Thoughts About the Newbie Atron

So there is this contest on Battleclinic to submit an Executioner or Atron fit for a new player interested in bounty hunting which I mentioned on Saturday.

I put together a fit that I thought would work:

Its cheap, simple to use, and grows with the player.

Over at Jester's Trek Ripard posted his version of the Newbie Bounty Hunting Atron:

[Atron, Battleclinic contest]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[empty high slot]
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

I commented and we had a little back and forth:

I want to expand on my thoughts here, particularly about afterburners and microwarp drives. And bounties.

Ripard went with a MWD on his fit with the logic that you need to be able to be as fast or faster than a target to catch them. This is true when you are running down targets that do not want to be caught but if you are chasing a target over multiple jumps than a long point and fast lock time are more important.

I'm willing to bet that chasing a target with a bounty you are more likely to be faced with someone willing to turn and fight and in that case the MWD can become a liability.

When I am flying solo in low sec in faction warfare dominated space, my ship of preference is a afterburner fit Incursus, or if I'm feeling lucky, an afterburner fit Daredevil that operates almost the same way. Most fighting takes place near acceleration gates of plexes, either just outside or just inside. Sometimes you run into a target at a gate. If they turn and fight, a MWD may get you into range faster but if the enemy has a scram you are dead meat. If they have scram and web, you are REALLY dead meat! MWDs are great for getting tackle but not surviving a fight so I only want a MWD on a ship that will get a tackle and then have support come in to make the kill. Also, if I'm going with a MWD I'm fitting a long point to avoid scram range.

With an afterburner, if a target turns to fight then your scram and web puts you on even or better footing than your opponent if they scram and web you in return. Your afterburner still gives you some speed boost. Yes, there is some danger in getting kited and you need to be aware of that and use whatever you can to your advantage to close range to the magic scram range, or break his point and warp out to try and get better combat positions. Sitting inside a plex on the warp in point is an excellent example.

But overall, let's be realistic: a newbie player trying to do bounty hunting in ANY ship is going to die a lot to the players with bounties on them. I just think they will have a better chance or surviving in an afterburner ship than a MWD one.

Learning Cliff

I am trying to develop into a real Fleet Commander within Aideron Robotics and last night it was pretty quiet  after the Caldari roundly got defeated in the Battle of Enaluri. There were more pirate groups than war targets for the most part. So instead of flying with the militia fleet we decided to do a corp only roam for a bit. Knowing I need the practice Marcel handed the reins of the four pilot fleet over to me. 

Oh dear god.

Fortunately we were only in Tech 1 frigates so the cost of failure was low. Good thing too.

Attempt #1 - Atron + 3 Tristans

We were headed towards Tama when in Kedama we see neutrals in local with two of them being pirates. I send one of my Tristans (I'm in a short range Atron) to the sun so he can scan the plexes open in the system. He spots a Kestrel in one. I have the other two Tristans and my Atron align for the plex as the "bait" Tristan warps to there. The gate flashes and a neutral Kestrel appears.

"Ignore the neut Kestrel here on the gate," I order, thinking of what gate guns would do to our ships. Our "bait" lands on the acceleration gate and as he activates it I give the order to the rest of us to warp. As my buddies warp off, I discover I've been pointed. Right: I'm a pirate. Free engagement invite. Damn.

While I'm struggling to get away from the Kestrel pilot at the gate, my three Tristans get into a fight with the Kestrel in the plex and his buddy in a Merlin who shows up. My team kills the Kestrel but we lose all three Tristans in the exchange.

Fortunately, just as this ended I finally got away from the neutral at the gate while bleeding structure. 

Result:

Attempt #2 - Atron + 2 Tristans

Marcel had to go so it was just me in my repaired Atron and my two meatshields corpmates in new Tristans. I decided to head back to Kedama and see if we could try another go round with those feisty neutrals.

Now on the way back to Nenna to reship I say a pirate cruiser gate camp but since there was no small tackle I thought nothing of blowing by it. And as we went back towards Kedama it was still there and hey, why does it have a Procurer in the middle of it?

Ah yes, the super sensor boosting mining ship with faction warp disruptors. How could I forget? My speedy Atron got off OK but my fleetmates in their aptly named "Fatmen" frigates were soon space junk.

Result:

Attempt #3 - Atron + 3 Tristans

Since misery loves company, we reshipped in Nenna once again and were joined by another corp mate who thought his kills to losses ratio was getting too lopsided in favour of kills. I decided to go the other way in the same manner that a card players gets up and walks around his chair to reverse his luck with the dealer, and in Oicx we spot some actual real live war targets! Only three of them so our fleet of four looks like the perfect size.

In an effort to not scare them off, I go in first in the Atron to find them and see a Tristan and a Griffin in a small plex with no sign of the third pilot. I call in one Tristan to warp to the plex gate after I go in and engage, with order to the other two Tristans to warp in after I land in the plex. The idea is that the slower escalation and heat of battle will prevent them from running before the fight starts.

However, what I did not count on is how fragile the Atron is. I'm used to flying in an Incursus or even Daredevil with powerful active tanks and not the think plated Atron. I was down before my first Tristan reinforcement arrived and worse, the enemy called in a Catalyst as my other two Tristans showed up.

The good news is that we only lost one other ship besides my Atron. The bad news is we had to retreat without any retribution.

Result:

Lessons Learned

Despite the almost complete failure I learned a few things (or rather reinforced some things I should have known) and next time I will be better for it. I never thought it would be easy and I'm glad my corpies were good sports about it ("Better blowing up than ship spinning." Thanks Yonko.)