Kestrel has Bad Luck then Good Luck

It was an unusual engagement with bad luck followed by some good luck. Starwalker had debated internally whether to go and fight an Incursus and Federation Navy Comet in a faction complex with his Kestrel. He guessed that if they were fighting the Comet would win and he would have a good chance against it, if it had already taken damage, however, if they were not fighting it would be over for the Kestrel very quickly.

He decided to go in as nothing ventured nothing gained and it was an entirely disposable T1 frigate. The problem was that as he entered warp he got disconnected. If those two frigates were at the acceleration gate then he was toast, assuming the warp completed, if it hadn't completed then presumably he had warped to some random location.

Starwalker quickly logged back in assuming that he had warped to a random location but he was on the acceleration gate being fired on... by an Executioner around 7km away. Some bad luck, and he guessed that it was unlikely he would survive as he was already in deep armour and a few more volleys and the Kestrel would be destroyed.

Fortunately he was using a medium ancillary shield booster rather than an extender so he still had around 27 seconds where he could mitigate the incoming damage and try to destroy the Executioner. He locked up the Executioner, started his booster just as the Kestrel entered structure and returned fire.

Fortunately he had selected Nova faction rockets and they would also be good for the Executioner. He overheated and set a close orbit, lasers had comparatively poor tracking so he was better off orbiting at 500m rather than the usual 7km. The shield booster was keeping up with the incoming damage and very soon the Executioner was in armour.

Suddenly it seemed to just melt through its armour and into structure and Starwalker initially assumed it was gank fit with no tank. The Executioner exploded just as the last booster charges were used up. The pilot, matt dillinger, clearly thought he had lost the kill and noted that he had inadvertently moved his small armour repairer rather than started it.

So perhaps some good luck for Starwalker but he also wondered whether that repairer would have made any difference to the outcome, as his experience was that a small armour repairer on its own only slowed the incoming damage it did not stop the march into structure. It would have been a close finish if it had started but Starwalker suspected the outcome would have been the same.

MWD Scram and Web

Starwalker had been considering a micro-warp-drive (MWD), scram and web combination since the TESF roam to address the pesky kiters. He had a Merlin that was fit with those modules along with a medium shield extender and he had also fitted a Hawk with those modules along with two ancillary shield boosters.

[Hawk, RLMWD2ASBW]

Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II
Medium Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 50
Medium Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 50

Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
[empty high slot]

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

The rocket damage was not spectacular (~178) but the active shield tank (~369) was pretty good for ~20 seconds with both boosters going or ~40 seconds if staggered. Starwalker wasn't really sure if the fit was very good against afterburner T2 frigates but he would give it a try. The general intent was to be able to tank the damage from brawlers or kiters within scram range. Kiters within point range would likely be caught by the speed of 2.6km/s or it would be much easier to slingshot something fast.

Placid seemed to have a number of targets in space and Starwalker found:

• An Executioner that was waiting for a target to enter the complex but Starwalker made short work of the Amarr frigate. He had thought initially that the Executioner would be MWD fit but the killmail revealed an afterburner fit. That was a surprise as the pilot, LokFonRey, in theory could have tried to dictate range but he did not even seem to try
• A Magnate with four warp core stabilisiers but the pilot, Welfare Queeen, must have been away as her ship was destroyed
• A Tristan who was also looking for a fight at the complex but Starwalker ignored the Hobgoblin II drones and simply destroyed the Tristan. But he had no time to scoop the loot as he found himself chased by three frigates and a destroyer

He decided to leave the system and as he did so the Thrasher, piloted by VileDK, jumped out with him. Starwalker was immediately locked and pointed and was fired on from 20km away. If Starwalker knew what was going to happen next he would have reacted differently. As it was he fancied his chances of destroying the Thrasher and so he approached and set his propulsion going, except he had taken two hits already and he had not started his active shield tank yet. The third shot popped Starwalker's Hawk.

Starwalker had forgotten that the MWD had a signature bloom effect and he had also approached reducing his traversal to zero. Worse, the destruction of his ship had been such a surprise that he hadn't even started his shield boosters. He would need to remember that expensive lesson - his active tank was really good but his buffer tank was minimal.

Undeterred by the loss Starwalker returned to base and undocked a second Hawk and found a Navitas at a complex, which he destroyed along with the pod and collected his corpse. A while later, Starwalker returned and found the same pilot in another Navitas - so he destroyed that too and claimed his second pod and corpse.However, he didn't have it all his own way as his dual propulsion Taranis was lost within a few minutes of undocking to this Dramiel that was waiting to pounce at a complex.

Cyno Up Ship Down

Starwalker was roaming around when he noticed a cynosural field beacon appear on his overview. It was 18.2 AU away and so out of scan range but Starwalker decided to investigate in his Merlin anyway. If warping in and away again immediately it was usually quite safe.

To create the cynosural field requires the ship to be stationary and so guarantees that it will not runaway if disturbed. If it is alone and disturbed it usually relies on station guns to provide a defence. They take a few seconds to start firing and so disappearing quickly usually results in little damage. Starwalker arrived at the scene to see an Executioner, piloted by BlackNecro, and a station and he warped away again.

It was a tricky decision, the tank on the Merlin was pretty good but the guns would destroy it quite quickly if it stayed in the vicinity for too long. Of course, the temptation was too strong and Starwalker decided to risk it and warped in again with guns overheated. Locking up the Executioner and firing it was not long before the station guns opened up and the first volley removed half of the Merlin's shield.

Starwalker aligned out, the executioner disintegrated into a ball of fire and he warped away as the second volley took him into armour. Cool. Starwalker waited out his GCC and moved on and as chance would have it BlackNecro appeared again in local and another cyno went up. Starwalker warped in again with a certain deja vu but it was a little different this time.

There was what seemed like a mobile gun tower - had BlackNecro come for revenge? Starwalker decided that there was no point in hanging around and locked up the second Executioner and started to fire as the mobile tower also opened up. The Executioner was going down but Starwalker's Merlin was taking a lot of damage and it was getting too close to call.

Starwalker aligned out on the basis that he needed to warp immediately but he waited as he also wanted to see the executioner go down. It was too close, Starwalker could wait no longer and he hit warp as the next volley took him deep into structure. However, as he left the blasters got off a final shot and the Executioner exploded. He had survived yet again and this time it was even cooler as BlackNecro had tried to set a trap but it had failed miserably.

It was perhaps this exuberance that led Starwalker to see if he could spiral in on a Talos from around 30km out. He knew that the tier 3 battlecruiser would be fit for range, would have good alpha and had a tracking bonus. But whilst his Merlin's speed was low so was his signature and surely that would help. It didn't, it was too ambitious and the Merlin crumbled very quickly. Well, Starwalker would know better next time and there was bound to be a next time.