Monday, June 10, 2013

A Short Roam

Wifey is hovering so I may get wife agro at any moment. I want to kill some squids but I cannot go too far from a dockable station. So I thought I'd just have a short roam around the area making sure I could dock up with a few minutes notice.

There were reports of a hostile squid frigate fleet out and as I'd be solo roaming I chose a 10mn Thrasher as that is a good ship for GTFO-ability when you are seriously outnumbered. You burn away at 1600km/sec and any frigate who wants to catch you has to activate its MWD. A target with a lit MWD and my seven artillery cannons make for easy frigate popping. So I undock and lets see what is out there.

Into Hirri.
Two squids in local, nothing on scan. One of the war targets is a regular in Hirri, and I'm pretty sure lives cloaked at a safe spot waiting for an empty system so he can plex in peace. I bounce and get a Heron on wide-scan but he is not at any of the plex. I warp to the Pyne gate to leave and find the Heron 20km off the gate. Point! First volley puts him into low armour and he warps off. Stabbed!


Into Pyne
One blue.

Into Oin
Empty.

Peak into Abune
One red and a lone squid. A narrow D-scan shows that the Squid is in a Tormentor in a Novice Plex and the Red Russian is in a Typhoon... also at the Novice plex. I assume a smartbomb trap. As I cannot get into the novice compound in a Thrasher anyway and I don't want death by smartbomb, I move on.


Back into Oin.
One squid in local, head to medium outpost and get a hound on short scan. Briefly. Of course he cloaks up before I get inside the plex. The timer has been run and the rat is dead so he's in here. I stay in the plex a few minutes and he finally leaves local. I'm wasting his VPT (valuable plexing time).

Notoras via Nisuwa
Notoras is a popular farming location due to being a deadend system and having no passing traffic. Blues and nuets only currently.

Into Kedama.
6 war targets, some corpies, some blues, a couple of reds and some neuts. I warped to a small outpost which scanned clear and a neut Merlin sat on the gate warps off as I arrive. I enter the plex and start short D-scan spam scanning. A Malediction lands on the acceleration gate (on a 21m km scan) but doesn't enter (right choice for him really). Next up a Heron takes a peak but chooses wisely not to come in. A neut Merlin appears again. Then an Ibis. It certainly is a popular complex! Ooooo a Thrasher! I spam the short-range scan. The Merlin has gone and the Thrasher kills the Ibis (can see the dudes pod on scan)! And then he pods the guy (corpse on scan)! Finally the Thrasher comes in and its my old corpie Kik from SoTF....... who are now not blue to us. My overheated guns pop him with me down to 50% armour from his return fire. Good fight!


Back to Kedama
After dropping the loot back at station and patching the big holes in my ships armour with some quality duct tape I head back into Kedama. Not a lot going on now and there is a lack of war targets now. So into the PvP heaven that is Tama.

Tama
I pick a small stronghold and hold up in there for a bit. Max scan is full of nasty looking ships like faction cruisers and local is full of reds, a single war target, some neuts and no blues. A few ships land on short scan, most warp off. An Incursus war target forgets himself and activates the gate and warps in. Splat. A T1 frigate is rarely going to do well against a Thrasher. May be he didn't use D-Scan?


I complete that plex and warp to another small. A Hawk appears on scan. Now this is a problem. With the Thrasher fit I'm flying, Hawks are a major problem and will beat me 95% of the time. The other Caldari Assault Ship, the Harpy, is not an issue to this fit. I'll kill them all day long if they are blaster fit, but Hawks are an issue! So my gaming time for the night is almost at an end. Do I quit now with a Incursus and Thrasher kill or try the Hawk and hope he is not well fitted?

The issue here is DPS projection and tank. As far as DPS goes, my optimal puts me within Rage class rocket range. I could swap out to titanium sabot and get a 22km optimal but my ship is not agile. In fact its the opposite of agile with the 10mn AB running so there is a good chance the target can manoeuvre out of the 24km point range and escape. Not to mention sabot does a lot less damage. With regard to tank, I haz none! This fit relies on speed and heavy DPS. The DC gives me some tank, but not a lot. A Hawk usually has a lot of tank. Dual medium ASB are a popular fit and with them running you have to wait for the reload cycle to be able to break the him. Usually that is more than enough time for a Hawk to chew through an average opponent.

Oh sod it! Death or glory! Come at me bro!


The Hawk lands and my overheated guns knock him down to half shield. He starts making range and my 10mn AB makes my Thrasher turn like the Titanic. He gets out to 15km before I'm aligned back to him and gaining again. His shields are almost gone and I'm waiting for them to zoom back up. Next volley puts him into low armour and he's running. Finally I see his shield jump up... a small amount. Eh? I overheat EVERYTHING as he's making a run for it. Overheated point keeps him from warping off and the overheated AB starts to close the range as a finally volley puts him in his pod.

GF in local and find out that was his first fight after returning from a two year break.

I give him some fitting tips (his Hawk was a tad sub-optimal with a single small ASB with the common fit being dual mediums) and I think I might even fit him a proper Hawk later and contract to him as checking his killboard I now feel a bit of a bully :(

2 comments:

  1. You are supposed to be a bully :)

    You should contract him the new Hawk with a proper fit on the terms that he comes 1v1 you with it :D

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  2. Your Thrasher fits give me headaches lol.

    When I warped in I aligned out and started burning off as my tank was also around 0 and I was expecting an AC fit. Turns out I was just blooming myself for your arties and I was surprised to see you take that much damage.

    Was a gf indeed :D

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