Tryst with Tristan

Starwalker was contemplating the next Gallente ship to fly despite having just bought loads of missiles. His Kestrel had killed this Venture but the ship just did not set his heart on fire. The reason was simply down to the alternative - the joy of fighting up close and personal with high damage blasters. He had to replace his last blaster ship - this Merlin lost to a Thorax.

Choosing what ship to fly though was a combination of factors and not just one thing. In particular, and beyond their capabilities, there were four frigates that Starwalker actually liked the look of - Rifter, Merlin, Punisher (and their variants) and also the...Tristan. It was a very quirky looking ship but there was something about it that just appealed, unlike 80% of the other ships in New Eden.

The Tristan had recently been over-hauled and was now a drone boat with blasters and Starwalker decided that he would start to fly it immediately as he had good blaster skills and reasonable drone skills. The drone skills had been started when he had dallied with the battlecruisers earlier this year. 

The Tristan fit recommended on FailHeap Challenge was a railgun kiting fit but Starwalker liked blasters. However, given the ability to field five drones most of the damage was drone based with the ship's bonuses to turret tracking (7.5%) and drone tracking and hitpoints (10%). The first fit that Starwalker came up with was based on defining a decent tank and amplifying the drone damage:

[Tristan, MSE]

Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Drone Damage Amplifier II

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Medium Shield Extender II

Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

Hobgoblin II x5
Warrior II x3

At level 5 skill this Tristan put out an impressive (combined) 189 DPS with a 6.6k EHP tank; using small core defence field extenders would increase the tank to nearly 7k EHP but Starwalker wanted the resists. The maiden voyage of the Tristan resulted in two nice kills:

• Rifter, piloted by Naen Aliel, who tried to maintain a 5km orbit (successfully) whilst trying to kill the drones. He killed one drone but the others got him and Starwalker only noticed after the event that his blasters had contributed nothing to the fight
• Punisher, piloted by Energy God, who surprisingly decided to get in close. Energy God started firing at the Tristan but then changed to the drones. It didn't matter as the result was the same - another kill

Whilst both fights had resulted in kills Starwalker realised that he had some potential improvements to make:

1. The Rifter could have left the fight at any time with the range control. Indeed he should have left earlier to avoid destruction. The Tristan needed to have a web to keep targets in range - better pilots would simply have left once it was clear that they were losing and they could escape
2. The energy neutraliser may have had an effect but as the range oscillated, mainly in the Rifter fight, it had to be continually re-applied. It was unclear how effective it was during the fight
3. Starwalker did not manage the drones at all during the fight, he simply launched them and engaged the target. He would need to start managing the drones during the fight, in particular, recalling drones that were about to be destroyed to save them. It might even be possible to relaunch them later when the target was focused on other things (drones or Tristan)

Starwalker was pleased with how the fights had gone and how the Tristan had performed. He might tweak the fit a little more but in short he enjoyed flying it and managing the drones, even if superficially so far, it was a whole new experience.

Punished a Punisher in Lulm

Starwalker had been roaming around again with what seemed like little opportunity to find a victim. The closest to getting into a fight had been with a Tristan than was on grid but not interested in engaging and after maintaining a safe distance of 150km for a while it then simply warped away.

Making one last attempt for action Starwalker loitered around Lulm and scanned for targets. A Rifter appeared at one of a number of possible asteroid belts and Starwalker warped in to one at random at 20km but found empty space and a few wrecks left behind.

Starwalker aligned out but was in no hurry to leave and continued to scan when a Punisher warped into the belt. A quick check on employment history showed that this pilot was much older but taking the tip from Zodiac Black, Starwalker checked the killboard. The pilot, Reyner Ve’chroneus, was also inexperienced – game on.

Starwalker cruised in trying to conserve capacitor and the Punisher engaged. It was locked, webbed, scrambled and the autocannons started blazing away. Damage control was started and then the energy neutraliser was started. It would undoubtedly be armour tanked and killing the Punisher capacitor would make the ship helpless. Guns were overheated and it was looking good.

The Punisher was entering deep armour just as the Rifter capacitor hit zero. If the Punisher pilot was paying attention, then he could simply warp away from what was a lost fight. Either he did not know he could leave or he was living in a dreamland of victory – he stayed and died. The Punisher destruction (http://r1fta.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10518486) was closely followed by the pilot’s pod (http://r1fta.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10518510) being blown up too. Starwalker considered doing the piracy ransom thing but he wanted the kill more.

The fight was over and Starwalker collected the loot and corpse. After waiting out the GCC Starwalker returned to base to repair and enjoy the spoils of the kill.

Punisher that Got Away

Starwalker arrived in Adirain with local showing only a few pilots in system. Whilst roaming and running had been usual, Starwalker decided on a different approach this time and that was to stay in system (or a few) and lurk. The idea being to wait patiently in local until a suitable target appears in local and then to hunt for it.

Braza 2hot4u was in local and in time it became clear he was flying a Punisher - target acquired, hunt on. Starwalker hit the directional scanner as he guided his Rifter away from a random asteroid belt and by chance, that very same Punisher warped past to that belt. As Starwalker warped in his heart started pounding and he arrived right on top of the Punisher ratting.

Target lock, set orbit, start damage control, autocannons, rocket and scramble. The Punisher shields dropped very quickly as expected but the armour was not dropping quite so fast and its repair cycle seemed to be limiting damage. Time to overheat guns and rockets and the results were soon seen as armour dropped to zero and the Punisher entered structure. Strangely the range increased as the Punisher entered 50% structure. Starwalker thinking the Punisher was warping away hit the scramble again and inadvertently turned it off. The Punisher did not need an invitation to leave and warped away immediately.

The Punisher should have been killed instead it was the one that got away. It was the first but it probably wouldn't be the last. It was a disappointment but the good news was that it was the first fight in ages.