Mayhem - Part I

I'm taking a quick brake from the tale of my journey to Phaze-9, to talk about one of my more recent adventures. If I don't, I will forget some of the details and the retelling will not be anything as entertaining, as when it was fresh in my mind.

I have been flying a lot of direct combat ships recently and decided I wanted a change of pace. So away went the battlecruisers and frigates, and out comes the stealth bomber. I fly the Gallente interpretation of the this ship class: the Nemesis. Based on the successful Tristan hull, this ship could pack quite a punch. For those that don't know, stealth bombers are frigate sized ships that that can use the extremely useful Covert Ops Cloak. Unlike other cloaking devices this highly sophisticated piece of technology has none of the setbacks that the other, cruder, forms suffer from. When cloaked there is no speed penalty, there is a greatly decreased lock delay after uncloaking, and most significantly you can warp cloaked. The last point in particular is a frighteningly powerful ability. It allows almost total freedom of movement around a system, even if it is crawling with hostiles. Other notable advantages this ship possesses, is the ability to fire torpedoes (huge missiles which are usually the purview of Battleships) and the unique ability to use bombs. Again the last point is of note. Bombs are an unguided explosive charge that can only be fired from a stealth bomber. They do not require target locks, but fly in the direction launched for a set amount of time before violently exploding. The damage they dish is surprisingly large and is distributed over a wide area. For all the destructive power these little ships have they are however, rather flimsy. All these traits, when combined, make this ship ideal for a hit and run, guerrilla style of warfare.

The version I fly, the Nemesis, seems to be particularly underused with the Caldari and Mitari versions being the favoured; the Manticore and the Hound respectively. The Nemesis seems to be a very poorly treated and fitted bomber. You quite often see horrible fits with shield extenders, and only one sensor dampener. First of all I see no point in wasting a slot by putting a shield extender on there. The ship, like all stealth bombers, has the structural integrity of a wet paper bag. Putting a shield extender on there is like putting the wet paper bag that is the Nemesis into another wet paper bag. In short it doesn't make enough difference to warrant losing a slot. In principle the Sensor dampener is a very good idea however, one of them is not going to make enough difference unless you are working at long ranges. At these ranges it is impossible to keep the tackle on your target and you become reliant on other pilots to hold them there for you. This doesn't seem to occur to many people though as I frequently see fits with both sensor dampener and a warp disruptor. At ranges where you can tackle with the disruptor the SD will make no tangible difference so you might as well have an empty slot. On second thought an empty slot is probably better as it doesn't drain your capacitor. Below I will detail my journey to a useful and functional fit and how the fit performed on its first outings.

I have been flying bombers for a while now and as I have gained experience and the learned to use new pieces of equipment my fit has evolved. It has gone through three distinct stages. This first stage, was after I had only just learnt to use the ships and their basic equipment. At this point in time I couldn't use bombs so the fit looked like this:

[Nemesis, Stage 1]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

1MN MicroWarpdrive II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
[empty high slot]

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

This setup is in no way suited to solo flying and must operate as part of a group. It has no real way of defending itself and can't hold anyone down. The lack of a bomb launcher also means it isn't very viable for any of the guerrilla tactics normally associated with this ship. It served me well for a while but I soon learned how to operate the bomb weapon system so I upgraded to this:

[Nemesis, Stage 2]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

1MN Afterburner II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Sensor Booster II

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
Bomb Launcher I, Scorch Bomb
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

As you can see the major changes are the addition of a bomb launcher and the replacement of the MWD with an AB. The fitting was rather tight so I had to downgrade the MWD. This was still very much a gang ship, as it suffers from the same limitations as the previous version, bar the bomb launcher. With the addition of the aforementioned launcher I could now start practicing with them. I had a few initial runs that didn't actually result in any kills but did provide me with the skills for setting up bomb points and escaping quickly. Between this stage and the next there was a minor change in the fit:

[Nemesis, Stage 2.5]
Ballistic Control System II
Beta Reactor Control: Reaction Control I

1MN MicroWarpdrive II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Sensor Booster II

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
Bomb Launcher I, Scorch Bomb
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Back in came the MWD and out went a BCU to provide room for a fitting mod allowing me to fit the MWD. This change came after my Nemesis was caught and destroyed in a gate that I could have escaped had I an MWD rather than the AB. The small loss in damage I felt was a price worth paying for additional survivability. These ships aren't cheap you know. The next change was definitely the most sweeping change yet. The others had merely been modifications and alterations, but this heralded a fundamental change in the way I would use and pilot the ship:

[Nemesis, Final Stage]
Local Power Plant Manager: Capacity Power Relay I
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Warp Disruptor II
1MN MicroWarpdrive II
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
Bomb Launcher I, Scorch Bomb
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I

This setup is far more offensive in nature than the previous incarnations. I have thought about this setup in great detail and tried to make sure that every module serves a specific and useful purpose. The High slots need no explanation and they are the only element of the fit that remained virtually unchanged throughout this whole process.

The Med slots are where most of the thought has gone and where you see, in my opinion at least, most of the mistakes.

First off is the tackle, in this case it is a Warp Disruptor II. It has a base range of 24km and an overheated range of 28.8km. This is an essential module for keeping my prey in place so I can deal them a fatal blow. The longer range over a scrambler allows me to keep my valuable and fragile ship out of harms way. If I had some spare money I would substitute this for a faction point that has a higher base range, and consequently a higher overheat range. This would allow me to keep at an even safer range.

Next is the MWD. This module allows me reach great speeds, to keep me away from my target and get me safely out of camps.

The next module is my only form of defence on the ship, other than its speed. A tracking disruptor interferes with the targets turret tracking and range finding abilities. I have the choice of two different scripts to load into it to effect different parts of the turrets. The first script, and the one I most commonly use, is the optimal range script. This drastically decreases the range the turrets can effectively hit out to. With this module active ships can shoot as much as they like and I will take only a minimal amount of damage or maybe even none at all depending on the weapon fitted to the ship.

Finally in the last med slot is Phased Weapon Navigation Array. This is a type of target painter. It increases the signature radius of the target which means my torpedoes have an easier time hitting them. Effectively it means I can do more damage.

The Lows are simple. First off is the Nanofibre Internal structure II, this lightens the ship improving speed and manoeuvrability. Both of these are vital for me to keep out of hard tackle range (e.g. webs and scramblers) and to escape if things get a little hot.

The power relay when combined with the rigs allow me to run all of my E-war and be cap stable, which I believe to be very important, especially when dealing with large targets that take a while to go down. The last thing you want is for them to escape at the last moment because you ran out of cap. This has, rather embarrassingly, actually happened to me before. Also if the only thing keeping you alive is the TD, the last thing you want is for that to shut down due to lack of power. That could be a very expensive mistake.