Monday, March 11, 2013

It's a TARP! Oh, Wait... NO DON'T WAIT!

Saturday morning I logged on for some hot pew-pew action. There wasn't a huge amount going on by the sounds of it. It was early in my TZ meaning that there were still a few of the late-night US contingent on still. There was no proper fleet and we were all dispersed around Northern Black Rise hunting solo and in pairs with the knowledge if anything big showed up we'd have back up nearby. It's called a NAFF, Not a Fleet Fleet.

It worked well that morning as two of our guys got jumped by half a dozen neuts in a faction war plex in Pyne. The QCats were in small ships and the neuts had BC and down, so I jumped into an AHAC and went over to help.


We managed to snag this Stabber Fleet Issue. A fast MWD Hurricane was able to escape our long points as were the rest of their smaller ships.

Next bouncing around solo I tried to get a Imperial Navy Slicer. He was kitey, I was short range AB fit and he came in at range, so was pretty stuck. But that's not what killed me, although now he had me with a long point he could have solo'd me, he decided he needed a blob to complete the kill.


Thankfully some nice person killed him before he had a session change so I got onto his mail. Plus, as a bonus, he had a 30m ISK MWD fitted, so I got a nice trade there in ISK efficiency for my much cheaper Hookbill!

After a bit more chasing faction war pilots who didn't want to fight, I decide to camp a gate as I have some stuff to do on the other PC screen. I selected a dead-end system, put a Cockbag Thrasher on the only gate and waited to hear the gate sound whilst working on the other screen. After a while I hear the gate activate, look at the main screen and there is a squid in local! I get ready and a Tristan decloaks. I lock him, point him and volley one puts him into structure. The pre-overheat on the top rack means volley two comes quickly and puts him in his pod which I also point and kill. I scoop the loot and head back to station to repair the overheat damage on the guns and drop off the loot before returning to the gate to wait for my next customer.


5 minutes later the gate fires again and I turn my attention back to the main screen. Another squid! No, actually it is the same squid. Now I have to think very quickly before he uncloaks. Why would he come back to a gate he knows is camped?

1. He's come back in a ship that can survive the Cockbags initial volley and then counter the 'slow-ass' tracking artilleries?
2. He's come back in a cruiser or similar that can easily take a Thrasher solo?
3. He's dumb enough to come back in a frigate thinking last time he was just unlucky or that I might have moved on in the last 5 minutes?

Whilst I'm wondering whether to wait and try it (if it was option 3) or if I should warp to station (if it was options 1 or 2), there are several more gate fires and the number of war targets in local tells me I may have forgoten that there could be a number 4.

4. He's brought his friends.

I hit warp before anyone uncloaks and head to station. 4v1 in an untanked Thrasher won't end well for me. I dock, swap to a differently fit Thrasher and undock. Outside the station is a Talwar and a Tristan. However the other two are about somewhere in system. A wide D-scan shows a Kestrel and a Merlin on max range. My new Thrasher is AB/AC fit so a fast and kitey Talwar is going to be an issue, never mind the others who would be on scene quickly if I engaged. I dock back up as the Telwar engages from range and undock in a Vexor. The Talwar warps off (sensible guy) and the Tristan takes a flight of light combat drones to the face before deciding that warping off might be a great idea.


I sit there and start D-Scanning the two faction war plex that are open. It would seem their plan was to split up with two taking an open plex each and the other two were probably meant to be trying to keep me pinned in station. Unlucky for them I keep a range of ships in various stations around so I can reship when needed.

The Telwar comes back at range and starts to burn towards me. I align towards him and move slowly. When he gets to 24km he points me and target-paints me before opening up with his missiles. He's now at 20km. I overheat my entire mid-rack and hit the MWD. My lumbering fat green ass is propelled forward thanks to the over-heated MWD and of course, because my webs and scrams are also overheated, I have a nice range bonus to them. I snag him with the scram and double webs. I'm soon at point blank range so stop the overheat, launch drones and open up with the medium blasters. The Tristan is here but I assume the Telwar pilot knew his fate and told him not to bother. The Telwar goes down, I scoop the loot and wait out the aggression timer before docking up and repairing the ship damage.

With their one and only Destroyer dead they have three frigates left. So I jump into a Hookbill and go for the others. First plex I snag their Kestrel and after that local empties of war targets.

Now, anyone who has been reading this blog over the last two weeks knows I've been ranting about the farmers. Cloaking Rifters and cloaky Algos, Daredevils with cloaks, ships with so many stabs they have to wind the window down and throw the ammo at me as their lock range is so short. But this weekend I've not seen as many. I'm not saying they are not still out there, as my CEO Chatgris pointed out, they still are:-


It's just I've not been seeing them. I've been using capsule kills as an indicator of how much farming is going on. Generally farmers don't get their pods out in a hurry. On a normal month I'd usually get between one and three pod kills. The first full month the Caldari hit warzone control level III which was Fenruary I got 11. In the first 9 days of this month I have 8! But hopefully that will now drop off if the farmers aren't bothering with this area now.

In fact the majority of the squids that I have seen this weekend have been PvP fit and are looking for a fight.


May be the farmers are learning not to come to the Nisuwa area and those that do want a fight are replacing them?

Whatever the reason this weekend was low on farmers and high on PvP. Is this a turning point? I can but hope!
Posted by at 5:40 AM

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