Started as 1v1

Starwalker had recently lost some ships after what had started as a 1v1 but had ended with 1v2 or more. It was both frustrating and normal, it was the nature of the beast in New Eden:

• This Hawk had fallen victim to the combined forces of a Daredevil and Cambion
• This Hawk had fallen victim to the combined forces of a Federation Navy Comet, Incursus and Stabber Fleet Issue
• This Daredevil had fallen victim to the combined forces of an Enyo and Astero. The shame of this fight had been that Starwalker had switched to Null to fight the Enyo at range but when the Astero arrived he switched target but was so close that Null was the wrong choice. The Daredevil exploded just as the Astero was entering structure, with Caldari Navy Antimatter it would have been destroyed

These recent experiences had led Starwalker to question some fits that favoured tank as when being ganked the tank was not really the deciding factor. In those situations, what Starwalker wanted was to be able to kill at least one of the attacking gang before he went down. That required something like a Daredevil or Enyo or even a Merlin for a T1 frigate, something that could put out a tremendous amount of firepower quickly.

It was with that thought in mind that Starwalker had ventured into Syndicate with a Daredevil and when he ran into a Sabre. He knew that a Sabre was rarely alone but he decided to gank it fast. It worked, as the Sabre went into deep armour and then was destroyed before the de-cloaking Falcon got a lock.

Starwalker had reviewed his losses over the previous few months and had noticed that 80% of those losses were in situations where he had lost his ship to two or more attackers. Perhaps he had spent too long in Placid and it was time to contemplate a move to a different region. The problem with that idea was that his main base was at Covryn and it would be painful to move it, even so, something to think about.

Two Ships Two Gate Camps

Sometimes Starwalker regretted being in space, especially when suffering losses from gate camps. If the gate campers knew what they were doing, were fitted appropriately with fast lock and high alpha, it was almost impossible to survive.

Starwalker waited, hoping to escape, and then decided to crash the gate immediately both times but it didn't work:

1. This Daredevil in Black Rise didn't stand a chance. The Daredevil did have one claim to fame before it was destroyed - it caught this pod, without a scrambler. At 2.75 billion ISK that was an expensive pod loss for Maelgar
2. This Hawk ran into a smaller camp in Metropolis but did not fare any better and even the pod was caught. The third ship (Legion) in the camp was too slow and didn't get onto the killmail, clearly it was not sensor boosted

Emerging from the clone vat in Covryn, Starwalker upgraded his clone and plugged in a new set of implants. He decided not to undock again as he was feeling a little jaded, perhaps it was time for a holiday.

Black Rebel Hawk Down

Starwalker liked the Hawk, it was a capable ship with an excellent tank and adequate DPS. Rockets were not a high damage system but had the advantage of a consistent level of damage over the entire range, unaffected by traversal velocity or tracking disruptors.

[Hawk, AB2MASB]

Damage Control II
Co-Processor II

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

200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I

The Hawk's tank was provided by the dual medium shield ancillary shield boosters and they allowed it to take on more than one ship at a time. Sometimes taking on a one versus many was a decision taken before the fight started such as warping in to a small gang. At other times a one versus one became a one versus many.

Starwalker was inside a small complex around 70km from the warp-in when a Federation Navy Comet and Tristan entered. He aligned away and started to burn away, he did not want to appear too aggressive. The Tristan was clearly using a MWD and quickly closed to kiting point range of around 23km and launched a wave of drones. The Tristan was outside of Javelin range so Starwalker started to destroy the drones.

After having destroyed a good number of them the Comet arrived and ventured in close for the kill. Once in scramble range the Comet found itself the target of the Hawk's rockets and being orbited but it was not relying on just a Tristan to help as a Merlin and Imperial Navy Slicer also arrived in the complex to get a kill.

The Tristan strangely decided to leave, perhaps it decided that it wanted to get more drones, in any case the fight was now against the Comet, Slicer and Merlin. The Merlin came in to point blank and joined the Comet in applying the hurt but the Comet was nearly done and it soon exploded.

The Merlin decided to beat retreat and extracted itself from scramble range with no shield left and the Slicer was pushed out by the Javelins. They both decided to retreat but Starwalker was now after them. He knew the Slicer could run at any time but he might get the Merlin.

The only slight problem was that the Hawk was on fire so it would need careful management. The Hawk went in and the Merlin was soon in deep trouble and then another wreck but Starwalker had misjudged the level of damage coming in and the Slicer claimed the Hawk. It had been a good fight.

Bait? Coming in Hot

Starwalker spent the majority of his time solo in space, except for the weekly Rebel roam TESF (Target Everyone, Somebody Fire). This was just his style and when roaming he was looking for primarily one versus fights and sometimes would take on a small gang if in something better than a T1 frigate.

More recently he had been running into small gangs, although they may have started as a one versus one:

• This Kestrel was originally taking on a Tristan, that seemed to be doing very little damage but was tanking very well. The arrival of the two destroyers, interceptor, electronic attack ship and Maulus tipped the scales in their favour
• This Hawk had gone in to attack a Dragoon on the basis that they were usually fit with energy neutralisers and reliant on drones to get the kill. A Hawk with its rockets and medium ancillary shield boosters should be able to destroy the Dragoon, as long as it could maintain the scramble. The rest of the gang (Ishkur, Federation Navy Comet and Atron) arrived and it was not going to end well but Starwalker was determined to get the kill and he (satisfyingly) took the Dragoon down with him before the Hawk succumbed
• This Vengeance started the fight against another Vengeance with the intent to see who would win a straight up fight. Unfortunately, the rest of Alpha Volley Union came in to finish what their Vengeance comrade could not do on his own. Starwalker did try to switch targets to the more vulnerable T1 frigates but they cunningly came in close and went back out of range again such that anyone that looked in danger of destruction would escape. The end was inevitable with that type of coordination
• This Kestrel was fit with a 10MN afterburner and had escaped from an attempted gank at the sun but an Executioner at a complex had maintained a point long enough for the rest of the gang to establish their points and webs. The Executioner had to make the ultimate sacrifice to do it though and that was another very satisfying kill
• This Hawk was lost to a small three man Repo gang. The Enyo acted as bait and Starwalker went in rockets blazing. The arrival of the Thrasher and Incursus was enough to tip the balance and they soon had the Black Rebel Hawk down
• This Hawk also started the fight against a lone Vengeance but another small Alpha Volley Union gang came in to join the party. This Stiletto should never have been caught but it came in too close and Starwalker immediately switched targets. Once scrambled the Stiletto was doomed. The Tristan should never have died but it seemed to have a death wish as it came in and retreated and then came in again. Each time it would come close it would lose a little more of its defence until it came in one time too many and the Tristan was destroyed. These kills were despite the best efforts of their Kitsune that periodically jammed the Hawk with its annoying ECM

Starwalker considered whether he should simply pass on by when more than one pilot from Alpha Volley Union, Turalyon Plus or Repo were in system but then he would never know if it was bait or not. On balance, he would rather go in and try to get the kill and if a gang came in then taking one with him would be very satisfying. He was not concerned that a fight that started as a duel became one versus many, that was in the nature of New Eden.

Hookbill and Hawk Meet Their Maker

Starwalker had been enjoying the success of his Caldari Navy Hookbill in his recent engagements. It was bound to end at some point and it was with a little bit of over-confidence that he engaged an Algos at the sun. He had expected to simply burn through the Algos tank before the drones could break his shield. That was not the case and his fine Hookbill became a heap of space junk. For the next Algos fight Starwalker rectified that mistake and went for the drones first but in killing the drones he lost the scramble. So Nathan Irythia escaped with his ship but not his drones.

Starwalker undocked at the helm of a nice Hawk, which was a bit slow in comparison to the Hookbill but it was still a good ship. He spied a Federation Navy Comet at a complex and warped in. The fight started as expected, the Comet was being murdered by the Hawk but then an Incursus arrived and the Comet started to pull range. The Incursus fired on the Hawk. Starwalker suspected that they were cooperating and then noticed that they were both part of the B O R G. The Comet left the fight in deep armour and the Hawk started firing at the Incursus instead but it was easily tanking the damage.

The Comet came back along with a Dramiel and the fight had just turned decisively against Starwalker. He realised too late that tactically he should have moved from the warp-in point as he had made their job much easier. With three frigates in close proximity pounding on the Hawk it was not long before it too became an inert lump of metal and joined its maker.

Back at base Starwalker undocked in another Hookbill and took to the space lanes again. An Atron in a small complex was looking for a fight and surprisingly had the idea of taking on the Hookbill. He started 40km away but edged his way closer feeling out the range. At first Starwalker suspected a kiting fit because he deliberately stayed out of scramble range but then he seemed to change his mind and moved into an orbit of around 8km

This was an opportunity too good to miss and the Atron soon regretted coming in so close as the rockets tore through its structure. Starwalker moved on and spied a Rifter and Tristan together in a medium complex. He decided to engage and as he warped to the gate the two T1 frigates were waiting together for the fight.

Starwalker obliged and went for the Rifter as the closest ship and before long the Rifter was in armour and trying to disengage - it was soon out of scramble range and carried on to go about 30km away. The incoming damage was low and so Starwalker turned his attention to fight the Tristan and before long it too was in deep armour. For some unknown reason the Rifter decided to come back and help his fleet mate but as he got to within 10km the Tristan exploded. The Rifter turned around to run away but Starwalker overheated his web and afterburner and the Rifter died in an explosion shortly after the Tristan.

Starwalker had engaged in a 1 v 2 fight and won, he was very happy with the result even though it was not really a tough fight.

Return Journey from Rebel Roam

Starwalker had lost his Merlin during the Rebel roam and Johann West had kindly provided a blaster Incursus as a replacement. It was a good ship and the resistance, armour repairer based fit seemed perfectly reasonable. The only change that he would have made was to sport a Hobgoblin II instead of the Hobgoblin I. The Hobgoblin I choice was probably due to lack of drone skills and Starwalker remembered that these were some of the skills that he had trained later rather than earlier.

As he headed back to base he spied a Republic Fleet Firetail in a small complex and warped in. The Firetail was around 40km away and as Starwalker's afterburner fit Incursus burnt towards it the Firetail easily evaded capture with its MWD. Its artillery rained fire on the Incursus as the range oscillated between 15km and 24km. After multiple attempts to slingshot the Firetail into scramble range Starwalker gave up and looked for an opportunity to escape point.

A short while later he managed to escape and warped to the sun with Kaiirii in hot pursuit and also complaining in local that Starwalker was running from a fight. Starwalker evaded him again at the sun and docked up to repair the heat damage. Kaiirii followed up his initial complaint with an accusation of cowardice and Starwalker followed his standard practice... and ignored it.

What Starwalker took from the engagement was that he was not able to manually pilot an afterburner fit brawling frigate into scram range against a MWD fit kiting frigate. It was not just this fight but many engagements where he had not been able to achieve that. Perhaps it was weak manual piloting skills or perhaps it was not possible if the target paid attention to slingshot manoeuvres and took evasive action. In any case, Starwalker needed to rethink his approach to catching fast ships and what he would fly.

However, that would have to wait as he spotted a Heron in another complex and warped in. It was waiting for the fight and immediately locked up the Incursus and started to apply damage. Starwalker engaged, setting a close orbit and overheating the blasters. The Heron was tanking really well with what was clearly an ancillary shield booster but that would only last for twenty or so seconds.

The Heron piled on the hurt as it dropped its drones into the fight as well. The Heron was applying its damage against the Incursus armour and the small armour repairer was overheated to keep up with the incoming damage. It was a losing race. The range started to increase again to 4km as the Heron tried to mitigate incoming damage, even though it was tracking disrupting the Incursus.

The Incursus was in structure and the capacitor was dropping fast but the Heron was also in armour and had started to only pulse its shield booster. The afterburner was nearly burnt out but Starwalker had to close that distance and so he set the overheat on again knowing that within seconds the afterburner would be finished. But those seconds counted and now both ships were in structure.

The Heron suddenly exploded and it was over, the Incursus had just 35% of its structure left, lots of heat damage and the afterburner was burnt to a crisp. Good fight was exchanged in local but before Starwalker could loot the wreck a Caldari Navy Hookbill jumped in and it was an easy decision to leave immediately.

Back at base, Starwalker switched ships to the Caracal. It had been fit as a frigate killer and he wanted to get in a fight with a small number of frigates. Instead he found this cyno-ship and another cyno-ship. The extra tank on the cruiser made it very easy to kill these with no danger of dying to sentry guns.

However, the Caracal was about to meet its demise and it started with an Anathema in a medium complex. That ship died very quickly to the missile fire and the pilot must have been AFK as he could have escaped at 35km away when the shooting started. The danger though came from the Hawk that jumped in, piloted by Vivien Sureflight.

It immediately engaged just as the Anathema exploded and Starwalker opened fire with his Caldari Navy Inferno Light missiles. He would have preferred to be using the Mjolnir missiles but he didn't feel he had time to change them. In retrospect he should have taken the ten seconds to reload as thermal were the Hawk's highest resists. What Starwalker hadn't expected was how well the Hawk would tank and for how long it would continue to tank the incoming damage.

It became clear that the Caracal buffer was disappearing but the Hawk shields were still at full strength. Starwalker looked at the heat damage on the light missile launchers and noticed that they were showing around two-thirds of heat damage. So he decided to cut the heat immediately, except that it was at the start of the firing cycle and by the time the cycle finished so were the missile launchers.

It had been a long time since he had burnt out his weapons as he tended to stop overheating when they were about 50% cooked. It seemed to Starwalker that the last 50% went faster than the first 50%, although that could have been his imagination. He now had no offensive capability, all that remained was for the Hawk to chew through the rest of the shield buffer and so he waited for the inevitable end to arrive, which it did. Given how well the Hawk had tanked, Starwalker checked out the pilot and noted that she was top ranked and the last Hawk she had lost was using faction modules for a total cost of around 250m ISK.

Win Some Lose Some

New Eden gives and takes away. On any single day Starwalker has no idea whether it will be filled with good fights, easy kills, losses or long fruitless hunts. He had set out in Caldari Navy Hookbill confident that this ship had good range control capability by virtue of its speed and web.

[Caldari Navy Hookbill, Double MSE]

Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II

Medium Shield Extender II
Medium Shield Extender II
1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

Rocket Launcher II,Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Scourge Rage Rocket

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

Starwalker had also elected to fit this ship with a double medium shield extender. Normally he opted for gank over tank but he was feeling in an experimental mood and wanted to try it out. This cyno-ship was hardly a test but it did show that the tank was very capable against the sentry fire. The Vengeance spotted in a complex would be more of a test and Starwalker decided to engage.

The Hookbill established range of around 7km and hammered away with its rockets but quite frankly the Vengeance seemed to be tanking the damage fine. Starwalker was considering whether to leave when a Talwar jumped in and immediately targeted his Hookbill. It was time to leave.

Starwalker aligned to the sun and overheated his afterburner but instead of gaining range he ended up moving closer to the Vengeance. He had not actually checked their relative positions first and this mistake allowed the Talwar time to establish a secondary point. The Hookbill's rockets were redirected to the Talwar but it was a futile attempt to take one down with him and the Hookbill exploded.

A short while later Starwalker was out in his Tristan and killed yet another cyno-ship.

[Tristan, 200mm SAAR]

Damage Control II
200mm Reinforced Steel Plates II

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

Light Neutron Blaster II,Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II,Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I

Hobgoblin II x5
Warrior II x3

He had elected to redefine this build with more tank on the basis that it was too slow to establish range control. Therefore the intent was to tank the incoming damage whilst the drones did their work. The Merlin on scan at the complex would be a tough customer but Starwalker warped in anyway. The Merlin simply tore through his shields and overwhelmed the small ancillary armour repairer. The Tristan tried to gain some range but failed and it was wrecked by sheer firepower overcoming the tank, even with a T2 200mm plate providing some buffer.

Undeterred, Starwalker undocked in his Hawk, which also sported a heavier tank than usual with an MSE and medium ancillary shield booster. He found this Algos - ratting, which was the first ship he had found and caught ratting in a long time. Finally, he decided to return to base and just as he was about to dock he noticed a Navitas on scan at the medium complex, it was perhaps the same Navitas that he had chased earlier and had taunted him in local.

Whilst Starwalker had ignored the taunts then he had remembered the pilot's name and when he warped in it was indeed the same pilot. The Hawk landed on top of the Navitas and it was destroyed very quickly - it wasn't even fitted with any modules. The pilot, Laila Vemane, cried "noooo" in local and Starwalker smiled to himself.

Escaped from Kiters - Twice

Starwalker was cruising in his Hawk and looking for trouble. He had refit his Hawk away from the previous MWD fit to an afterburner, two webs and to have slightly more tank. The basic rationale was that he needed range control when brawling and the Javelins could keep kiters away.

Recently he seemed to have run into more kiters and generally fast ships in lowsec, although perhaps that was also because he had been chasing faction warfare pilots. It seemed to Starwalker that he was far more likely to find a fight at a complex than anywhere else currently. He did scan the belts from time to time but he had found zero ratters or anything else for that matter.

He spied a Slasher at a small complex and warped in to find a... Tristan. Starwalker wasted no time wondering about the Slasher and immediately locked up the Tristan, it was soon scrambled, double webbed and taking heavy damage from the rockets. But it wasn't alone and a Rifter, Condor and a Griffin landed close by. Before they could really help the Tristan went down.

Starwalker was firing close range Rage rockets and so attacked the Rifter next, which had come in to 2km, whist the Griffin and Condor were around 15km away. This proved fruitless as the Griffin jammed the Hawk and Starwalker tried to align out to make a desperate run for it. In hindsight, he should have moved in towards the Griffin as he had one more brief window of attack but wasted those shots on the Rifter rather than the real problem - the Griffin. The Hawk was jammed again and then was finally destroyed.

Starwalker jump cloned to Gultratren and undocked his Tristan, using the fit with the web and small armour repairer. Before long he saw a Condor, piloted by Malfyrion, in a complex and warped in. The target was 20km away and so he launched his drones and tried to get closer but the Condor was going at 4.6km/s. That was so fast that the Hobgoblin IIs could not catch up and hit it. Starwalker tried to slingshot in but unsuccessfully and then after some manual flying managed to breakout of range. He succeeded but suspected that Malfyrion had burnt out his long point with all of the manoeuvers. It was a lucky escape as the Tristan was about to run out of capacitor and the ship was already in structure.

A short while later, after getting fully repaired, Starwalker's Tristan warped in to a Kestrel at a complex. The Kestrel again maintained range and Starwalker was again unable to close the distance but this time the Hobgoblin's were inflicting their thermal damage. The Kestrel called for support and an Atron arrived on the scene and started to target the Tristan and so Starwalker decided it was time to head away rather than try to slingshot the Kestrel again.

The Kestrel was deep in armour and decided to beat retreat but the Atron continued to hold point. The drones attacked the Atron and after receiving some damage it decided to leave. Starwalker had now had a second escape from a kiter but luckily got this killmail later when that Atron must have run into a Heron whilst still damaged and was then killed.

Starwalker decided it was time to return to base before one of these kiters destroyed his Tristan when he saw another Tristan when scanning from the sun. He waited at the sun and before long the Tristan, piloted by Destru Kaneda, arrived only 40 km away. Starwalker moved in with his Hobgoblins first and then tried to close into point blank range. Destru had other ideas and the distance was held around 7 to 8km and Destru had also released his Warrior IIs.

Starwalker was slightly surprised to see Warrior IIs as he had assumed that Hobgoblins were the best general choice but on later examining the Tristan's resistance profile - explosive damage was better for armour tanked Tristans. Given that Starwalker's electron blasters were out of range of the target Tristan he set to work on the drones and killed five drones. Initially, he used his web on the enemy drones but in retrospect he should have left it on the Tristan.

In the meantime, both ships were going into structure and it was going to be very, very close. Destru moved in to 5km and Starwalker switched from the remaining three drones to Destru's Tristan and also applied the web. Both ships marched towards zero structure and it looked like Starwalker's Tristan would explode first but a final lucky hit saw Destru's Tristan explode into a fiery ball of flames and his remaining warriors hung limply in space. Good fights were exchanged and Destru noted that it was the closest fight he had been in for a long time. It was the closest fight ever for Starwalker - he had just 4% of structure left.

Dont Shoot Back in Anger

Starwalker had one of those nights when he wished that he had not undocked. It would have been less expensive and embarrassing. A previous night he had undocked in a Hawk to the sight of a cyno-ship and decided that he would collect both the cyno-ship and the pod. This night he undocked in a Moa and noticed a Thorax on scan and shortly afterwards that Thorax was at the station only 30 km away.

Starwalker knew not to engage the yellow target - he needed to be fired on first so he contined to slowly move forward without the MWD wondering if the Thorax would engage. It started to close the distance and Starwalker overheated his guns and set his Adapative Invulnerability Field going. He wanted to conserve as much capacitor as possible before the fight and so he left his MWD off.

The Thorax engaged and Starwalker opened up the awesome firepower of the Moa's blasters. The distance closed to point blank and it was soon clear that Starwalker was winning the DPS race... until his friends joined in the form of two Tornados. Within seconds Starwalker's Moa was simply a wreck and he was racing away in his pod.

The silly thing was that Starwalker had previously seen the corporation I hope you were insured on a killmail in Covryn after they were talking some smack with a pilot that had not enjoyed being ganked by them. Starwalker had not taken the simple precaution of checking the corporation of the Thorax pilot. He could have easily done so and then seeing that his corp mates were in local, he could have guessed what would happen next and simply left.

Mildly annoyed with himself, Starwalker undocked in a Hawk and a few jumps later amused himself chasing a Maulus. It was something of a stalemate. The Maulus was far faster than the Hawk but the range of the Javelin rockets put the Maulus at risk of being destroyed and the Maulus's drones were too vulnerable to being destroyed to get a kill. Starwalker tried but was unable to slingshot him into range so eventually he gave up and moved on, especially when a bunch of frigates arrived on the scene.

Starwalker had been so busy with the Maulus that he hadn't noticed Johann West wave in local and noted that he was in an Incursus - Starwalker decided to keep a closer eye on communications. He also had some heat damage to repair so in the next system he docked to repair. Afterwards, he undocked to see Patrick Kasper in a Caldari Navy Hookbill shooting towards a Novice complex. Starwalker's Hawk could not go into that and so he headed away to the sun and thought about offering to fleet up with Patrick since they were in local.

However, before he had decided, he had started scanning from the sun as usual and noticed two Caldari Navy Hookbills at the Small complex. He immediately warped in. To his complete surprise when he arrived one of the two was Patrick Kasper. He attempted to target the other Hookbill but as he did so he realised it would be poor form to interfere with a kill. Worse, as he selected the target in his overview it switched to Patrick and so he ended up firing on a fellow Rebel. Starwalker had not made that type of mistake in over a year.

Starwalker was mortified and Patrick in the communication channel sent a message. Starwalker was even more surprised to see that Patrick's Hookbill had no damage when he had accidentally started firing. The Hookbills didn't appear to be fighting so he wasn't sure what was going on, until he read that these two Hookbills were apparently fleeted. Starwalker stopped firing as soon as possible on Patrick and simply wanted to leave. He wasn't sure if he had started firing on the other Hookbill but it was 10km away and was apparently a friendly too. He aligned back to the sun and hit warp - he had no intention of fighting friendlies.

His attention turned to the communication channel where he started to write an apology when he realised that he was still being fired on. He hadn't warped and either one or both of the friendlies had scrambled him. He was about to turn on his ancillary shield booster when his ship exploded. He should have paid more attention to getting out first and then apologising - that would have potentially saved his ship but in any case he would not destroy a friendly. Starwalker was hugely embarrassed at having fired on a fellow Rebel, the loss of the Hawk was incidental.

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.

Another Hawk Down

Starwalker was loitering in Heild again with intent to do harm in his Hawk. He had refitted it to be a dual propulsion fit as he was contemplating taking it into the Great Wildlands for a jaunt. Whilst waiting in the deadspace complex another Hawk appeared in the complex piloted by Kushanar and Starwalker engaged.

The ships were effectively the same so Starwalker expected that it would be a slugfest and with the last man standing the winner. Starwalker overheated his weapons and went in for the kill. The distance closed to around 3km and both Hawks were firing their missiles looking to get that kill. Starwalker's overheated missiles were slamming into the target but his Hawk was taking far more damage than its single ancillary shield booster could handle and he was quickly going into armour.

Conversely, Kushanar's Hawk seemed to be a shield extender fit and that was still comfortably in shield, although it was falling. Starwalker knew it was not looking good but he had no real tricks to pull out of the bag and so he waited as his ship entered structure and Kushanar's entered armour. It was going to end badly, the ancillary shield booster ran out of charges and Starwalker's Hawk became debris.

In retrospect, Starwalker considered what he could have done better:

• Kushanar was using faction Mjolnir rockets, hitting at the typical Caldari ship EMP hole. It was clear from the fight and the logs that this was a much more successful strategy than using Scourge Rage rockets, even with their theoretically higher base damage and 10% kinetic bonus damage
• Starwalker knew that missile damage was affected by speed, signature radius, explosion radius and explosion speed. He should have overheated his afterburner, just like he should have done against this Merlin for some damage mitigation
• His signature radius was already larger due to the use of Rage rockets, so perhaps it would be better to switch to faction ammunition
• Active shield tank could not keep up with the incoming damage and it did not last long enough, either more damage was needed or more tank
• In lowsec the MWD was more or less useless when actually engaged using afterburners. It would be better to use a dual propulsion fit in nullsec or when part of a gang and reuse that fitting space for more effective modules in solo lowsec fights

Starwalker had assumed that using Scourge Rage rockets exclusively would be better than selecting damage types, this experience disputed that. The results of this fight had an interesting impact on Starwalker's assumptions about ship selection, weapon choice and fitting philosophy and he would probably spend an inordinate amount of time experimenting with the Eve Fitting Tool (EFT).

Black Hawk Down

Starwalker was hanging around in Heild at the deadspace complex looking for trouble. An Incursus peeked in but decided not to engage and warped away. Starwalker only had his Merlin and his combat record was not great, so he was unsure why the Incursus ran away perhaps it was just being flashy red.

Shortly afterwards a Slasher arrived - and stayed. Starwalker burnt towards it changing his ammunition to null as he expected to be kited but was hoping to avoid being pecked to death. If he could get close he would surely decimate the Slasher, so as the distance closed Starwalker tried to move in to point blank range.

Surprise! The Slasher also wanted to fight at point blank range, so Starwalker engaged scramble, web and overheated his neutron blasters. He now had the wrong ammunition selected but it was too late to change it. The incoming damage was reasonable but the ancillary shield booster easily dealt with it. In return the blasters were tearing away the Slasher shields and armour and it was clear what would happen - the Slasher exploded. Again, Starwalker missed the pod.

As Starwalker idled at a safe with his GCC ticking away, Nogusha noted that he was being kited by a Caldari Navy Hookbill in his Rifter but that it was a stalemate. He could not get close to the Hookbill and it was not breaking his tank. Nogusha was calling for help in Moclinamaud and since no one else was nearby Starwalker offered to jump clone to the region and help - he would just wait out the last few minutes of his GCC.

Whilst Starwalker was waiting out his GCC John Valentine in local noted that he could not break the tank of a Hawk and he needed help. So Starwalker joined fleet and warped in, along with another Rebel - 3D Horrorshow, in a Rifter. The Hawk pilot, Kushanar, was also calling in friends and just after Starwalker arrived so did a Slasher and an Incursus.

Starwalker targeted the Hawk first as it was probably already in the most trouble and it did the highest DPS - it went down quickly. It was now three Rebels against the two remaining ONI Industry pilots, it did not end well for them as the Slasher and Incursus withered under the combined fire.

Unfortunately, Starwalker's GCC was reset to 15 minutes but he decided that he would jump clone anyway to Covryn and head to Moclinamaud as his Hawk could active shield tank the gate fire for a short period of time. Nogusha had been waiting for a long time already and Starwalker had offered to help earlier. So, Starwalker had jumped and flown to Agoze and was only three jumps away when Nogusha's plucky little Rifter finally succumbed, after 50 minutes and taking more than 25,000 damage, when a Thrasher arrived to finally help the Hookbill complete the kill. 

It was a shame and if Starwalker had come earlier it might have been different. However, no point in speculating on what might have been as Starwalker noticed an Incursus on scan and decided to investigate. It was at an acceleration gate with a Rifter and Starwalker went in hot. However, things did not go according to the master plan - kill the two frigates - as fourteen pilots piled into the fight.

Starwalker was pointed at close range, so with no chance of escape he overheated his rockets determined to take at least one and preferably more with him. The Incursus started to run but went down anyway as the rockets went through its structure 8km away. Before he could take down the Rifter too the Griffin jammed him. Now helpless and not even able to fire, Starwalker's Hawk disintegrated and he warped his pod to safety, and returned to base.

This was not quite the outcome he had envisaged when jumping to Placid but EVE could be a harsh mistress and very fickle. Losing two Drakes and a Hawk recently may be a reason to get back into a Merlin but Starwalker was also looking to experiment a little with more expensive ships and inevitably they would be lost. 

Rebel Roam to Aeschee

Starwalker joined the Rebel roam from Eugales to Aeschee in his Hawk. He would have used a T1 frigate like everyone else except that he had lost the last one recently. Given that everyone else was in Rifters he noted in fleet that he would happily perform the meatshield role, although others noted that his Hawk might be targeted last.

Peri Simone settled into his regular role as FC and similarly Kaeda Maxwell was the +1 scout. It was not long before Kaeda had found a Stabber Fleet Issue at a Gallente Major Outpost and had it pointed. And it was not long after that the Stabber Fleet Issue was a wreck, however, the Rebels were soon warped to a safe spot as a Tengu arrived and it seemed that the locals were gathering a reprisal force.

The Rebels waited out GCC and then moved on and seemed to be chased by another R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N pilot in another Stabber Fleet Issue (SFI). It was not engaged immediately but eventually Peri Simone said that after the next jump if the SFI jumps through engage it. It did and soon the SFI was in trouble with the incoming Rebel damage.

However, a Legion came through to help repair it but whilst it tried to save the SFI it was not enough and the second SFI of the night exploded. The Legion was targeted but it did not have aggression and it was able to jump back to safety through the gate. Surprisingly, no one else from R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N came - so perhaps they had given up or those two were always on their own.

The Rebels were very satisfied with the kills and decided to head back to Eugales. Not far from the home system a flashy Vexor appeared on the gate with the Rebels and it was clearly looking for a fight. It got one.

The Rifters soon made short work of the drones as the Vexor targeted Starwalker's Hawk. The Vexor's neutraliser soon had the Hawk capped out and the shields started to fall. However, the Hawk rockets continued to smash into the Vexor and the ancillary shield boosters operated from their own capacitor charges, In short, the Hawk gank and tank was still operational and that wasn't counting the rest of the Rebel fleet pounding away at the Vexor and its drones.

The Vexor released more drones but it was going down and it was not much longer before its structure buckled under the Rebel firepower and it became the third kill of the roam. Starwalker was pleased that his Hawk had survived as it was his last frigate and he would need to move more frigates to Eugales soon. As soon as the regular Oulley gate camp was asleep...

Hawk Down in another Gate Camp

Starwalker was cruising around in Black Rise in his Hawk and finding it quiet. He noticed local spike with a few pilots and immediately recognised Daggaman as one of the gate campers that had got his Merlin. He waited at a planet to see where they were going but they stayed in system.

Eventually, he decided to leave the system and went to the out gate, unfortunately they were on that gate and Starwalker wondered whether if he jumped through immediately he could get away but the gang split with some of them going to the other side. They were clearly prepared for action on both sides of the gate.

As Starwalker jumped through he resolved to wait a little bit to see if they moved on or whether they were specifically hunting his Hawk now. They waited and as the gate timer ticked down Starwalker decided to try to burn back to the gate. It didn't matter - he was dead within seconds and podded again.

Gate camps - the bane of New Eden. It was one of the reasons that he had left Metropolis because of regular gate camps in the Auner to Dal pipe, especially at Eszur. Starwalker had no issue losing ships in fights but hated losing them in gate camps.

Stabber Fleet Issue on Scan

Starwalker was returning to Ishomilken in his pod to collect another Merlin to take to the staging point in Eugales for the Rebel roam. He noticed a Stabber Fleet Issue and Wolf on scan and also Miura Bull in local. Waving to his esteemed leader, he offered to fleet up and see what damage they could do.

Undocking in a Hawk, Starwalker and Miura Bull, piloting a Wolf, looked for the targets but they seemed to have gone elsewhere and so Starwalker returned to station and undocked in his Merlin. The Stabber Fleet Issue was there, outside the station, and Starwalker warped to the sun wondering if it would follow - it did.

It landed 100km away and seemed to wait as the Rebel Merlin and Wolf burned towards it. The Merlin was going faster and arrived first to a wall of incoming fire and drones and it was simply too much for the active shield tank to hold and it died in a ball of fire. The SFI could have made a fast getaway as the Wolf arrived shortly afterwards but it stayed to fight and Starwalker docked up to get his Hawk.

The SFI was active armour tanking the Wolf when Starwalker arrived and immediately engaged with his rockets spewing out. With the combined firepower it was clear that the SFI was going down and it was only a matter of time, shortly afterwards the SFI was another ball of fire in the black of space.

In retrospect, Starwalker thought that he could have done better with the Merlin approach, the ship might still have died but it could have lasted longer:

• Merlin directly approached the SFI and should have tried to spiral in, the early hits from the 220mm Vulcan Autocannons could have been avoided or their damage significantly reduced
• Miura Bull noted that he was struggling to keep up when approaching the SFI and Starwalker should have slowed down so that they arrived together. His overview excluded fleet members and so he never actually knew where the Wolf was beyond the fact that it was behind him
• Starwalker had not expected the damage to start so far out of scramble range, when it did start he should have changed course to reduce tracking, in short react to the new information and reassess the plan of attack

Hawk Down

Starwalker had lost a Crow and was now in a Hawk instead. He was experimenting with the widening choices for solo combat. He had added the micro-warpdrive for speed but was concerned that it was the wrong choice for low-sec. However, the dual webs should help a lot with establishing range control.

Starwalker soon found a Vengeance and Stabber on scan whilst cruising near the sun and started to look for them. However, the Vengeance was also looking for a fight and arrived at the sun a mere 50km away. Starwalker engaged.

The approach went smoothly and the lock, web and scramble were applied at 9km, with the rockets firing. But then the distance closed to around 1km. Whilst the range of the Vengeance made no difference to its rocket damage it was too close for what Starwalker was trying to achieve from a range control perspective. 

However, with the micro-warpdrive shutdown the Hawk was unable to gain any distance even though the dual web was applied. Experiment failed. In retrospect, simply using some math may have been better - looking at afterburner speeds before and after being webbed and the speed of a frigate

The incoming damage was soon eating through the Hawk's shield tank but the rocket's return fire was making comparatively slow progress and the Vengeance was clearly winning. To seal the deal a Stabber arrived and fired on Starwalker. It was over.

Starwalker returned to base and removed the micro-warpdrive from his other Hawk. The range dictation with the dual web was simply insufficient without an afterburner to ensure a higher relative speed.

Destroyer Destroys Hawk in Bosena

Starwalker was heading back to Heild from Uemon and it had been very uneventful. His Hawk was moving through the systems scanning for targets but nothing of interest had appeared to be flying in space.

Entering Bosena Starwalker went to the Sun looking for a fight with a local. Given the number of pilots in local it seemed that someone would arrive soon and so he waited. A Retribution appeared and as the Hawk closed to around 40km the Retribution started firing its lasers. However, apart from the light show they were not having any effect.

The Retribution was still well outside point range when it disappeared. Starwalker assumed it was because another R1FTA pilot had arrived in local. It was pure coincidence and it was certainly not a trap, if Starwalker was in fleet then he would have at least established point first.

Starwalker waited as the R1FTA pilot moved on and then the Retribution pilot, Arasul, came back in a Thrasher. It seemed that Arasul did not like his chances against the Hawk in a Retribution and had returned in something that was scarier but not too scary. Starwalker decided to engage – that was what he was here for.

The Hawk was quickly in orbit at around 5km and the Thrasher was firing away with 200mm auto-cannons. The Thrasher’s orbit closed in to around 2km from the Hawk and then back out to 5km.  The damage was coming in hard for both and as the shields started to give way on the Hawk Starwalker activated the shield booster.

The Thrasher's shield was going down as well and it was becoming a DPS race. The Thrasher was into low armour as Starwalker heard the capacitor give out and was no longer providing any shield boost. The Hawk entered armour but the Thrasher was entering structure and Starwalker turned back to watch the Thrasher die.

It didn’t die fast enough and the Hawk exploded. Starwalker was so surprised that he had not aligned out to save the pod and that was caught too for another 70m ISK loss of the last +4 implants.

In hindsight Starwalker knew that he could have improved:

• Noticed that he was being neutralised and so he could have used range to break that
• Used a better range to fight at, 5km was probably too close but he had been fooled to some extent by the Thrasher starting to fire at range and so Starwalker went in a little bit closer
• Starwalker had overheated the rockets but should have overheated the auto-cannon too. That little extra might have made the difference, assuming he did not burn them out
• Used the combat booster, that was there and unused in the cargo bay – it had simply been forgotten
• Used the shield booster earlier and it should have been overheated earlier rather than wait until when the shields were already down to 25%