Fleet Fit versus Solo Fit

Starwalker spent his time almost exclusively in low security space, recently, that had primarily been around Placid and Metropolis. Similarly, whilst he regularly roamed with the Rebels in a small gang in low-sec he still spent the vast majority of his time solo. Consequently, when he was in a roam he was often using a ship fit that was typically his solo fit for that ship, however, that was not always the case, especially with Patrick Kasper's themed roams.

Patrick had a roam themed around the Caldari Navy Hookbill and a recommended fit, which Starwalker had managed to lose before even getting to the roam rendezvous system. That Hookbill fit was:

[Caldari Navy Hookbill, Rebel Roam]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Beta Reactor Control: Reaction Control I

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction

Rocket Launcher II,Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket

Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

This fleet fit featured two key characteristics that was not normal for his solo fit. First, it was using a micro-warp drive (MWD), which was great in a fleet for chasing down targets or moving quickly from one target to the next during an engagement. Secondly, this particular fit also favoured extra tank by combining the fairly standard medium shield extender with a shield hardener. 

This combination of factors led to a fast frigate fleet that was also able to absorb a little more damage than normal. The number of frigates would provide plenty of tackle and web and the preferred ammunition was Scourge Rage Rockets, which was good against above class ships like a cruiser or battle-cruiser, the target of choice for the roam.

For solo work there was a different set of considerations, in particular speed and range control. Against another frigate fit with an afterburner the MWD Hookbill would lose a lot of ability to control the range. Without range control the Hookbill would have to hope the target stayed in range and similarly it would also give up the ability to extract from the fight.

Given that, Starwalker favoured a build that was based on an afterburner for low-sec space and for the Hookbill he was currently using:

[Caldari Navy Hookbill, Solo]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Ballistic Control System II

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

This fit was slower than an MWD fit but against a frigate within scramble range it had complete range control. The ballistic control was important as it raised the Hookbill's firepower, to help kill a target that little bit faster. Killing targets fast enough was often important when the target had friends in system willing to help or they were part of a gang baiting hunters into a trap.

That was the situation with this Tormentor kill. Starwalker had engaged the Tormentor, establishing a range of around 7km and with dual webs applied was working through the armour whilst it was actively repairing the damage. Then a Merlin and Kestrel landed. The Merlin was only 15km away and had soon burnt in to close range, whilst the Kestrel was about 20km away.

The Tormentor went down and with it the scramble it had was lost. The Merlin had applied a web and tracking disruptor and Starwalker realised that he could extract if neither the Merlin or Kestrel applied a point. Strangely the Kestrel seemed to be moving further away and out of point range although still in light missile range. So he turned his attention to the Merlin at 2km and had soon moved out to around 7km.

The Merlin was active shield tanked and was soon dipping into armour but by now the Hookbill was on fire and still neither the Merlin or Kestrel had applied a point. Starwalker had waited as long as he could for the Merlin's ancillary shield booster to finish but he could wait no longer and the Hookbill aligned out and warped away on fire.

Comparing the two Hookbill fits, the solo fit had complete range control in scramble range and a little extra firepower, which was a trade off compared to the greater speed and tank of the fleet fit. One could not be said to be objectively better than the other, that distinction could only be applied when each ship and fit was in the same situation. As always, the choice of ship and fit came down to what you wanted to fly and expected to fight, as each ship and fit would have advantages in some situations and disadvantages in others.

Mission Failure Through Distraction

The mission was very simple - fit a Caldari Navy Hookbill for the Rebel roam and move it from Covryn to Adirain. The problem was that Starwalker got distracted from the primary objective by a cynosural beacon in Dastryns. He warped in and it was just a Reaper, it was not really worth killing it but that had never stopped him previously and so this Reaper was soon just another wreck in space.

A quick scan revealed a Navitas at a deadspace complex and he was sure that he had killed that capsuleer before. If he remembered rightly, the capsuleer was AFK before and so it proved again as first the Navitas was destroyed and then Hungry Sally's pod.

Given that he was so close to Covyrn Starwalker decided to drop off the corpse, to add to his gruesome collection of bodies. So having returned to base he had effectively gone nowhere but at least he had two kills to show for it. At the undock another Hookbill appeared on scan and soon Starwalker was at the deadspace complex.

The target Hookbill wanted to fight but it seemed to be rather strangely fit as no point was applied and given that he was firing missiles he was far too close to the beacon and warp-in point. With the scramble and web applied immediately the light missile Hookbill was in a straight DPS race and against rockets that was a losing race. The targeted Hookbill soon exploded.

After having dropped off the loot again Starwalker finally set off again to drop the Hookbill in Adirain. He had gotten a few jumps into the trip when he spotted an Incursus at a deadspace complex and it just seemed too tempting to keep going and pass it by. So he warped in to a complete surprise.

He was met at the acceleration gate by two Corax destroyers and a Federation Navy Comet. Starwalker activated the gate to try to escape but he was almost instantly locked and scrambled. It was futile to try and run as he MWD fit but he decided to check if a scramble was applied or a long point by aligning to the sun and hitting his MWD - he was scrambled.

Whilst he thought he would not have time to kill anything he decided to web, scramble and shoot the Comet. The incoming damage was too great for the Hookbill to survive and the only question was whether he could take the Comet with him. Unfortunately a Comet in low armour did not count and the Hookbill succumbed to the three man gang, still firing until the very end.

Mission failure complete. He had been distracted by killing ships along the way and he had now lost the Hookbill. He would have to head back to base and fit up another one and move that one to Adirain instead. At least he had killed a few ships with it before he had lost it.

30 Month Review

The last few months had seen Starwalker able to spend more time in space and that had been reflected in his ascent to a top ranked pilot on Battleclinic. July had also seen a new achievement, the greatest number of kills in one month - 152 and losses - 35. Whilst ultimately his goal was to kill more than be killed he (not so) secretly enjoyed the fact that he had reached Top Ranked status.

He had also started to like the idea that his success ratio was greater than just over one kill for one loss. Battleclinic was reporting two kills for one loss and he wanted to see that trend continue. Whilst he knew that he had improved he also knew that he had lots of room for further improvement and still made plenty of mistakes.

That improvement was visible in a number of ways:

• Better use of heat management with overheated modules, including module fitting placement to minimise heat damage from adjacent modules
• More awareness and use of range during the course of a fight, especially when range control was established
• Better selection of ammunition based on damage type (when selectable) such as rockets in a Kestrel
• Better selection of ammunition based on likely range of fight such as starting a fight with Null ammunition in a Merlin against a Breacher or Caldari Navy Antimatter against an Incursus
• Leaving quickly (when possible) when the odds were heavily stacked against a kill and in favour of a loss such as starting with an apparently solo fight and a gang arriving
• Not engaging target where a kill was highly unlikely such as avoiding an Imperial Navy Slicer or light missile Condor in an afterburner Merlin
• Looking for opportunities to have an advantage in a fight such as engaging kiters at the warp-in point to a complex
• Surviving gate camps more frequently than dying to them

Whilst Starwalker was not a theory crafter he felt that his fitting skills were better than before because he considered how to take advantage of ship characteristics (fitting, bonuses, speed...). Similarly, he looked at Top Ranked pilots and how they had fitted ships such as Miura Bull and Patrick Kasper. Finally, he checked the ship fitting section on Failheap Challenge for ships of interest.

Over the course of the last 30 months Starwalker had summarised his key areas of focus for improvement as ships, combat, skills and base. Today:

1. Ships flown were still predominantly focused on frigate brawlers like the Merlin. However, he did occasionally dabble with larger hulls and had only just lost his first battleship. One way or another he had flown a number of different ships but he still enjoyed the frigate the most. However, he was considering spending more time flying cruisers, although he had not yet decided on which ones
2. Combat - he maintained better situational awareness but still did virtually no manual flying. Whilst he had wanted to improve this area for some time, he still suspected that he would be saying the same thing next year
3. All his core skills were trained to a reasonable level and with over 50 million skill points that was a lot of skills. Starwalker had no particular new ship to train for but was considering focusing on one or two cruisers and one or two frigates to fly almost exclusively over the coming months
4. Covryn had become his main base with virtually all of his equipment and a large number of ships. Adirain and Gultraten were operational bases with a few fitted ships and a jump clone. He had moved Starstepper to Stacmon with the remainder of his ships for easy transport to Covryn

It was strange to think that he had been in New Eden for two and a half years as it didn't seem that long but it was true. He had enjoyed the increased flight time in the last few months but with a recent in change commitments he would not have as much time going forward. Time would tell what that meant in practice.

Strategic Base Moved

Starwalker had a strategic base at Hek, where Starstepper was located. Hek contained all of his ships, modules, equipment and ammunition and Starstepper transported it as needed to Covryn and Gultratren. That transportation requirement had gone up considerably over the last three months because Starwalker had more time in space and had lost more ships:

• July 2013 - 35 ship losses to 152 kills
• June 2013 - 27 ship losses to 76 kills
• May 2013 - 18 ship losses to 73 kills

This compared to a prior average of around 8 ship losses per month and 20 kills. Starwalker had deliberately kept each base of operations at a few fitted ships because the ships he flew and the way they were fitted varied. Consequently, this higher level of activity meant that a lot of Mammoth logistic trips had been done in the last three months - and he wanted to spend less time doing transportation.

The simplest solution was to make Covryn his strategic base with a small selection of additional fitted ships at operational bases at Gultratren and Adirain. Logistically, that decision involved moving more than 3,500,000 cubic metres and twelve billion ISK worth of stuff, well beyond what he would reasonably attempt by himself.

So multiple contracts were setup for Black Frog and Red Frog and everything was moved to Covryn and Stacmon. All the modules, equipment and ammunition went to Covryn along with a small number of T1 and T2 frigates. Many more frigates and some destroyers, cruisers and battlecruisers went to Stacmon.

The Mammoth had a capacity of around 18,000 cubic metres and so it could move any battlecruiser or smaller ships as needed the one jump from Stacmon to Covryn. The irony for Starwalker was that he had just completed the relocation but would have less time in space going forward and so perhaps the move was not really needed at all. If so, he had just wasted around two hundred million ISK.

Pointless Fit for Fun

Starwalker rarely ever flew without a point or scrambler but another Rebel suggested that a Merlin fit with dual webs and a medium ancillary shield booster was a lot of fun. More than that, the intended victim rarely ever noticed that they could simply warp away at any time. So in the interest of flying a pointless fit ship for fun he fitted a Merlin:

[Merlin, AB2WMASB]

Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
1MN Afterburner II
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
Medium Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 50

Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

The original fit suggested was slightly different based on the fact that they had genolution implants and consequently a little more fitting room. In short, Starwalker had replaced the thermal resistance rig for a current router, down graded the webs and used a damage control instead of an overdrive injector.

Starwalker got three kills where the victim stayed and died:

1. This Atron pilot came in close and was simply hammered
2. The Tormentor put up more of a fight by trying to establish some range but it was held close and decimated
3. The Republic Fleet Firetail was a trickier proposition. Artillery fits were common and that would pose a problem. However, Starwalker engaged anyway to see what would happen and this pilot chose to orbit close with an auto-cannon fit. In the straight up brawl that followed the Firetail lost

Emboldened by the success of the last engagement with a Firetail Starwalker engaged the next one too at the warp-in to a plex. This time the Firetail scuttled away despite the two webs being applied and Starwallker knew that it was MWD fit and without the MWD being scrambled there was no way he could get close. Inevitably the Firetail was fit for artillery and it was not long before the brave Merlin was destroyed. 

Whilst Starwalker liked the sheer firepower of this Merlin he also liked to be able to scramble a ship. It was a fun ship but it was a fit that he would put back into his box of tricks for use on the right occasion such as in a gang when someone else had the scramble applied.

Spin in a Megathron

Starwalker liked flying frigates but occasionally he would fly something larger just for the fun of it. He had a Megathron parked in Adirain and decided to move it to Covyrn for no real reason apart from the fact that he could.

As he was travelling he noticed a Harbinger in an asteroid belt. It seemed unlikely that he would catch a ratting battlecruiser as he only had fit a Micro-Jump-Drive (MJD) fitted and no other propulsion module. The MJD was there as an escape mechanism with its ability to jump forward 100km when not scrambled. Inevitably the Harbinger was 30km away from the warp-in point and easily escaped.

As Starwalker landed on the out gate a little Condor arrived too and both ships jumped through. On the other side the Condor locked the Megathron and established a long point at around 20km. There was no chance the Condor could take down the Megathron alone so it must be for a gang. Starwalker shot at it to show interest and of course the large hybrid turrets had a virtually zero chance of inflicting any damage. The Hoboglin IIs were no more successful than the large turrets.

However, after a couple of minutes nothing else showed up and it seemed pointless to be pointed by a Condor without a fight so Starwalker aligned to a celestial and started his MJD. A few seconds later he was 100km away and then warping on to the celestial.

Not far from Covryn Starwalker jumped into a cruiser gang and his heart sank. There were about a dozen cruisers and faction cruisers of all different varieties, ranging from 10km to 30km away. He held cloak to see if they were simply moving through but they waited. It seemed that he would die as this was a gate camp but he selected the out gate to be able to align and MJD when he had killed the close tackle. He decloaked.

The Megathron slowly aligned and the gate camp seemed confused as to whether to engage or not. Precious seconds went by and then one cruiser started to target but before the lock resolved the Megathron had warped. Starwalker was surprised and pleased to have "survived" but also ambivalent about going back to take on so many cruisers, in short, he did not know what the Megathron was capable of yet.

So, discretion being the better part of valour Starwalker continued his journey and docked up. No doubt he would lose the Megathron at some point but he did not intend to throw it away by trying to take on too many ships.

Stop Loss

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:

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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
8. 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.

100 Kills and Top Ranked

Yesterday, Starwalker had passed a personal milestone of more than 100 kills in a month. On Monday, he had hit 90 kills when he had joined Patrick Kasper's themed "Firetail" roam, with a shield extender and MWD fit. The fleet had spotted another fleet of destroyers and assault frigates in a complex and whilst outgunned that was no reason to not engage.

The fleet warped in and the 2 Coercers, 2 Hawks and 3 Harpies were clustered around the warp-in point. The immediate action was to burn off to get some range and then regroup, from there the fleet flew up to get above the targets and to decide on the priorities: Coercers, Hawks and then Harpies. The rationale was simple: Coercer damage was extremely high and Hawks were easier to kill than Harpies.

The fleet, then swarmed in from above with the full knowledge that it was unlikely if anyone in their Republic Fleet Firetail would survive. The carnage began:

1. Hereric Miz's Coercer had the dubious pleasure of being first and it soon exploded
2. Patrick had called the next target but it was obvious that Khaos Hakomairos's as the remaining Coercer would be the next to die
3. As the second Coercer went down Patrick had already called for the next target: Tujiko Noriko's Hawk and it too succumbed to the R1DER fleet. But the R1DER fleet was also getting smaller as the opposing fleet had gone to work on their targets too
4. Patrick called the last Hawk as primary and to get out if possible. Tristan daCuhna found himself shipless and Starwalker warped away

Starwalker had been lucky, 9 R1DERS had entered and only he had left with his ship still intact - it had not even taken any fire. He had gotten lucky with the order of the opposing fleet's targeting, the timing of the destruction of the last Hawk and the fact that they had not spread points at the end.

Starwalker's luck continued last night as he headed back to Adirain in the same Firetail:

• Crispy Orlenard in his Incursus had engaged hoping for the best but he exploded and was too slow escaping with his pod
• Zenith Askold in his Firetail had the right fit to win the fight but had used the wrong tactics. He stayed in close when he could have used his range control and tracking disruptor to establish his superiority. Given that he stayed in close he was destroyed
• Hasim Abdul in his Merlin was looking for a fight and the Firetail struggled in the brawl to overcome his shield tank. Finally, with his Firetail in deep armour the Merlin erupted into flames. But it wasn't over as a Condor and Tristan landed and before Starwalker could escape he was scrambled. Given no choice he opened fire on the Tristan on the basis that it was closer and represented the greater danger. The Tristan proved to be very weak and exploded quickly
• What had started as a gank was now a 1v1 and Noxam Sherei decided he no longer liked the odds and ran away in his Condor. But Starwalker had the last laugh as a few minutes later the Condor was caught and destroyed, with Starwalker on the killmail
• Starwalker did not want to out stay his welcome in Flosewin and decided to move on, especially as it was getting too busy with destroyers and assault frigates. In Aset Elmi Aihaken led him on a merry chase around the system and he wondered if he was being setup for a trap. Elmi decided to fight and Starwalker took some time getting through his shields whilst scanning local but the Tristan was destroyed - no one had come to his aid. Perhaps he had just wanted a little foreplay before getting down to business
• Johannes DeRupescissa in his Slasher was doing well in the fight but when his shield buffer finally gave way he was decimated
• Starwalker had no idea what Caladri Joans was doing in a complex in a Magnate and was surprised when it engaged. The Firetail's MWD came in very handy to catch it though and once caught the Magnate duly crumpled into wreckage

In the space of 30 minutes Starwalker had had 7 engagements and killed them all - most unusual and most productive. Those 7 kills had also contributed to his personal record of over 100 kills in a month. That record had been helped by recently having more time in space and he doubted if he would be so lucky in future.

Very satisfied with the events of the night Starwalker docked up in Adirain and awoke the next morning to find that he was Top Ranked in Battleclinic. Being Top Ranked might be only temporary but he would enjoy the moment whilst it lasted.

Key Timers and Aggression

Starwalker had been enjoying the benefits of a higher security status than -5. In particular, this meant that he could wander around low-security star gates with minimal risk of being engaged, unless the aggressor was willing to tank the sentry gate guns. Very few aggressors did this as it was easier to simply wait for the next outlaw (flashy-red) pilot.

The trouble was that Starwalker enjoyed the kill and consequently his security status was back down to -5.4. It was only two weeks ago that it was -0.5. The good news was that pilots would be able to engage again without fear of repercussion from sentry guns at stations or star gates.

This very mechanic had tempted a Catalyst pilot when Starwalker (deliberately) undocked in his Coercer and slow boated towards it. Whilst Starwalker had wanted to tempt the Catalyst he had moved a little too close and the Catalyst had nearly succeeded in destroying his Coercer before it erupted into a fireball.

The bad news was that he would be very vulnerable to gate camps. Whilst his record over time of surviving a gate camp had improved considerably, he still lost ships. He had not yet taken out some of his shinier ships but the time would come. He would need to steel himself for the inevitable (and disappointing) loss of a shiny ship to a gate camp.

Whilst Starwalker contemplated these mechanics he decided to create a simple reminder of key timers for his life in low-sec space...

• Session Change Timer (SCT) lasted for 10 seconds and applied in many situations, in particular
• Jumping through a stargate, so could not jump back during SCT
• Undocking, so could not redock during SCT
• Joining fleet, so could not start another SCT like jumping whilst the SCT was active
• Undock Invulnerability lasted for 30 seconds if no module was activated, movement initiated or target locked
• Station campers could be avoided by stopping the ship and simply waiting for the SCT to complete to redock
• Gate cloak lasted for 60 seconds after jumping through a stargate and the ship was invulnerable whilst the gate cloak was active
• Weapons Timer (WT) lasted for 60 seconds after shooting (or using drones) or using any offensive module (scramble, web...) on another pilot. WT prevented jumping out of system or docking
• Suspect Timer (ST) lasted for 15 minutes and allowed anyone to attack a suspect, including podding, without repercussion from Concord. ST was acquired by attacking another pilot, stealing from them or having a kill right activated
• Kill Right was obtained by target pilot when they were attacked illegally i.e. attacker obtained a ST
• Criminal Timer (CT) lasted for 15 minutes and was acquired by attacking a pilot's pod or assisting someone with a CT. If a CT was active in hi-sec space it prevented the pilot from warping or jumping and Concord destroyed the ship
• Limited Engagement (LE) between pilots lasted for 5 minutes and was created by any pilot freely being able to attack another pilot with an active ST or CT, or the pilot was an Outlaw (-5 security status or lower). Once the LE was active both pilots could freely engage each other

Taranis and Managing Range

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.