All In A Morning's Work

I logged on this morning to update a could skill queues, one for Kirith and one for Selia. Local was pretty empty for Heydieles, and a couple war targets and a Tusker in the mix. I looked with Selia and saw two plexes open, a minor and a medium. Hmmmm....

I jump into a Plex-Diving Dramiel with its 31 km overheated point and headed out with boat violence on my mind.

Boat Violence

I hit the minor plex first. As I landed in the site I see two Condors, one circling the button and one running around out farther with NPCs in tow. Stupid NPCs. I make a run at them in turn but both of warp out before I can get in lock range.

I turn my ship around and warp to the medium plex. Its a long warp, 53 AU, so I'm thinking I'll just bounce back to the minor to catch the enemy coming back to finish it when I land and to my eternal surprise see a Condor there, sitting at zero on the acceleration gate. Point, lock, orbit, weapons and drones free.

The new and improved Mk II Condor is a lot tougher than the old days, but my Dramiel can kite it far beyond the range of its rockets. He kills one of my drones so I send out the spare. Then an Incursus lands, the Tusker pilot. Part of my wonders if I should run but the Condor is in armour and I decide to get range on  the Incursus and let my drones do the work on the former. The Condor explodes (and later I realize its a second Tusker pilot) but the Incursus gets range and rips off my shields and 25% of my armour.

I'm scrammed but dual prop'ed, so I hit the afterburner and pull out of range. From about 20 km out I can ping him with Barrage and my drones, but as I get him dipped into armour any significant amount he reps it back up to full (confirmed dual rep tank through local after the fight).

I debate my options. I could keep him pointed at 20 klicks and keep pinging him and hope to wear out his cap, but if he turns on my drones I'll lose most of my DPS at this range and there is no guarantee he'll ever run out of cap. Or worse, someone else like a war target or another Tusker might drop in. I could let my shields rep up and then try and time an approach for when his shields dip, but I'm nervous about his blaster damage up close and the fact he's a Tusker pilot. I respect those guys.

In the end I decided the risk of trying to kill this Tech I frigate is not worth the reward. Maybe in my own Tech I ship, but not the Dramiel. I recalled my drones and warped off.

Good fight, sorry it didn't have an earth shattering kaboom to end it.

The Tuskers Of Doom!

The Kadavr Black Guard moved out of Minmatar low sec out to Gallente low sec so we could partner up the notorious Shadow Cartel, the goal being to give us more opportunity to have friends with which we can shoot things with while we recruit and grow.

Since the Christmas break I've been getting out at least once a week and the last two times our illustrious leader and corp namesake Nashh Kadavr has stayed up late to go out for a short roam with me. *Sniff* I love you man!

Last week we went out in a Firetail (him) and Daredevil (me). I like the Daredevil, it is very straightforward to operate: aim, point, shoot; very much like a Rifter. In Onne we ran into Tusker Abellona in a Malediction interceptor and while she hesitant to engage both of us Nashh lured her into an engagement while I was at the sun waiting and then pounced to finish it off before Nashh was killed (the third pilot on the killmail was from a previous engagement Abellona had).

We continued on to the Tusker's home system of Hevrice where we prowled around. Infamous Tusker Grog Drinker came out to play in a Coercer destroyer and engaged Nashh at the sun. He called for me to come in but I was at a safe spot pretty far out and arrived too late to save the Firetail a second time. Nashh grabbed a Rifter in system and we tried to catch Grog Drinker but he was very cagey and just as I warped out Nashh tackled him. Unfortunately, by the time I got back the poor Rifter was a wreckage.

Fast Forward a week.

I log in and Nashh rallies another late night to roam again, this time with corpie Anabaric and Shadow Cartel member Smarnca. We decided to fly in Assault Frigates since they are all the rage and headed out for Hevrice once more. Nashh and Smarnca in Enyos, Anabaric in a Hawk, and myself in an Ishkur.

In Hevrice we run into the notorious Grog Drinker and his Coercer at the sun once again, but this time Nashh's more powerful ship and fast MWD are enough to capture and burn the destroyer (with a touch of help from me). However Grog will have the last laugh...

The Tusker reshipped to a Vengeance and is joined by corp mate Suleiman Shouaa in a Retribution. Anabaric and Smarnca arrive from next door system where they were hunting a ratting Thorax (it got away). The Tuskers warp to a faction warfare complex acceleration gate and we arrive to try and engage. Long story short, the MWD fit ships were expertly flown and while I almost had a tackle on Suleiman (inches I tell you) the end result was Ishkur down, Hawk three minutes later, and then Smarnca's Enyo soon after (with help from a late arriving Abellona in a Ishkur).

Nashh got out alive but since he felt bad that we all died he went and got himself blown up fifteen minutes later in Vitrauze by a trap laid by the Black Guards corp (not associated to Kadavr Black Guard corp).

The Tuskers blew up daddy's ship!

Not our best outing to put it mildly.

Ah well, it was fun to engage and I learned some valuable information about engaging at faction warfare plexs... did you know that the gate leading to the plex itself is considered in dead space as well so you can't do short warps on grid with it either? My fleet mates knew that but I didn't. *shame*