It was one of those days, Starwalker could do no right and his ship losses reflected that sad fact. In the financial world there was the concept of a "stop loss", if a position (or bet) was going badly then to stop any further losses a stop loss was executed or the open position was closed.
It was a painful decision to close the position and take the loss as it meant that there was no hope for a recovery or to make a profit but more importantly it prevented a bad situation getting worse. It was a decision to put reality before hope and limit the loss.
Typically, Starwalker would remain docked as soon as he had lost three ships in a single day - to stop his losses. However, this time he decided to keep flying and the losses mounted:
- Amenophis I had lost his Tristan to Starwalker's Merlin and he had re-shipped to an Incursus. The implicit challenge was accepted and the repaired Merlin landed for a close range brawl. As the fight progressed Starwalker was surprised to be capped out as he was theoretically cap-stable and he was neither neuted nor was there another other ship on grid. With the capacitor dry the fight stopped and the Merlin exploded
- Starwalker re-shipped to a Coercer and undocked to find Mark Yanning in a Catalyst (again) at the undock. The Catalyst wasted no time and engaged, Starwalker responded in kind but fighting on station is rarely a good idea. Mark Yanning had brought friends this time - a Thrasher piloted by Sybian Silk Silk. As the Thrasher undocked and engaged it was inevitable that the Coercer would be destroyed and unfortunately he didn't take the Catalyst with him
- His second Coercer was undocked to find Sybian Silk Silk still on station but around 30km away. Starwalker could see Mark Yanning in local and so he simply warped off - just as Mark Yanning arrived in a Vexor. Unfortunately, that extra lease of life for the Coercer did not last long as he went in at range to a complex with a Wolf and Slasher. The arty Wolf engaged but was soon trying to escape and he was helped by the Slasher who established a scramble. Poor piloting had allowed the Wolf to escape and the Slasher to get a tackle, Starwalker switched target to the Slasher and inevitably the Wolf came back to help finish the kill and the Coercer soon became another space wreck
- Next a shiny new Enyo was taken into space and foolishly Starwalker decided to engage a Tristan that was setup to kite at the edge of point range. It was soon accompanied by a Kestrel with light missiles. The Enyo eventually succeeded with a slingshot on the Tristan but in the process it burnout its MWD. The scrambled Tristan started to go down but the Enyo had taken too much damage was still taking damage, and soon it was gone
- Not content with having lost four ships in quick succession Starwalker undocked in his Taranis and ran into the same kiting Tristan. Given that he had successfully got the slingshot earlier he thought he would try again, even though he was fit with an afterburner this time. It did not work after multiple attempts. Starwalker was low on armour and so he tried to run, and got to 34km away but the Tristan still had point, it was either very expensively fit by Gluecksbaerchi or linked. In desperation he tried to kill the drones but he was too slow and had waited too long to start on them - the Taranis became his fifth fireball of the night
- The Tormentor would hopefully do better than the Taranis, surely his "luck" was about to change. Sturgeon Rowe in his Tristan was also kiting at the edge of point range and after a couple of attempts to slingshot Starwalker gave up and started to work on the drones. It was then he realised how feeble the DPS was for the Tormentor and whilst it had a great tank its DPS was abysmal. It was far too low for Starwalker's taste and whilst he lamented the lack of firepower the Tormentor finally gave up its structure in disgust at this pilot's poor handling of the ship's merits
- This time would be different, Starwalker undocked in his third Coercer and chased a Talwar around. He eventually caught it in another complex but only because the Talwar wanted to be caught - he had another friend waiting there in an Algos. The Coercer did not last long after the trap was sprung
- Deterred but sure his luck was about to change Starwalker undocked in his final Coercer, in a triumph of stupidity over common sense or probability. The Coercer chased a Republic Fleet Firetail around and he had a sense of deja vu. The sinking feeling was cemented as he entered a complex and was engaged by both the Firetail and a Hawk. The Coercer was scrambled immediately and as soon as the Firetail thought it was in danger it scampered away to safety and let the Hawk finish the job
Starwalker returned to base in an Ibis and docked up. He had lost eight ships in one day, a new record that he would have preferred had not happened. He was disappointed but tomorrow would be another day.
Small blasters - a ferocious weapon system at close range, however, as soon as the range increased their effectiveness dropped dramatically. This meant that blaster fitted ships needed to have the speed to get into close range and to be able to stay there. That was the problem with this Taranis - it could not get into close range.
[Taranis, Dual Propulsion]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
[empty high slot]
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Warrior II x2
This dual propulsion Taranis was originally fit for a themed fleet roam, with the micro-warp-drive to be able to get into range quickly and the afterburner to stay in range. The problem was that Starwalker was solo and he had engaged an Incursus with it just before the roam started. The issue was that he was webbed and held at range and with a speed of less than 400m/s he could not get into close range or outside of scram range.
The Incursus was fit with railguns (150mm) and peppered the Taranis with fire, in return the Taranis could only manage a feeble level of damage at the edge of scram range. It was not long before the light tank of the Taranis succumbed to the firepower of the rails. In fleet, the dual propulsion Taranis was fine as other ships could compensate for its range control weakness and during the roam this Caracal was on the victims.
On returning to base after the roam Starwalker refitted to the holy trinity of propulsion, scram and web, with the afterburner as the preferred method of propulsion, especially in low-sec:
[Taranis, ABSAAR]
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
1MN Afterburner II
Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Warrior II x2
This fit proved more successful in dictating range and this Merlin was kited at around 6km - 7km, being fired on with Null ammunition. It was eventually destroyed with the Taranis losing about 25% of its structure. However, the pilot, Drankha, clearly thought that he could do better next time and returned with a Tormentor.
Laser tracking is not as good as blaster tracking, so this time the Taranis orbited close at 500m using Void ammunition and whilst the Tormentor put up a good fight it too was destroyed. The Taranis was not unscathed, it left on fire after losing nearly 80% of its structure during the fight. It was a good fight and much closer than Starwalker expected.
Starwalker had joined the Rebel fleet leaving from Adirain in a Taranis - as an experiment. He had been thinking about the importance of speed as seen with his Hookbill. The Taranis was a dual propulsion fit so that it could chase down targets with the MWD and maintain range control with the afterburner.
[Taranis, Dual Propulsion]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II
1MN Afterburner II
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Light Neutron Blaster II,Null S
Light Neutron Blaster II,Null S
Light Neutron Blaster II,Null S
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
In short, the Taranis fulfilled the need for speed and during the fleet engagements Starwalker found that switching between MWD and afterburner was easy. The turn of speed was good in getting to the next target and the fleet successfully took down a: Caracal, Caracal and Drake playing games at a station.
The fleet continued on and Broady Dale was apparently suckered into trying to get a canister with 100m ISK at planet 9, instead he lost his Thorax and pod. In New Eden bet on stupid. Finally, the fleet engaged a small gang in a complex and claimed this Bantam and Kestrel and a little later this Hookbill. All in all, a very successful roam, in fact, the second most successful roam with 7 ships for no loss, all he had lost were his drones.
The next day Starwalker undocked his Taranis to head back to base. Along the way he noticed a Hookbill in a complex and he knew that getting into close range combat would be hard against a Hookbill but he decided to try it anyway. The Taranis was met at the warp in and was then pretty much held at 7km for the rest of the fight. Between the web and tracking disruptor the Taranis was doing hardly any worthwhile damage.
Starwalker would have released his drones if he still had them but all he could do was try to get into range by overheating his afternburner but each time he did the Hookbill pulled range again. The Taranis was slowly being whittled away by the incoming rocket damage as the Hookbill dominated the fight with range control.
Starwalker was learning a lesson, speed was key and helped with range control but it was not the only factor that determined who had range control. The dual propulsion Taranis had no counter web and so the relative speed advantage was with the Hookbill. Without range control, damage projection then became key and the Hookbill had tracking disrupted the Taranis blasters. This blunted any damage projection the blasters might have had.
Manual piloting and overheating the afterburner was the last resort and this helped temporarily to get closer and apply some damage but the Hookbill was always able to re-establish the 7km range. The Taranis was effectively helpless and inevitably was destroyed.
Starwalker had learnt a valuable less - speed did not guarantee range control. It helped but then so did a stasis webifier, tracking disruptor, sensor dampener and manual piloting. If Starwalker was unable to establish range control then he needed damage projection to either destroy the target or chase it away.
Starwalker was considering his most recent losses: Merlin and Taranis. The Merlin was a classic case of experimenting and not fully thinking the fit through. Afterall, the Merlin was not a natural active armour tanker and in hindsight it seemed a stupid idea to try it.
Antijan in his Slasher came at Starwalker's Merlin and was kind enough to highlight the ship's shortcomings very quickly:
- Tracking disruptor with the speed script fitted had no obvious impact, perhaps the optimal range script would have been better or even a different module
- Capacitor was bled dry very quickly and everything stopped at that point, in particular the small armour repairer
- Firepower was enough to get the Slasher into armour but not enough to break the tank
Recognising mistakes early was a good thing and Starwalker had been in New Eden long enough to know better, an active armour tank without a capacitor booster or energy vampire was asking for trouble.
The Taranis loss was a classic case of a small gang not being very well coordinated, a bunch of soloists hanging out together. The gang was warping in to the plex at different ranges to catch a Naga. Starwalker warped in to the plex at 20km. There was no Naga but he was warmly welcomed by a Stabber Fleet Issue and two Hurricanes, and they were more than happy to relieve Starwalker of his Taranis within about 5 seconds.
Of course, Starwalker should have taken basic precautions of checking the destination before warping there to avoid such nasty surprises. Again, shortly after landing at the plex he was scrambled and his capacitor was bled dry immediately. Two ships, two losses and in both cases the capacitor had been drained prior to the kill - a ship with no capacitor left was pretty helpless and with blasters it couldn't even fire back.
It was time to get back to more cookie cutter style fits and to stop messing around with experimental fits, especially when no flair was being shown for coming up with something good. Enjoying playing with EFT did not make Starwalker very good at finding impressive new fits.
