced. Some systems such as Rakapas put up a great fight, but it was futile as the big green frog steam-roller squished the squids.

During this time we didn't see many cloaks or stabs. We were at warzone control level 4 and the squids were at level 1. Then in January we did it. The last system was captured and we'd taken the whole war zone. After weeks of constant plexing the Gallente Militia breathed a huge sigh of relief.... and stopped plexing.

It was also in January that Ev0ke joined the Caldari Militia with a large group of fresh-faced pilots. Things swung about pretty quickly. With the Gallente burnt out, the Caldari soon recaptured a lot of their systems. Soon they were out of warzone control level one, the area where LP rewards are crap and had enough systems to gain warzone control level 2, where standard LP rewards kick in. With a bit more of a push they touched on level three where LP rewards are bonused.

That was the event that opened the flood-gates. Caldari LP were suddenly worth grinding again. There was a spike in squid activity with many more pilots logging on. Why? Because, of all the LP's in game Caldari are seen as best. Why? Let me ask you a question, actually I need to ask two.

Q. Who buys the most faction modules?
A. Level 4 carebear farmers.

And question two...

Q. Give a common lvl 4 missioning fit.
A. Drake or CNR with missiles and shield tank.

Yes that's right. Missiles and shield tanks are the most popular level 4 mission fits. So what LP store sells nice missile and shield mods. Yup, the Caldari.

So suddenly all the farmers log on their faction war alts to start farming the LP. The stabbed t1 frigates, the destroyers with cloaks. They all come out of the woodwork. Smeg, even some of the more truthful players call their alt characters "Farmer" and say they don't fight in local (yes, people actually do use local).

So the sad fact is that as soon as the Caldari hit a half decent level of warzone control and LP farming becomes worthwhile we are swamped with farmers. But what can we do about it? We can use Cockbag Thrashers to camp gates, we can chase them until they derp and we snag them. But in the end the only true solution is to capture systems, drive down their warzone control level and watch them send their farming alts into hibination until its worthwhile for them to start farming.

Currently the Gallente are still fat and bloated from the December/January push, I myself have over 2.5m LP's. We are still burnt out from all that plexing. But soon (TM) we'll get back into it, drive the Caldari warzone down, take most the systems, get burnt out, the Caldari will fight back, get their WZC high, the farmers will come back, the Caldari will capture most systems......

To quote Battlestar Gallactica, all this has happened before, all of this will happen again.

Don't believe me? Why are the kills not proportional and why are all these systems left vulnerable and not captured?

Into The Black - Part 7 - The Capsuleers

FFF! Escape pod is here if Eve fiction is not your thing. I'm sick and tired of cloaky, stabbed Caldari militia getting away. Nice to see I'm not the only one who is fed up with WCS!

Into The Black - Part 7 - The Capsuleers

The lift was accelerating quickly now. In terms of decks neither Kara or Capitan Jorn had been this far up in any space station.

"Now listen carefully. We are going to get stopped at the security section. Do not panic. This is expected. I will talk us through. Be calm, follow my lead and did I mention before.... don't....... panic!" Dorn said without turning.

Kara adjusted her collar whilst nodding. The tailored suit she was wearing fitted well but she was unused to a business dress-suit like this. She looked at herself in the mirrored wall of the elevator  A week ago she had been a fun-loving secretary at a successful corporate research centre on a quiet planet. She worked during the week with no real pressure with relaxed management and partied at the weekends with her girlfriends. Life was fun. Now she was dressed like her bosses, deep into low-security space with a highly trained assassin on her trial looking to kill her. Her whole life was a lie. Her job was easy as it was a front she now knew. If she performed excellently or poorly never really mattered. She was hired simply as camouflage.

She looked at Dorn, the privateer who had saved her from the disaster that befell her home city. He had changed out of his usual clothes and was wearing a smart business suit. He had even had a close shave. From privateer to respectable business man. They were indistinguishable from the hundreds of Caldari executives that roamed space stations like this one.

The lift stopped and they were confronted with a security station, neither of which had seen the like of before. They stepped out of a lift and a green laser passed over them. Within two seconds two heavily armoured guards stepped out from concealed locations.

"Halt. You are not capsuleers. State you business here."

"We have a personal invite from a capsuleer. I have the documentation right here." Captain Jorn passed the card to the guard who looked at it and stepped back to a terminal. He inserted the card into a reader. A green light flashed.

"Do either of you have any weapons, poisons, bio-agents, nanite technology or any other device that could be used to inflict harm?" the guard asked.

"No." they both repeated.

"You'd better not, the scanner will detect them and that will be entered as evidence of guilt." the guard indicated to a door.

Captain Jorn went in first. The small booth was barely a metre and a half square. The door shut behind him and he was bathed in a green light. After 10 seconds the opposing wall facing him slid open and he stepped out to the far side of the security station. Kara repeated the process.

As they entered another lift at the opposite side of the security station and the doors closed Kara whispered.

"Where are we?"

Captain Dorn smiled. "Enjoy it, you are now somewhere very, very few mortals have been. You are on the capsuleer decks of the station."

-o0o-

The blonde was squatted down and was wiping clean the bloodied blade of her knife on the jacket of the man laying dead at her feet. Another false lead. She was sure he was telling the truth before he died in that he did not know where the two fugitives were. In fact she was convinced he didn't know who she was talking about. Any man would have happily given them up to stop her doing what she had done to him. So the lead that Lola had given her was indeed a ruse. The agent knew she was running out of leads and the trail was now cold.

Just as she slipped the now clean blade back into its sheath in her belt, her datapad beeped. A hit! The fugitives could change their names, their dates of birth and their backgrounds. But they couldn't change their DNA. The Agent had placed a watcher-worm virus into the DNA database of the Caldari State. A DNA bio-scanner had just picked them up. These expensive bio-scanners were used throughout the cluster in the most high-security areas of stations and installations and also in hospitals. In a universe where one could change any aspect of their appearance, DNA scanners were the last line of defence  However with cloning technology they were by no means infallible. She had assumed the fugitives would avoid the high-security areas like station command centres but there was always the chance one of them may get injured and need medical treatment. She looked quizzically at the datapad wondering if a mistake had been made. She decided it was unlikely to be an error or bug, and that they had some how managed to cross onto the capsuleer deck of a low-sec station. She smiled to herself. She had been giving these two less credit then they deserved. A smuggler and a secretary gaining access to the capsuleer decks. She mused how they could have achieved that.

The agent turned to leave as the door to the man's quarters opened. A woman stepped through carring some shopping bags, almost bumping head-long into the assassin. Her eyes went wide in shock, not expecting to see someone there. Her reaction was that of any woman returning home and finding a beautiful woman just leaving her family home. But before she could speak, she saw her husbands lifeless, bloodied body on the floor behind the agent. The assassin didn't flinch. The blade moved at lightning speed and stabbed the man's wife through the front of her neck. The strike silenced the scream before it could leave her wide-open mouth.

"Captain, get the ship ready to depart. We're heading to Nisuwa. Be ready to undock as soon as I get on board." the assassin said into her come unit.

With that she casually left the quarters, stepping over the body of the wife who was writhing on the floor clutching her throat, making sickening gurgling noises, drowning in her own blood.

-o0o-

Kara's head was turning in every direction, marvelling at the spectacular bar. She'd never been in anything like it before. There was wood everywhere. Real wood from trees, polished to a magnificent shine and not the faux plastic imitation that was the norm on stations. Vast floor to ceiling windows overlooked the planet below and into space. Exotic metals glistened in the light, plush velvet sofa's lined the booths. The undock was also visible and vast battleships could be seen undocking.

All around her were capsuleers, immortal spaceship commanders who held the lives of thousands of people in their hands every day. Mixed in with capsuleers were the bars entertainers. At least that was a polite name for them, beautiful men and women here to keep the eggers entertained. Some were dancing on special podiums around the bar, others were giving more private dancers to capsuleers in bars. The excesses were everywhere, it was like something out of a holovid to Kara. Captain Dorn led her up to the bar. The barman came over with a smile.

"What can I get you?" he asked cheerfully.

"Two double Gallente vodka's. Orange flavour. Over ice with a slice of orange."

"That is a very specific order. You must have a thirst that cannot be quenched." the barman asked carefully as he started to prepare the drinks.

"Almost as bad as the one the woman who sent us here has." the Captain replied in a measured tone.

The barman gave a subtle, almost undetectable nod. Kara suddenly realised they were speaking code. A verbal handshake. The drinks order, the question, the reply. It was all so the barman knew Lola sent them.

"I need to know where you are heading." the barman said in a low voice as he continued to prepare the drinks. "Our mutual friend didn't want to risk communicating that even on a secure channel."

"Villore. Federation hi-security space."

"Right." replied the barman as he sliced a fresh orange with a sharp knife. Kara was watching him carefully. Fresh oranges were a luxury and she'd rarely seen them.

"Any one you need to avoid?"

"Well. We'd hate to trouble the State. I know there is absolutely nothing they won't do for us, but we'd really like not to bother them. At all. Ever." Captain Dorn put emphasis on the last words.

"That won't be an issue here. No love of the State on this station since the Gallente Militia captured it. We've got a few eggers I think could help."

The barman nodded over to a booth. Captain Dorn and Kara turned to look. Inside the booth a female capsuleer was seated on a bench. She was Gallente with short red hair. Her legs were wide which allowed one of the female dancers, who was sensually swaying in time to the music, to be in close. The dancer was skimpily dressed, wearing just lingerie and high heels. Both Captain Dorn and Kara were transfixed by the scene. They'd heard the stories about the excess of capsuleers, but had never imagined a place like this.

The capsuleer went to reach for her drink, but the dancer grabbed it first and pulled away. The capsuleer leaned back with a quizzical look on her face. The dancer lifted the glass and took a large drink. She moved forward and kneeled on the edge of the sofa so she was towering over the capsuleer. The dancer took the capsuleers head in her hands and tilted her head back, bringing her lips close to hers. The capsuleer opened her mouth slightly as she realised what the dancer was doing and the dancer let the drink she was holding in her mouth slowly flow to the capsuleers. After the drink was gone she lowered her head the final few centimetres and they kissed. The dancer drew back and continued her dancing.

"You know" said Captain Dorn "I've always wanted to be a capsuleer!"

Kara laughed. Yes, I can see why you would be attracted to the lifestyle.

A minute later the capsuleer stood and hooked a finger in the dancers minimal clothing pulling her towards a lift at the rear of the bar.

"Hey, Lexx! Work!" the barman called indicating to the Captain and Kara.

"Hey, bar steward! Play" the capsuleer turned to the barman and thumbed over her shoulder at the dancer. She eye'd the two by the bar carefully and stopped.

"Give me two hours, if they are still here when I'm finished then we can talk."

As the capsuleer was saying that the dancer came up behind her and placed her hands on the capsuleers hips. She ran her tongue up the side of the capsuleers neck and then took her ear lobe in her mouth and sucked.

"Actually, better make it three hours." she said with a shudder and with that they left together.

The barman looked thoughtful and scanned around the bar.

"Oh well. Who else is there?"

-o0o-

The agent's Strategic Cruiser was cloaked off the station. She was seated at her desk talking to the admiral.

"What is the delay?" he asked.

"They are in the system of Nisuwa in the station. As you will be well aware the Gallente Federation have captured this system and that station. My credentials are useless. In fact they are worse than useless, they mark me as the enemy." she replied.

"When has bad ID stopped you before?"

"It hasn't. I've already uploaded a new ID into the Federation Navy database. Luckily we still have assets in side the Federation. The problem is that given this station is only two jumps from the State's borders, they have not hard-wired the mainframe systems of the station into the Federation network. Just in case we recapture the station at some point. They use a burst transmission twice a day to synchronise critical data. Whilst my new ID now works fine anywhere else in the Federation, I have to wait until 1200 hours for the database here to refresh."

"Understood. And the targets?"

"Still on the capsuleer decks. They haven't logged out at the security station on exit so they are still in there. We can assume they are looking for a ride. Don't worry sir. We almost have them."

The Admiral leaned back in his chair.

"Any chance we could have a cleaner visit than Nourv?"

The assassin cocked an eyebrow quizzically. The Admiral held up his datapad and read from it.

"11 dead. Two apparently tortured. We are lucky that they all belonged to competing crime syndicates. The authorities are going with a turf war/revenge attack between the two gangs. If you had been caught....."

"Sir, all the deceased are criminals and are no loss to the State."

"How about the wife of the man you pretty much turned into a woman? As far as the investigation reveals she was innocent."

"Collateral damage sir."

The Admiral narrowed his eyes, nodded slightly and disconnected the comm link.

-o0o-

Captain Dorn and Kara were seated opposite another female capsuleer. Again Gallente and again with red hair. Kara observed the Intaki woman and wondered if she really would live for ever like they said capsuleers would.

"So. What can I do for you? I must say it is most unusual to meet in this fashion. People looking to secure capsuleer services usually see one of our agents who sets up the contract."

"We need to get to Federation space as fast as possible. Avoiding all Caldari State forces and assets." Captain Dorn said.

"But you are in Federation space!" the capsuleer smirked.

"I mean hi-security Federation space. Not a conquered no-mans land."

The capsuleer smiled and nodded. Kara wondered if everything was a game to them. Immortal, ever living. How would she behave if she was one of them. Rich, powerful and with no fear of death.

"Well I suppose we could pop down to Villore for fifty million ISK."

Kara gasped loudly. That was more money than she could imagine.

"We have a few thousand local credits and no ISK" Captain Dorn replied calmly.

"Well then I guess our conversation is over. If you'll excuse me I have some serious partying to do." the capsuleer started to rise.

"The State is desperate. They are chasing us. We have knowledge of the weapon they are planning to use to change the course of this war." Dorn said matter-of-factly.

The capsuleer paused for a second and then sat back down.

"You're both wanted fugitives from the State?" the capsuleer smirked.

"Yes. And don't get any ideas about some reward egger. If the State knows you've spoken to us and may know about the weapon you'll be marked as well. As I understand it, all that metal in your head will be no use to you when a State assassin sticks a blade in your heart."

The capsuleer paused again. We was clearly thinking about what Dorn had said.

"Interesting. Any idea of the heat that is after you?"

"We don't know for sure. We know there is at least one assassin who has left a trail of bodies in our wake. I think you can assume they have mobilised more to stop us from reaching the Federation." Dorn suddenly stopped. He realised he was making it sound worse with a Caldari fleet possibly on their tail.

"Sounds like fun. Meet me in an hour at docking port C386. Don't be late." with that the capsuleer rose and left.

"What? Are they serious? They wanted 50 million ISK but in the end they settled for a possible fight?" Kara asked in amazement.

"When you are an Empyrean" Dorn replied "A fight to the death can be fun apparently."

-o0o-

At 1201 hours station time, a Strategic Cruiser was given permission to dock in the station. A high ranking Federation Naval Intelligence Officer was visiting the station according to the logs.

BB45 - My "Art" With a Silent "F"

Blog Banter 45: Propaganda

This edition of the Blog Banter is forged from suggestions from #tweetfleet members @KaedaMaxwell, @RocWieler and @TigerlilyFenix.

In a socially-driven game environment such as EVE Online's, everyone has an agenda. CCP promotes its products and has an army of volunteers to do the same; corporations and alliances deliver entertaining recruitment drives, CSM election candidates solicit for voter favour, bloggers and podcasters opine to their audiences. 

In this intricate web of communication, influence and control; what part does propaganda play in your game?

Banter on.

Well not sure we use a lot of propaganda in militia. Pretty sure it doesn't really play a part in my game at all.

prop·a·gan·da [prop-uh-gan-duh]
noun
1. information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement,institution, nation, etc..

Hang on. OK, it may be it plays a little part. I had a look through my Eve "art" directory and realised may be it does....

Ze Enemy

Quam was roaming around Black Rise with a faction BS gang with minimal logistics. Now why would the best known local super-capital-hot-droppers do that? Oh..... wait...... Get me the batphone.

Of course there are the squids (Caldari militia) who are an easy target.

And who could forget the PL Titan gank in Amamake?

At CCP

The there was the CCP launcher which I was one of the 6-7000 who couldn't get it to work. Yes bro, I was mad.

The there was the disappointment over the modular POS'.

CSM7

I supported Hans Jagerblitzen for CSM7, did I really do all these???

 

 

So whilst I thought originally propaganda played no part in my Eve Online life I was wrong. Whilst it may not be a major part, I do use this blog from time to time as a propaganda tool, usually to give the Caldari Militia a bit of a shoeing!

• EVE O GANDA by Rixx Javix @ EVEOGANDA
• Propaganda by Bagehi @ Internet Spaceships is Serious Business
• 45th BB to date! by TetraEtc @ Tetras Eve Blog
• My 3 Cents! by Ardent Defender
• Hello, My name is "Puppet" by Orakkus @ 2nd Anomaly From the Left
• People of RISE by DaiTengu @ Spaceholder

I Was Sucked Dry!

......and not in a good way.

It always used to be "T2 = Win" when dealing with a 1v1 with similar ship hulls. Yes there were always the exceptions, but as a rule of thumb, T2 was king of the class.

But then came Teiricide and so far frigates and cruisers are much better equipped to face their T2 counterparts, especially the more specialised ships.

I was capturing a medium plex in Hasama when I was warned in one of the intel channels that the lone squid (Caldari Militia pilot) in the system was in a Pilgrim. I thought about it and decided it was worth hanging in there. I generally hate fighting neuting ships and the Pilgrim is the Armarrian Force Recon hull with a bonus to energy drain amount and drone HPs/DPS. 

But I was bored and a potential fight is still a potential fight. My Vexor relied on drones for its DPS which obviously don't need capacitor  but the double stasis webifiers play an important role when using heavy drones on smaller ships so I needed to be careful there.

After a ten minute wait, the Pilgrim finally appeared on short-range scan and warped into my plex. I raced towards him to try and stop him cloaking. My worry was that he might cloak up, move to range and then engage from distance. If he was outside of my webs range then I was buggered*. But he didn't try to cloak, he simply proceeded to sit on top of me. Excellent! So my new plan was to try and take him down before he fully nueted me empty.

Not. Even. Close.

Damn those things suck you dry like ***insert inappropriate comparison of sucking thing here***

I was out of cap before I could say "Motherf......". I couldn't believe how fast my capacitor was drained by the Pilgrims neuts. Within a few seconds I couldn't have more than a single mod operating at any one time and even that needed me hovering over the module and reactivating it every cycle. I was actually spamming the point button to ensure it would reactivate as soon as I regained a tiny amount of cap. I would have been in trouble but for one thing. The guy wasn't moving.

My plan was same as always in the Vexor. Get on top of the target, scram and double web them and let the heavy and medium drones keel it. If he'd been burning I would assume the heavy drones wouldn't as been as effective without the dual webs running. But he didn't burn..... he didn't even smoulder  He sat there, still as a rock, neuting me dry and letting his T1 (yes T1) drones do the DPS for him. My T2 Ogres heavies and medium Hammerheads were tearing through his armour as my computer continued to bitch "The capacitor is empty". 

I was holding point but that was it for my active modules. I didn't have the capacitor to cycle my guns, run the damage control or activate the webs. However, there was little point in activating the webs, as this guy was still just sat still. I just wanted the point to stop him escaping!

I started to worry, not about losing, but about it being a draw. We were both at sat still and zero metres from each other not moving, but his armour was going down much faster than mine (I had 1600 plate plus passive hardeners). If I'd have been him I would have looked to get out, which should have been easy given that in capacitor terms I was drier than the desert where I live! No way I could even think about using my prop mod or webs to keep up. But he just sat there as he reached 33% armour. Neuting away merrily and probably swearing at his T1 drones to do MOAR DPS.

He popped as I hit about 80% armour. KABOOM!

The revamped T1 cruisers are definitely much better than they were. I'm not saying they are anywhere as good as all the T2, if that had been a Sacrilege rather than a Pilgrim it probably would have gone the other way. Also pilot skill and fit also play a massive part. But the T1 cruisers are much more a force to be reckoned with these days.

*Yes, I got my Pilgrim and Curse mixed up. I know the Pilgrim doesn't have the neut range bonus so would have had to get close to use his medium neuts so he couldn't have kited me anyway. I don't really fly much Amarr!