Form-up point 1: Logi. We scrounged together 5 Guardians, which was the minimum I wanted.
Form-up point 2: Gallente ECM to break the Nestor spider. We found some.
Form-up point 3: T2 DD, because anything T1 resist would melt. We found some of that too.
With my three pain points checked off, we headed out, but PIRAT used Bowheads to get out of dodge before we arrived. Bullshit mechanic, that (scientific term).
Luckily, the grid was incredibly crowded, so a Public-Enemy Loki didn't notice us arriving until it was too late. Score one for the away team. That's us, for the record. We don't belong in this strange space.
The grid being clear of red flashy, we sit around a while after docking up to repair heat and drop LE timers (I definitely don't want our Logi going suspect on this grid).
Then, helioswipe reports being aggressed by a WT on the trade hub undock. I decide to bring the fleet over to see if there's something we can play against because orbiting a Titan gets boring at some point. We land and tackle the WT, with DD and zero and logi at range. Immediately the grid fills with red, because fair fights are not something to be expected here. So it was bait. I order deaggress and hug station for DD, expecting logi to be safe 50km off. Weapon timers expire and we lose a Pilgrim. I have no idea why we even had a Pilgrim on that grid. Way too squishy.
DD docks up and Guardians warp out, but in that moment a Nemesis lands on them and points two of them. Score three for the home team. Guardian death toll up to two.
While we're sitting in station taking care of various bio breaks, we lose a Legion that thought it smart to travel without refitting to covops. Don't do that.
Eventually, we undock again, having replaced the lost Guardians, and bounce off an instant undock to return to the event site. No more fighting on station, I decide; 'tis a silly place.
We set up on the grid, with logi 50km off the DD blob. Minutes pass. Finally, PIRAT decide to take the juicy morsels, but they land a warp-in on our logi blob. Vindicator webs do nasty things, but Guardians are amazing beasts, so our reps hold. They brought only three Nestors, which isn't that much repair power, and the bloodthirstiness of the grid means that they're unlikely to have any success using OOC logi. I go for a Nestor, and order jams on the other two, while utility neuting off the Vindicators. It helps, Guardians stay stable, and the Nestor begins bleeding armor.
Then, our Logi falls ill with an acute case of the Falcon, as two random jams land in quick succession. Have I mentioned that ECM is a really really silly binary mechanic, recently? We lose a Guardian, and that means we're losing this round. I order scatter. The DD get out, since they were on the hostile Nestors, a good distance away from the Guardians, who aren't so lucky. Three get pointed and exploded as the remainder of the fleet runs away. If you're keeping track, that's score eight for the home team, and a Guardian death toll of six - so far.
We dock up and get some reinforcements from WHC home, but they run into some Public-Enemy ships along the way. WTs that aren't near any PIRAT blob? Sounds like a deal to me, so we head out and jump into a mixed Battleship/T3 fleet on the Ashab gate in Madirmilire. As we load grid, there's a Jackdaw right next to me, which looks both tasty and squishy. It blows up, followed by a Hyperion.
As we start on the second Hyperion, the overview fills with flashing red. Apparently Public-Enemy decided that calling on PIRAT for help was a thing they will do now. Lovely, so if we go away from the Nestor blob, the Nestor blob will come to us. I don't want to play with this on a gate, so we decide to deaggress and hug the gate while tanking. However, one of the Guardian pilots forgets to pull their drones, meaning the Guardians are a good 20 seconds late on the deaggress. And then, as per Murphy's law, another sudden case of Falcon happens. Two guardians get jammed simultanously, the rest cannot hold reps and two more of the mighty beasts are committed to their final rest before weapon timers run out and the rest escape. Score ten for the home team, three for the away team, and a Guardian death toll of eight. They just can't catch a break.
I've decided I've finally had enough of this silliness, and the coronation has concluded either way. We limp home.
The good:
- Pew was had
- Logi held pretty damn well for most of the time, considering what was shooting them
- Got to see
Kelon's girlfriendthe empress - Thanks for reshipping a lot, guys
- Falcon is a pain
- Guardians just can't catch a break
- Like really
- How do you even manage to lose 8 out of your 5 guardians
- PSA: ECCM midslots were changed to Sensor Boosters. There's a script for them now called "ECCM Script". Please use it.
- Traveling alone in a HAM legion without travel fitting it is pointless suicide.
- When fighting in k-space, always keep track of everything that causes weapons timers. That includes drones. We might've lost less without that.
