Greener grass - Part II

Having travelled through a few systems and traversing a few jump bridges we met up with our allies fleet. It was even bigger than ours, we now numbered around one hundred ships. To my astonishment we were one of several fleets moving to engage the enemy. The enemy in question was an alliance called The Sons of Tangra, and their allies. Not only did we have several fleets of battleships and below, we also had a couple of capital fleets; dozens of dreadnaughts and carriers waiting to be called in. We reached our destination and held position, waiting for the call. Another fleet was already engaging the enemy and apparently they had many more numbers than we at first thought. The intelligence was a little hazy, on the exact numbers. They obviously had the same problem as they were not engaging either. For about an hour it all seemed to be posturing. We moved forward pressuring them and they responded, so we withdrew. They did a similar thing, and nothing really happened. Then we got word that a fleet had engaged, they were outnumbered and losing badly. We were the closest fleet so we were sent to reinforce them. It was only nine jumps away but by the time we got there the enemy fleet had disappeared leaving only wrecks behind. Dozens and dozens of wrecks, both friendly and not. It seemed that the enemy choose this time to have an all out attack, several fleets engaged but the fighting was a stalemate, neither side gaining ground. We missed another fight, but caught a few of the rearguard, a Deimos and a couple of interceptors. Then the order was given to withdraw. My first fleet battle had been something of an anticlimax.

The next couple of weeks were rather quiet. Annoyingly I managed to miss about four fleet ops, but I did manage to get on a couple. That kept things lively and I also tested out a new ship type: the destroyer. These ships are equipped with eight weapon slots and excel at taking out frigate sized ships. I was having fun with it and the few mock battles in which I had tested it, it had performed admirably. I bloodied it for the first time during a gate camp. A Manticore landed next to me and I immediatly trained the Catalyst's many guns on it. It melted and I got some nice loot out of it. Shortly after I lost my first destroyer. A friendly Vagabond was being attacked by three enemy ships, a couple of hundred km of the gate. Two of them were frigate class ships, ideal for my destroyer. I fleeted up with him and initiated warp. Just as I got into warp about eight more ships landed next to the vagabond. Unfortunately they were enemy ships. There was nothing I could do accept watch my ship land right in the midst of the enemy ships. I was obliterated, along with the Vagabond.

I had also discovered the delights of hidden complexes. These hidden places had to be scanned out using probes, but could hold very valuable treasure. Teaming up with a few mates I did my first few, and made quite a pretty penny. Unfortunately, I didn't have a big enough ship to do these on my own so for now I will have to share the spoils. Because of said 'plexes and ratting, I was finally making enough money in null sec to once again move up a ship class. With great glee I purchased my first battlecruiser. A delightfully vicious ship called a Brutix. With this new toy I could finally do a few of the lower level 'plexes on my own. This would open up many doors for me as I would be able to be a lot more independent, and would significantly increase my ISK flow.

I hadn't flown a frigate for a while so I jumped in my old reliable Tristan and took it for a spin. It was initially rather dull as I found now viable targets. I had to escape a couple of gate camps, but that was about the only excitement I had. Then I reached a system brimming with enemies. I couldn't isolate any of them though and was just about to give up and leave when one of them offered me a 1 V 1. I was delighted and agreed. I warped to the pre-arranged point and met his Jaguar head on. An tech II assault frigate versus my tech I frigate. This was going to be tough. His guns hurt, but apparently so did mine. I burned through his shields with consummate ease, his armour was more of a challenge. I was forced to overheat almost every module on my ship to keep up with the damage he was dishing out on me, and to try and finish him off before he got me. It was an intense fight, one if the best I have ever had, but unfortunately I lost. But only just. The Jaguar was in structure when my ship died, so I think my little frigate made a good showing.

I made my move to null-sec and I love it.

Greener grass - Part I

Having spent the last few months running with the Tuskers, I have recently found myself longing for more action than a life of piracy can provide. Not that it is devoid of action, far from it, but as strange as this seems, I long for war. This may sound idealistic, but I want to have objectives to complete. When I undock I want to have a purpose other than meaningless destruction. So with a heavy heart I handed in my resignation and began the search for my new corporation. Unknown to me at the time I exited the Tuskers, my good friend Caster Rom was also on the search for a new corporation. He seemingly had the same urges as me and has joined a corporation called District 9, a member of the alliance Ushra'khan. They operate in the southern reaches of the galaxy around Curse. Meanwhile my search continued.

I advertised myself on several different channels and to my surprise and delight I attracted quite a lot of attention. Within a couple of days my inbox was full of mails inviting me to join dozens of different corporations. Some I disregarded immediately as they were not what I was looking for or the mails were just one liners asking me to join. If I was going to join a corporation, I wanted to be in one that wanted me enough to spend some time on the mails. Having sifted through the pile and gathered a few that I liked the sound of I joined public channels and had conversations with CEO's and recruitment officers. Again the ones that didn't suit me or were not particularly forthcoming about their operations I rejected, in favour of the ones that answered all my questions and were nice people. Eventually after narrowing my search down, I was left with one corporation: Gravis Unbound, a member of The Council. To my delight there base wasn't even that far from Hevrice; less than thirty jumps. It was also only eight jumps from Jita so supplying myself with everything I needed would be a cinch. So the arduous process of moving began. Luckily I could fit most of my essentials in my borrowed industrial in one run. There were only a few ships that I couldn't fit in but I flew those manually at a later date.

At this point I was still based in low-sec and getting to know the surrounding locations. I had to soak up a massive amount of information in a very short space of time. Once I was settled in with the corp in low-sec, it was time to move to null-sec. I tentatively moved a couple of ships out to an alliance station, using jump bridges to shorten my journey; another new experience. Remembering my last few forays in 0.0, I was being incredibly cautious. There was nothing to fear however as most systems were either empty or full of the comforting blue stars of fellow alliance members. I set up a jump clone in the alliance station so I could easily zip back and forward between the two places, without having to travel. While I was still sorting out all of my logistics, I was really getting to know the people in my new corporation and starting to learn about how the alliance worked. The size of it and the organisation required was staggering. I was determined to get as involved in it as much as I possibly could, hopefully that would mean I would get into more scraps.

The first major op that I went on with Gravis was so unlike anything I ever went on with The Tuskers, it was almost unreal. We were heading out POS bashing. A task I count as one of the milestones in this universe, along with others such as your first kill etc. Me in my stealth bomber, one guy in a battleship, and most impressively, three dreadnoughts. I arrived at the first tower we had targeted, all stealthy like. I got a good warp in for the slow dreads and as the tower was undefended, I decloaked and started firing. I might as well have been throwing rocks at it. The thing had millions of shield hitpoints, so I hardly made a dent. When the dreads arrived though it was a different story. They are huge, beautiful, and awesome in their power. They knocked chunks off the towers armour, although it was still a good fifteen minutes of constant shooting to get it into reinforced mode. We noted the length of time its Strontium would last for and come back when it was once again vulnerable. For the uninitiated I should explain. When a POS's shields are taken down to 25% they start to consume a resource called Strontium Clathrates. These make the shield temporarily invulnerable, but any other modules linked to the tower loose power. This gives the owners of the tower time to organise a proper defence.

While we were waiting for it to drop out of reinforced mode we decided to go for another tower. This one though was much more heavily defended. It had turrets, EWAR, a warp jammers. Once again I got a good warp in for the cumbersome dreadnoughts, but I remained cloaked. The guns would have atomised me in about the amount of time it takes the average person to blink, if I had uncloaked. The dreads arrived and I moved to a safe distance so they wouldn't uncloak me and they started pounding away at the various armaments attached to the tower. Priority was given to the warp jammer. After that was disabled, a couple of the guns were taken out, and then they started beating the shield. All was going well when a Lachesis appeared on grid. It quickly lit a cyno and three enemy dreadnoughts jumped in, along with a handful of sub-caps. Over the course of ten minutes or so the dreads pounded on each other. It was obvious the enemy was going to win because they had support, so the Gravis dreads decided to self destruct to deny them the victory. I valiantly sacrificed myself to destroy one of the wrecks and keep the valuable loot out of the enemies hands.

After all that excitement things calmed down for a few days, and I decided it was high time that I moved in null-sec proper, and started to utilise some of the ships I already had out there. I did a couple of runs back and forward to get a few ships down there. Once completed, I had a decent amount of supplies, a Vexor, a Thorax, and an Enyo down there. So having set up my base of operations, I began to explore the surrounding area, as always the first thing you must do when you move somewhere new. For the first few days I did very little other than rat to build up my isk reserves and set up safe spots. It was all going rather well until on my way back I was ambushed by a group of three pilots. An Omen, a Rupture, and a Ferox. My cheap and cheerful Vexor never stood a chance and was blown to bits. I brought word of this incursion into our territory back to the alliance and a small group of pilots, four including me, jumped in combat ships and headed out. I was trying the Thorax for the first time, and had opted for a fit geared entirely towards damage output. The other three guys were also in tech I cruisers. We caught up with them a few systems away and jumped them at a gate. A couple of people went for the Omen and me and the last pilot went for the Rupture. I have to say I was impressed by the damage my thorax was dishing out; it was blowing chunks out of the Ruptures armour. The engagement seemed to be going well when the enemy combat group got a reinforcement in the shape of a Sleipnir command ship. It immediately pounced on me and I melted like an ice cube in a desert. Being geared towards damage, I had a tank about as effective as a wet paper bag, so I went down in a matter of seconds. Another pilot lost his cruiser and we had to withdraw.

I experienced my second ambush only a few days later. Coming back in our home system, a Flycatcher and two Manticores attacked me. The Flycatcher held me and the stealth bombers brought me low. They were fit with micro warp drives so I couldn't get close enough to attack them. I had foolishly moved away from the gate so I couldn't jump through to safety. I desperately called for help, as my tank started to waver. At the last minute a friendly Megathron showed up and set his rep drones on me in the nick of time. The fearsome presence of the battleship scared my attackers away. If I listed every minor engagement I've had since moving to null sec I would be here a very long time, so I'll move on to something of greater significance: my first large fleet battle.

A mail had been sent out to every member of the alliance informing them that a fleet was being formed. I wanted in on this so I jumped in my ship and joined the fleet. There were about forty of us in total. I have to say, seeing so many ships in one place is rather awe inspiring. As if forty weren't enough I was told that we would be meeting up with a fleet from another alliance. We were waging war.

Bigger is better?

I am now getting to the point where I have enough money and knowledge to begin to field cruisers more often, and with more effectiveness. Now normally a bigger ship is something to aspire to, and many pilots throughout this galaxy no doubt stare with slack jawed reverence at ships they immediately assume are better purely because they are bigger. Not me though. Admittedly I haven't had the greatest amount of experience with cruisers, but what little I've had has shown me that perhaps bigger is not always better. Not that I'm saying cruisers or battleships are useless, far from it, but I don't think that they are superior in every way to ships smaller than them like some people seem to think.

Cruisers have many advantages over frigates; they can field more fearsome weaponry, a bigger tank, and it expands your range of targets. On the downside however, they cost a lot more, are slower, and easier to hit. These last two in particular, seriously increase the number of potential enemies as well. Gate camps that I could have easily avoided in a speedy frigate, are now lethal to a much slower cruiser. The same goes for when you attack another pilots vessel. Where before, my speed and size protected me from damage, in a cruiser with it's much larger signature radius, I would be well and truly hit. A couple of examples would here and here.

As with everything in this universe its risk/reward: with greater risk, comes greater reward, and ultimately I will take the step up to bigger ships. After all, I can't stay small time forever!

The Hot Stuff

With the completion of my lessons on thermodynamics, I have started to think about the application of this skill during combat; namely overheating. This is the art of increasing the power going to various systems for a short period of time to increase their effectiveness. So weapons fire faster, armour repairers repair more, nosferatus drain more etc. Basically everything is better. The downside however, is that the extra power creates extra heat that the systems can't deal with, which results in damage. So this means you can only overcharge the systems for a short time or risk rendering them useless which is not particularly helpful in a fight. Due to said restrictions it can be very important at which point in a fight you use this advantage. Used in the right place and it can mean the fight goes in your favour. Use it in the wrong place and the odds can quickly swing in your opponents favour. So I have done some thinking and talked to a few other pilots about how and when to use this ace in the hole.

Straight of the bat I thought of at least two examples of when overheating would have won me the fight. The first instance was a very close fight that I had with a Tristan that ended with me in my capsule and my opponent in less than half structure. A tactical overheat of both my weapons and my repair systems would have allowed me to survive longer and deal more damage. These two factors combined could have turned the tide of battle in my favour. The second example was when I lost an Atron. My little ship didn't quite have the speed to escape the Breacher that was orbiting me like a bird of prey. An overheat to the afterburner would have given me enough speed to escape its warp jammer and I would have lived to fight another day. It's easy to identify where an overheat or two would have helped in a previous encounter, but I suspect that pinpointing the ideal time in a fight is a lot harder. With so much to pay attention to, and battles being as fluid and ever-changing as they are, the moment when the critical overheat could give you the edge or break a stalemate can come and go in an instant.

I have several friends who make great use of overheating and I have also sought out other experienced pilots and coaxed them into talking about when they apply overheating and in what circumstances. The general consensus seems to be that there are several types of scenarios where it is commonly employed.

The first situation involves the longevity of the ship. For example, your armour is going down a little too fast for your liking and your repairer isn't compensating. The overheat increases its effectiveness, giving you additional time in the fight so you can finish off you foe or make your escape.

The second is damage related. Not quite able to break your enemies tank? Need to finish him off quickly before his mates arrive? No problem. A bit of extra juice to the weapon systems increase their rate of fire so damage is dealt faster. This Increase in damage can overwhelm a tank or make for a quick kill followed by a quick getaway.

The third is tackling based. Generally for warp scrams/disruptors. The overheat increases their effective range. Don't think you're going to get in scram range fast enough? Overheat and make sure you get that tackle, and ensnare your prey before it can escape.

These are just a few basic scenarios where this highly versatile skill can be used in. With a few minutes of thought I came up with several other ways that you could use it to gain dominance in a fight. When and what to overheat is also very situational so while there are a few scenarios and rules to think about they can all be blasted out of the airlock in a second and a whole new set of rules can apply. The more I think about this skill the more I realise how versatile it is and how long it is going to take me to identify when, where and what to overheat. I'm going to have to experiment with the application of this skill, I don't think that any amount of theory can prepare you for the various scenarios and their permutations that can be encountered in the real world. So of for some thrills and spills and plenty of heat!

Atron-tastic

Continuing with my pledge to diversify my ship choices, I have been trialling the Atron. I have to say I love this highly underestimated little frigate, and I mourn the fact that it isn't more widely used. Mind you if it was, it wouldn't be underestimated so maybe it's not such a bad thing! While this little ship may not be able to support the DPS or tank of the more commonly used frigates it does have a rather large speed advantage. This gives it a tactical flexibility that the other frigates lack. This speed allows it to dictate range and so you fight on terms that suit you instead of that suit the opponent. It is much the same principle as interceptors. If things don't go your way though, using the Atron's speed, you can break out. It is also an ideal scout, and tackle ship.

I went for a blaster setup on this test run. Deciding that it probably wouldn't do too well going toe to toe with another blaster frigate, I went in search of cruisers; their guns being too big and slow to track me, when I'm in their face and have my engines to max. It wasn't long before I found one. A Moa class cruiser, that is generally a long range ship. Perfect. I warped in, locked and jammed him and orbited him as close and as fast as I could. He went down in short order, and I didn't get hit once. The pilot had fitted a rather peculiar tank that I had to break through. The little Atron obviously had more teeth then I had given it credit for as it did it in a surprisingly short space of time.

Next I had a few fights that I had to back out of, as they didn't favour me particularly well. One was a Caracal that I had against the ropes. He was only saved by the timely arrival of several friends so I had to get out of there sharpish. Shame really, I would have liked to clock up another cruiser kill in the Atron. Next I tried a mock fight with my friend Katsutro. I wanted to see how it faired against a tough, close range frigate like the punisher. I got some decent damage on him, but he was landing the occasional hit that was slowly eating through my armour. So I ramped up my speed. This stopped him hitting me, but I also started to have trouble hitting him. I need to train up some of my gunnery skills to improve my turret tracking to compensate for this. I wasn't putting out the damage so I had outrange his scram and escape.

The third engagement I tried, was more for shits and giggles than anything else. I didn't expect to beat the ships formidable tank, but I knew he wouldn't be able to hit me. You never know it might have been really badly fit. The ship in question, was the Amarrian heavy interdictor: the Devoter. He was an outlaw so I was free to engage him at the gate. I got into a tight orbit around the tech II cruiser and started blasting. His shields went down easily, but then I hit the anvil of his armour. It was evidently a well fit Devoter as the bar for his armour had gone down only a few percent after a minute or so of blasting. It was a passive tank so I could have beaten him down...it just would have taken about half an hour. Meh, I had half an hour to spare. He still wasn't hitting me, and I had a cargo hold full of ammo so I just kept blasting. I even wryly tried to ransom him for his ship, but he didn't go for it. Then there was a local spike, four or five pilots in the Devoter pilot's corp. All this effort for little old me in my 5mil Atron. It was oddly satisfying. I had to quickly outrange the warp jammer before his mates showed up. Not an easy thing to do when the person jamming you is a heavy interdictor. They have a 30km point, so I had to burn out of there fast. I went to warp just as a couple of battleships and a few cruisers landed next to their mate.

The next ship to feel the bite of the Atron's teeth was a rare faction frigate; a Caldari Navy Hookbill. It was an outlaw and had jumped through a gate and landed next to me. I locked and jammed it. I opened up on it and it started going down. My speed protected me from the worst of the fire but I was still taking damage. He was going down faster though, especially after Latro joined in. The pricey frigate exploded, but unfortunately his pod got away. He did have a few expensive modules fitted to his ship but, annoyingly, they had all gone up in flames and we got left with the dregs.

Next I wanted to try out the Atron as a scout/tackler. I tracked down a Harbinger battlecruiser, for the small fleet I was in. It consisted of me, Ronan, Latro, and a Tusker groupie. The fast lock speed makes the Atron ideal as a tackling ship. I warped in and immediately got point on him, and started blasting. He had already been mauled by the sentry guns at the gate he had warped from so we had a good head start. I held him there, once again sustaining no damage, until the rest of the fleet arrived. We went to work on him, and ate through the rest of his armour and structure. We were going to ransom him for his ship, but there was a local spike. All corp mates of his so we popped his ship. Just then a group of battleships and battlecruisers, landed on grid with us so we warped out.

This is where the so far heroic Atron met its match. Of all things it was a Breacher aided by rats. How embarrassing. The Breacher jumped me at a belt. It was fitted with an AB and a long point and orbited me wide at about 20km. I knew I wouldn't be able to get near it, but with some clever flying I could get out of its point range. I got to 23km away from the Breacher, I would be able to warp any second. Then the rats locked me, and webbed me. With my speed gone, I couldn't get away and I was toast. Ah well, it's only 5mil.

I've got to say I loved flying the Atron, and I shall continue to do so. I have plans for a rail gun fit that I also want to test out. And I still have those unformed plans to fly a Maulus at some point, I have a couple of fits in mind. Diversity is so much more fun.