Flight of the Heron

Starwalker had claimed to want to experiment a little with range control and damage projection. This Heron fitting was intended to take advantage of the five mid-slots to establish range control, primarily with the double web:

[Heron, StarWalker Shikkoken's Heron]

200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II
1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
DDO Photometry Tracking Disruptor I,Optimal Range Disruption Script

280mm Howitzer Artillery II,Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
Rocket Launcher II,Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Inferno Rage Rocket

Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I

Hobgoblin II x4
Warrior II x3

It might have worked against a brawler or scram-kiter but when he scanned a Condor to a complex it was a throw of the dice as to whether it was rocket or light missile fit. He warped into the complex and it was 35km away, not a good sign. Starwalker started to burn towards it thinking it was a mistake and then that sinking sensation was confirmed as he briefly got a lock and then was damped to ~17km and lost the lock.

From there it was all downhill as the light missile damage came in and none went out. Starwalker made a desperate run for it and actually got out of overheated point range and heard his warp drive engage - just as the Heron exploded to the last missile salvo to reach its target. The first flight of the Heron had been unsuccessful but that was more an issue of target selection rather than ship capability.

Since he had only one Heron, now deceased, Starwalker undocked in his Caracal and got some surprising kills. This cyno-ship and this cyno-ship were just unlucky as Starwalker usually went out of his way to kill a cyno-ship even if they were noob-ships. This Slasher should never have been caught and was playing with fire by getting too close to the Caracal, perhaps it was bait for the Maller and Moa that came into the complex but Starwalker did not hang around to find out.

Another surprising kill was this Merlin in a medium complex that seemed to want to take on a cruiser. It stood no chance and the pilot, sidetracker, then broadcast that a Caracal was in the medium complex, presumably in the hope that someone would come and kill it. Nothing happened and so instead Starwalker collected the loot and moved on.

Much more satisfying was this Hawk and its buddy, another Hawk, that tried to kill Starwalker's Caracal whilst at the sun. Given that this 2 v 1 was two assault frigates versus an attack cruiser it didn't count in Starwalker's mind as a fight against the odds. Similarly, this Thrasher was no real fight as it was ratting and was basically ganked. 

Starwalker scanned four frigates at a medium complex and that presented a real fight.
He entered the complex hoping to kill one or more of the Enyo, Condor, Slasher and Malediction that were there. Starwalker was not sure if he would win against these odds but they scattered, except for the Enyo. After a brief fight the Enyo decided that it was time to go and he was bugging out in structure when Starwalker repeated the same mistake as previously of burning out his missile launchers.

Realising that it was over Starwalker tried to escape before the Enyo noticed that the missile barrage had stopped but the long align time allowed the Enyo to get the scramble again. Now it really was over and some of the Enyo's friends came back to get in on the kill.

Starwalker would have to stop overheating his missile launcher at the start of the fight. That worked fine for frigate engagements but he had burnt out his launchers twice in a cruiser - despite trying to stop the overheat. Hopefully this would not be a mistake he would repeat again soon, or better - ever.