Rifter Drifter

After eight months in Against All Authorities it is time for a change again. I’m not sure if its the state of the game, a general lack of direction, or too long without a threat to its existence but life in -A- has become stale. In my time in the alliance my main focus has always been my corporation. I joined DKOD because I had friends there and because their regular small gang PvP really suited me. When the corporation was wound down I opted not to follow everyone into Havoc but instead moved to Rionnag Alba, a very PvP focussed corporation. Since moving here I have been very happy and we have lots of good FCs, lots of healthy debate over fits and tactics, and most of all lots of participation. At a meeting a few weeks ago we all agreed that we no longer wanted to be part of -A- and the decision was made to leave. Now all we need is a new home…

Rionnag Alba has been part of all of three iterations of Triumvirate, the alliance that terrorises the Northern Coalition. This time we had no intention of reforming the alliance but many of the corporations we have flown with and fought alongside in the past are in Pure Blind and having great fun. Joining them was a logical conclusion. Standings were set and the order was given to evacuate from Catch. Once all my ships were safely in high security space I had a good look at them and decided that it was time to slim down and focus only on the ships that I fly. Except for my faction frigates I sold off most of my possessions and moved the half dozen ships I had settled on to our staging system. Because I don’t fly capital ships I had to rely on a corp mate to jump them out for me but I now have a full hangar in X-7OMU and I am ready to join in the hell raising.

Life up here is pretty full. Back in Catch there were maybe two of three gangs a day at weekends but here, even in the week time, there seems to always be a gang forming up and going out to look for trouble. This is good because living deep in hostile territory does not make for good carebearing during quiet times. Thankfully I’ve built up a decent stock of ISK and have Grr’k making more for me to keep me in ships. One thing that I did overlook was the need for a battleship. Because I am used to flying in logistics ships I brought a Guardian along for remote rep gangs. However, because we fly with lots of carrier support there is little use for logistics ships so my Guardian is pretty useless. Time to ship up that Tempest I was trying to sell, then.

The only allied ops that I have participated in so far have been POS shoots with no kills to speak of so aren’t worth writing about. We did go out on a fast HAC roam last night which resulted in a good fight despite me losing my Vagabond fairly early in proceedings. At least I learnt a couple of things and have adjusted my Vagabond fit for more tank as opposed to the maneuverability that I had opted for previously. Unfortunately I had to head to bed reasonably early so I missed out on this fantastic piece of hotdropping when an NC fleet tried to attack one of our towers.

In between fleets there is still plenty to do. I am completely new to this area so I am spending my free time in my Dramiel exploring the area and making bookmarks. While this can be fairly boring and repetetive work it does often stir up the locals and I had an adrenaline filled scuffle with a Muninn that resulting in me running away with my tail between my legs. It turns out that 180 mm autocannons on a ship with tracking bonuses are very, very evil when you’re in a frigate, even one as fast as this.

At the time of writing we are still officially in -A- but that should change within the next 24 hours. I am definitely glad that I tried out alliance life but I am sure it is not something I will rush back to. Thanks to all of the leadership and FCs and everyone I flew with in my time there. Here’s to an exciting future, though. Let’s hope its full of explosions and that not too many of them are mine!

If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend that you check out Hallan Turrek’s excellent stealth bomber guide. I used to have a lot of fun in DKOD running interceptor and bomber gangs. With their speed, cloaks, and high damage they are an excellent way or running guerilla operations in hostile space. In fact, next time things are quiet I should probably take out another of these.

While I’m on the topic, you can also roam solo in a stealth bomber to grief enemies. Military 5 systems and jump bridges make excellent places to cloak and up wait for unwary targets. Valadeya’s guide is your friend here and will get you up and running.

I like to fit my Hound with a bomb launcher so my fit is something more like this:

[Hound, Gang]

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Bomb Launcher I
‘Arbalest’ Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo
‘Arbalest’ Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo
‘Arbalest’ Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo

Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Co-Processor II

Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I

It might not have the lock range of Hallan’s fit but it can operate outside of 60km which is the maximum drone control range (without augmentors).

While most null sec residents make their ISK from running anomalies or farming DED complexes, Rionnag Alba have a different approach: Team Jita.

What is Team Jita? Suiciding haulers full of juicy loot, scooping the loot, and pocketing the ISK from selling it. A good kill can net about 1 billion ISK for the ganker although sometimes you’re unlucky like the guy who killed a Kestrel full of PLEXes and not a single one dropped.

I finally decided that it was time to give this a go. It definitely seems like a more fun way of making ISK than regular PvE. I sent Wensley to Amarr and got Grr’k to head over in his Mastodon. With a nice cheap Tempest fitted up and sitting on the undock I began to scan haulers. Before too long I had my first target. Great success! Grr’k was able to scoop the loot and list it on the market in Amarr straight away while Wensley counted down his criminal timer.

Two hundred million ISK better off for almost no effort I quickly bought another Tempest and headed out to have another crack at it. This time I was a bit trigger happy and shot a hauler just carrying some shuttles and COSMOS BPCs. The BPCs didn’t even drop. A third attempt saw me blast a hauler carrying the components to build a Pilgrim and a BPC but this time I was beaten to the scoop by people hanging around outside the Amarr Emperor Family Academy station.

For all of this ganking my wallet was about 100 million higher and my security status much lower. What did I learn? Well, suicide ganking is fun but you need to make sure that your targets are worth it and also that you are ready to scoop the loot before anyone else. If you’re undocking from Amarr in the next few days, watch out for a sensor-boosting Tempest…

Edit: I think I’ve finally got the hang of this.

Armour HACs have become the defacto fleet in null security space. With a strong Guardian spider tank and tiny signature radiuses they are pretty much impervious to any form of damage. Guns have a hard time killing them before the Guardians can get their reppers running and bombs are completely useless against such a small signature radius. Our forums have been full of people trying to come up with solid counters and at the same time adapt the tactic to our own needs. It looks like Agony Unleashed have managed to come up with a solution, though. Full details can be found on the Eve Online forums.

I’ve got a nano Tempest that I’ve been using to have fun in low sec when there’s not much going on out in Catch. I’ve had quite a few fun engagements in her, kiting the tacklers from a gang and getting away from from superior numbers. I’ve had a couple of great fights like this and they really do get the adrenaline pumping. In fact, about the only think she hasn’t done is get a kill other than ganking a Scythe and Cheetah who were lured into a false sense of safety by my security status. Well, I saw I’ve “got” a nano Tempest. Now its more a case of I “had” a nano Tempest.

Bored of Old Man Star and wanting to have a little poked around my old home I decided to go to Hevrice and pay The Tuskers a visit. Upon warping to Hevrice V station I was greeted by two outlaw Broadswords camping the station. Perfect. I closed in after making a few feints and started to shoot the closer of the two. I was pretty sure he’d dock if he got into any real trouble but I was curious to see what he’d do. Mal Asha, a young Tusker undocked in a Rifter and warped in towards me. No problem. I can melt a Rifter at 50 km. I told my computer to move me out of point range of the Broadswords and locked up the Rifter. With his afterburner he was under my guns in no time.

Mistake the First: I should have used my microwarp drive to keep him at distance and shredded him from 40 km away.

No worries. With dual neuts and light drones I’d soon have him down. I put the neuts on him and unleashed the drones. It wasn’t long before he dropped point on me and I pulsed my MWD to try and gain range. Before I knew it his scram was back on me and I was back to a crawl again. In the mean time he was taking my drones down and before long I pulled them in an unleashed my EC-600s. These did precisely nothing and were all down before I even checked on their progress. This was starting to get a bit worrying now. The Rifter’s shields were holding at about 50% and I was out of drones and burning cap charges while my own shields slowly dropped. By now both Broadswords had docked and I was alone with the Rifter.

Mistake the Second: Why, oh why, did I let the Rifter tackle me. I have positive security status and he would have been melted by the sentry guns. I could easily have ignored him and played with the Broadswords.

This was starting to look like a really dire situation. There is no way in hell I was going to lose this Tempest to a solo Rifter. Next time my neuts hit it was time for me to warp off. Another Rifter and a pair ofHurricanes had undocked and were loitering at range, waiting for me to get out of sentry range. My neuts did their thing, the Rifter dropped point, and I started to hammer the warp button. Aligning… scrammed again. What the fuck?!

Mistake the Third: If you’re kiting people make sure you’re aligned so you can warp off the very instant they drop point.

By now I’d realised my mistake and this time I aligned for the sun. The second Rifter was now alongside me but had not yet got point. Why not? For good value I shifted one of my neuts onto him which, of course, gave him aggro and he scrammed me. With two Rifters on me the rest warped in and I melted in short order even though I did offer to pay a ransom for my ship in local. Pirates these days, eh? It turns out I had no cap charges left anyway, I had been burning through them like nobody’s business in my certainty of killing the pesky Rifter.

Mistake the Fourth: See mistake two. Yet again I needlessly allowed the second Rifter to tackle me.

Despite it not being a solo kill, my litany of mistakes has lead to a very embarassing and, above all, avoidable lossmail. Despite my mistakes, though, it was excellent piloting by Mal Asha, especially because it turns out he was able to do all this under dual neuts and with no nosferatu, and this leads me to the biggest mistake of them all.

Mistake the Last: Underestimate the power of a well flown Rifter at your peril. They really are amazing little ships!

Last night I went on a roam through Syndicate with my friends Gilad Ayn and Slotos. Its been a while since I led a gang and I thought it was time for some practice. We met up in Harroule with Gilad and myself flying gank Ruptures and Slotos in a similarly fit Vexor. The plan was to roam around and check out any hotspots on the map. Because we lacked any interceptors I scouted ahead.

We found a fight almost instantly in MHC-R3 when I scanned a Ferox down on our out gate. I warped in for the tackle and called in support. By the time I landed there was also a Stabber Fleet Issue on grid. I burned away from the Stabber and tried to put damage onto him while the guys arrived. Upon landing we did our best to take out the Stabber but in the end had to withdraw from the field after Slotos’ Vexor was destroyed.

Once Slotos had reshipped, this time into a Brutix, we began to head along the pipe again. Our destination was DP34-U where several ships had been killed in the last hour. The journey down was pretty uneventful once we had evaded the camp on the 6E-578 gate. I tackled a travelling Tempest but it had warp core stabilisers fit and was able to warp away.

In XS-XAY I found an Arbitrator on the DP34-U gate. I made the tackle and called in the guys. The Arbitrator was melting so I took the damage off to allow my gang mates to get on the mail. As they arrived a Falcon and Vagabond jumped through. Fifteen minutes of warping in and out to avoid jams while trying to take down the Vagabond followed. At one point I managed to warp in right on top of the Falcon and put my damage and drones on it but he was able to jam me and warp off before I got him through half armour. Meanwhile Slotos was tackled and starting to leak into deep structure. With the Falcon gone Gilad and I were able to chase the Vagabond away from Slotos and he warped just in time. Now the Vagabond was starting to go down and it was time for the Falcon to warp in at long range and jam us again. I was able to warp out but Gilad was tackled by the Arbitrator which, by this time was in low structure. Just as I began to warp in to his aid he was able to destroy the Arbitrator and warp away. Despite landing unsupported I got away before the Vagabond could lock and scramble me.

With the gang sitting in a safe spot it was time to think about getting Slotos’ heavily damaged ship repaired. There is a station in 35-RK9 with a repair facility. I went ahead to scout and found an Astarte guarding the gate. I jumped through and the Astarte followed. In order to make it safe for Slotos to jump in I tried to kite the Astarte away from the gate but I was playing too free and easy with the range and he was able to get a scrambler on me. Local spiked and my Rupture was not long for this world.

The guys were alone now but I was able to help them navigate over Vent while they got docked up, repaired the damage, and got into an empty system to log off. At that point it was time to call it a night.

The thing I’ve been enjoying most in Eve lately is flying Scimitars. Despite the fact that you don’t get to be on any of the killmails there is a lot of satisfaction to be had flying logistics ships. If nothing else your FC and gang mates will be extremely grateful to you for turning up.

So, what makes logistics so much fun to fly? Well, just like flying interceptors, there is a lot going on when you’re in a Scimitar. Your primary job is obviously to keep your gang mates alive but in order to do this you need to stay alive yourself. During the heat of battle you have keep up with broadcasts for repairs, maintain your position whilst avoiding tacklers, and follow what’s going on so that you can keep up with the fleet.

For those that don’t know anything about flying logistics there are two logistics cruisers that particular stand out. The Scimitar is a shield repairer that follows the Minmatar design philosophy. It is great for skirmishing where speed and positioning are important and can keep up with fast nano gangs. On the other hand the Guardian follows the Amarrian school and is best fitted for large tank and huge repair potential. It is not very fast and relies upon teamwork to repair the incoming damage.

[Scimitar, Scimitar (MWD)]

Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Small Remote Armor Repair System I

Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Conjunctive Ladar ECCM Scanning Array I
10MN MicroWarpdrive II

Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Reactor Control Unit II

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Light Shield Maintenance Bot I x4
Light Armor Maintenance Bot I x5

The key thing about the Scimitar is that it is fast (2 km/s) and manoeuvrable. It can keep up with fast nano gangs and by flying it like a Vagabond it can use its speed and signature to stay alive. Once a gang’s tacklers have been removed it can operate with relative impunity and leave the field when it is trouble. The biggest weakness of the Scimitar is, like all Minmatar ships, its capacitor. With the MWD active there is enough capacitor for 56s of repair but with the MWD off the ship is cap stable. Scimitars are mostly seen with nano HAC, sniper HAC, and shield battlecruiser gangs.

[Guardian, Guardian]

Large ‘Solace’ I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large ‘Solace’ I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large ‘Solace’ I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large ‘Solace’ I Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large ‘Regard’ I Power Projector
Large ‘Regard’ I Power Projector

Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners
Conjunctive Radar ECCM Scanning Array I

Reactor Control Unit II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
N-Type Thermic Hardener I

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Light Armor Maintenance Bot I x5

The Guardian is a very different beast to the Scimitar. It is slow and heavy but has the potential for an enormous tank. Because of its lack of speed it is best used fighting on gates and stations. In a running battle it is easy to outpace the Guardian and leave it unable to repair its gang mates. The Guardian relies on teamwork and needs a capacitor buddy in order to maintain its cap stability. Working in teams Guardians can be very effective and groups like Pandemic Legion and Rooks and Kings use them to great effect. Because it uses an afterburner the Guardian has a very low signature radius and when used in armour HAC gangs combined with a Loki and Legion providing gang bonuses they can provide an absolutely beastly tank.

Like many of the T2 cruisers in Eve, logistics ships on really shine when you have trained Logistics V. There is no reason that you can’t be effective with lower skill levels (dropping the ECCM for a Cap Recharger II for example) but if it is something that you enjoy doing I really recommend maximising your skills.

In this post I haven’t really mentioned the Oneiros (Gallente armour repairer) or Basilisk (Caldari shield repairer). Like the Scimitar the Oneiros is best used in skirmishing armour gangs but due to the speed of armour tankers and the current preference for afterburning HACs it is not seen very often. Cry Havoc use them effectively in small gangs, though. The Basilisk is the shield version of the Guardian. Because most shield tanking gangs rely on speed and range it is not often seen in combat although We Form Voltron use them effectively. The Basilisk is often used to help pump the shields of POSes and stations after they have been sieged.

If you want to try something different in a fight I highly recommend flying logistics. Sure, you don’t get the killmails but when you get a good fight you get a huge adrenaline rush as you try and keep up with all the repair requests coming at you. You are also the first people thanked at the end of a successful battle and you can really feel that the fight would probably not have been won without you.

Things in the South are pretty quiet at the moment. I’ve been doing a few corp and alliance roams as well as a little bit of solo but there hasn’t really been anything really worth talking about lately. At the moment I am flying my Scimitar a lot and currently maximising its abilities before making my first cross-train to the Guardian. Logisitcs ships are a lot of fun and, summer weather aside, I hope to be able to tell you stories of the fun I have had flying them soon. For now, though, the sunny outside is calling to me. Until then, fly reckless!

Another lazy post, I’m afraid. There isn’t a huge amount to report from Catch. Rionnag Alba have our own constellation now and we’ve been working on getting its military index up so we can have juicy anomalies, complexes, and wormholes. I’ve done a bit of unsuccessful solo roaming and some small gang stuff. That’s about it, really.

Manfred Sideous has made an official announcement about our impending resets. As of downtime tomorrow we will only be blue to five of our closest friends. Everyone else is fair game. Apparently some of our nearer neighbours aren’t entirely amused. Bring on the fighting, it should be great fun!