Riding the Unicycle on the Cliff-side Trail of Doom

Last night was crazy in a good way.

I decided I wanted to fly and probably lose an old Abaddon battleship I had in the hanger from my Paxton Federation days. Specifically, an armour buffered Large Pulse Laser behemoth whose purpose is to kick ass and chew capacitor... which is not a great fit for Aideron where doctrines are light on cap transfer logistics. But I was out for insurance fraud so that was OK.

Usually when I start the Aideron Sunday Night Fleet we get about 7 pilots at first and build up slowly over the next hour to our normal size around 22-24. Last night we started at 14 pilots and peaked later at 32. I guess people were excited at the thought of watching my battleship go boom.

Source

So we immediately shipped into Vexors and Exequrors with supporting frigates and my Abaddon Mace and went looking for trouble in all the right places. Specifically, we started with Tama.

The Nourvukaiken gate (aka Nourv because spelling is hard) had a small group camping so Bait Abaddon is Best Abaddon and in I went. It was nice being in something with heft to it, no fear of being blapped off the field by 7... no wait, 10... no... 14 hostiles... OH SHIT! "Jump and warp to Kirith now!"

What enfolded was a crazy fight between us and possibly multiple groups of hostiles in a variety of ships including frigates, cruisers, logi, recons, stealth bombers, and at one point I swear I saw a Redeemer. Calling targets was tricky due to ranges and security status as I wanted to kill some things but didn't want to stress our logistics wing with gate guns until it was necessary, then we turned on the weapons on some neutral recons and stealth bombers to clear the area. We held the field with minor losses and scoring some nice kills including a Navy Omen, Rapier, and Armageddon, scooped loot, and headed home to drop it off and let some pilot reship.

The next hour was quiet excepting a scuffle in a medium plex I could not fit in so Marcel took over that fight. We heard rumblings that frequent sparring partner Templis CALSF of the Caldari Militia so we ran some plexes down in Sujarento while keeping eyes on the Templis home system of Hasmijaala where their numbers slowly increased. We moved into Nagamanen and waited for reports on the enemy fleet. When they showed up, they did not disappoint so we set up in a Large complex and prepared to fight.

We had about 24 cruisers including my battleship, with 7 of them being Exequrors, one blackbird, and the rest Vexors and Vexor Navy Issues. The Templis fleet was more of a mixed bag of Thoraxes, Vexors, Vexor Navy Issues, a couple Ashimmus, a Sacrilege, a Rupture, 2 Blackbirds, and supported by some Exequrors and Oneiroses (I think 2 of each to start), a total of 23 cruisers. Both sides had a smattering of frigates and there might have been a Destroyer here and there.

The Blackbirds were a serious threat to our logi wing and nice and squishy so they were primaried early to remove the jamming. Our ECM pilot met the same fate as the Templis FC had the same concerns apparently. I ordered our DPS to start into the hostile Exequrors and we took one down in what felt like an eternity but was probably closer to 2 minutes. Then our Logi anchor reported an Ashmmu was on them and neuting hard so we diverted attention to it but it could not break with the CalMil logi firing on all cylinders. I ordered switching primary to one of the Oneiros pilots but Marcel wisely suggested we keep blasters on the Ashimmu and only send the drones after the logi pilot. I agreed so we split our damage and this seemed to work by unsettling their reps enough for one, then the other Ashimmu to be worn down before the Onerios pilot died. We went after the other Onerios pilot to remove their reps (or so I thought as I missed one of the Exes #FCfail) and once it was gone taking out a third Ashimmu before concentrating on the last Exe someone finally pointed out to me.

Now, we were losing ships in this process over the 5 minutes since the fight started, and our logi commander was reporting that reps were not holding. I asked what was hitting them and they said "drones!" HEY! That's our shtick! So with enemy logistics and neutralizers removed we started into the high DPS and drone cruisers taking down the Sacrilege followed by 2 Vexors and 2 VNIs and then tearing into the vulnerable trio of Thoraxes. Templis, seeing the tide turning against them as their DPS failed ordered the retreat and we held the field, battered and bloody.

Not 100% accurate but close.

The end tally showed that both sides caused a lot of damage with Aideron losing 17 cruisers and Templis losing 17 cruisers plus 3 Tech 2 cruisers. However, the faction and Tech II ships' costs gave us the ISK advantage, plus holding the field means we declared this a victory. Hard fought and won, but victory nonetheless.

Great Fight Templis CALSF, you guys bring the fight and its always a pleasure.

Rise of the Provi-Abaddon

Last night I logged in and saw there was some hostiles in local, mostly pirates and no wartargets. I undocked in my Rifter to look around and had a pirate in an Incursus undock behind me. "1v1?" he offered in local and I said "sure" as I approached and locked.

The new Incursus is a tough opponent for an autocannon Rifter but I gave it my best shot with overheated guns a-blazing. I would get him into armour but his repper (confirmed afterwards its a single rep) always kept up. I dipped into low armour but my Nosferatu kept giving me the energy to pulse it on to try and keep in the fight. We were both in deep structure but mine gave out first. He traded my loot back to me in station as we chatted. (Suddenly I'm struck by the thought that I never looked for his drone... that could have been the difference.)

He left and I decided to look for trouble, so I got into my looking-for-trouble Dramiel and set off.

I love the Dramiel. Its great for jumping into plexes and catching things. But its not so great against hardened targets.

Over in Aldranette I found a Rote Kapelle Thrasher guarding a plex entrance. I was able to easily keep range and send my drones in and was considering diving in to finish him off with autocannons when he was weakened from the drones, but he had some shield repper installed and was back at 100% as my drones died. We declared draw and I took off to get more drones.

Later in Nemmallia there was a fleet of war targets including a Slasher frigate. Forewarned by Anabaric on the deadliness of the new upgraded Slasher, I tried to lure him into a minor plex where I could fight him without his bigger gangmates interfering, but militia member Eldaerin in a Comet was running the timer down and the Slasher thought better of an impromptu two on one.

I moved on and tried to separate a Harpy from a gang and succeeded in Oinasiken, and even had a Taranis in local come over to help, but the Harpy easily dispatched my drones and the interceptor and I was forced once more to leave the scene of the crime.

Frustrated, I went back to Heydieles to upgrade to something bigger. A Hurricane, I thought, before it gets its upcoming nerf. I went out and saw that the Harpy and gang (including two Thrashers and a Hawk) were in local. I tried to find them but they fought someone else in the militia and left to get repairs. I floated around Heydieles looking for another war target when they came back. More dancing, then I waited for them at the Abune gate. The Harpy came first so I jumped through and started to burn off.

The Harpy came at me and I was hitting him pretty hard as the rest of the gang came in. I figured I was going to die but I wanted that Harpy. However I went the wrong direction and he escaped my point. Oh well, I thought, I'll try a Thrasher. A militia mate in a Ferox landed at the gate about 50 klicks off now... and the hostiles up and left. A found out another minute later as to why: there was a big militia fleet on the other side of the gate. Oh my!

I joined that fleet and we swung around to face a large war target fleet in Old Man Star. I didn't know until after we engaged that I was in a fleet with ~50km weapons and my ~2km ranged autocannons were going to be a problem. So I played heavy tackle and helped the fleet kill a Tornado while they got a few other targets with their longer guns.

The fleet regrouped and I docked up to find a better ship for the composition. It was at this point I discovered that the ships I had that were ideal for this adventure required a powergrid implant in my skull that I did not have at this time. GAH! Desperate I grabbed an old faithful friend: A plated pulse Abaddon that I bought back in the days of Paxton Federation in Provi 1.0. But I've got tech II skills now and Amarr Battleship V. Sure, it may not jive with the rest of the fleet (slower and armour plated compared to faster nano and shields) but I was willing to play sacrificial lamb.

We met up with the enemy fleet again on the Abune gate in Heydieles. Our cloaky Loki pilot was asked to try and lure them out so we could pounce. A Taranis burned for the Loki and tackled him; we warped and the enemy fleet warped to bounce spot and came down on the Loki. The battle was joined as we fell out of warp.

We burned down a Hurricane and Drake but we failed to save the Loki and also lost a Naga battlecruiser that misheard the instructions and warped to the gate instead of the Loki pilot.

The slow moving Abaddon was never targeted over the battlecruisers in fleet. Sure it was easy to catch me but my tank was going to be tough to burn through while the rest of the fleet was shooting. I counted myself lucky, docked, and vowed to clean up my hanger for the next time.