Smartbombing Battleships

Peri Simone was leading his regular TESF (Target Everyone, Somebody Fire) roam, from Adirain this time and a motley collection of frigates headed off into the space lanes of New Eden seeking targets of opportunity or fun and kills. It seemed like a quiet start to the roam when a Typhoon was spotted in Agoze, piloted by LadyShu.

The Rebels swarmed in with their dozen frigates but the Typhoon was not alone and soon the grid was being shared with a Scorpion, Cynabal, Vexor, Cormorant and another Typhoon. The Rebels had just brought a knife to a gun fight and were severely outclassed. Starwalker tried to get away in his Merlin but he didn't make it.

With some Rebels having lost their ships the fleet reformed in Vey and continued on to Maut. Starwalker had reshipped to an Incursus as his nearest available ship. He had not flown a dual repair Incursus for some time due to its lack of range control, even though it had an excellent tank and a very good gank factor. In short, this fit could not hold a target and relied on the target staying in range to the bitter end.

The Rebels were waiting on a gate as the scout did his thing in the next system when three battleships arrived. Patrick Kasper pointed out that they had no guns and consequently were probably smartbombing battleships. To a small fleet of frigates this represented a significant danger as smartbombs were easily capable of destroying frigates and pods very, very quickly. Their key tactic was to be in very close range. The usual counter-tactic in this situation was to orbit outside of smartbomb range (up to 6km).
 

In addition, the Rebels were in jump range (<2.5km) of the gate and it was possible that the smartbomb could hit the gate, which would then retaliate against that battleship. Peri Simone called the target and the Rebels went to work on Nivie Chryl's Tempest. The combined firepower of the frigates and some friendly fire brought down the Tempest. Peri called the next target and Starwalker moved in closer to establish a 7km orbit.

More friends of the battleships arrived and Peri called for the fleet to get out. Starwalker aligned to the sun and hit warp but nothing happened - his armour repairers had depleted the capacitor and in all the excitement he had not noticed. However, now that everything had turned off the capacitor was recharging and as he spammed warp the warp-drive went active. Starwalker was not pointed - he would escape... However, the warp-out was not instantaneous and before he warped his ship was destroyed by the next smartbomb wave and his pod followed almost immediately afterwards.

Back in Covryn in a basic clone, Starwalker went into his usual routine:

1. Upgrade his clone to avoid losing skill points the next time he was podded
2. Pause the training queue to plug-in implants
3. Plug-in a set of implants
1. Basic set of +3 learning implants to speed up training by about 10%
2. Zainou 'Deadeye' Small Hybrid Turret SH-603 for +3% small hybrid turret damage
3. Eifyr and Co. 'Rogue' Evasive Maneuvering EM-703 for +3% agility
4. Zor's Custom Navigation Hyper-Link for +5% speed bonus
5. Inherent Implants 'Lancer' Gunnery RF-903 for +3% rate of fire on all turrets
6. Zainou 'Deadeye' Rapid Launch RL-1001 for +1% missile launcher rate of fire
4. Restart training queue
5. Get into another ship and insure it

Rebel Roam Peri Simone FC

Starwalker had turned up in Eugales well after the regular Rebel Roam had started but Peri Simone, the FC, had put out another call for any latecomers to join in and Starwalker had joined the fleet. He was looking for something better to kill than this cyno-ship but he rarely passed up the opportunity for an easy kill.

Starwalker's Incursus was an active tanked dual repair ship with plenty of staying power and face-melting blasters. Of course, he knew that the problem with a dual repair fit was that it pretty much required a small capacitor booster and that crippled range control through the loss of the stasis webifier. However, in principle, in a small gang there was less need to be concerned about range control as ideally everyone was in close for the kill and the target would be surrounded, scrambled and webbed anyway.

That wasn't really the case with the Breacher though that the scout, Jameson2011, was chasing. It was fast at just under 3km/s and it was continually slipping out of point range - a webifier or two on it, along with a scramble would have helped tremendously. Whilst the Breacher was playing catch me if you can, a Jaguar appeared on grid and seemed to be following the Rebels chasing the Breacher. The Rebels speculated as to whether the Jaguar was there to fight or simply to observe the chase.

The Breacher though was trying to be too clever and it came too close and was caught. Once caught properly, it went down very quickly. The Jaguar was still hanging around, 200km away, and seemed to be inviting a fight so Jameson2011 burnt towards it. As the distance closed and the Rebels prepared to warp in the Jaguar warped away. Apparently it was over... until the pilot, Bodb Derg, made a comment in local that he was coming in hot.

At first, the Rebels did not believe it as he had only just warped away and it seemed suicidal for the Jaguar to take on four frigates, however, he warped back in. The Rebels went to work as the Jaguar tried to take down Brink Albosa's Rifter and the four frigates pounded away at the active shield tank.

At first the Jaguar seemed to be holding on but the dual ancillary shield boosters were running together and that only lasts for thirty seconds continuously. So when that time was up the ship's tank effectively disappeared and it disintegrated under the fire shortly afterwards, with Brink escaping in structure.

Peri Simone decided it had been a successful and eventful roam and that now was a good time to finish - on a high. So he declared the roam a success and after some lively chat and banter the Rebels went their separate ways. It had been great fun and Starwalker looked forward to more roams and perhaps starting to fly battlecruisers when in fleet.

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...

Rebel Roam from Eugales

Kaeda Maxwell had setup another roam from Eugales with the plan being - there was no plan. Starwalker just happened to be going to Eugales and hadn't realised that the roam would start from there until he was in system with a number of other Rebels.

When he knew that a roam was about to start he joined the fleet - it would be rude not to. These were alway casual, no pressure, style roams where the fleet was looking for a fight and if they returned to base in a pod - well that happened. DIAF (Die In A Fire) was an accepted part of a Rebel roam.

Peri Simone performed admirably as the +1 (system ahead) scout and had scanned a Condor and Coercer to a minor plex. The Condor was sitting at the Acceleration Gate and went down very quickly and so Peri went into the plex and soon called point on the Coercer. Kaeda had sent Vincent R'yleh in to establish a secondary point and soon everyone was warping towards the plex. Unfortunately too late as the Coercer went down very quickly.

The fleet moved on and soon found itself in a flash battle with a Stabber, Vengeance and Daredevil and for whatever reasons it went badly. The initial target was the Vengeance and then it was changed to the Daredevil but before any kills were obtained the fleet was destroyed: Peri Simone, Akiyo XI, sus4, Rah Melkon, Starwalker Shikkoken, Vincent R'lyeh, Kaeda Maxwell and Vladimir McSquizzle.

Undeterred the fleet reformed and continued onwards and before long it was challenged to a fight by a Thrasher, Wolf, Dramiel and Punisher. The Rebel fleet warped in to find the gang 100km away and as the Rebels burnt towards them the enemy fleet decided to run.

Starwalker had to return to base for ship maintenance but the rest of the fleet continued on to Hevrice looking for a fight with the Tuskers. Looking at the killboard - they found it.

Rebel Roam to Metropolis

Peri Simone formed a fleet at the last minute to go out on a roam. It was starting in Heild and a good number of Rebels joined in frigates of various descriptions. Starwalker was in Rifter, along with a few others but there was also a Firetail, Vengeance and a Merlin.

The fleet headed out towards Gusandall and along the way another gang was encountered. The scout, Vincent R’lyeh, noted a number of their gang in cruiser and battle cruiser sized ships and the fleet commander decided it was too much firepower to take on.

A few systems on and Vincent R’lyeh managed to tackle a Cyclone at the sun and the fleet entered system and warped to him. Unfortunately, the tackle was lost as the Cyclone drained Vincent’s capacitor and the Cyclone was able to warp away just as the fleet arrived. Shame.

Arriving in Ardar a destroyer was found and this time the point held as the rest of the fleet arrived and destroyed the new ship. It was complete overkill but that is part of the fun - the random nature of each encounter. For Starwalker, it would have been more fun to win a close fight or lose a fight but get some good kills, however, a kill is a kill.

Starwalker had enjoyed flying in fleet but also wanted to get a solo kill. It had been a long time since his last solo kill and wondered what he needed to do to get into more fights. It seemed like other Rebels had much more success in finding fights.

Rebels on Roam in Heimatar and Devoid

Kaeda Maxwell had set the Rebel roam to start in Aliette, Heimatar. It was not a bad location to start but Starwalker was in Heild and decided that he would cross hi-sec in his Rifter to get to Aliette, as he couldn’t be bothered to go around via a low-sec route.

The first stop for the Rebel fleet of a Thrasher (Kaeda Maxwell) and three Rifters (Vincent R’lyeh, Kooba Kaundur and Starwalker) was in Amamake in a deadspace complex. Like waiting at the sun or the top asteroid belt it was a clear advertisement to local pilots of a wish to fight. It looked like the wish was answered as a Cormorant, Rifter and Thrasher jumped in.

However, as the Rebels engaged and made the Cormorant the primary target the rest of the enemy fleet jumped in and the Rebel ships were slaughtered within seconds. It appeared the Heretic fleet had come in with more than double the number of ships and five of those were destroyers. Clearly the Heretic fleet had not under-estimated the danger of a Rebel fleet and felt the need to arrive with overwhelming odds. That was not a problem – this is EVE.

Starwalker had aligned out well before his ship exploded to save his pod but for whatever reasons spamming the warp command had simply produced no result and his pod was destroyed too. A bit of a shame, as that marked another set of +4 implants gone.

Of course, for Rebels, losing a ship was not a deterrent to getting into another ship and going out again, and it was not long before the Rebel fleet was reformed in Aliette. Strangely enough this time the fleet was bigger and included more Thrashers and Rifters.

Soon the fleet was out and roaming again. In Auga it was decided that waiting in a complex would be a good idea again, despite what had happened the last time. However, it produced a strange result as an Imperial Navy Slicer entered, was caught almost immediately and destroyed. Starwalker was inclined to believe that the pilot had simply warped in, without checking first, and had been surprised that it was occupied.

The fleet continued on through Devoid but Starwalker’s Rifter started flashing its service light and so he set off alone back to Heild to get it checked out. On the way back, a Hyperion in Amamake tried to destroy the Rifter with three smart bomb bursts as Starwalker warped to the gate. It was not enough to destroy the Rifter and Starwalker jumped through and simply returned to base.

Stupid Is as Stupid Does

The Rebels were having some fun in Heild and Starwalker joined the local fleet in his shiny new Hawk. A cyclone was engaged and quickly succumbed to the mass of frigates. The cyclone might have been destroyed but the pilot, Titus Veridius, was not necessarily finished with the Rebels.

After a while Titus Veridius was back in Heild with his Gunpoint Diplomacy comrades. By this time the Rebel fleet had reduced to two and when Starwalker warped to Javen Kai he saw four Gunpoint pilots and Javen Kai bugging out. Starwalker decided that it was time to leave too.

Starwalker chose to warp away to a random belt rather than a safe and this decision was to lead to another incredibly stupid loss. Starwalker landed at the asteroid belt and rather than warp away to a proper safe he decided to check out the corporate chat channel.

Of course, Starwalker was not safe and the Gunpoint pilots were quick to him scan him down and before long Starwalker was surrounded. It was futile to try and escape and so he simply aligned out and hit warp. As usual, this was not to save the ship but to save the pod. The pod got away but the shiny new Hawk was simply a wreck.

Starwalker docked and entered his quarters. This was a ridiculous loss and he had no excuse for staying in an asteroid belt and then being distracted by the chat channel. Starwalker had been in New Eden for nearly a year and yet was still finding new ways to do stupid things.

Starwalker wondered if he had now exhausted stupid ways to lose a ship but somehow he doubted it.

Rebels Friday Night Roam

Rebels gathered for a Friday night Rifter roam and Starwalker joined in on the fun. Kaeda Maxwell had started these a while ago and when it originally started there was anything between 2 and 6 Rebels in fleet, on this roam it was around 12.

A quick circuit around Molden Heath resulted in few opportunities for an engagement but plenty of opportunities for some banter with the locals. Indeed, the banter also extended to other fleet members, where someone felt that there was a strong likeness between one fleet member and “Baldrick” from Black Adder. Hardly the most flattering of comparisons!

After a while the scout reported a Thrasher in an asteroid belt, apparently a young pilot simply ratting. He was welcomed to low-sec in the traditional manner. Unfortunately, Starwalker arrived too slowly to get onto the kill.

Whilst the R1FTA swarm of frigates waited on gate a Proteus jumped in and then sat there. It was clear that it was part of a gang but the Rebels decided on some target practice anyway. The Proteus, a member of GangBangers, simply waited patiently as the damage accumulated and before long many other GangBangers entered system.

The command was given to disengage and almost everyone got away except Nicholai Hel. Starwalker’s Rifter got away but suffered a catastrophic system failure and needed a system reboot to regain flight systems control. Starwalker rejoined the fleet temporarily but eventually decided that the systems needed to be checked over and returned to base, as the Rebels disappeared into the Great Wildlands. They would soon find a Cyclone in the Great Wildlands and give it the standard Rebel greeting – opening fire with all weapons, after all this is EVE.

Rebels Roam into Great Wildlands

Kaeda Maxwell had organized a Rebel Frigate Roam and a number of Rebels had gathered in Heild to join the expedition. Starwalker was in a Hookbill but felt “over-dressed” as everyone else sported T1 frigates.

Starwalker returned in his tanky Rifter as the Rebels set off looking for trouble. The initial tour around Molden Heath yielded no targets of opportunity and the fleet stopped to consider options. Kaeda enquired about any Rebel concerns over being podded and possible loss of expensive implants. The consensus was every ship and every clone was totally expendable – a very Rebel attitude, as explained by Duke Thunderhorse.

So the Rebels jumped into the Great Wildlands, null-sec space, at B-VIP9. Null-Sec is notorious for gate camps at entry points and campers using bubbles to trap their hapless victims. The Rebels jumped straight into B-VIP9 and a drag bubble but the three bubblers decided they wanted no part of this frigate fleet and quickly retreated.

Kaeda took the opportunity to explain bubble mechanics and then the roam continued. It was not long before the Rebels encountered a Drake in 6WT-BE at the gate and engaged it but the Drake was not alone and was soon joined by a Cyclone and Stabber Fleet Issue. This was going to be difficult.

The situation was soon chaotic and space was filled with drones attacking the Rebel frigates, which were primarily focused on the Stabber Fleet Issue. Starwalker was barely in range of the Stabber but quickly switched fire from the Stabber to the drones and set about knocking them out.

The Stabber Fleet Issue was going down but it was not going down alone, and as the Stabber succumbed to the swirling death it took some Rebel frigates with it: Kaeda Maxwell and Kooba Kaunder. The remaining Rebels continued to engage the Cyclone and Drake, along with the still numerous drones but what was a very difficult battle suddenly turned into a losing one as the Stabber pilot returned in a Myrmidon.

The five remaining frigates were now facing three battlecruisers and it was inevitable what would happen next – more Rebels would become fireballs. Soon, Brink Albosa and Starwalker’s Rifter exploded. It was time to retreat after a good fight and the remaining three Rebels tried to disengage to avoid now certain destruction. But that was not going to be easy and before Miura Bull could escape his Jaguar was destroyed. Fortunately, Lao Mah and Vincent R’lyeh got away with their frigates trailing fire.

The Rebel fleet no longer existed but the roam was not over as the Rebels returned to base to get another frigate and reform. It had been a good fight in 6WT-BE and in the final tally a good exchange – a Stabber Fleet Issue for a Jaguar and four Rifters. Reformed, the Rebels set off again into the Great Wildlands.

Rebels Ravage Ishkur in Eszur

The Rebels were on a roam organized by Kaeda Maxwell and had been visiting various systems in Metropolis in search of victims. It had been a slow night so with a few near misses and one Rifter kill but it was about to get a whole lot more dangerous.

Jumping into Eszur the Rebels found an Ishkur on scan. The Fleet Commander warped the Rifters in and the Ishkur started kiting the gang. Ulfgar Ardo was clearly going to fight and take on the four Rebel Rifters.

The Rebels warped out and then in again at different ranges to tackle the Ishkur and maybe that was what the Ishkur wanted – to separate the Rifters. The Rebels got the tackle and then converged onto the target.

The Ishkur dropped drones and darted around trying to pick off individual Rifters. Establishing point was difficult as the Ishkur seemed to be able to maintain range and so Starwalker focused on the drones. The Rebels were making good progress against the drones but not without cost.

Starwalker was down to 50% structure and left the fight, Overnauta and The Ecca One had died in combat but fortunately enough damage had been done for Kaeda Maxwell to get the final blow in to kill (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=3028) the Ishkur despite the decimated fleet.

The Rebels had finally ravaged the Ishkur in Eszur in a hard fought battle and good fights were exchanged in local.