[HSC] BLAP Talwars low-sec roaming - I

[Budda Sereda]

Sorry for being late with AAR, also I don't have kill mails for lost scouts and other things where we did not get kills. For future, I will improve (thanks to Laser Skaron for logs analyzer).

We started in Amygnon around 2am, in total we had around 18 ships, few scouts, 1-2 Griffins, others DDs.

Some issues were with people getting ships. Guys, please: log-in a bit earlier and get your ship ready, respect your corp mates.

While we were forming up, we spotted few WTs in HS, something juicy - honestly, I don't remember what was that exactly, I believe a BS - in low-sec. The fleet was still forming and was 2 jumps away, but scouts went for the tackle. Dunno why. Ideally, I would like to wait few more minutes to get 2 more people ready with the fleet, but it was quite a bit of time already so I commanded the fleet to proceed. We were on target when one of the scouts died, but unfortunately, our target learned a number of opponents, deagressed and jumped through the gate. We could not follow as we spotted too late he deagressed...

Later Jyo spotted a BC on the gate which warped to a station. Jyo agressed, BC took a fight, we arrived, but after taking our scout BC did not proceed further and docked when was 20-30% in structure (hull tank... ).

We had shenanigans in different systems, move back and forth, but did not really catch anything cool. We were on our way to Nennamaila, I traditionally asked one of scouts to poke into Oulley, and we spotted a Thorax, after some time, back and forths warp-ins between gates in Renarelle Jyo spotted a flashy Armageddon. Later we learned that was Thorax's friend (or alt). Educated by previous miss I asked vanguard to jump into Aub, tackle BS and forth him to fight. He Did not take the fight and jumped to another system, where we had the main fleet and 1 scout. Fleet took the fight, I guess Armageddon tried to warp off, but after a minute of waiting decided to aggress. Vanguard joined the fleet and we added firepower.

We lost 1 talwar https://zkillboard.com/kill/62329196/ -8.8M and tackle https://zkillboard.com/kill/62329224/ -34.9M, but killed Armageddon: https://zkillboard.com/kill/62329244/ +333.3M and his friend who tried to help https://zkillboard.com/kill/62329260/ +91.2M

By accident, I killed a wreck, but later (from watching a video of the fight) I learned I shot a wreck of earlier killed Slasher. I was expecting capsule to show up and had guns cycling so killed whatever was locked first. Need to learn to decycle guns if wreck is been locked.

After that, we still had few fights on the way back, but nothing really cool or exciting.

Overall, it was an interesting fight, we had opportunities to kill WTs.

Problem with Talwars are:

* different skills cause different missile ranges so it is hard to make a call on proper anchor range
* lack of tackling modules and big range make tacklers as a very important role

P.S. Will try to upload my video.

[Budda Sereda]

One more interesting thing, after we killed that Armageddon, somebody did pick up a loot (60M), but our Armageddon pilot reshipped into Tengu. He warped back to the grid, but we scattered. Somehow, Griffin with loot was killed
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62329294/

[Felix Jugo]

I don't have kill mails for lost scouts

You're missing a whole battle! http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=418899

Baelthorn had found some content in a novice plex that most of the fleet couldn't enter. I was sent to join him as a vanguard. It was Baelthorn's atron and my condor against an atron and a hookbill. Baelthorn went down almost immediately, making it a 1v2 fight.

To my surprise, my anemic DPS was breaking the enemy atron (he was flying untanked https://zkillboard.com/kill/62329973/). Rather than finish him off, I chased him away with light missiles and made a play for the more expensive hookbill. It was easy to kite his AB fit, at least until the atron came back and scrammed me. I was able to defensive scram* and coast out of trouble. A few more missiles chased off the atron for good, and after that point the hookbill had no chance; my ~50DPS slowly nibbled him to death.

It was around this point that I realized that Budda had forgotten about me. (my fault: I failed to report that I hadn't gone down with Baelthorn) Everyone else who could fit in the novice plex came in to get on the killmail.

+25.3M Hookbill: http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=418899
-8.1M Atron: http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=418889

* (For those who don't know, the defensive scram technique is a handy trick when you're flying a light tackle ship. If someone scrams you, your MWD will turn off, your speed will drop, and you will die. However, if you can scram the person who's scramming you, their speed will drop. That may let you get out of their scram range and back up to speed)

Other kills made by Budda's fleet, in subsequent fights,
+18.2M Algos: http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=418913
+2.1M Griffin: http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=418909

[Budda Sereda]

Thanks Felix!

And recording of the hunting and fight with Armageddon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJkcYvveLZI

[Jyo Cbip]

Not too much to add here except for some self criticism of my interceptor piloting- I lost three intys this fleet. The two Malediction losses were avoidable.

https://zkillboard.com/kill/62329224/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62328580/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62330035/

First loss: As Budda described, the Brutix popped my inty right outside a station, too quick for the fleet to arrive. I had followed him to the station and was orbiting at 500 to try to provoke a response. I "panic scrammed" him as soon as I realized he had aggressed- here was my mistake as I should have either been in point range, where I could either avoid getting hit or disengage easily OR I should have just docked up without aggressing and rely on the rest of the fleet to warp to station and engage as he now had a weapons timer.

Second loss: Our fleet was split between gates and we were holding the Armageddon on my side. We had plenty of points but we were worried about MJD so scrams were being called. There was at least one scram on the target but I decided to get another one on. Once in range the Armageddon started hitting me and I could not disengage due to a combination of neuts/scram/web. Sometimes I forget just how eager these large ship pilots are to take down intys when they get in range! There was really no reason for me to go for a scram, especially because there were T1 frigs on grid that could have scrammed without presenting such a tempting target.

So- moral of the story is to stay at point range unless you have a REALLY good reason. I think this is a lesson I keep relearning as an inty/fast tackle pilot.

The last loss of the Crow was just due to a recon trap in a medium plex- no real way to avoid except to check killboards of pilots in system- I usually do for solo but it's difficult to when scouting for a fast moving fleet and there are 8 neutrals in system.

[Budda Sereda]

Code: Select all

here was at least one scram on the target but I decided to get another one on. Once in range the Armageddon started hitting me and I could not disengage due to a combination of neuts/scram/web

Jyo, I can't agree. I remember, this fleet we had 1 BS who MJDed from us... and having only 1 scram is dangerous as BS can jump off in 6 seconds after he kills a single scram-tackler. So having 2nd is a safe backup. This guy did not have MJD, but how could we know?

So- moral of the story is to stay at point range unless you have a REALLY good reason. I think this is a lesson I keep relearning as an inty/fast tackle pilot.

Same for me, I often approach too close.

The last loss of the Crow was just due to a recon trap in a medium plex- no real way to avoid except to check killboards of pilots in system- I usually do for solo but it's difficult to when scouting for a fast-moving fleet and there are 8 neutrals in system.

I actually thought about this, and I do think we still could engage those guys. I don't honestly remember an amount of pilots we had till that time, but 2 recons is not a big deal. Huginn and Lachesis we scram and web on a long range... and apply well, but if we had 15 Talwars and some ewars we could dispatch 1 of Recons, and after that 2nd. It would be a very close fight though.
The Bigger problem would be having enough tacklers to survive to kill 1 of recons.
IMHO.