Randomness of Engagements

Starwalker had been flying around New Eden in primarily frigates for nearly two years, he had joined the Black Rebel Rifter Club (R1FTA) in June 2011 and had never looked back. He still enjoyed the Rebel lifestyle and part of that was the randomness of engagements, in short, every time he undocked he had no idea what would happen.

He undocked in a Merlin and headed out towards Metropolis and soon found a system with a number of frigates in it, so he warped to the sun and proceeded to scan down their locations. It was not long before he was joined at the sun by a Republic Fleet Firetail and Starwalker lost no time in engaging it. The Firetail soon started to suffer serious damage from the neutron blasters but seemed to be doing very little damage return.

Starwalker suspected that he was being tackled by a fleet scout and hoped that he would have enough time to kill the Firetail before they arrived. He noticed a number of frigates arriving just as the Firetail was destroyed. Starwalker had no time to loot and immediately left the scene of the crime before another point could be applied. Freedom! Looking at the Firetail's dual propulsion, tackling fit he had appeared to have had some luck as it had arrived at zero and been caught immediately. If it had arrived at range it would have been a different story.

A little while later he was not so lucky, he had hoped to catch a Kestrel warping to the acceleration gate but he could not destroy it before the rest of the gang arrived and his Merlin was gone. It had been a good ship and Starwalker felt the urge for a little revenge and so he undocked a Caracal that was fit to destroy frigates with its rapid missile launchers and light missiles. Unfortunately they decided not to engage.

A Wolf and Executioner that did decide to engage had such a speed advantage that they could and did disengage as soon as it was clear that they were more likely to be destroyed than the Caracal. The Caracal had great damage projection but without any way to point the target and hold it the target could disengage at will. Eventually Starwalker returned to base with his Caracal still intact.

Over a number of months now it seemed to Starwalker that he was meeting many more faster ships, and the brawlers that he met tended to wait at a complex acceleration gate or warp-in location to catch kiters. Or may be that was just an artefact of many low-sec dwellers roaming faction warfare space looking for a fight. Something to think about.

Whilst Starwalker liked the sheer brute force of neutron blasters he also knew that without range control that damage could not be applied effectively. Without range control, damage projection took on vital importance. It would be interesting to think about and experiment with some ship fits and consider the relative importance of range control, damage projection, tank, speed and capacitor in relation to targets.

First R1FTA Kill

Starwalker moved out again in his Rifter looking around Luse for a fight with the war targets from Xenophabai, however, as before there was no one out and about. The only war target that was even in one of the local systems was safely docked up with no intention of getting into any danger. After wandering around aimlessly a little more some Rebels in Siseide (Heimatar) noted there was some action going down.

First R1FTA Kill

A few other Rebels also decided to get in on the action and very quickly there were five in a small fleet. One rebel acted as bait as the others waited on the other side of a gate but the first few engagements amounted to nothing as people eyed the bait and moved on. Miura Bull found a Moa (cruiser) and an Atron (frigate class ship) - in a nearby asteroid belt and quickly engaged and pointed them. Within seconds the rebels had surrounded the Moa and Atron and it was all over for the pilots: Abernancke. (http://r1fta.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9954762) and GBURed Adoubel (http://r1fta.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9954758).

First Capsule Kill

Whilst Starwalker was too late to get in on the Atron kill the Moa kill was sweet, the first R1FTA kill. For whatever reason the Atron pilot: GBURed Adoubel was slow to warp out and Starwalker took the opportunity to point the capsule and get his first capsule kill too. (http://r1fta.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9954783).

Really sweet.

War Declaration RvB Blue Corporation

The war declaration was effective and after roaming around for a while it was clear that RvB Blue Corporation was ready for action and formed up into larger gangs. Outnumbered the Rebels got split up evacuating the area and Starwalker was alone in a system with around 20 other reds, it was not looking good. Fortunately, another Rebel scouted out a safe route back to Bille and on return Starwalker found there was a RvB Thrasher sneaking around.

First Engagement

Without thought for the consequences Starwalker immediately engaged but it seemed that the 280mm Howitzer Artillery II fit Thrasher had been designed to counter close combat Rifters. It was all over within seconds. Starwalker started to give chase with afterburners blazing away and then the Thrasher turned around at about 20km and sped back past the Rifter, firing all the time. As the Thrasher came closer the autocannons burst into life and tracked the Thrasher as it quickly gained distance again. The autocannons were simply ineffective against the Thrasher given the range... and then it was all over. It seemed like a wrecking shot just simply took the Rifter out; one moment the shields were at around 20% damage and then Starwalker was in his pod. The surprise was so complete that Starwalker waited for the Thrasher pilot: xTulak Hordx to kill the pod too. (http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9896212)

Second Engagement

The medical clone was back in Inaro and so the trek back to Bille began but just before getting there Starwalker had the second encounter in Bereye. Just at the stargate a Merlin was spotted and was immediately engaged – to no effect. The e-war was completely effective and the Rifter was simply unable to target the Merlin but the Merlin pilot: Deckren Reading could certainly hit the Rifter. The fight continued with the Rifter sustaining some damage but nothing very threatening. Then the stargate flashed and a Thrasher entered the fight, piloted by – xTulak Hordx. This was clearly not going to end well and Starwalker started to make a run for it but it was too late. The second Rifter went up in a fireball (http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9896209). This time Starwalker tried to get his pod out and despite spamming warp was caught in what seemed to be a lag filled time period, consequently the second clone was lost as well.

Lessons learnt

Ship losses are inevitable in EVE and the first rule of EVE is very true: do not fly what you cannot afford to lose. These Rifters were expendable, however, no one wants to throw ships away and so it is useful to record any lessons whilst they are fresh:

·         Target selection: engaging the Thrasher alone was not sensible as given the war declaration it was very likely to be fit for PvP. More than that it was likely to be using an anti-Rifter fit just because it was engaging a Rebel from the Black Rebel Rifter Club

·         Ammunition: carrying too much ammunition given that the fights were short, although ammunition loads can be a tricky thing if the fight goes on or there are multiple engagements before being able to reload from a base station

·         Disruptor: did not use the warp disruptor because too busy firing guns and tracking the enemy. Need to focus on using the ship effectively

Black Rebel Rifter Club

The search for a potential corporation started and finished quickly. Finding a player corporation to join can be done either in game or via the EVE Online forum (recruitment channel) but Starwalker found his new corporation through following a blog. Some favourites include:

·         Brutor Bullfighter: (http://brutorbullfighter.blogspot.com/)

·         Flight of dragons: (http://flight-of-dragons.blogspot.com/)

·         Rifter Drifter: (http://www.rifterdrifter.com/)

·         The Altruist: (http://altruist.azual.co.uk/)

The author of Brutor Bullfighter: Miura Bull noted that he was restarting the Black Rebel Rifter Club (R1FTA) so on 05Jun11 – Starwalker joined. The reason for joining R1FTA was simple – it was focused on solo and small gang PvP. In addition, it also welcomed new players as opposed to requiring a killboard or 10+ million skill points.

The master plan now is to:

1.    Finish training for the Rifter, including Autocannon II

2.    Earn some more ISK whilst training to create an ISK cushion for the inevitable ship losses

3.    Identify a location for base of PvP solo operations

However, the plan was interrupted by R1FTA declaring war on RvB Blue Corporation in Everyshore. With the war about to start Starwalker began to investigate Rifter fits for his skill level. It was fun to investigate various different Rifter builds in EFT (EVE Fitting Tool) and then making a selection for the campaign, as shown below. This was followed by spending lots of ISK in Jita to fit out up to five Rifters:

This shield tanked Rifter has sacrificed a stasis webifier to fit a medium shield extender. The light scout autocannons are necessary as Starwalker does not have the skills for Autocannon II. Simiarly, with the fitting skills, a small ancillary current router is also necessary. Despite what EFT states the price for each Rifter is around six million ISK, with another couple of million or so spent on faction ammunition.

Now, it’s time to head to Everyshore.